"He who teaches man knowledge- the LORD- knows the thoughts of man, that they rae but a breath." Psalm 94:11
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are My ways your ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9
We have all been in a place like this.
Bogged down with daily life, tasks, chores
stretching ahead of us endlessly, not enough
hours in the day to complete everything
and discovering at the end some minor oversight that could undo us, if we don't look to Him.
Or perhaps it's the weather. Something so minor and silly, yet it certainly influences my thoughts and feelings if I allow it to. I know at home that the trees and flowers are in brilliant bloom, the air ripe with a thousand flowered scents mingling together in the damp spring humidity, grass depressed under bare feet, breezes blowing, sunshine warming faces and skin.
Here? The fields are beginning to green. I never thought I would praise God for a little bit of green alfalfa and wheat, a few yellow dandelions and tiny lavender blossoms, a tree by my door just now budding in mid-April, but here I am, rejoicing in those signs of life. The joy of spring this year has been in tiny chicks cheeping through the day, sleeping all seventeen bunched together under the heat lamp, crowding the water dish to gather droplets in beaks, then lift head back to swallow.It lies in hearing the plaintive mewl of newborn kittens crying for their mother's comforting touch and nourishment; in feeling warmth and breeze, glimpsing sky blue scattered with clouds stretching to the horizon.
His thoughts are not mine. My thoughts are not of chores, two jobs at once, my husband and I's schedules mish-mashed and always conflicting, feeling that I barely keep up with our few ministries that we are blessed to be in, but His are. The word "thoughts" in the two passages above can mean, in the Greek, intentions, plans, advice, means, purposes, curious work, or imagination. "Higher" holds the meanings of being exalted, soaring, being lifted up, mounting up, being raised up to great heights, and going upward.
What of it? His thoughts and mine? How do our finite minds fit the pieces together? Here are a few of my feeble interpretations and applications, based on Scriptural context and the Greek definitions of the words.
Firstly, my thoughts (intentions, purposes, and plans) are but a breath. I plan only for what I perceive, what my eye takes in, but God plans with all eternity in mind. Therefore, any thoughts, intentions or plans of mine must be weighed before Him and sifted through the wisdom of His Word. My limited mind cannot grasp His intentions as He chooses each circumstance and situation that will color the canvas of my life, His curious work of art. My place is simply to choose joy and contentment and to constantly seek His purposes and thoughts as revealed in His Word.
Second, His thoughts are higher than mine, literally and figuratively. He has existed in all time, and He is now both in heaven and also everywhere present. He is physically higher than me, and He is also the eternal God. Justice, power and love beyond (above!) my comprehension are His alone, and I humanly will not wrap my mind around just how high He is until I see Him face to face. The joy lies in allowing Him to lift my eyes, spirit and mind upward through His Word. His grace allows me climb ever upward, even when I think that circumstances are slipping, falling, or running helter-skelter, pell-mell downhill. My limited understanding would never choose the means that He chooses with His total and complete understanding, but the impact His purposes being fulfilled in and through me will far outweigh my hesitations in this fleeting moment.
My prayer is that you and I will be intentionally focused on His thoughts and purposes, whatever today brings, whatever tomorrow brings, and that we will live fully in this day, reveling in His purposes for us, even in the dirtiest of tasks or the most disheartening duties, recognizing that He is accomplishing something beautiful.
