Scripture: Isaiah 40:13-14, 18; Isaiah40:27-31; Romans 12:1-3
It’s been said, perhaps surprisingly, that many people today are searching for spiritual meaning in their lives. Unfortunately, and probably not surprising, very few are looking for that meaning in our eternal, loving and perfect God! But even more than that, the Church has also lost much of the passion and trust for Christ that has sustained the faith for two thousand years. And striving to keep the words that Jesus commanded in Matthew 5:48 – “Be perfect, therefore, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” – no longer hold any purpose for many.
Degradation of the faith may even be greater that we know. A. W. Tozer, in volume 1 of his “Attributes of God” (Wingspead Publishers, Chicago, IL, pg. 179) writes “And along with our loss of religious fear [comes] a corresponding flippancy and familiarity toward God that our fathers never knew.” He wrote these words of warning nearly 70 years ago, and the loss has grown even greater. Evil can easily so emerge within our lives, and begin to grow and consume those who, through their personal doubts in faith, open themselves to the destructive ways of Satan.
When we begin to doubt God and His ways, we will soon allow our own imperfections to supplant the age old understanding that God, and God alone, is perfect in every way. Today, we consider the attribute of Perfection that reassures us when we trust in the LORD’s truth.
Read Isaiah 40:13-14, 18
God’s infinite perfection is centered within every other characteristic that defines our LORD. The power of His wisdom and understanding, the truth behind His every word and act, the extent of His authority over creation, and even the ability that enabled Him to solely create and order the heavens and the earth, comes about through the perfection of our Almighty God. And the questions that the prophet asks regarding divine perfection should make the doubters and scoffers of this world question their own assumptions. Consider the prophet’s words.
“Who has understood the mind of the LORD?” Think about it – how could the limited mental capacity of our confined brain even begin to comprehend the vastness of God’s wisdom. How could our imperfect human understanding of those things of the universe even begin to qualify us to advise God on divine matters or even worse, to challenge His ways and plans? And since God is the source of all things and of all truths, why would we ever imagine that the LORD could possibly be wrong, and that we, His infinitesimal and mortal creation, knows more and better that He does?
The point is that God is unchanging, while we are constantly in the flux of change. The Perfect who existed before anything else did, is the same today, tomorrow and yesterday (Hebrews 13:7-8), while our “today” can so easily be completely different than our “tomorrow”, and usually has little or no connection to our “yesterday”. (Job 8:8-15) And the prophet asks a rhetorical question – who can we even begin to compare God to, either human, or image, or anything else that we can possibly imagine? Of course, the only sensible answer has to be “There is nothing”!
Read Isaiah40:27-31
Israel had always questioned God’s ways, especially during their 40 years of wilderness life. They accused Him of leading them out into the desert to starve to death, while that was never the plan. (Exodus16:2-3) Even after their needs were cared for, and manna and quail would be given to them every day, they would soon complain that the “menu” was too bland!
Later, in the years following Solomon’s reign, their doubts and complaints would blossom into idol worship – they would put their trust in gods who could do absolutely nothing for the people! (1 Kings 14:8-9) And even after Jesus came to redeem Israel and all people, failure to believe and trust in His divine perfection continued. They, and we, find God’s way just a little too much of a stretch to accept completely, and we, and they, decided to put their own understandings above His. (Isaiah 55:6-11) And they, and we, will suffer for it.
But for some unknown reason, we still think that we are either a lot smarter than God is, or that those things we do, say, and even think are in the “Darkness”, will never be known by the LORD. Of course the Light of God exposes all things, and the darkness has no power to object. But the prophet doesn’t stop with just chastising the nation – he begins offering a comparison between us and God!
The LORD is the everlasting God, while we, when we strike out on our own, become anything BUT eternal!
He is Creator of the ends of
the earth, and then some! Can we even
come close to understand all of that, let alone our own little place in creation?
He never tires, and while I
don’t know about you, I get tired every day! – otherwise why would we ever need
to sleep, not to mention taking those great afternoon Naps!
And then he reminds us of God’s
wonderful gifts – strength for the weary, and power for the weak. He wants us to know that when we can’t, God
can, and that He will give us all that we will ever need to accomplish those
things that He would have us do, IF we will just trust in His way and plan for this
life.
Read Romans12:1-3
There’s a lot about our relationship with God in these 3 verses, but let’s consider each issue in the context of our own life today, and not as though they are only about the lives that were lived in the 1st century.
First, God’s mercy, which is perfect in every way. And that’s the point – God’s mercy – His kindness, His generosity, His love, His forgiveness has been extended to each and every person on earth through the blessed sacrifice that He has made through Jesus at Calvary. God has made this great sacrifice on our behalf – one which we are totally incapable of making for Him.
Second, we are still called
to make our own sacrifice, but not one of physical proportions. Ours is to be spiritual in nature, or in
other words, it is to be heart felt, and not one of our intellect.
Third, our sacrifice is to
be the basis for our worship of God.
Without first giving our hearts, and surrendering our lives to the LORD, no matter what we may
appear to do in the name of Jesus, it is worthless until we sacrifice our life
in the world and claim the life that Jesus offers. In Matthew 7:21-23, we read “this is our
spiritual act of worship”
Fourth, reject the ways of
earth, and be renewed in mind, heart, and strength. God cannot begin working His way in our lives
until we stop conforming our life to the style of the world’s way. It’s all about where the focus of our life is
placed – is it on the truth of the LORD, or is it on the lies of earth? Jesus said that we need to decide, for if we
try to live with one foot in the world, and one with Him, we will fail in both. We can’t have it both ways. (Matthew 6:24)
Fifth, once we receive God’s
transforming grace, it is only then that we will know what His will is for our
lives. He has great plans for each and
every one of us, but until our life is only in Him, we will never understand
what it is that He wants to give us.
Sixth, Paul reminds us of that
passage from Isaiah 55:9, in which we are told “As the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your
thoughts.” We are never to give our
understanding, our desires, our plans more prestige than we give to God’s. As a matter of fact, we must set our thoughts
aside, if we have any hope of receiving His divine thoughts and word.
God’s way is not only “higher” than the way of earth, it is absolute perfection, and as A.W. Tozer put it, perfection “is not lacking in anything and doesn’t have anything it shouldn’t have.” (“Attributes of God, Vol. 1”, Wingspead Publishers, Chicago, IL, pg. 183)
So what will it be for our lives – God’s perfection in word and call, or the world’s imperfection that is based completely in their deceptive ways. May our decision be “perfect”!
