Printed on this calendar was the year, the day and the date, and underneath these words, “The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your longings”. And then underneath, it said, read Isaiah 58 verse 11.
Now that set me thinking – is it true? Does God guide all people without any conditions? Is there a kind of hot line from heaven reaching to some people’s minds?
It made me read the whole Chapter of Isaiah 58; only then did I begin to understand that the verse was printed out of context and more than a bit misleading. It seems to suggest that anyone can count on God’s guidance but that there are quite a few ‘ifs’. For example in Isaiah 58: 9, 10, 13Isaiah 58: 9, 10, 13
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
9 Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:
13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
WP-Bible plugin it says, ‘if you do this and if you do that, then I will guide you’. In other words if you accept and fulfil certain conditions then you can expect God’s control and guidance but if you don’t, you can’t.
Read tomorrow’s message because I’m going to try and explain a bit more about how God guides people, but if I had to sum up that Bible passage, Isaiah 58, and a great deal more in the Bible, then I would have to turn to the words of one text where it says, ‘In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths’.
That’s the condition you must meet and then you can expect the consequences to follow.