When God Won't Listen

Isaiah 59:1-3

    Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened,

    That it cannot save;

    Nor His ear heavy,

    That it cannot hear.

    2      But your iniquities have separated you from your God;

    And your sins have hidden His face from you,

    So that He will not hear.

    3      For your hands are defiled with blood,

    And your fingers with iniquity;

    Your lips have spoken lies,

    Your tongue has muttered perversity.

God can save you. God can hear you. But our sin separates us from God.

We have blood on our hands as a nation. We are calling evil good; we are judging good as evil. As individuals, each of us here has lied at some point, trying to get away with sin, or not call it sin.

So God will not hear us.  If we don’t care, and go with the flow, and accept our sinful patterns of thought and action, as here to stay in our lives – God will not hear us.  But if we feel like we are at war with ourselves, part wanting to sin, part fighting it, then we cry out with the Psalmist to God, “Unite my heart to fear Your name.” Then God hears us.

Our relationship with God and with others is not what it should be. Our sins separate us from Him and others. Our sin messes things up when we try to interact.  But God hears us as we confess our sins in Jesus Christ’s name, and acknowledge our wrong.

5/18/14