2011-06-24T05:57:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been so focused on my own problems - namely, paying for college and making sure it will all work out - that very often, those are the only things I pray about. I have stopped seeking God's Will; I've been willing God to do things for me.

It hit me when I was reading Isaiah earlier. I've had problems with big sins that need forgiving, not just forgetting, but as I read Isaiah 1:18, I was unmoved. "Come, let us set things right, says the Lord: Though your sins be like scarlet, they shall become white as snow; Though they be crimson red, they may become white as wool." As a sinner who desires to "set things right," I should have rejoiced at such a promise. God is NEVER the offender (though when things don't work out I would sometimes make Him so), yet He always makes amends. He has no guilty conscience Himself to make clean, but He desires to set things right with me. Under no obligation to forgive, He forgives me anyway.

But I wasn't looking for a message of forgiveness today. No, I wanted assurance that moving out and college and everything would work, so I was hunting for verses that would be "applicable" to me.

Even though I was mentally separating forgiveness and providence, they really are the same thing. The next verse after "scarlet...white as snow" is, "If you are willing, and obey, you shall eat the good things of the land." (Isa 1:19)

God is not two separate Gods: first, the kind, loving God who takes away my sins; second, the mean, miserly God who provides for me if he feels like it. He is God of both, and so, He does both at once with equal ease. I am redeemed, and so I am forgiven and sustained at the same time.

Bridge Over Troubled Water