Higher Thoughts & Ways (Isaiah 55 8-9)

Scripture of the Day: Isaiah 55:8-9

    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.

I have been struggling this past week with certain things in my life that I cannot understand. Sometimes we try to impose our schedule (or desires) into God’s timeline and that usually doesn’t work out to our benefit! As I was questioning God on his purpose/plan, I was referred to the verses above.

It was the nudge that I needed to remember that God’s thoughts are not my thoughts. Little ole’ me cannot fathom the inner-workings of every creature of the planet. It was also helpful to get the reminder that God’s ways are higher than my ways. He really does have it all figured out. I, as fallible as I am, cannot possibly have it all figured out. And when I think about what that would really entail, I am extremely grateful I do not have all that responsibility!

All those reminders though still don’t make it easy to really grasp the omnipotence of God when we try to combine that with what we know of ourselves. In the current state of our world, the focus is often all about “me.” This makes it easy to think of my plans and myself as more important or intelligent than I really am. When we pray, we want fast answers. We lack patience and want results. But God doesn’t work that way. When I look at verse 9 above I turn it around in my head to read, “You think you know…but you have no idea!” Obviously that is not an exact translation J, but it helps me out anyway. When I pray for something and it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it won’t happen someday. Rather it means that God, who knows more than me, will accomplish what he needs to, in ways that are better than the ones I have planned out. And only He knows exactly what that will look like!

Closing Prayer:

Heavenly Father God, I do sincerely thank you that your ways are higher than my ways and that your thoughts are higher than my thoughts. You see the whole picture, from beginning to end and what I can see is just a blip on the screen. Please help me put my life in your hands and not get frustrated or upset when things don’t work out how I had envisioned them to. Father, most of all, help me not to give up praying for the things that need to be prayed for just because I don’t have the “instant” results I would like. Help me remember that You will work it out in your own time, in your own way! In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.