Day 29: God makes a way
Isaiah 43:18-19
Hello Church! Today we’re thinking about God’s promise to make a way for us. Let’s read today’s scripture:
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
God spoke these reassuring words over His people whilst they were captives in Babylon. In foreign land His people faced oppression and hardship, yet God spoke salvation and restoration over them right in the middle of their suffering. Church, I believe God is reassuring us that He is making a way through the seemingly impossible circumstances we might face. Yet we must remember this: The Israelites had to wait 200 years for Him to faithfully lead them through 800 miles of wilderness. Church, God’s timing is not always as prompt as we would like, but it is always perfect. Where in your life do you need to trust God is working on your liberation in your waiting?
The second point I want to make is about Jesus. Church, in the wasteland seasons of this life, we can access streams of living water in Jesus. Though we might face difficult circumstances on this earth, God – through Christ – has eternally delivered us out of our greatest captivity; our sin. May we lift our eyes to the heavens when we feel held captive on earth, having hope in the freedom that awaits us in our eternal home in heaven.
So how does knowing God as our way-maker change how we approach seasons of captivity?
Isaiah 43:18
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”
I do not believe God is asking us to forget our past entirely here – God often calls us to look to His previous wonders to reassure us that He is our defender. Instead, I believe God is speaking to us about not dwelling on the past. Church, a dwelling is a home, and I believe God is cautioning us to not make ourselves at home in our past. If the Israelites had decided Babylon was their home, they would have missed God leading them into freedom. Similarly, if we make a home for ourselves in places we have previously been – such as in resentment, sin and shame, or even in the previous wonderful things that God has done for us – we risk missing the new thing that God wishes to do. Where in your life might you have made a home, when in fact God wishes to lead you onwards?
Prayer
Father God, thank you that You are our way-maker. Thank you that we can trust You with our future because You have been so faithful in our past. Yet we thank you that you do not wish for us to remain in the former things, but that you desire to lead us onwards to the new and glorious things You are doing. We pray that Your Spirit would reveal to us any places in our lives that we have made a home where in fact you wish to take us forward in to new territories. Finally, make us a people who remain convinced that we will find life in even the bleakest of places through Christ Jesus.
Amen.
Amy Kelland
Worship Pastor