Bible.com.au: Reading Plan - God’s ways, our ways

Reflection:

There often seems to be an upside-down nature to the way God works. Some years ago, I was chatting with Stanley who told me about growing up in Sri Lanka. He and his wife were involved in the Tamil church there and Stanley was a local preacher. Then, in 1983, they were caught up in the race riots. An angry crowd smashed into their house, armed with guns and knives. The family escaped with nothing. They went to a refugee camp, and they stayed there for three days, reading Psalm 46, as a comfort. Friends gave them clothes. They had lost their jobs, their home, and all their belongings. It felt like everything. But after some time, a cousin sponsored them to come to Australia. They settled in Perth where they began volunteering with the Tamil Association. The organisation was planning to hold a Christmas carol service, but they didn’t have any resources. Stanley was able to provide Tamil songs and Bibles. Later, they were able to start a Tamil church service, which is still going, 33 years later. Stanley smiled as he remembered. “In 1983, we thought we had lost everything… but we came to see that ‘everything’ wasn’t actually everything, after all.” He said that slowly he came to see that God’s ways were higher than his ways.

Prayer:

Lord, I thank you that your ways are higher than mine and your thoughts higher than mine. Please, teach me that truth again today and this week

Isaiah 55:1-13

Invitation to the Thirsty

1“Come, all you who are thirsty,

come to the waters;

and you who have no money,

come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without cost.

2Why spend money on what is not bread,

and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,

and you will delight in the richest of fare.

3Give ear and come to me;

listen, that you may live.

I will make an everlasting covenant with you,

my faithful love promised to David.

4See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,

a ruler and commander of the peoples.

5Surely you will summon nations you know not,

and nations you do not know will come running to you,

because of the Lord your God,

the Holy One of Israel,

for he has endowed you with splendor.”

6Seek the Lord while he may be found;

call on him while he is near.

7Let the wicked forsake their ways

and the unrighteous their thoughts.

Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,

and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

8“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,”

declares the Lord.

9“As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

10As the rain and the snow

come down from heaven,

and do not return to it

without watering the earth

and making it bud and flourish,

so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

11so is my word that goes out from my mouth:

It will not return to me empty,

but will accomplish what I desire

and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

12You will go out in joy

and be led forth in peace;

the mountains and hills

will burst into song before you,

and all the trees of the field

will clap their hands.

13Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper,

and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.

This will be for the Lord’s renown,

for an everlasting sign,

that will endure forever.”

God’s ways, our ways

Day 14 of 14

NIV

Isaiah 55:8-9

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Isaiah 55:1-13