Skip to main content

No rest for the wicked


I am God, your God, who teaches you how to live right and well. I show you what to do, where to go. (Isaiah 48:17)

It is in this same chapter of Isaiah that we get our saying, "No rest for the wicked". The exact reading is: "There is no peace," says God, "for the wicked." The nation of Israel, delivered from Egypt to enter into a great land of prosperity and promise, chose to walk away from the one thing God asked of them - undivided and unchallenged loyalty to him. In the end, they knew no 'peace' - for they chose to live as the wicked of the land. We make good choices right alongside some not so wise ones, don't we? We do it all the time - choosing 'when' to be obedient and 'when' to live as we want to in the moment. Choice will always be ours - what we do when presented with the 'options' around us is 'learned' - it doesn't always come naturally for us to choose wisely.

God shows us what to do and where to go, but do we consistently listen to his direction? If you are like me, the answer to that one is a resounding 'no'. We know the right way to go - the right choice to make - how to deal with the struggle we are facing with right and 'not so right'. Yet, we choose to forsake the struggle in pursuit of the wrong way! In spite of 'knowing', we choose to go with our 'feelings'. That is how we get ourselves into compromise, isn't it? We lean into our feelings instead of relying upon the wisdom God is giving us. It is God's main goal to give us all we need to make wise choices - we just don't pay attention. Then we wonder why we find ourselves in a place of compromise - not really 'too far gone' - but 'gone the wrong way'. We need a course change.

Live right and well - in accordance with all that is good, proper, and just. When was the last time you were faced with choices that didn't quite measure up to 'good', 'proper', or 'just'? It is probably daily! With all these 'not so good' choices all around us, is it any wonder we need all the help we can get from God to learn to live right and well? We cannot do this on our own - we need to be instructed in how to choose well. Reject his urging and lean into those feelings - no peace for the wicked. Embrace his urging and lean into what he promises us in his Word - peace abounding for the obedient. Life with God isn't like one of those rides where we have tracks to follow that keep us from getting our 'wheels' outside of prescribed track, but we do have ample warnings along the way that indicate we are about to veer! Just sayin!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What did obedience cost Mary and Joseph?

As we have looked at the birth of Christ, we have considered the fact he was born of a virgin, with an earthly father so willing to honor God with his life that he married a woman who was already pregnant.  In that day and time, a very taboo thing.  We also saw how the mother of Christ was chosen by God and given the dramatic news that she would carry the Son of God.  Imagine her awe, but also see her tremendous amount of fear as she would have received this announcement, knowing all she knew about the time in which she lived about how a woman out of wedlock showing up pregnant would be treated.  We also explored the lowly birth of Jesus in a stable of sorts, surrounded by animals, visited by shepherds, and then honored by magi from afar.  The announcement of his birth was by angels - start to finish.  Mary heard from an angel (a messenger from God), while Joseph was set at ease by a messenger from God on another occasion - assuring him the thing he was about to do in marrying Mary wa

A brilliant display indeed

Love from the center of who you are ; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply ; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. (Romans 12:9-12) Integrity and Intensity don't seem to fit together all that well, but they are uniquely interwoven traits which actually complement each other. "Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it." God asks for us to have some intensity (fervor) in how we love (from the center of who we are), but he also expects us to have integrity in our love as he asks us to be real in our love (don't fake it). They are indeed integral to each other. At first, we may only think of integrity as honesty - some adherence to a moral code within. I believe there is a little more to integrity than meets the eye. In the most literal sense,

Do me a favor

If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. (Philippians 2:1-4) Has God's love made ANY difference in your life? What is that difference? Most of us will likely say that our lives were changed for the good, while others will say there was a dramatic change. Some left behind lifestyles marked by all manner of outward sin - like drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution, or even thievery. There are many that will admit the things they left behind were just a bit subtler - what we can call inward sin - things like jealousy,