If you can’t tell, that’s my 3 year old son trying to get my attention.  Children are notorious for pursuing the attention of their parents, and my son is no different.  But we as adults are not unlike children.  We want and seek the attention of our Heavenly Father.

In Isaiah 66:1-2, the prophet details for us the kind of person we must be if we are to have God’s regard or attention.

Thus says the Lord:
“Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool;
what is the house that you would build for me,
and what is the place of my rest?

All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be,
declares the Lord.
But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

Foundationally, we must have a proper view of God. He’s not a genie in a bottle who answers our whims when we follow a certain formula.  And through Jesus Christ, every believer has a measure of God’s regard because we have been made right with God by Christ’s death and resurrection.  But specifically, God promises to “look” to a certain kind of person.  The one God regards will recognize that God is greater, grander, and more majestic than we could imagine.  God doesn’t dwell in temples, churches, or the boxes we make for him.  He’s sovereign, Lord, and the One who made everything.  When we see God as He revealed himself in Scripture, we should exhibit the qualities of the person to whom he “looks.”

1. The one God regards will be humble.  Because we see God in is grandness and glory, we will recognize that life is not about us.  We will bow our hearts and lives before the One who is Lord of all.
2. The one God regards will be contrite.  Closely related to humility is the idea of contrition or confession.  When we see God’s glory and holiness from Scripture, we cannot help but be contrite and repentant before him.  For excellent examples of humility and contrition, read Isaiah 6 and Revelation 1 where Isaiah and John encountered visions of God in all his holy glory and bowed in humility and contrition.
3. The one God regards will tremble at His Word.  This trembling is not frightful intimidation, but rather reverent awe.  God, the glorious Creator of the Universe, spoke.  And he spoke to us.  And he graciously recorded for us what he spoke in the pages of Scripture.  We have God’s Word!  We can know God’s everlasting, supremely high thoughts (Isaiah 40:8; 55:8) because he has given them to us.

I’ll be honest with you.  I’m amazed at my utter arrogance and self-sufficient nature sometimes.  I think I know it all, that I don’t need help, that I have it figured out.  I have a feeling I’m not alone.  God is gloriously majestic and I must come before him humble and contrite.  God has shared his wisdom, his will, and his thoughts with us in his Word.   And I must revere and obey what he has to say by knowing it (reading, studying, memorizing, and applying it).

So, if we want people God regards (looks to), we should start by getting to know him through the pages and stories of the Bible.  As we discover God’s grandness, we will bow before him in humility and contrition.  As we learn and obey his Word, we “tremble” by applying the words of the One and Only to our lives.  Will you join me in seeking to be the kind of people God regards? I’m confidant that our nation and world could use many more people who have God’s attention.