“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 are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
– Isaiah 55:8–9
This is one of those good reminders in the book of Isaiah that God is so different from us. And if we’re not careful, we are prone to miss this on a daily basis. So, when we hear God say in Isaiah 55 8–9, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” we need to be reminded that there’s a way that we are prone to think that is so different from the way God is prone to think. There’s a way we’re prone to live that is so different from the way God wants us to live.
We are prone to think differently than God thinks, so we need to ask Him to reorient our ways to His will.
These Verses Remind Us to Reorient Our Thoughts to God’s Thoughts
We need to ask him every day to reorient our thoughts according to His thoughts. To transform our ways according to His ways. And according to His will. Because if we’re not careful, we can just get caught up in every day, living like the world thinks we should live. And doing what everybody else in the world is doing.
When God calls us to think differently, to have a totally different perspective on our lives than we are prone to have. To live differently, to live in a radically different way than we would live if we keep our focus on this world. The challenge is, if we’re not careful, we can just get caught up going through the daily motions according to the thoughts and ways of this world and we can miss out on the way God designs for us to think and live.
Isaiah 55:8–9 Reminds Us to Pray Every Day for God to Transform Our Thoughts
We need to pray, in a sense like every day, in some way, to pray, God transform our thoughts to be like your thoughts in accordance with Isaiah 55:8–9. Help us to think in ways that are pure and holy. Help us to desire that which you desire. And help us to want what you want. When we look at things around us in our lives, in our families, in our work places, in the communities where we live, help us to see things in your perspective.
Prayer for Us to Bring Our Thoughts in Accordance to God’s Will
When we make plans, God we pray that you help us to plan things according to your will and your ways. We pray that you would reorient our thinking and our acting around your Word and your will. Help us to live and think according to what’s going to matter for all of eternity. And not just what’s going to matter today. That we have temptations on a daily basis just to focus on what’s right in front of us that we lose sight of people around us, that you called us to love, care for, share the Gospel with. We lose sight of what really matters in the world. We get so busy doing all kinds of things, all kinds of details, that we lose sight of that which is most important. God help us not to do that.
Bring our thoughts in line with your thoughts. If we’re not careful, oh God, we just confess we’ll live for what matters now, but we’ll forget what’s going to matter in eternity, God help us. Reorient our thinking, and our acting our ways, in what is going to matter forever. God we know your ways are not our ways, your thoughts are not our thoughts, and we want your ways, and your thoughts to dominate our lives and may it be so today we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
