Prayer in Temptation iii
Isaiah 55:1-13 (CEV)
The Lord’s Invitation
55 If you are thirsty,
come and drink water!
If you don’t have any money,
come, eat what you want!
Drink wine and milk
without paying a cent.
2 Why waste your money
on what really isn’t food?
Why work hard for something
that doesn’t satisfy?
Listen carefully to me,
and you will enjoy
the very best foods.
3 Pay close attention!
Come to me and live.
I will promise you
the eternal love and loyalty
that I promised David.
4 I made him the leader and ruler
of the nations;
he was my witness to them.
5 You will call out to nations
you have never known.
And they have never known you,
but they will come running
because I am the Lord,
the holy God of Israel,
and I have honored you.
God’s Words Are Powerful
6 Turn to the Lord!
He can still be found.
Call out to God! He is near.
7 Give up your crooked ways
and your evil thoughts.
Return to the Lord our God.
He will be merciful
and forgive your sins.
8 The Lord says:
“My thoughts and my ways
are not like yours.
9 Just as the heavens
are higher than the earth,
my thoughts and my ways
are higher than yours.
10 “Rain and snow fall from the sky.
But they don’t return
without watering the earth
that produces seeds to plant
and grain to eat.
11 That’s how it is with my words.
They don’t return to me
without doing everything
I send them to do.”
God’s People Will Celebrate
12 When you are set free,
you will celebrate
and travel home in peace.
Mountains and hills will sing
as you pass by,
and trees will clap.
13 Cypress and myrtle trees
will grow in fields
once covered by thorns.
And then those trees will stand
as a lasting witness
to the glory of the Lord.
I wander,
lost,
hungry,
thirsty,
with nothing.
I have left behind
the things I relied on,
things
that I thought
kept me secure.
For so long
I chased after the wrong things,
things that hindered
rather than being the help
I longed for,
when all along
you had
what I needed.
If I’m looking for life
I should seek it in you.
And so I cry out to you
from my pain,
my anguish,
the temptation to do otherwise,
from deep within the wilderness,
I call
and you wait,
ready,
longing to forgive,
refresh,
restore.
I would run if I could,
but I turn,
exhausted,
hurting,
thirsty,
in need of strength,
to you.
In place of prickly,
sharp,
thorny plants
you will place
beauty,
scented,
life-enhancing growth;
in you
sadness and struggle
will turn
to joy,
peace
and hope.
Strength
to endure the journey;
strength
to travel in peace
home to you.
Pam's Perambulation 
strange how it never gets easier… oh, it gets easier to resist (or no longer feel) the temptations of yesteryear… but daily, hourly new temptations arise. Increasingly subtle, the devil disguised as an angel of light… and still the struggle with self.
I like Lent – reassures me that I’m not the only one fighting these battles. 🙂
PS this is me, Pam – Dorothy. I’m working on a new website/blog and this is how it’s displaying me.
I think we try and avoid ourselves, the truth of ourselves much of the time (there’s a post brewing about that!). I like lent for the opportunity to stop and look – and be honest – and bring it to God that he might do something about it.
You confused me there with you new identity 🙂
new identity is because of new project – I’ll email details. not quite ready to go public yet…
And yes, I tend to avoid myself – the truth can hurt! 😀 but then, through the pain, knowing the truth can also set me free – if I see the truth of myself in the context of the truth of God’s love for me..