Isaiah 55

 “Come…”

This morning God blessed my inbox with a special gift. A friend of mine shared her morning devotional time via an audio file. It wasn’t something pre-printed that she read, it was 22 minutes of absolute joy, listening as she shared her soul’s thoughts on lent. First, thank you Lord for putting such wonderful gifts of friendship in my life…my cup overflows!

One of the Scriptures that she read was Isaiah 55. I can’t really pinpoint the why or wherefore, but the book of Isaiah has always spoken to my soul in a very special way….that’s one for God to answer at another time. Oh, but today! One of the things you’re taught when learning to learn about Scripture is to meditate on a certain passage. My way of explaining that process is to just sit and soak. This isn’t about responding with a dissertation, it is about allowing His Word to flow past our responses and over our objections and thru our perceptions, in order to get all the way down to our soul’s ear. That place that we hear from when God whispers and we feel like a tornado just went by…that’s mediating.

So, today Isaiah 55: 1 starts…Come…and I couldn’t read further. It struck me, is there really anything more than that? You know, just Come. That’s all there is….He does the rest. He holds us, leads us, heals us, loves us! We just have to come. At times, that part may seem unreachable to us, but not really. Thinking on all this, a kind of picture came to mind. We only need to lift that one foot to take a step, we don’t even have to complete the stepping, HE spans the chasm we envision and lifts us to Himself. It is His reach that rescues us from the things of this world that seek after our soul…

He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
    he drew me out of deep waters.
He rescued me from my powerful enemy…

Psalm 18:16 & 17a

As for Isaiah 55? (when you do read on) I just love that it begins with an invitation…

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;
and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
    and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
    and you will delight in the richest of fare.

Isaiah 55:1 &2

Before God does anything here, He invites us all to Himself. It doesn’t say to bring anything, or get something done first, or anything…just come, period. Verse two is an invitation to us also, don’t ya think? God invites us to peer into our own soul with Him, to look at our motivations, our life’s prompts and ask  “why”. It really is only by His revealing that we can see the truth about ourselves. It says so right there… Listen, listen to me…  Not me listen to me, but me listen to Him! It is in the listening that we receive the Grace that moves our steps. Discernment, vision, Truth ~ they are all gifts of our God when we just come.