To Grope...

Last night here at Southern we had a women's chit chat cafe. This is where we get together, eat chocolate, drink coffee (or me, water, because I don't like coffee) and listen to a woman in ministry who can offer something to us from her relationship with God. They are definitely beneficial!
Mrs. Bobbye Rankin was here with us last night. She opened with Rom 16 and those that grope in the darkness (talking about missions). She shared about many of her experiences as a missionary - telling the good news of Jesus to the lost - those blind and groping in the darkness.
I have not been very diligent at my quiet times, but last night I opened the Word and just flipped it open, not knowing where to go. I landed in one of my fave OT books - Isaiah. This is what I read:
Isaiah 59: (portions)

59:1 Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. 3 For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. 4 No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. 10 We grope for the wall like the blind;we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men. 11 We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. 12 For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: 13 transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. 14 Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. 15 Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.16 He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him. 17 He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.18 According to their deeds, so will he repay, wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies; to the coastlands he will render repayment. 19 So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the Lord drives. 20 “And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord. 21 “And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children's offspring,” says the Lord, “from this time forth and forevermore.

Why do we? Why do I? The redeemed of the Lord - bother with sin - why? Why do we grope around in the darkness of our sin - we know better - we have the Spirit of the Living God living in us...yet we grope!

Grope: to feel about blindly or uncertainly in search, to look for something blindly or uncertainly, to feel one's way