Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:6-9 (NIV)
God is continually wooing us back to Himself – calling us to higher ground. Who wants to grovel in the base camp when we can be basking on the mountaintop, Amen? God freely pardons those who willingly come to Him in repentance – the turning from sin to Him. Yet He forces no one to turn. The ways of the Lord are all righteous – there is no darkness in Him – remaining a stronghold for the believer but sure destruction for all who desire the road of depravity. God’s ways are as soul refreshing as they are righteous bringing both temporal and eternal blessings for those walking in them. Those who do wicked, dwelling in darkness and delighting in pride, profaneness, hypocrisy and the like do not walk secure and are liable to God’s great displeasure. The black sooty fingers of sin leave smudges on the fairest robes. Yet, God longs to be merciful, His faithfulness is new every morning.
The prayer that moves Jehovah’s arm is a bruised and battered prayer – a broken and contrite heart He will not despise. We have the moral responsibility of confirming the sentence of death to sin in our lives. And really, what has sin ever done for us more than leaving a wake of disaster behind in the path it treaded. We all have so much dross within us worthy of the flames. Every night we see the reflection of a sinner staring back at us from the mirror. We are all as an unclean thing – even our acts of righteousness are as filthy rags. Yet there is pardon at the foot of the cross. How precious is the blood of Christ to our hearts. With Christ, the believer fights from victory as Jesus has broken the power of the dominion of sin. We do not need to wallow in it any longer. Believer run to Him for rescue in repentance.
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. Romans 8:5-8 (NIV)