Enabling the Father to Heal Us
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(From the Henri Nouwen Society)
Second Week of Lent - March 22, 2011
"Hear the word of the Lord...'Wash, make yourselves clean...cease to do evil, learn to do good, search for justice, help the oppressed, be just to the orphan, plead for the widow.'" (Isaiah 1)
Discipline follows from being a disciple. It is our effort to do as our Master does. Jesus gave space for the Father to give him what he needed. When you and I are fearful and anxious, we want to take control of our lives...When we follow Jesus we practice a discipline that gives space to let the Father touch us, forgive us and receive us.
If God is not first in your thoughts and efforts in the morning, he will be in the last place the remainder of the day. - E.M. Bounds
Do we really want to be transformed by God? In the passage (below) from Isaiah, not only a person is transformed but an entire nation, a makeover of both the spiritual and ecological elements. God’s transformation not only lays low evil doers and cynics, it is God’s heart recognizing those who were willing to turn toward Him. The biblical transformation Isaiah prophecies is rooted in a rejuvenation for those people who have turned—willingly—their faces to see Him, and submit to Him alone. He takes the things and people that are “wasted”, “deaf”, “blind”, the “castoffs”, “the down and outs”, and returns them into reflections of His glory. 
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:11
