What a life with God should look like…

Let no one say…

‘The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.’  Isaiah 56:3

God wouldn’t want anything to do with me.

God wouldn’t be interested in me.

I’m not good enough. God couldn’t work with me. God can’t change me.

God’s salvation is for everyone. Everyone. This is good news!

He can work with anyone. He can transform anyone.

It’s those who’ve given up who are going to have to face the consequences – those who are complacent and are not trying, who think they deserve a life of good things without putting the work and commitment and sacrificial love in.

Isaiah are particularly condemning of prophets here – the lazy one who are lying around getting drunk while the people are getting on with all sorts of evil practices – promiscuity among the trees, worshipping idols, even child sacrifice. The good are living and dying without anyone even noticing.

Whom have you so dreaded and feared
that you have not been true to me,
and have neither remembered me
nor taken this to heart?  Isaiah 57:11

In our desire to fit in with the people around us, how do we compromise our relationship with God?

The good news is that even though God lives in a high and holy place, He is willing to come and meet with the lowest of the low – those who have been brought low and are turning to God now with a contrite spirit. They’re sorry. And God still loves them.

I will not accuse them for ever,
nor will I always be angry,
for then they would faint away because of me –
the very people I have created.  Isaiah 57:16

Even though God has seen everything, He is choosing to heal, choosing to forgive, choosing to guide and restore and comfort.

But –

‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked.’  Isaiah 57:21

There are people (then and now) who turn to God for answers and wonder why He does not respond. They call on God to fix all their mess and are outraged or confused when He seems distant. They seem to forget that they are choosing to live their own way and not God’s. They’re choosing to neglect how they feel about God deep down inside. They think that their outward actions are enough to convince God that they are His true followers. If they say the right prayers and do the right things, then they can fool God and others (and themselves) into thinking they are God’s people doing it God’s way.

It doesn’t work like that. They may fast – do without food for a fixed period – but look at how they are treating people? They’re exploiting others. They’re quarrelling. They’re actually fighting. Anyone can do the outward stuff.

This is what God is asking of His people. Now and then. Nothing has changed. This is what true worship looks like. This is what true fasting looks like. This is what a right relationship with God looks like. No excuses. This is what we should be doing. This is Isaiah 58:6-14 in The Message. Yes, I know it’s a long passage, but take your time. This is really important. You want to know how to follow God? This is what it looks like.

This is the kind of fast day I’m after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts.

What I’m interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families.

Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. the God of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray, God will answer. You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’

If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people’s sins, if you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.

I will always show you where to go. I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places— firm muscles, strong bones. You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry.

You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community liveable again.

If you watch your step on the Sabbath and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage, if you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy, God’s holy day as a celebration, if you honour it by refusing ‘business as usual,’ making money, running here and there—then you’ll be free to enjoy God!

Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all. I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob. Yes! God says so!

This is what a life lived as God intended looks like. This is what a life lived to the full looks like. Yes, there’s plenty of sacrifice in there, plenty of putting yourself out for others, plenty of serving and getting your hands dirty. There’s a commitment to the people around you – those you know and those you don’t. A commitment to treat all people fairly and with respect and love.

But the reward is there isn’t it? A life lived with God. A life of light, a full life of hope and strength and restoration. Imagine if we lived like that. Imagine if God’s church lived like that. Imagine if the Christians we knew lived like that. How bright that light would shine in the darkness!

This word of prophecy is as relevant for us today as it was in Isaiah’s time. Surely you can see that too. I’m challenged. I’m burning inside with a desire to get this right. I don’t know what that looks like in practice for my life beyond what I am already doing, but I am determined to find out!

I hope you are too.