Nourish Your Soul

"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 your soul will delight

the richest of fare."

(Isaiah 55:2)

The Life Application summarizes these verses this way:

~Food costs money, lasts only a short time, and meets only physical needs. But God offers us free nourishment that feeds our soul. How do we get it? We come, listen, seek, and call on God. God's salvation is freely offered, but to nourish our souls we must eagerly receive it. We will starve spiritually without this food as surely as we will starve physically without our daily bread.

Couple reading parts of this chapter in Isaiah, along with the Breaking Free by Beth Moore study I am doing in my own time, and sermons from my Pastor the last few weeks, and I have learned so much about finding satisfaction in God alone. It is a recurring theme lately. One that I desire to "dig" into and remain in for a long time I pray.

Why do we toil about working hard for things that will perish, instead of working towards things that have eternal value? How will we worship God all day in Heaven, if we can't find time to spend with Him on this earth? Look at many of the Psalms-David laid bare his heart before the Lord. OFTEN. He speaks of talking with and being taught by God in the evening and the morning. This is how we gain wisdom. This is how we have a relationship with Him. This is how it was meant to be from the beginning--before the fall. Jesus opened that door, tore that veil, so we could enter into a real relationship with God. So that we could draw near in time of need, and find mercy and grace.

God is Jehovah-jireh, the Lord our provider. We are assured in Matthew 6:25-34, that we have no reason to worry. If we seek Him first, all of these other things will be added to us. He knows our every need. He knows our every worry. Yet, He tells us to seek Him first, and not to worry.

This goes against every instinct we have been taught in today's society. We have been taught to work first, plan first, then pray and ask God to bless whatever it is we are doing. Or throw up a few, "Can I have's?", and go on about our day.

We have a very personal God. Jesus was the Word made flesh.Matthew 1:23 gives us a VERY personal name for Him. Immanuel-which means "God with us." He walked amongst us. Now, through His death and resurrection, He lives within us through the gift of the Holy Spirit which we received when we first believed the good news of the Gospel. When we accepted His atoning sacrifice for our sins and made Him Lord of our lives.

Which is harder? To provide for our every need, or to provide an atoning sacrifice for every sin of every human in the world~while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8)? Why is it that so many of us, (guilty at times here so I am not pointing fingers), can believe God for salvation, but it is so hard for us to believe Him for the "little things"? To truly internalize Matthew 6:25-34 when He says that He takes care of the birds and the flowers of the field? We are the ones who sins had to be atoned for-not the birds and flowers. Yet He even takes care of those! 

How much more will He take care of the very creatures He died for? The ones who bare His image?