Leave Your Ways Behind

Daily Devotional

Isaiah 55:6-7 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.

Get rid of the “this is how I am” mentality. Don’t hold on to ways and thoughts that are not working.  Trade them for something better.  

The first thing that often comes to mind when we hear seek the Lord is prayer and fasting. However, the definition of seeking the Lord given by Isaiah 55:6-7 is that of forsaking your ways and thoughts in favour of His. Prayer and fasting are good but unless they redound to adopting His ways and thoughts then the experience would have been futile. For some of us we use the phrase “this is how I am” but it communicates an unwillingness to change.  But what is the purpose of holding on to a habit or way of doing things if it is not producing the desired results?  As humans, we are more inclined to stick to what we know and have become accustomed to, the scripture however admonishes us to take a different approach: forsake your ways and thoughts.  Don’t hold unto what’s not working, exchange it for His ways and thoughts.

The other notion that the scripture addresses is the practice of putting off seeking the Lord to some future date. In response the scripture advises us to seek the Lord while He may be found. He can be found right now in the present, seek him by forsaking your ways today.  Why wait until tomorrow, when the only time that you are sure of is the present? Seek him now that you have the chance.

If your ways could produce the change you want to see it would have done it already. God is the greatest success story that exists; creation story is only one example. If you are going to hold unto any particular ways and thoughts, let it be His

Life Application:  Shift your focus to leaving your ways behind and pursue His ways and thoughts.

Prayer: Lord, I commit my ways to you. Help me to let go of the mentality that promotes my ways instead of yours. I surrender everything to you now in Jesus name, amen.