“Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake in your presence…. There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities. Isaiah 64:1, 7 ESV
I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me…. I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people. Isaiah 65:1a, 2a ESV
I am sometimes troubled when I hear people praying for God to “show up,” because I think of these passages. God says, “I’m here, I’m here, and have been all along! I’m not the problem. You are!” It is we who have to make the adjustments if we are to sense his presence. As he goes on to say in chapter 65, it is our sins that keep us from recognizing his nearness. It is our unwillingness to recognize the connection between our moral behavior and God’s presence that is the problem.
Notice the dripping sarcasm in 65:3-5. People doing all kinds of unclean things tell other people to stay away from them because they are holy. We are concerned about being properly religious while doing things that are patently dishonest and self-centered, and then wonder why God doesn’t “show up.” God says that if we will live lives that exhibit holy character, like feeding the poor, (instead of being eager to appear holy), we will find him glowingly present in the ordinary affairs of life..
Called To Be Transformed 