Dial Daily Bread: A New Day

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"

A new day is before you. You are tired of being selfish, world-loving, absorbed in your own pleasure. Night after night you go to bed feeling vaguely condemned for not having accomplished anything that God can be pleased about. You hate yourself for wasting precious time on TV, or reading novels, or wandering aimlessly in the mall. What's happening to you?

The Lord Himself is being merciful to you for He is giving you your own personal taste of what Isaiah had in his chapter 6 epiphany. You are realizing, "Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a [person] of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips" (vs. 5). This vague feeling of unease is not without meaning. The Holy Spirit of God is interacting with you. Heaven has come down to you; you are important in God's sight. He actually loves you as an individual so much that He will not permit you to be content in alienation from Him, and in alienation from your fellow human beings.

What's happening to you is the direct fulfillment of what Jesus promised: He would pray to the Father for you, and the Father is answering His prayer by sending you "another Helper, ... even the [Holy] Spirit of truth" (John 14:16, 17). You have first-hand evidence of His personal interest in you; Heaven has stopped to look at you, to notice you! He is fulfilling His first work: "And when He is come, He will convict the world of sin ... : of sin, because they do not believe in Me" (16:8, 9). To be worldly, to live for self, is sin!

You are worried because you do not see "fruit" in your life; there are no "works" that prove that you are useful in God's "economy."

Turn to Isaiah 50:4, 5. And when you read the personal pronoun "Me," believe that it is YOU whom the Lord "awakens ... morning by morning, ... to hear as the learned." "… that [YOU] should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary." You have no idea who that "weary one" is whom you will meet somewhere today. Suddenly, life has become interesting, challenging, thrilling, yes, you are on an adventure with the Holy Spirit. Knowing full well that you are "undone," that you don't know how to speak that "word in season" to anyone, you simply cast yourself on the mercy of the Lord. And you go forth.

Then tonight, kneel by your bedside and ask Him how the day went. I think you will be praising Him.

Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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