Isaiah 48:17 This is what the Lord says-your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go."
My career has been in marketing and advertising. Early on, I learned to distinguish the difference between features and benefits. Features represent characteristics of a product or service. Benefits are those things that directly profit or benefit me by using the product or service. For instance, my new computer has incredible speed and lots of memory (feature). This allows me to do things more quickly and easily (benefit). People are more concerned about the benefits than the features.
God tells us in the above verse that there are some direct benefits to the features of His nature. He is a God who is committed to teaching His children in the way they should go. What is the real benefit of His teaching? He answers this in the next verse. "If only you had paid attention to My commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea" (Is. 48:18).
The Lord tells us that the benefit of allowing God to teach us and lead us in the way is peace and righteousness. Here is a guaranteed promise from God. I often use guarantees in my advertising claims. Here is God's immutable guarantee: You will have peace like a river and righteousness like the waves of the sea! What a great promise!
Are you trusting God with the very details of your life so that He can lead you in the way you should go? Are you allowing Him to teach you? Seek the Lord today for what He wants to teach you and allow Him to lead you, and you will ensure peace and righteousness in your life.
7 comments:
I go through periods when I am reasonably good at turning to God and then I have spots where honestly it doesn't even enter my mind. I suspect that just goes to show that it is not an integral part of my spiritual life and I need to make it a priority. I would guess the majority of details in my life; I do not seek God so He can lead me. Father help me and these men seek You in all things. At church on Sunday, in the sermon they mentioned that Brother Lawrence (called Practicing the Presence of God) perfected continual worship by imagining God on his shoulder all the time and talking to him. May sound strange, but I started thinking that I can imagine that a lot of things in my behavior would likely change if I imagined the same thing.
cas
Our pastor told us to be continually in prayer. He told us to use the words of our praise songs to give us words of praise. We can only tell God He's awesome so many times. The song I am using today is "Come thou Fount of Every Blessing".
Come Thou Font of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy praise.
Streams of mercy never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnett, song by flaming tongues above.
Here's my heart Lord. Take and seal it. Seal it for Thy courts above.
cas, talk about conviction...I echo your last statement. Gary, nice song to start the morning with...
Here's the benefit for my relationship with the Everlasting God of the Universe...He gets my flaws, phobias, and inconsistencies and I get his Son's perfection, strength and faithfulness. Not to be sacreligious(spelling?)but what-a-deal! NONE like it!
Have a new day under God's grace and mercy, today, gentlemen.
Great promise and a great reminders via song and quotes! Thanks, men.
Funny, when life gets crazy (which it is right now), I find my focus becomes more on "getting by" rather than walking closely and uprightly with God. Obviously "getting by" never leads anyone into an obedient pathway. Please lift up the next month and a half, that in spite of the stress and pressures I would truly focus on walking (and living) out this promise.
May God teach us to walk daily in His ways.
Blessings, men.
As I sit here, the ocean waves are rolling over my shoulder. The power of God is never more visible to me than when I am thrown by the waves. Each wave is a droplet of God's power , is one small wave simultaneously crashing on shores across the world, but even the smallest ones can crush me (unlike cas, I am not an able surfer). Today, I will focus on the righteous that I could receive if I obey.
Nice comments fellas. This past weekend I went to my family reunion and was reminded of the importance of prayer and how prayer is essential in our lives. Our family's motto is "a family that prays together, stays together." Lord, help me to increase my prayer life so that I will rely more on you for the decisions in my life.
LT
cas- not such a silly thought when you think of Phil3:8.
gsiano- love the words of the hymn. We sing it all the time in church.
Keep praying for each other and our focus throughout the day on Christ. gch
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