Lenten Reader | Day 17

March 21st, 2022

Seek the Lord

Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

- Isaiah 55:6-9

Our God gives us freedom to make our own choices, but He gives us advice along with it. If we follow His advice and His way, our life is beautiful. When we go our way, we get off the path, down in the briers, scratched up, bleeding until we admit we have made a mistake and turn back onto His path. He waits on His path and calls us back. We follow His voice even though we can’t see Him as a result of the brush all around us.

Once we get back to His path, He shows us compassion instead of shame. He gives us time to rest and cares for our self-inflicted wounds. When we are ready to travel again, He leads the way. Only now, we have lost precious time and sustained pain. Even though He forgives us and forgets our sin, we remember. We have scars as a result. We have provided the enemy with valid reminders that we failed.

The enemy continues to whisper to us that there is something more down there, or if you will just a take a small detour from God’s plan you can experience this forbidden thing. Do we continue to follow our Father and walk with Him, or does the cycle, once again, repeat?

This Lenten season, let’s seek the Lord while He is still near and can be found. He will abundantly pardon us. Because He is a loving Father who loves his children with a passion and a plan we cannot comprehend. He loves our own children more than we can love them. His ways are different from ours because He has an eternal limitless perspective that we do not possess. His ways can make beauty from ashes.

- Chris Harper

Prayer
Father, bring me back to the path you have laid out for me. Heal my wounds that I have caused myself. Thank you for showing me compassion instead of shame. Keep me on your path.