God’s Way

Isaiah 55:8 says:


“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways”, says the Lord.



I have read this verse or heard it quoted many times before. I have heard sermons on it and being a Sunday school teacher I have even taught lessons on it. And it seems like most of the time the verse is used it is used in almost a negative way.

It seems when someone faces a tragedy in his or her life, like losing a loved one, or when something terrible happens to a young child that can’t be explained any other way. Or really anytime we are facing a tough situation and we are not sure why. We seem to turn to this verse to kind of explain it away.

Now I am the first to admit I don’t understand all the reasons God allows struggles to come into our lives. Why the innocent suffer and the guilty seem to go free. Why this or that disaster happens. And there are truly times in our lives where the only answer is that God’s way is different than our way.

But what about the positive side? What about God’s love for us? I think the verse also applies here too. And I think it applies a whole lot more often to the positive than when it applies to the negative stuff.

Bad things happen in our lives. Always have and always will. But if we are honest most bad times are for a moment, or a day, or at worst a season.

But God’s love is for every moment, every day, and every season. And God’s love for us is something else I don’t fully understand. But I don’t have to. That is the great thing about God’s love.

As humans we tend to love those that love us. We show love to those that show love to us. And then we think this same process applies to God’s love. But God’s love is not like our love. His “ways” are truly different.

God is love. So He loves us all the time. He loves you and me even if we don’t love Him. And He shows His love to us no matter if we ever show our love to Him. I know He does this. This morning’s sunrise and this evening’s sunset says, “I love you.” My last breath and my next breath says, “I love you.” (Even if it is my “last” breath.) The smile on my son’s face each day says, “I love you” from my son and my God.

And just when we think we might have God’s love figured out He crawls out of the little manger in Bethlehem and walks toward the cross at Calvary. And says, “I told you My ways are different than your ways.”

Bad times will come. It’s guaranteed. But before they get here let God’s love prepare you. And while the bad times are here, let His love protect you. And then, when they pass, and they will pass, let His love comfort you.

God is love. So let Him love you today. And let Him do it God’s way.