If God is so high and lofty is he too far away for the everyday guy to know Him?
"For this is what the high and lofty One says- he who lives forever, whose name is holy; 'I live in a high and holy place but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite.'" Isaiah 57:5, NIV.
THE PROBLEM
God is high, eternal, holy, lives in a high and lofty place. Basically, God is beyond reach in every sense of the word.
BUT GOD
There is hope for God to say, "but also with him..." God is far above us, yet He chooses to live with the contrite and lowly in spirit. We cannot reach up to Him, so He reaches down to us.
CONTRITE
To be contrite is to be worn out by our sins, it suggests repentance, remorse, and it confesses we are unworthy. It is based on the truth that we are needy sinners before a holy God.
LOWLY
The "lowly in spirit," speaks of the inability to overcome need. We can't lift ourselves up above the effects of sin. We recognize we are lower than God, and because of our sin we forfeit any and all rights before Holy God and must bear the punishment.
WOW!
The Almighty lives with lowly people who turn from sin. Intellectuals, Nobel Prize winners, millionaires, or the famous, alone does not qualify for God; He lives with the down and out, the forgotten little people, who flunked out, and the people of social poverty who live on the edge of despair.
He just doesn't visit; He moves in, He has the master bedroom, the keys, and His name is on the mortgage. He lives here!
REVIVE
To "revive," is to breathe life into the dead. Jesus called it "Born Again."* God desires to revive our spirits and our hearts; though our hearts are broken through sorrow or loss and our spirit is crushed, God wants to revive us.
We are dead in our sins, but when we humble ourselves and accept God's salvation He comes to live with us and He continues to revive us day by day. There are times when the trials of this life overwhelm us, but we can know God lives with the contrite and lowly and we find He is there to revive us.
To learn more about salvation and having a new life follow this link: Salvation.
"For this is what the high and lofty One says- he who lives forever, whose name is holy; 'I live in a high and holy place but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite.'" Isaiah 57:5, NIV.
THE PROBLEM
God is high, eternal, holy, lives in a high and lofty place. Basically, God is beyond reach in every sense of the word.
- He is beyond reach in status since He is the high and lofty one.
- He is beyond time since he; lives forever.
- He is beyond sinners because he is holy.
- He is beyond the physical world because he lives in a high and holy place.
BUT GOD
There is hope for God to say, "but also with him..." God is far above us, yet He chooses to live with the contrite and lowly in spirit. We cannot reach up to Him, so He reaches down to us.
CONTRITE
To be contrite is to be worn out by our sins, it suggests repentance, remorse, and it confesses we are unworthy. It is based on the truth that we are needy sinners before a holy God.
LOWLY
The "lowly in spirit," speaks of the inability to overcome need. We can't lift ourselves up above the effects of sin. We recognize we are lower than God, and because of our sin we forfeit any and all rights before Holy God and must bear the punishment.
WOW!
The Almighty lives with lowly people who turn from sin. Intellectuals, Nobel Prize winners, millionaires, or the famous, alone does not qualify for God; He lives with the down and out, the forgotten little people, who flunked out, and the people of social poverty who live on the edge of despair.
He just doesn't visit; He moves in, He has the master bedroom, the keys, and His name is on the mortgage. He lives here!
REVIVE
To "revive," is to breathe life into the dead. Jesus called it "Born Again."* God desires to revive our spirits and our hearts; though our hearts are broken through sorrow or loss and our spirit is crushed, God wants to revive us.
We are dead in our sins, but when we humble ourselves and accept God's salvation He comes to live with us and He continues to revive us day by day. There are times when the trials of this life overwhelm us, but we can know God lives with the contrite and lowly and we find He is there to revive us.
To learn more about salvation and having a new life follow this link: Salvation.
* John 3:3
(c) Adron 6/8/13
(c) Adron 6/8/13
