LEARNING DAILY

 

Isaiah 57:15, The high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, the Holy One says this: “I live in that high and holy place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble.  I refresh the humble and give new courage to those with repentant hearts.”  (NLT)

 

God dwells in heaven; He is the “high and lofty one who inhabits eternity”.  He has always been and will always be!  His nature is holiness and righteousness. He knows our actions and our thoughts, present everywhere at the same time.  He is all-powerful and has ultimate authority over all things and creatures.  His existence is infinitely greater and higher than the creation He has made.  He is unchangeable – there is no change in His attributes, in His perfection, or His purpose for mankind. He is completely without sin and absolutely righteous.  God is good, love, merciful and gracious, compassionate, patient, truth, and faithful. (Paraphrased from an article in the Life in the Spirit Study Bible).  He is holy, the most-high and most exalted being in the universe and no one can be compared to Him nor even be mistaken for Him. 

 

God dwells in heaven, where His holiness and glory is found.  Notice who is there also.  He lives with those who have a “contrite and humble spirit”.  Permit me to define these two words using the notes from the LSSB.  Contrite refers to those who are brokenhearted, because of their own sinfulness or the enemy’s oppression and cry out to God for deliverance.  A humble spirit refers to those who are humble or bowed down by adversity.  In other words, a “contrite and humble spirit” is broken with a sense of sin and unworthiness.  Jesus would say it this way in Matthew 5:4, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”  God responds to the cry of people “contrite and humble spirit”, who mourn in order to revive them with His presence to “give them new courage because of their repentant heart”.

 

This is God speaking through the prophet Isaiah to His people the Jews.  He was telling them He would not always oppose them but would bring them through captivity and eventually back to Jerusalem to be their God for eternity.  He is also speaking to whosoever would believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior.  God’s promise is to respond to all who come to Him with a “contrite and humble spirit”.  It is always amazing to me that the God described above desires to respond to me, giving me the peace of His presence.  He does this when I acknowledge my sin and turn from it.  There may be consequences for the sin I commit but His promise is to forgive and not remain angry with me.  What a promise we have from Him.

 

When you and I sin, we must acknowledge it and desire to be back on the narrow way; it must be our desire to do all we can to please Him again. When we are repentant, we enjoy peace and fellowship with Him.  That is exactly where I want to be every day!

 

From now on DJSB will be used to note information or quotes from the David Jeremiah Study Bible and LSSB will refer to information and quotes from the Life in the Spirit Study Bible.  I have added Jimmy Swaggart’s Expositor’s Study Bible to be referred to from now on as JSESB