“Why should you be beaten anymore? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart is afflicted. From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness– …”

“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land…”

-Isaiah 1:5-6 & 18-19

Rebellion- The act or process of resisting authority, control or convention.

In this generation where it is so normal to be rebellious it is hard to yield myself to God. I find myself being called and yet I can’t bring myself to sit still long enough to hear what he has to say to me. I don’t mean to openly rebel. I am not trying to resist Him and what He has for me. I say that, but with my actions I contradict the very words I’ve just said.

Just like Samuel, God is calling me, He is calling all of us. Unlike Samuel (in 1 Samuel 3) I know the voice of God, I have heard it before. Here I am though, hearing his voice and not submitting myself wholly to His word.

“In the chaos of this world you have to trust me to be all that you need. You have to trust me to let your heart stop beating so that you can clearly hear the words I am saying to you. You have to wholly believe that I am all that you need. Everything else will pass, I am all that will last. I am and will always be.”

I’ve read the verses many times and feel like each time I read it, it is my first time; “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)

Everything He wants for me is so contradictory to what the world has for me. His ways for me, for everyone, are so much better and yet I still take the silly things this world has over what He has countless times.

But then that is the beauty of Him, my King. He promises that if I will turn my heart back to Him that He will wash me clean again. I used to think this was a limited offer or an offer that could only be used so many times. Now I realize that every time I come back to Him with a pure heart and a contrite spirit, He is already willing to wash me clean again. I can be the prodigal son every time and every time He will throw a feast for my return. What love is this that He knows all of me, every dirty part of me and still He loves me! He wants all that I am, He wants me to lay it all before Him and simply be; simple be in His presence.

Everyday I am asked to recommit myself to Him. It sounds so difficult in my own head, I make Christianity look and sound so hard. God made it simple, the most memorized verse in the Bible tells us that God freely gave us His son, if we believe in Him, we will live forever with God! What a promise, what an undeserved gift!

In the midst of my rebellion He tells me He loves me. Moments after I’ve seen the error of my ways and am ready to punish me for it, He has already forgotten and is preparing a feast for my return.

God is so good. He is a love that is unimaginable!

Selah