Today’s passage: Isaiah 30:8-17
Helpful thoughts:
- People’s willingness to listen and respond in obedience is not a prerequisite for speaking the truth in love.
- 2 Timothy 4:1-5
- God promises His people that, in repentance, they will find rest, peace, strength, freedom. Instead, they pursued all of those things elsewhere…and found none of them.
Questions to consider:
- What is the danger of trying to “read” your audience (Friends, neighbors, etc.) so much so that you only speak what you believe to be appealing and desirable to them?
- If the way you have learned of God has been taught through the grid of appealing to people’s natural desires (“Speak to us smooth things”), why would turning away from God not seem like that big of a deal?
- Why does “escaping God” or choosing not to turn to Him ever look like freedom or strength?
- What will the person who considers themselves “free” and “strong” because they have turned away from God always find out?