Devotional:The Way God Wants: Isaiah 55:8-11

In 1973 Billy Preston wrote and recorded a song titled “That’s the Way God Planned It.” In the song Billy asked the question of why people do things one way when God planned them to be another way. The first line begins, “Why can’t we be humble like the good Lord said. He promised to exalt us for love is the way.” The entire song tells the way that humanity does things in ways that God did not planned. Love is the way. Love is the guiding principle for life if we wish to do things according to God’s plan. What are the reasons that we do not follow God’s plan.

The prophet Isaiah gives us the answer. Isaiah writes to the Jews that are in exile in Babylon and throughout the Babylonian Empire. Isaiah tells the exiles that God will bring them back to their homeland. They do not have to do anything for God. “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost” (Isa. 55:1, NASB). God makes covenant because of His mercy (v. 3). God will do some unexpected things. They must seek Him and forsake their ways and thoughts (v. 7). The reason is that God does not think the thoughts that we think. God does not do things the way we do things.

The exiles are invited to return to their homeland, symbolic of their turning from their sins and their return to God. Repentance and conversion; depending on the Lord’s mercies are the requirement of God for reconciliation. Money and earthly things won’t do. God does according to His thoughts and His ways. That’s the way God planned it; that’s the way God wants it to be.

Prayer: Father, we surrender our thoughts and our ways to Your thoughts and Your ways. Amen.