When you truly love someone, you find yourself developing a love for the things that he or she loves. It should be no different concerning our relationship with the Lord. The more love we have for the Lord, the more love we display for the things dearest to Him. This means that the closer we draw to Him, the more we will love things that He loves, like judgment (Isaiah 61:8) and righteousness (Psalm 11:7), the lost (John 3:16) and the saved (1 John 4:21), peace and truth (Zechariah 8:19). We will also have a greater love for the Jewish people (Zechariah 2:8). Perhaps a more accurate gauge by which to judge your love for the Lord is to gauge your love for the things which He loves.
Today's passage proves the Bible truth that our thoughts are not God’s thoughts, neither our ways His ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). God's thoughts are always unimaginably loftier than ours. Unlike God, our thoughts are bound by our limited knowledge. Contrary to the Lord’s, our knowledge is easily corrupted through various influences. This is why scripture reading and preaching often conflicts with our natural thought process. For instance, our natural mind considers rebuke something harmful, negatively affecting the person receiving it. We also naturally consider flattery as something beneficial and uplifting to the recipient. Yet, we have already seen how flattery can be harmful, but have you ever considered the superiority of a rebuke? The Bible says rebuke is better because of what it yields “afterwards.” In the long run, rebuke is far superior to flattery.
