Don't Come Late When Called!

"Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon Him while He is near... As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts...You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands."  ... Isaiah 55:6,9,12

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Don't you just love those verses?

Back in the 90's, God began asking me to 'come away with Him' for various seasons because He had new things to teach me or rebuild within me (since I'd built stuff all wrong). Usually He wanted to strengthen me in some way.

But I found those times to be like a 'you snooze, you lose' thing. If I procrastinated calling upon Him while He was near, I'd find He'd moved on when I finally got there.

So not good.

Obedience, coming when called, matters. When God's waiting, you can't tell Him, "I'll be with you after I run some errands, clean the house, catch-up on Facebook, mow the lawn and go to choir practice." That is, not if you want to be changed. Not if you want to see the good Bible promises happening to you.

God's ways and thoughts are higher than mine and long ago I got tired of my average thinking and ordinary whining about hard times. I craved God's way of looking at Life because it's so out-of-the-box and creative, positive and better.

And well, this morning while I watched The (bad) News, I felt grateful for all the times I actually made it to God when He called. Because during those times, those years--even when I didn't understand all the 'why's'-- He strengthened me to watch Today's dreadful newscasts without becoming a depressed, scared, what's-gonna-happen-next? mess on The Red Couch. And also? He's become my strength during my own rough, disappointing times, as well.

Now my weeks are more like that last verse, above, and these, also:

"Blessed are those who dwell in Your house and Your presence; they will be singing Your praises all the day long.  Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. 

Passing through the Valley of Weeping (Baca), they make it a place of springs; the early rain also fills [the pools] with blessings. They go from strength to strength [increasing in victorious power]; each of them appears before God in Zion."   ...  Psalm 84:4-7

Yeah, it feels a lot like that--because God is a lot like that. He's not up and down, down, down and all over the map. Instead, He goes from strength to strength, glory to glory, and He enables us to walk that way, also...

... if we'll come when He calls us.

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" ... but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."   ... Isaiah 40:31

(Loved this.)

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