If you are parents, you have probably had this happen to you more than once.  Kids will call out to you, you answer, but their response is to call out again without really looking for you.  I figured this out after my own kids did this to me a few times.  Kids are calling out to know where you are, not to find you, but so they know how much more time they have with how much they can get by with until they come to where you are or you come to them.  Kids are smart, well sneaky, in other words.  The calling out is an early form of a “tracking signal” to get your location so more of what that shouldn’t be into or doing can be accomplished in a certain amount of time left until you come to them.

God understands this method of seek and find.  His people do it to Him all the time.  Just ask Isaiah, he’ll tell you….

Isaiah 65, The Message

The People Who Bothered to Reach Out to God

^1-7 “I’ve made myself available
    to those who haven’t bothered to ask.
I’m here, ready to be found
    by those who haven’t bothered to look.
I kept saying ‘I’m here, I’m right here’
    to a nation that ignored me.
I reached out day after day
    to a people who turned their backs on me,
People who make wrong turns,
    who insist on doing things their own way.
They get on my nerves,
    are rude to my face day after day,
Make up their own kitchen religion,
    a potluck religious stew.
They spend the night in tombs
    to get messages from the dead,
Eat forbidden foods
    and drink a witch’s brew of potions and charms.
They say, ‘Keep your distance.
    Don’t touch me. I’m holier than thou.’
These people gag me.
    I can’t stand their stench.
Look at this! Their sins are all written out—
    I have the list before me.
I’m not putting up with this any longer.
    I’ll pay them the wages
They have coming for their sins.
    And for the sins of their parents lumped in,
    a bonus.” God says so.
“Because they’ve practiced their blasphemous worship,
    mocking me at their hillside shrines,
I’ll let loose the consequences
    and pay them in full for their actions.”

* * *

^8-10 God’s Message:

“But just as one bad apple doesn’t ruin the whole bushel,
    there are still plenty of good apples left.
So I’ll preserve those in Israel who obey me.
    I won’t destroy the whole nation.
I’ll bring out my true children from Jacob
    and the heirs of my mountains from Judah.
My chosen will inherit the land,
    my servants will move in.
The lush valley of Sharon in the west
    will be a pasture for flocks,
And in the east, the valley of Achor,
    a place for herds to graze.
These will be for the people
    who bothered to reach out to me, who wanted me in their lives,
    who actually bothered to look for me.

* * *

^11-12 “But you who abandon me, your God,
    who forget the holy mountains,
Who hold dinners for Lady Luck
    and throw cocktail parties for Sir Fate,
Well, you asked for it. Fate it will be:
    your destiny, Death.
For when I invited you, you ignored me;
    when I spoke to you, you brushed me off.
You did the very things I exposed as evil;
    you chose what I hate.”

^13-16 Therefore, this is the Message from the Master, God:

“My servants will eat,
    and you’ll go hungry;
My servants will drink,
    and you’ll go thirsty;
My servants will rejoice,
    and you’ll hang your heads.
My servants will laugh from full hearts,
    and you’ll cry out heartbroken,
    yes, wail from crushed spirits.
Your legacy to my chosen
    will be your name reduced to a cussword.
I, God, will put you to death
    and give a new name to my servants.
Then whoever prays a blessing in the land
    will use my faithful name for the blessing,
And whoever takes an oath in the land
    will use my faithful name for the oath,
Because the earlier troubles are gone and forgotten,
    banished far from my sight.

New Heavens and a New Earth

^17-25 “Pay close attention now:
    I’m creating new heavens and a new earth.
All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain
    are things of the past, to be forgotten.
Look ahead with joy.
    Anticipate what I’m creating:
I’ll create Jerusalem as sheer joy,
    create my people as pure delight.
I’ll take joy in Jerusalem,
    take delight in my people:
No more sounds of weeping in the city,
    no cries of anguish;
No more babies dying in the cradle,
    or old people who don’t enjoy a full lifetime;
One-hundredth birthdays will be considered normal—
    anything less will seem like a cheat.
They’ll build houses
    and move in.
They’ll plant fields
    and eat what they grow.
No more building a house
    that some outsider takes over,
No more planting fields
    that some enemy confiscates,
For my people will be as long-lived as trees,
    my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work.
They won’t work and have nothing come of it,
    they won’t have children snatched out from under them.
For they themselves are plantings blessed by God,
    with their children and grandchildren likewise God-blessed.
Before they call out, I’ll answer.
    Before they’ve finished speaking, I’ll have heard.
Wolf and lamb will graze the same meadow,
    lion and ox eat straw from the same trough,
    but snakes—they’ll get a diet of dirt!
Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill
    anywhere on my Holy Mountain,” says God.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Call out to God in confidence, expecting Him to answer, knowing full well that He knows what you will ask before you call out to Him.  “Before they call out, I’ll answer.  Before they’ve finished speaking, I’ll have heard.”  Only God can do this!

Don’t test or play games with God.  God knows our hearts.  There is nothing hidden from God, least of all, our motivations of heart, mind and soul.

God knows where we are because He is already there.  Read that again.

God provides, protects and blesses those who are walking in His ways with a way through all troubles this world has to offer while growing His character in us.  What does the Lord require of us?  Micah, the prophet tells us straight from God, “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8) What does that look like?  Jesus shows us by example, clearly with understanding.  Read Matthew, Luke, Mark and John.  John 13 tells us “the full extent of the love” Jesus has for us. (Teaser.) 

Lord,

Thank you for always being there when I call out to you. Thank you for helping me throughout the years, in and out of troubles, sometimes walking right through them with courage and confidence because of your strength.  Thank you for helping me see temptations for what they are—all those things that lead to death spiritually, physically, mentally, and emotionally.  Help me not to fall for Satan’s schemes to draw me away from you and bring me down in my faith in you.  Thank you for teaching me hard lessons I must learn that transform me daily, inch by inch, so I can be more like you created me to be.

In Jesus Name, Amen