Wouldn’t it be great to have a simple litmus test (like the ones available to check acidity and alkalinity) to definitively measure our spiritual conditions like “Are you prideful or humble? Just take this quick and easy test!” As I was writing this blog the LORD showed me that within Isaiah 40 is just such a measure. In fact, the Word is full of them.

After a few years of reading the daily chapters until we reach our goal of reading the Bible through in a year, we are now in a new phase: the adventure of seeking God daily regarding what we should read next. Led recently to start reading Isaiah at chapter 40, Ric read it in the KJV andit was as if I could hear the “sound” of Handel’s “Messiah!”

“Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to my people…that her warfare is ended and her iniquity is pardoned…”

“…Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

“Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain.“

“And the GLORY of the LORD shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.”

My heart swelled and I was ready to “mount up on wings as eagles…to run and not be weary...” However, the Author then used garden imagery to help me get myself in perspective.

“The Voice said, ‘Cry.’ And he said, ‘What shall I cry?’ ‘All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the Spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it….but the Word of our God shall stand forever.'”

“Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being His counselor hath taught Him?

“BEHOLD, …all nations before Him are as nothing; and they are counted to Him less than nothing, and vanity.“

Here is where the litmus test is applied. Upon reading these verses am I offended or dismayed (pride) to be compared to withering grass or a fading flower, or am I grateful and relieved (humble)?

“He shall feed His flock like a Shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.”

“He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength.”

“Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint.”

So, I speak “comfortably to His people:” be comforted; be encouraged and strengthened, fed by His Word. May He build you up with power by His Spirit in your inner man.

Yes and amen!