Isaiah 63:15-16 - Look down from heaven and see
from your lofty throne, holy and glorious. Where are your zeal and your might? Your tenderness and compassion are
withheld from us. But you
are our Father, though Abraham does not know us or Israel
acknowledge us; you, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.
Isaiah struggled daily with people who had gone their own
way….who knew who God was….but chose to do what they wanted anyway. God had
allowed their hearts to harden just enough that they would reject his ways till
he was ready to bring them out of the season of punishment he had placed them
in. Isaiah longed for the time that God would bring them out of their suffering...
melt their hearts so they could repent and come back to God.
I truly don’t understand the concept of God hardening a
heart. It baffles me that he would want to wait one second to save someone. It seems in contradiction to the whole
purpose of accepting God. My small human brain sees it as a repeating record….just
wasting the energy of those around them that are trying to share with them just
how great God is.
But then again…I am not to understand everything about God…I
am just to trust in faith that he knows what he is doing. I am just to model my
prayers after this great one from Isaiah. I am simply to pray for those with
hardened hearts….for these lost and deceived….for the atheist…for those that
have trusted other Gods and religions that are not based on the Holy Lord…and for
those rebellious in the world who have gone their own way….even when they know
who God is and loved him passionately at one time. I am to pray for God to look down and see the
needs of those around me….to bring back his tenderness and compassion to a
world that is slipping further away from his will every day.
I am guilty once again…of not even thinking to pray for these
groups of hardened hearts every day. Yes …I lift an occasional prayer…but I
fall so short of the model I see here in Isaiah’s life. I could justify that
God didn’t call me to be that passionate in prayer for them. But my heart knows
that if I believe it isn’t my job ….my
heart runs the risk of becoming just as hard as the ones he calls me to pray
for.
Father….thank you for the reminder that fervent prayer for
others should be at the top of my to-do list every day. Forgive me for not
embracing the hardened hearts of those around me….and taking time to pray that
you come and soften them…..so they can understand and believe in your love. Help me to find a way to increase my time in
prayer for those around me…so you can come and begin to transform the many
people around me that you have allowed to have hardened hearts. Don’t let me stop until you return…and take
all of us home with you to heaven. Amen.
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