Past No Longer Counts

Isaiah 55: ⁶ Seek the Lord while he may be found;
    call on him while he is near.
⁷ Let the wicked forsake their ways
    and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
    and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

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Reading the Bible made me more aware of my sins. I started dropping one sin off after another in a quest to be perfect. Every now and then I would do or say something that I knew was a sin. When things went wrong, I would immaturely say “I will never do that again!” After a while I stopped asking for forgiveness because when I dropped one sin, another would pop up. It seemed I could not be as “sinless” as I thought.

• At one time I thought I could be sinless.
• At one time I thought I could be perfect.
• At one time I thought I could drop all my sins and everything would go well for me because of “my” perfection.

Steering GOD by being “sinless” to gain wealth and status was my plan. I mean HE wanted me to not be sinful and it says righteous people will be rich, right? Yes, sort of… Wealth may not be monetary and is extremely relative. GOD’s wealth is in humans and besides, HE cannot be manipulated by my filthy righteousness. I thoroughly missed the understanding of what it meant to truly be forgiven.

• GOD says to me “MY thoughts are not your thoughts” meaning I may think HE cannot possibly forgive me “this” time and HE truly can.
• GOD says to me “MY ways are not your ways” meaning when I feel like giving up, GOD stays steady.
• GOD says to me “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” meaning when I worry or doubt HE does not.

GOD declares my efforts at being “righteous” as a dung pile. One reason is I am measuring myself to my own standards, not HIS. I then go to far in the other direction, thinking I cannot possibly be forgiven. GOD says “I forgive you” plain and simple. HIS forgiveness is entirely misunderstood. I do not have to “do” so much rather just “be.” GOD is my fortress.

• Do you keep pointing in the past for where you are today?
• Are you stuck in a place where you think you are being punished by GOD?
• Can you allow HIM to open your eyes to HIS everlasting and marvelous grace?
• Will you place a little of your trust in HIM today?