Hearing my cry

"Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity." Isaiah 58:9

Thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke . . . ." What does this mean? Isn't God willing to hear our cry, even when we are disobedient? Yes. I couldn't follow a God who only favored me according to my attention to Him. This would make God very much like the conception many people seem to hold of Him, but I believe it to be entirely wrong. In Jesus Christ, and all through the New Testament, I see God as a God who will never leave us. Who not only hears our cries, but is right there with us in our troubles. A God who actually falls to the ground with a little brown sparrow would not turn His back on me because I failed Him.

No, I merely believe this means we do not hear His response to our cry except on the conditions He gives us in this "blue stone" verse. The "yoke" has our attention. And here the yoke seems to constitute criticism and pride or shallowness of heart in us. " . . . the putting forth of the finger" may be arrogance toward the very sacredness of life itself. It may be self-righteousness. Wrong attitudes of heart. And the "speaking vanity" may be our own voices saying, "Well, I'm just like this and that's all there is to it!" Or is may be the self-righteous, calloused heart turned away from the Cross, boasting: "At least I'd never have done a thing like that!"

We will hear Him say "Here I am" when we cry, if we are completely open to His voice. One way to remain open is to let other people "off the hook of your critical disposition."

Be still, and know that I am God . . . .

By Eugenia Price, taken from "Share My Pleasant Stones"