Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

The whole world in his hands

Friday, February 15, 2002

Isaiah 58:1-9
Day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.
"Why have we fasted," they say,
"and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?"
Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.
Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.
Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter--
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say:
"Here am I."

How much does God love his children? My emotions are sometimes very strong, but they are only a shadow of God's emotions. His love literally moves mountains, and his anger literally destroys cities.

Every single person in his whole wide world, God loves as much as he loves me. And he is insistent, determined, decided that I must do the same. Nothing will stop him from getting that point across. I am unable to humble myself; I am already humbled. If I would just open my eyes...

John Donne said these things as well as they have ever been said...

No man is an island, entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less,
as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were:
any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind, and therefore
never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
it tolls for thee.*

Lord, I choose over and over to make myself comfortable, and then take pride in humbling myself. This is not what you want for me or from me. You made me, you made all of us for giving. Please forgive me, Father. Please change my deepest heart.

*You can read the rest of John Donne's essay on the internet at http://www.incompetech.com/authors/donne/bell.html

Devotions Archive

The whole world in his hands

Friday, February 15, 2002