Choosing God’s Good Pleasure
“And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant—these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
Isaiah 56:6-7, ESV
The Lord has said to us elsewhere, “Have this mind…which is yours in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:5). What is “this” mind? The mind we are to have? The mind of God. His word. If we need to act and think outside of our normal or usual mind, how do we go about acting and thinking using a different mind? We have to become connected to a new mind!
Jesus is our example of the new mind. He has shown us how to get it, where it comes from, and how to live it. Every time the devil came at him, he didn’t rebuke the devil on his own authority, he rebuked him with the Word of God. Because he acted on the Word of God, because he lived the Word of God, because he spoke the Word of God, God provided the power and the approval of Jesus’ actions.
The Word of God is who he was in the beginning with God. It is who he is now seated at the right hand of God. In the beginning was the Word, he became flesh and dwelt among us, and now has received the back the fullness of the glory he put down in order to walk among us and show us how we truly live when live God with all heart, mind, soul, and strength.
Being in the form of God, he didn’t take any occasion to be God here on earth. He gave up his title to become like man and be subject to the Father. After he was successful in this, God gave him back all the authority he ever had and also added a name that is above any other name and put all things under his feet!
Before this, we had a hard time seeing who we are! Now we see more clearly that what is similar about Christ’s situation and ours is that we are also made in the image of God! Our authority and our power flows from our head, Christ, the living word of God. Jesus knew the scriptures and thus was prepared to stand on God’s word in every attack the devil made.
In the Isaiah passage above, it was not just Israel that God included in his work of salvation. What ever is going on in your life or mine, we become victorious as we stand in the love of God, which includes the love of his word. Notice how God sent his word to his prophets. Notice how he sent the living word to us! Know who you are! And walk victoriously in his word.