It's Time for Showdown! (Isaiah 55:8-9)

I would never want to be engaged in a debate or argument with God. First of all, does anyone seriously think they would win an argument with God? As futile as that may seen, many have tried. Recall that vivid scene in the movie, Forrest Gump, when Lieutenant Dan Taylor, played by Gary Sinise, was perched in the crow’s nest of his shrimp boat in the middle of a hurricane, shaking his defiant fist at the sky, and maniacally laughing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZH9ebAZouk

“C’mon! You call this a storm? It’s time for a showdown! You and me! I’m right here! You’ll never sink this boat!”

I suppose in his own mind, Lt. Dan felt he won the argument because he survived the storm. But it is easy to win an argument with God when you set the parameters. Making God a straw man will always guarantee you a victory. But if God were to truly engage you in a debate or argument, it would be over before it even began.

For some, challenging God is the ultimate test of strength and will. But unless you are truly willing to challenge God on His terms, it is likely you will always win. How convenient! And how wrong you would be!

Job thought he knew the answers but was humbled by God in the end. Paul was convinced that he was right in persecuting the early Christians until Jesus directly intervened in his life and showed him the truth.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9

A showdown with God? We only exist because of God’s mercy toward us. God hates sin and all of us are sinners, which separates us from God. But thanks be to God that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to reconcile man with His Creator. And if we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, our final showdown with God will end in victory, because God is now on our side! He is not our adversary but our Heavenly Father who has adopted us as His own children!

Love and trust the Lord; seek His will in your life.