Time in the Scriptures
Pray: Thank God for free gifts.
To people living under the Mosaic laws, Isaiah offered grace.
Read: Isaiah 55:1-9
“You get what you pay for.” “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” These American proverbs echo biblical proverbs such as “You reap what you sow” and “The wealth of the rich is their fortress; the poverty of the poor is their ruin.” These proverbs apply so clearly to our lives with other people — do they apply to our life with God?
In what ways do you think Isaiah’s contemporaries “spend their money for that which is not bread”? In what ways do you spend your money and your labor on things that don’t really satisfy?
Verses 3-5 speak of God’s covenant with Israel and with David, their greatest king. God promised David that God’s love would never leave him nor his descendents. How has God’s covenant with Israel grown and changed since Abram’s day?
You’ve been invited to spend Lent in looking at your relationship with God. Have you been “seeking the Lord?” (verse 6)? What have you found in your life that needs to be forgiven?
Spend some time in meditation, seeing if you can see yourself and your world from a perspective a little closer to God’s, whose ways are not our ways and whose thoughts are not our thoughts.
Intercessory Prayer
Pray for those who are trying to earn God’s love.
Caring through Action
Share some physical, spiritual, or emotional “bread” with someone who needs it.