Scripture
Today’s verse comes from Isaiah 6:1,5, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. So I said, ‘woe is me, for I am undone! because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.’”
Background & Application
As you read chapter one of Isaiah, you quickly get a sense of how far God’s people had wandered from Him. Verse two says simply, “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me.” And that says it all for us, doesn’t it? We rebel, we are rebellious, we have rebelled, we will rebel. We just like to call it something else. I tend to call it getting frustrated or a weakness; you may call it a bad habit or a personality trait. Others may see it as a character flaw or human nature. But when it gets placed before the throne of the Lord, when we dare to take our eyes off of ourselves and look at the King, it all produces the same result – we are undone. We see that we are unclean before a holy, high God. But the good news is that the pain and the ugliness and the sorrow that repentance can bring is only the beginning. If we will give Him our filthy rags, He will give us His robe of white. He wants to make that swap. Though it may seem like a steep climb, repentance is not a one-way street. He doesn’t want to condemn, He wants to cleanse. To paraphrase Jim Elliot, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. So don’t keep the rebellion, gain the forgiveness.
Charge
Let’s pray today that we’ll be honest about our dishonest hearts, and receive the restoration that Jesus so wants us to have.
