Tuesday August 23, 2011
There have been many times in my life where some wrong action or wrong attitude has come to my attention. When I am sincerely seeking to follow the Lord, my response to those wrongs often involves negative feelings about myself. I have found myself occasionally physically hitting myself for the stupid choice I made. I said occasionally because I bruise much easier these days and I don’t like physical pain. I want to in those moments experience the cleansing power of Gods forgiveness so that I don’t hurt.
I get that feeling from Isaiah as he continues to give us a glimpse of his seeing the Lord. “Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” (Isaiah 6:6-7 NIV). Then is a four letter word, but says so much in the contest of this passage. In the previous verse, Isaiah has admitted that he is a man of unclean lips and lives among a people of unclean lips. He was confessing his uncleanness when he came before a holy God. Then is a chronological word that points the reader to the next thing that happened. Isaiah needed to do his part before God would do his part. God needed to burn out the destructive part of Isaiah which He did by having the angel fly to him with a burning coal and touched the unclean lips of Isaiah. When his lips were touched by the burning coal, the guilt of Isaiah was taken sways and a his sins were cleansed. It’s the same principle that John spoke about regarding our need to confess our sins.
What stops us from humbling ourselves and confessing our sin so that we can experience the cleansing that Isaiah experienced? More often than not it is our pride in being unwilling to admit our uncleanness. Fr Isaiah he needed to see a holy God which caused him to compare himself to God which brought about the humbleness
On this journey, if we are ever going to see the Lord in our lives, we need to confess sinful actions and attitudes so that we can experience Gods cleansing and direction.
