Adverbs Are Our Friends

I've been thinking a lot lately about Isaiah 58:11 and I've come to an interesting conclusion. Here's the verse:

And the Lord will guide you continually
and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters do not fail
Isaiah 58:11

We're only going to focus on the first clause, so let's look at it by itself:

And the Lord will guide you continually

This verse has comforted me the last few weeks and the conclusion I came to is that adverbs are our friends. If you notice, the word "continually" makes a huge difference in this verse's meaning. To illustrate, let's look at the verse without the adverb:

And the Lord will guide you

On the surface, this sounds great. The Lord will guide you! But then questions surface in your head like, "Well, when will He guide me? Will He abandon me? What do I have to do to keep Him guiding me?" With no adverb, those questions go unanswered.

But, thanks be to God, He gave us an adverb! And not just any adverb, He gave us the word continually! Continually assures us that God will guide us always. It reminds us that He'll remain faithful even as we're faithless. It promises us that He'll never leave us or forsake us! Yes, the word continually is all important!

What's interesting here is that if you read all of chapter 58, God's placed a condition on this guidance. He's explaining this guidance as a benefit if the Israelites meet a certain requirement. Looking at the beginning of the chapter, it actually talks about fasting. The Israelites are fasting, praying, and seeking God's will, but they're frustrated because they aren't getting any answers (v. 1-3a). So, Isaiah, speaking on God's behalf, reminds them that their fasts are ineffective because they fast and pray while leaving sin unaddressed and disobeying God's heart for the poor and oppressed. God then reminds them that if they repent of their sin and obey His commands to care for the poor, He'll promise them all kinds of glorious blessings, including His unfailing guidance.

We stand in a similar situation. A question we should all be asking is, "How am I assured that God will guide me continually?". If we read chapter 58 at a surface level, we'd assume that we should "get good" and give to the poor so that God will accept us. But that's not what He's after in this passage or in our lives. He wants a humble heart that will repent of sin and seek His heart, including His heart for the poor. He's not after your behavior, He's after your heart.

Unfortunately, we're naturally inclined to resist giving Him our hearts. We're full of sin and we foolishly reject God's gift of Himself. We sin because we like it and we're indifferent towards the poor because it's convenient. This is why Jesus came. God knew that we'd spit in the face of His promise to guide us continually, so He let us spit in the face of His Son and murder Him on a cross. Little did we know, through this, Jesus paid the penalty for our sins and offers us new, repentant, and humble hearts if we simply trust Him. Give Jesus your heart, and He will guide you.......continually!