For My thoughts are not your thoughts: Is 55:8-9

“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

We all have a mental image of what God is like. This image is formed from many sources, such as, our parents, our friends, our schooling, and even the media. While we all have our own image of God, the question we must ask ourselves is, is that image correct? Can we come to know God by our own searching and by our own powers of reasoning? The scriptures say no! “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” (1 Corinthians 1:21) God has chosen to hide Himself from man’s wisdom. Man, by his own mental efforts, cannot come to know God. So how are we to know God? “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” (Matthew 11:27) The only way to know God is to allow the Son to reveal Him to us. As we grow in relationship with the Son, He will progressively reveal to us the Father. Knowing God takes time, it takes time in His presence and time in His word. Knowing God also requires us to be open to the teaching of the Holy Spirit. We must be willing to let Him tell us what the Father is like, even if it contradicts our preconceived notions of Him. We must admit to ourselves that we do not yet know the Father perfectly and that there is much more of God yet to be revealed. We must be willing to accept His testimony of Himself, not our best guesses. The knowledge of God must become our chief goal and our primary objective. There is nothing that can compare with the prize of knowing Him. “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10-11)

David Robison