Isaiah 63:15-19. Isaiah is pleading with God to look down from heaven and see that his people sorely need his zeal and his might; his yearning heart and his compassion. "For thou art our Father ... why dost thou make us err from thy ways and harden our hearts, so that we fear thee not?" Isaiah asks that God return the tribes of his heritage and the sanctuary which their enemies have trodden down. For his people have become like everyone else - "like those over whom thou hast never ruled, like those who are not called by thy name."

I feel you, Isaiah! We have become like everyone else, too. We are quickly abandoning everything about our faith that makes us holy, and special, and protectors of the truth, in order to fit in and get along with an increasingly hostile and sinful society. It will not end well (it never does). The only thing that will protect us from the evil all around us is the Truth - God's Word - God himself.

I, like Isaiah, ask him to look down on his people, his Church, and remember us with the yearning of his heart and with his compassion. For my part, I will continue to try to walk in his light and truth, and help others to do so, so that our hearts do not become hardened and we end up fearing him not. It is so hard right now Lord. We need you!