God’s readiness to answer
The Lord says, “I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help. I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’ to a nation that did not call on my name. All day long I opened my arms to a rebellious people. But they follow their own evil paths and their own crooked schemes. Isaiah 65:1-2 NLT
Isaiah admonished the people to seek God in prayer. He called on them to long for God that He comes. “Oh, that you would burst from the heavens and come down! How the mountains would quake in your presence!” (Isaiah 64:1). And God wants to respond to the people’s longings and prayers. “I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help. I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me... to a nation that did not call on my name” (Isaiah 65:1). These three, “no one asked for help,” “no one was looking for me,” and “did not call on my name,” are the absolute marks of seeking God’s will. They are essential in demonstrating the willingness to seek God. Yet, in their rebellion they did not want to follow God’s path instead “they follow their own evil paths and their own crooked schemes” (Isaiah 65:2). Instead of submitting to the authority of God over their lives, they preferred to fulfill their own selfish desires. God humbled Himself so He could reach out to us. “Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8). God made the first move and did not wait for us to express our interest of Him. He did not even look at how good and impressive we are. He just said to us, “Here I am, here I am.” God is patient and He is providing an opportunity for us to respond. Let us abandon our pride and come to Him in humble spirit. “I live in the high and holy place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble. I restore the crushed spirit of the humble and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts” (Isaiah 57:15). God lives in the hearts of those who are repentant.
Blessings,
