No More Empty Promises = No More Empty Hearts

Change is a curious thing filled with a mixture of awe and terror. Some change we need, other change we fear; some change we recognise will help, other change threatens to send us into a tailspin that we are not sure we will recover from. Isaiah 55: 1-6 points you to the change that you need today.

In contrast to the change that we are most prone to pursue and most comfortably adopt this change is not cosmetic or superficial it is heart transforming and hope giving. Maybe you woke this morning with a sense of nagging disappointment or persistent hopelessness, perhaps despair looms large where you yearn for joy.

Isaiah 55 is an invitation to you if you feel lost to come to the One with whom you need to be to find the peace you crave. First of all it is an invitation to weigh things up. Do you feel spiritually thirsty? Come and drink from the fountain of all blessing. Do you feel a hunger in your heart for more? Come to, return to, the only One who can satisfy. It is an invitation to change, an invitation to stop looking in the wrong place for the wrong thing. It poses the question today- why are you chasing this thing, hoping that this is going to change while you are sitting in a ditch hoping that something, anything might change?

Second it is an invitation to listen up, to not waste this moment but rather to listen to His Word. Verse 3 identifies three challenges to diligently listening up: There are the circumstances that crowd your mind, the haste and rush that overtake your days. There is the confidence in yourself reflected in an attitude that asks by your very approach to life ‘why would I come to God: I don’t need Him.’ There is the complacency which is putting up, making do, covering our ears rather than inclining our ear and leaning in with our hearts to God’s life giving Word.

So if you just feel like you are getting a grip on life when the goalposts are moved, or are sick of having the rug ripped from under your feet because you are aiming at the wrong goals and standing on the wrong foundation, trusting the wrong promises the third invitation is to change things up. This involves making Him a priority, rededicating yourself to Him; pressing on with urgency, seeking Him while He may be found; responding to Him tangibly, calling on Him all the while recognising His proximity- He is near to you today.