All You Who Light Fires

Thinking about a therapeutic career has made me think recently about the way we think, or more specifically, the way we behave and the things we do to cope or lessen anxiety, to fit in or survive.It seems most people have some little quirk or odd habit and like I said it somehow helps us get by. I suppose some people's are more extreme than others and when they take over from normality something needs to be done, hence therapy, but its something I've been thinking about  in terms of spirituality too. Something I think God is challenging me about. Like how we cope without God, how there can be things we do, habits or thought patterns that are basically our alternative to God to get us through when we don't have the faith to assume He will deliver the goods. I know its obvious but I'm learning that God wants us to rely on Him and in a sense 'use' Him instead of our feeble inventions. (by 'use' I mean let Him live through us instead of us working at it). And like I say, it prevents faith because it circumvents the need for it, resulting however, in a very man-made spiritual life (if that's not a contradiction in terms).

Last week at staff devotions someone spoke on these verses from Isaiah 50...

Who among you fears the LORD
and obeys the word of his servant?
Let him who walks in the dark,
who has no light,
trust in the name of the LORD
and rely on his God.

But now, all you who light fires
and provide yourselves with flaming torches,
go, walk in the light of your fires
and of the torches you have set ablaze.
This is what you shall receive from my hand:
You will lie down in torment.

They talked about how though we may be trusting God generally in our lives, there can often be situations or areas where there can be a darkness and instead of trusting God to bring light, we provide our own torches, or as I was thinking, have our coping mechanisms/habits/addictions whatever. The last line is frightening in its coldness and finality. I don't know if it means that God will torment us, or that without His light our artificial fires will lose their warmth and security and we will have no choice but to stop walking, and lie down in the darkness without Him. Its a scary conclusion and yet an enlightening one (no pun intended)