All We Need

Isaiah 64:1-10

“Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before You! As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make Your name known to Your enemies and cause the nations to quake before You! For when You did awesome things that we did not expect, You came down, and the mountains trembled before You. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides You, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember Your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on Your name or strives to lay hold of You; for You have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins. Yet You, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, LORD; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people. Your sacred cities have become a wasteland; even Zion is a wasteland, Jerusalem a desolation.”

The prophet Isaiah puts our place before God in perspective for us, we are finite and mortal clay before a perfect and eternal Potter (v. 8). Also, similar to Meggie’s sharing, indeed, we all have sinned and have fallen short of God, our majestic Potter’s glory (Rom 3:23), and there’s nothing good we can do to earn God’s favour, not only most of us, but Isaiah writes, “all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away (v. 8). And in accordance to His majestic character, God created a way through an otherwise barren wilderness, a river through a desert, that is to send His most beloved, the Second Person of the triune God, our LORD Jesus to die for us and overcome our incapability to reach God. We need our LORD Jesus Christ, and as He claimed He is the only true way that leads to life (John 14:6). World War II survivor Corrie ten Boom once said, “you can never learn that Christ is all you need, until Christ is all you have.” The Living Life writer says, “There is nowhere else to turn except back to the LORD. Even when there seems to be no hope in the world, we can turn to the sovereign God who is merciful to His chosen people. We can hope in Him for He cares about His creation.” And I love today’s prayer, let us pray this in our heart of hearts: “Lord, thank You for creating me with love and purpose. I acknowledge that I need You, and I cannot live my life without You. May my eyes see more of Your amazing deeds, and may my heart know more of You each and every day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”