The longing of our heart

Introduction
Scripture text: Isaiah 55:1-9
In this chapter Prophet Isaiah begins with an invitation that God is offering, he almost begs, says “Listen, listen to me” … “Give ear and come to me; hear me”. I get a feel here that the people (which is us) seem to be missing on something that is very elementary and God is desperate for us and is hoping that we would be able to see this basic truth and be able to make the right choice.

Then it leads into a warning “6 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near”, indicating that this grand invitation is for a limited time. It will not be available forever.

Finally, in verse 8 & 9, God says -
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.

This last section I believe is important because it puts things into proper perspective. God is our creator and the reason for our being. It is good to reason but at the end of the day in our finiteness we will have things that do not make sense but it’s comforting to know that we can trust in a God who knows it all. And He says “Give ear and come to me; hear me that your soul may live”. He wants to make an everlasting covenant with us.

A chasing after the wind
Quite often we try to find significance in various worldly things … in wealth, in power, in public image, in sports, in music and so on, but all we find is frustration and futility. God never designed us to gain significance from these momentary things. Unfortunately, our attempts are like “a chasing after the wind”.
Verse 2 says,

2 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 in the richest of fare.

There is an essay I like to share with you by Robert Hastings, it’s called "The Station": -

"Tucked away in our subconscious is an idyllic vision. We see ourselves on a long trip that spans the continent. We are traveling by train. Out of the windows we drink in the passing scene of cars on nearby highways; of children waving at a crossing; of cattle grazing on a distant hillside; city skylines and village halls. But uppermost in our minds is the final destination. On a certain day, at a certain hour we will pull into THE STATION. Bands will be playing and flags waving. Once we get there so many wonderful dreams will come true, and the many pieces of our life will fit together like a completed jigsaw puzzle.
"How restlessly we pace the aisles … Waiting … Waiting … Waiting for THE STATION.
When we reach the station that will be it, we cry. `When I am eighteen … When I put the last kid through college … When I pay off the mortgage … When I get a promotion … When I reach the age of retirement … Then I shall live happily ever after.'
Unfortunately, once we get there, then it disappears. The station somehow hides itself at the end of an endless track.

All of us have stations like this and we try to find meaning in them. I often find myself racing against technology. The first computer I bought was the latest and greatest available at the time. In about 6 months it was no more the greatest; in fact few months later it would have been hard to find someone who would take it for free. My profession also demands that I keep myself up to speed with the Information Technology that is constantly changing. It feels like a rat’s race, and it’s not even possible to keep up with all of the developments that happen around in the world of Information Technology. Though every few years something radical happens and it makes me feel like this is it. This is the last one; this one feels like it is here to stay and so I am going to invest into upgrading my skills and then I don’t have to worry about catching up ever again.

Once I reach there I will be happy. You know the irony is that when we get to these highly anticipated stations in our lives it does not even feel that we are there because something else has taken its place.
Once we get there, then it disappears. The station somehow hides itself at the end of an endless track.

God never designed us to gain significance from these momentary things. Unfortunately, our attempts are like “a chasing after the wind”

Reviewing our Priorities
So let’s get back to the invitation, what is being offered here?
Come, buy and eat…even if you have no money…
Come, buy and eat…it doesn’t cost anything!

Well, we get a picture of what he’s talking about when we look at verse 2:
2 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 in the richest of fare.

We know of course that we must eat to sustain our physical body, and the scripture says he who does not provide for his family is worse than an unbeliever (1 Timothy 5:8) so we know God is not saying don’t eat bread, He’s trying to teach us to get our priorities in order.
Think of the bread as representing all the things we pursue to satisfy our appetites. It may be literally food to satisfy our hunger. Or it could be technology, wealth, power, or it could be things like sports or music. The list is really endless. In our affluent society there are so many opportunities for recreation and luxury that we begin to think it is our inherent human right to be happy.

What is being offered here is not simply bread, wine or milk. What he is offering is abundant life from God the “richest of fare” which comes through God’s wisdom and salvation.

Nothing can fill the void except God
Blaise Pascal, French physicist and philosopher said, All men seek happiness. There are no exceptions… Yet all men complain… A test which has gone on so long, without pause or change, really ought to convince us that we are incapable of attaining the good by our own efforts…this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite object.”

In our hearts we all have the longing for our Maker and He alone is that infinite one who can fill the infinite abyss of our longing for goodness.

I believe that our sinful nature has distorted the way we function, we are naturally not lead towards the spiritual food that our soul craves, rather we are mislead towards all kinds of worldly things making us believe that it is what we need. And this is why we ignorantly run after the things that are of this world only to find emptiness.

God has put this longing for Him inside our hearts. The Psalmist expresses it beautifully –

Psalm 63:1-5 (New International Version)
A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.
1 O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
2 I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

C.S. Lewis noted, “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and lust and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to keep on making mud-pie in the slums because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a vacation at the beach.”

This is why Isaiah asks –
2 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 in the richest of fare.

Trusting God’s ways
It is God alone who can satisfy this longing that is implanted in us. Besides offering the abundant life for us to enjoy (the “richest of fare”), God also asks us give up trying to understand it all on our own terms. As verse 8 & 9 says,

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 believe this is the key – we are aware that God’s ways are beyond our understanding but are we also always conscious of that truth as we deal with different situations in our lives.

God’s ways are different. Simon Peter said, “But because you say so, I will let down the nets." They were trying all night but couldn’t catch any fish. It did not make any rational sense to follow that instruction from the master. But, “6When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.” – Luke 5:5-6 (New International Version)

God wants us to trust in Him like little children. This is not to say that there is no scope for reasoning. In fact verse 2 being with reasoning – it asks questions in order for us to begin thinking about why do we run after things that do not satisfy. But it warns us that we cannot rely upon reasoning alone. We ultimately need to put our faith and trust in God because we are limited in our capacity to understand. This is why God expects us to have faith in him like little children.

Our Daily Bread, April 8, 1996

A group of scientists and botanists were exploring remote regions of the Alps in search of new species of flowers. One day they noticed through binoculars a flower of such rarity and beauty that its value to science was incalculable. But it lay deep in a ravine with cliffs on both sides. To get the flower someone had to be lowered over the cliff on a rope.

A curious young boy was watching nearby, and the scientists told him they would pay him well if he would agree to be lowered over the cliff to retrieve the flower below.

The boy took one long look down the steep, dizzy depths and said, “I’ll be back in a minute.” A short time later he returned, followed by a gray-haired man. Approaching the botanist, the boy said, “I’ll go over that cliff and get that flower for you if this man holds the rope. He’s my dad.”

Our rational analysis might tell us that the scientist probably could have provided a more technically sound and safe way for him to get down there, but our hearts will agree with what the little boy did.

God longs to have this kind of relationship with each one of us.
Even though the world may seem to/claim to have a better solution but deep with our hearts we know that only my dad is capable of giving his life to save me.

Closing remarks
In closing I would like to share a few lines from yesterday’s devotional from “Our Daily Bread”. The scripture was from Philippians 4:7.

Philippians 4:7 (New International Version)
7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

The author had these beautiful words – By trustful praying, we not only unburden our hearts, divest our anxieties, and release the grip on our grief but we also gain “the peace of God” which is described as an inexplicable, divine calmness of spirit which supersedes our ability to understand our circumstances, and it is a guard on our heart, through Jesus, that protects us enough to allow us to whisper, even in the pain, “It is well with my soul.”

The peace of God transcends all understanding. It protects us in ways that our minds can’t comprehend.

Blessings,
Naveen