“Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the Lord…” Isaiah 51:1
In God’s dealings with Israel, and His dealings with us, there is a pattern, a pathway by which He leads us in order to bring us to faith, conviction, and commitment. The objective of this working in us, that which is “well-pleasing in His sight,” is the receiving of the true, consistent, and effective knowledge of Christ Himself. It is out of the objective proof of His presence, that is born the subjective experience of His love and grace, to be revealed in the world. Every believer is a book, a living book, upon and in which the Holy Spirit is writing the details of God’s blessing and testimony in the life. That testimony is Christ Himself. The conformity of that life into the image of God is first for the glory of God, well-pleasing to the Father. Secondly, the testimony is there to be the revelation of Christ in some measure, according to one’s calling, gifts, and communion with God, that the world may see and know that there is a God, and that He is not only the Creator but the sole Redeemer of men. It is as the life of Christ, by the Spirit of God, is spread abroad, that others will see, and know, His presence and power.
What then is the straight path of God’s dealings with us, so that His true and lasting blessing will be poured out upon us, to be revealed in and through us? It begins with the first step of seeking the Lord. There is a great difference between seeking “things” from God and seeking the Lord Himself. We know that God is working in our hearts when we hunger and thirst after Christ’s righteousness, the knowledge of His ways to know Him. This is why, when the thirsts come to know God, to be right with God, and to know His saving mercy and strength, that the call of God to men is: “Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the Lord.” The heart of God is ever seeking the lost to win, to find the wandering soul who is conscious that he does not know the way, the truth, or the Life. From the moment that the helpless sheep begins to grasp the eternal vulnerability of his plight and condition, God is working to bring that sheep to Himself. Therefore, the response to thirsting and hungering after God is the setting of oneself to seek Him, knowing that He is waiting, and working in the heart and life, to be found.
The second thing is a prayer, a prayer that God would indeed, “Awake, Awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord.” (Is. 51:9) The call of the individual heart for the manifest intervention in the life is essential if the soul would see God’s working. The appeal is to God’s power and authority to come in His strength to reveal Himself to the soul, and to save the lost and hopeless one with an eternal salvation. It is then that access is given to God to ransom the enslaved soul from sin, “… and nature’s night.” God will always hear and respond to the cry of the heart for His intervention. He will “awake” and seek to find the one who is seeking Him.
Thirdly, there is the command of God for the redeemed, ransomed believer, to “Awake, awake!” (51:17) It is a call to put off the past with its failures, suffering for sins, and to believe God’s gracious, and consoling words: “See, I have taken out of your hand the cup of trembling, the dregs of the cup of My fury; you shall no longer drink it.” (51:22)
Lastly, the Lord’s word is: “Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion, put on your beautiful garments.” (52:1) The time has come for the believer to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” as one’s Life. The command of God is to “awake” to the eternal reality of being one with Christ, complete.
Dear Father, Strengthen us to live. In Jesus’ name, Amen.