His Ways

Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

I’ve recited this verse many times over the years. This week, I decided to play with the idea visually as I absorbed its truth.

First and foremost, I am a thinker. I process any situation or emotion by immediately analyzing it. You, too, might be a thinker, or you might be a doer or feeler. However, eventually, all of us, at some point, “think.” Have you ever spent time thinking about your thoughts?!? Do your thoughts seem like an inner voice or monologue, or do they arrive visually or conceptually?

Regardless of how you experience ‘thinking,’ thoughts carry tremendous power in our lives. Your thoughts influence your emotions, decisions, behaviors, and destiny. With this in mind, this verse reminds me that with a relationship with God, I can have my thinking shaped and molded by someone far more good-natured than myself. Sometimes, I pray this verse: “Lord, please let your thoughts be my thoughts! I’ve had enough of mine!”

While negative self-talk, anxiety, irrational beliefs that cycle on repeat, judgments of others, and other impulsive thoughts can wreak havoc on my life, another problem I have is believing that I know THE WAY things are supposed to go. This word in Hebrew refers to the plans or course of our lives. How many times have I THOUGHT I knew the path my life was supposed to take, only to find that the course it did take was much better than my plans had been?

As I’ve learned to trust God’s desire and way for my life to unfold, I’ve been able to be less worried when the road takes a different turn. As I created this piece, I put in tiny references and symbols for all the various turns and paths I’ve taken. When I zoom out to a “higher” perspective, I can see how it all worked together for good. If I can see that from just my 30,000-foot view, then I can trust God, a view that considers all time at once from a vantage higher than even the furthest stars.

And in case you forgot what the results of allowing God’s thoughts and ways to lead us are, this chapter later tells us: “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace” (vs. 12). That sounds pretty good to me!