Marvelously Wonderful

This morning I am reading from Isaiah 29:13-14 NIV:

[13] "The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught. [14] Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish. ”

This verse always makes me think about my own heart engagement, my own focus on the Lord, and whether my words and my heart are in alignment. Saying it another way, are the things I profess actually things that are in my heart?

Am I just going through the motions, but my heart is somewhere else? As an example - do I really mean it when I tell my wife that I love her, or are they empty words?

Is my faith based on my experience of God's love for me, or is it something that that I learned from my parents or someone else?

I see in these verses God's desire and intention, that our worship of Him would be infused with passion, stirring our hearts! He wants to be loved and worshipped, known intimately by each of us. He wants us to be engaged not because someone taught us, but because we know through experience. This gives me great hope when crying out for God to move -I know He wants people to experience Him that way.

Verse 14 is a perfect answer, because of our condition, He will astound us with wonders. I like the NASB translation of this verse: Isaiah 29:14 NASB
Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; And the wisdom of their wise men will perish, And the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed."

The Hebrew for wondrously marvelous is actually the same word twice - pala pala. In other words, not just marvelous, but for those who have regular experiences of things they can't do (those we would consider wonder workers), this would be even beyond their comprehension, or even their thoughts.

Its actually kind of funny, we want a God we can understand, and He wants to completely blow us away with wonder. Lord, I know I want to know You this way. I want my worship of you and my faith in You to be, in part, based on experiences of your marvelous wonders. Come Lord!