Bible Studies

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The Scriptures
Isaiah 55:1-9 – Popcorn! Peanuts! Salvation!

Key Verses: (NLT)

• 1: “Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink--even if you have no money! Come, take your choice of wine or milk--it's all free!” – Isaiah uses a street vendor metaphor to address the issue of spiritual hunger which we all possess.
  
  
• 2: “Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen, and I will tell you where to get food that is good for the soul!” – Where we seek spiritual gratification is the issue at stake. Isaiah suggests that we tend to seek God in all the wrong places.
  
  
• 3a: “Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, for the life of your soul is at stake. I am ready to make an everlasting covenant with you.” – The stakes are high. God is offering salvation to those who listen.
  
  
• 6: “Seek the LORD while you can find Him. Call on Him now while He is near.” – At some point in our lives, we may drift too far from God to be able to find Him when we need Him.
  
  
• 8-9: “⁸My thoughts are completely different from yours," says the LORD. "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. ⁹For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” – Faith is the acceptance of His ways in those times we do not understand.
  

Points to Contemplate:

• Are you thirsty? Is everyone seeking God? National surveys indicate that nearly 90% of the people in the U.S. believe in God and are seeking a relationship with Him. Is this an indication that we are all thirsty? Where are you seeking sustenance? In what ways will you be quenched? Are addictions to sex, drugs, alcohol, power, and money examples of seeking fulfillment in the wrong places? If so, does helping people with these issues bring them closer to God?
  
  
• Where do you spend your money? Broaden your definition of money to include resources, energy, and time. Can you see the importance of evaluating where your money is being spent? Doesn’t this indicate where your priorities lay? After taking this inventory, where does God rate in your priorities? Is He only getting one or two percent of your money? Should you be spending more of your time and resources on food that truly strengthens your soul?
  
  
• Is time running out? Isaiah says to “seek the LORD while you can find Him. Call on Him now while He is near.” Does this seem to indicate that your opportunity to reach God is limited in some way? Could God leave your side and move on to greener pastures if you choose not to respond? Or is this an issue of your own closeness to God? Are you the one that will move away? In your seeking, if you do not seek God for fulfillment, does it mean you will drift from Him and it will become more difficult to find Him?
  
  
• Do you seek understanding? Is this a goal of your relationship with God? Before you call out His name, must you first understand everything about Him? Do your intellectual arguments and questions keep pushing you away from God? Can you accept that you will not ever know the answers to all your questions? Are you willing to bridge these gaps of imagination with faith? Are you willing to hand your life over to God and allow Him to have His way with you?
  

Promises of the Gospel:

Isaiah, like a soft drink vendor at a baseball game, calls out to us all to let us know that God offers sustenance and nourishment to fulfill our thirst. We have been seeking to quench this thirst in all the wrong places. We have been buying peanuts instead of God’s cool waters. We have looked far and wide instead of turning to accept what is being offered right by our side. We have thrown our money away and have received nothing in return. Isaiah outlines a process for accessing the covenant that will provide sustenance for our souls – Come (55:1); Listen (55:3); Seek and Call on God (55:6). When we do these things and when we accept His will for our lives, our faith is rewarded because “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7)

FUMC Devotionals

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