For Reading and Meditation:
Isaiah 40:21-31
T he man-centered focus that is creeping into today's Church must be resisted at all costs. Such matters as disciplining children, marital problems and establishing proper priorities should be addressed also, but we must be careful that "market forces" do not mold our theology. People may want to know about these issues, but what they need, primarily, is to know God. It could be argued that our problems are so acute because we are deficient in our knowledge of God. The context in which we think and feel is so limited that it is no wonder our souls feel stifled and claustrophobic. One preacher describes our condition in this way: "We are like Peter trying to walk on the water but becoming so engrossed in the winds and the waves that we lose sight of the all-sufficient Christ who is right there beside us. The immediate environment has blotted out the sense of the eternal." This is why I have chosen today's reading from the magnificent book of Isaiah. The prophet does what a doctor would do upon visiting a patient with a minor sickness and finding the windows shut fast and the room lacking in oxygen. He would throw open the windows and invite the patient to inhale the purer air. "Take a deep breath of the oxygen of the Spirit," Isaiah is saying in effect. "See how great and powerful God is. Set your problems in the context of His might and omnipotence." We become like the thing we focus on. If we center on man rather than God then we ought not be surprised if we finish up off center - eccentric.
O God, save me from being an off-center Christian and thus an eccentric Christian - the true meaning of that term. May my primary focus be always on You. Grant it, dear Lord. In Jesus' Name I pray. Amen.