The passage that goes along with this topic is Isaiah 6:5 which reads,
"Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
When I was at Liberty University for my undergrad, David Nasser, the author of A Call to Die, among other things, came to speak at one of our Spiritual Emphasis Weeks. His topic, which caused a lot of controversy, was God want's to ruin your life. What he was saying though, and how people took it, are two different things. Nasser was saying whatever you are doing outside of what God wants you to do, is wrong and He (God) wants to ruin those plans so that you are left with nothing but His plan. Sounds terrible, and most people don't think God does that, but look at Isaiah.
What God really did in Isaiah's life in this passage, was bring to light the darkness in his heart. His evil thoughts and plans, and hidden sins. This is why he felt ruined. See, we all have this tendency to be self-absorbed. We can be so self absorbed that we are cocky, or so self absorbed with failure that we feel shame. So many people speak of my performance, or my growth or development as Nasser says. When we compare ourselves to God, we realize we fall short.
Two often we compare ourselves to others or things which are not the standard. God is the standard and we fall short. But God doesn't leave us there. God wants to take us from where we are; from our sin that leads to death, and bring us to life doing His will. God forgives and it is great. But He then still commands us to follow Him.
Isaiah said WOE is me. An angel brought hot coal to his lips, effectively removing his sin, making him clean. Then God had a mission for him, to go out and tell others about God. Awesome!
God has that same mission for all of us. Bible tells us we are called to make disciples. You may think but I have this plan or that plan, or I've sinned to much to be effective for God. But that's not true. The truth is that when we come to the end of ourselves, when God ruins our man made plans, forgives us our sin, and redirects us to the right place; He still has big plans for us.
However, this still comes down to choice. Are we willing to let God ruin our plans? Are we willing to accept correction, forgiveness, and restoration? Sometimes restoring doesn't mean to where we were before...But He is always still in the business of restoration!
Oh, Woe to us when we know the will of God and choose not to obey!
Stay tuned for Day 4!
-Brian
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