Walk up to the door

Go ahead and grab your bible and open up to Isaiah 55.  If you don’t have a bible close to you, you can hop on a bible website and look it up.  One of my favorites is www.blueletterbible.com.  So go ahead and get turned to chapter 55.

Read verses 1-6 slowly.  I say slowly because when I am in the Old Testament and the verse seem to be lined up so as to fit in a newspaper article, I tend to fly right through them.  I am going to assume you do the same thing.  Turned there yet?  Alright go on and read these 6 verses.

This section communicates that God can not only feed our souls, but he gives this nourishment freely.   Before we continue, I need to ask a question: is this nourishment free if you never receive it?  The answer is “yes.”  Yes it is free, and it will always be free.  However, just because something is free doesn’t mean the person giving it away will force it on you. 

As a kid, I loved Halloween.  I loved it because of all the free candy.  People would stand at their door giving away FREE CANDY!!!  As a kid, I quickly realized there were 3 types of kids.  There were those, who like me, got dressed up and went to the door and got candy.  Then there were those who walked around outside and watched all the excitement, but for whatever reason they never participated.  Since they never actually participated, they never received free candy.  The third type was the kid who never came outside on Halloween.  At such a young age, I never understood why they didn’t trick or treat, I just figured either their parents wouldn’t let them or maybe they just don’t like candy.

For those kids who did make it outside for Halloween, what does a kid have to do to get candy?  All he or she has to do is go to the door and speak the phrase, “trick or treat.”  Most of the time, you can’t even say “trick or treat” before the person at the door has already put candy in your bag, which it was fine with me because I was the kid who would eat my candy as I went door to door. (Funny to think about me as a kid, mouth full of chocolate and caramel, attempting to mutter the words “trick or treat,”  drool coming out.  Best part… I could just say it was part of the costume!)

Here’s the thing – to get the candy you have to go to the door.  If you stood on the sidewalk and never approached the door, you would not get candy.  Being outside, even if you wore a costume, did not get you candy.  You had to willingly go and receive the candy.  No one forces you to take candy.  But if you never walked to the door, you would never get any candy.  Likewise, God gives us nourishment for free, but he will not force it on us. 

Since God does not have a house on the middle of the block that we can walk up to, you may be wondering how do we get this free spiritual food?  Well, if you read the 6 verses, you can see how.

I love that Isaiah gives four ways in which we get God’s free nourishment.

1.       Verse 1 – “We come”

2.       Verse 2 – “We listen”

3.       Verse 6 – We “seek”

4.       Verse 6 - We “call on him”

God is offering us a free gift.  Like the 3 types of kids on Halloween, which one are you?  Are you the one who is actively participating, who comes, listens, seeks and calls on God? Are you the type who is outside among the rest of us, you may even be wearing a mask to fool us into thinking you’re participating, but the reality is that you haven’t yet willingly received God’s free gift?  Or are you the one, who remains inside, hidden away from God (willingly or unknowingly)? 

If you are that first kid, actively participating and receiving God’s free gift, I would encourage you to invite those around you who fit the other 2 categories to join you in walking to the door this week.  If you fit one of the other two groups, you have a choice.  Nothing will ever be forced on you.  But I do pray that you will one day come to the door and “Taste and see the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8)