One day Jimmy was helping his dad with the yard work.  His dad asked him to pick up rocks by the garage.  A short time later dad checked up on his son.  Jimmy was using every ounce of his energy to pull up a huge rock buried in the dirt. Dad stood watching Jimmy, and finally, the boy gave up and said, "I can't do it."  Dad asked, "Did you use all of your strength?"  The little boy looked hurt and said, "Yes, sir. I used every ounce of strength I have."  The father smiled and said, "No you didn't.  You didn't ask me to help."  The father walked over and then the two of them pulled that big rock out of the dirt.  Billy D. Strayhorn, Freedom through the Yoke

Remember that story the next time you are struggling with a problem. Perhaps you have not included God’s power!

Isaiah 55

            With that statement in mind, let’s ask ourselves what are we thirsting after? God feeds baby birds by putting it into the bird’s mother to get a worm and drop it into his mouth. Sounds simple, but to be honest, I really do not want a bird dropping fishing worms in my mouth! As one man said, “there is a close relationship between success and the smell of perspiration.”

Some things we receive from God quite easily. Salvation and our daily sustenance seem to come easily. There are two reasons for this. First, we have heard so much about asking God to save us that when we pray we are confident that He will hear our prayer. Also, most of us have no trouble expecting God to take care of our daily needs. We learned that from our parents and our friends at church.

Isaiah 55:1 talks about being thirsty. No one gets saved unless they are hungering and thirsting after righteousness, as Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount.

Verse 2 instructs us to set our values. “Why spend money on what is not bread and labor on what does not satisfy?” (Don’t try to impress the Jones family!)

Verse 3 “Listen to Me and eat what is good and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.”  There are many people in this world that try to live on less than $2.00 a day; many that only receive a bowl of cereal once or twice a day for food. None of us would be content with that level of living in the natural; we should not be so easily satisfied with spiritual things either~

God wants us to grow in faith and faithfulness so that we can accomplish great things for God by helping other people. Personally I grew up with a very poor self-image. I know now that the cause was too much pride. I was so afraid to make a mistake that I never took chances. Now that was a HUGE mistake. When I read the news magazines it makes me pray that God will raise up men and women with the integrity and courage to write powerful stories that influence people toward peace, joy and righteousness. So much of what we see and hear in the media glorifies sin!

 As mature Christians we should be committed to seeking ways to represent God in our every day life. I really enjoy the religious TV channels and radio broadcasts. You and I are the recipients of the faith, diligence and hard work of the people that make those stations possible. Every station owner can tell powerful stories about the conflicts they experienced as they started their station.

As we seek to make great strides for God we become a greater threat to the devil, and the battle is on! Thus Ephesians 6 teaches us to put on the full armor of God. Although it is likened to the uniform and equipment of a soldier, we know that it is a spiritual battle.

 Granted, some of the people on religious TV  live extravagant lifestyles today – that can be an embarrassment to some of the saints, but I believe they earned the right. There is never a shortage of money in America. But some of it does need to be allocated better than it is!

It is impossible for me to imagine raising over $1,000,000 a month to keep a broadcast on the air. So God did not call me to do that! But He does provide for those that have the faith and persistence.

We stumble at accomplishing greater missions for God for a number of reasons. First, Satan seeks to destroy our faith. Secondly, we do not hear enough faith from the pulpit, from the Sunday school class and from friends and family.

Perhaps you have heard an older person say, “If I had known that I would live this long I would have taken better care of myself.” Or, “I would have saved more money.”

Our spiritual life needs that same foresight. When I get to heaven I really want to hear Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

Persistence and planning are vitally important. While God was preparing David to become the King of Israel, Saul was doing his very best to kill David. Have you noticed that God did not step in and put a stop to Saul’s activities?

God fully expected David to work through his own problems, but with God’s help.

There was a reason that King Saul hated David. Saul thought he was a pretty impressive fellow, so he quit obeying the Lord. Soon God was ready to take the kingdom from him. Saul knew that, so he set out to destroy David rather than let God change him. Incidentally, Saul was anointed king at age 30 and ruled for 42 years – until age 72. Then he died in shame!

Cain had a similar problem with his brother Abel. Abel obeyed God and brought the right sacrifice. Cain did it his own way. Again, rather than change, Cain took his anger out on his brother. He killed him! You have to wonder why God did not protect Abel. (I have absolutely no idea!)

Isaiah 55:3, “I will make an everlasting covenant with you, My faithful love promised to David.” The Bible explains the Covenant that we have with God. Have you checked it out lately?

If we walk in obedience God promises to meet all of our needs. That includes food, clothing, shelter and healing. It also includes money in your pocket to meet all of your needs so that you can meet the needs of others!

Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.  2 Corinthians 9:10-12

Isaiah 55:6, “Seek the Lord while He can be found; call on Him while He is near.”

Verse 7, God expects the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. If we turn to the Lord He will have mercy on us. He will freely pardon.

Verse 8 states, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways.”

Once we understand that God thinks differently than we do and start letting God set our goals, life gets a lot more interesting. Great accomplishments for God require great faith!

It is all explained in the Bible. Isaiah 55:10, 11, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My word that goes out from My mouth: It will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

The question is: How do we do all that God wants us to do without wearing ourselves out?

The answer is simple. We learn to take care of ourselves. One of the ways to do this is through worship. It is a time to relax in the presence of the Lord.

In the early days of automobiles, it was common for eating and drinking places to be built on the tops of long hills. The restaurants were not necessarily placed there for the view. The site was for the convenience of the drivers of the cars. It is hard for us to appreciate it today, but back in the “good old days” cars often overheated on the long stretches of highways where you were climbing a steep grade. When you got to the top of the hill you had to stop and let “Old Bessie” cool off.

Sunday worship should be the same for us… a time to receive rest, refreshments, encouragement and just a time to let our overheated spiritual and emotional radiators cool down!
           Richard J Fairchild, Come Unto Me - For My Burden Is Easy

Do we know what we really want? I found this story by Jerry Goebel, The Well-Fit Yoke, at www.esermons.com.

Taking the Lead

            When I was a single man, my definition of a bad date was someone who would never tell you what they wanted to do - but always tell you what they didn't want to do.  The conversation often went like this:

            "What would you like to do?" 

            "Anything you want to do."

            "Well, how about let's eat Chinese food tonight."

            "No, I hate Chinese food, let's do something else."

            "Okay, how about we eat a Mexican meal?"

            "Yuck, that sounds awful tonight"."

            "Okay, then what do you want to do?"

            "It doesn't matter to me, really.  Just make a decision."

            Finally, you find a place to eat and when you finished she would say; "What an awful dinner-you have horrible taste."

            Sadly enough, our churches are full of "bad dates."  Quite willing to say what "not to do" and "what is wrong" with the leaders; yet, unwilling to be involved in leadership itself.

We need to be careful lest we become religious observers rather than spiritual leaders. Quite often, the least involved people in any situation are the most critical.  The USA is anxious for change. Let’s do our part to change for God rather than away from God! One of Jesus’ frustrations was dealing with people that were thinking, "We've done it this way for 2,000 years; we don't need to be rushing into change now."