Isaiah 64

One of my favorite books of the Bible is Isaiah. I have many favorites, but this one is definitely at the top of my list. Such hope! So many wonderful promises! Such encouragement! Because it's absolutely so wonderful, I want to share a little from one of the chapters that I've just read.

"Oh that You would rend the heavens and come down!" (Isaiah 64:1a)

Does that sound familiar to you? Have you ever cried out for God to come down and rescue you from a set of circumstances that are threatening to overwhelm you? Or is that just me? I read the beginning words to this chapter and immediately was hooked. Isaiah shouts out the very words that I myself have cried at times.

I've learned over the years that often I'm crying out for rescue because I just don't like the pain of where I am. It's not killing me ... although it may feel like it. I just want to be rescued. I don't want to  learn. I don't want to grow. I just want to feel better. Yet, my God is in control. Because I know that to be true, I can also know that I am where I am for a reason, for a season, for a purpose. 

"From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear,

no eye has seen a God besides You,

Who acts for those who wait for Him." (Isaiah 64:4)

This is a promise! Our God acts for those who wait for Him. The interesting thing is that in the Hebrew, the word "wait" is closely related to the word for "piercing". Waiting often feels like a piercing, doesn't it? Because it is! We learn and grow in the wait, and in the meantime, a piercing is happening. A piercing of our ...

... control                                                                              

    ... plans
        ... wrong beliefs
            ... false idols
                ... pride
                    ... arrogance

In our wait, we see the things that we look to for our deliverance. We see the things that offer so much but can deliver so little. We see that often we're just looking for God's rescue but not for a true relationship with Him. He asks us to wait so that He can pierce and do away with all the things that entangle us. But He surely acts in this piercing. Surely!

"But now, O Lord, you are our Father;

we are the clay, and You are our potter;

we are all the work of Your hand." (Isaiah 64:8)

He's got this, sweet friends! If you're in the process of calling on the Father to come down and rescue you, if you're in the process of a piercing wait, KNOW that He is our Father. He is sovereign and good and continuing His work. 

A good potter doesn't leave the lump of clay as a lump of clay. He molds it, perfects it, fires it, and brings the work to completion. Our good Father? Our heavenly Potter? He won't bring you "this far" and then leave you on your own to finish it. That's His job! And He'll do it! He has promised us that!

"And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you

will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." 
(Philippians 1:6)

So, what do we do with all this? 

• We understand that our God is good.
• We understand that our God is sovereign.
• We understand that because God is good and sovereign that we can trust Him where we are.
• We understand that we must not quit or grow weary in our wait.
• We understand that our God is working, even though we don't see the whole picture.
• We understand that there will be God's perfect completion at God's perfect time.

God's Word is perfect for our every need. Be active with it!!

How Will God Do This One?

God's Word, His requests, His plans are absolutely impossible. So often, He asked His people to do what made no sense.

• Go stand in the Jordan River, which by the way, is in its peak time of rushing over the banks.
• Leave your people, your home, and without a map, go where I tell you without knowing where that is. 
• Listen to the tops of the mulberry trees and you'll know when to go into battle. 
• Pick up the knife before you and sacrifice all of your hopes and dreams. 
• The giant before you is outfitted in impenetrable armor, but you've got 3 rocks. 
• Yeah, you can walk on top of water.
• Feed 5000+ people with a little boy's lunch, and it wasn't even anything awesome like a McDonald's Happy Meal -- it was icky fish!

Seriously? I mean, really. Seriously?!? And He tops it off by saying, look to me. Listen to me.

There's a verse that resonates with me in Joshua 3:4b "Do not come near it [the Ark of the Covenant] in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before." There are times in my life where God has had me hold up, back off, and put some space between my expectations and Him.

A very wise woman once told me that it's like looking at a huge panoramic painting. When I stand back and get the proper perspective, I appreciate all of the beautiful art. However, I, a very detailed person, can stand with my nose pressed up to the painting and miss all of the beauty of it. Oh, I can see the brush strokes or the different blending, but I miss the fascinating picture before me.

I can do the same thing with God's Word. I'm desperately searching for answers to my problems, looking for God's specific direction regarding my circumstances. I come to His Word with my nose pressed in, looking for that ONE thing, begging for the fix that I think I so desperately need. When I do that, I can lose sight of what He actually wants me to see. This takes great effort, total confidence and faith in Him. I MUST let go of my preconceived ideas of how He's supposed to work, of how my life is supposed to be going, of how the storm is supposed to be quieted. There cannot be an obsession to find that one thing at the expense of missing out on all that He wants me to see. So, I back up a little bit. I get some space and perspective and allow God to do His perfect work.

And then, usually I find that He asks me to do the impossible, the senseless. I'm out of my element. I have no control. I am unable to understand. And God is perfectly aware of it. I'm in the deepest waters imaginable, and it's over my head. God tells me this is the perfect thing for me. He has much more for me than just the one answer I'm looking for.

What can I do? Flail around and get exhausted? Let the rage grow until I am in the middle of the ocean trying to find a place to land? Write it all off as impossible and look for another way? Manipulate, control and connive? Yep, I've tried all of those things at one point or another, but the only thing I can do is to look to Him. Don't try to understand. Don't try to figure it all out. Don't try to run ahead and help Him with all the process. Be obedient. Take Him at His Word. Wait. Trust. Rest in Him.

If He asks me to do something, it's because He has enabled me to do it. It doesn't have to make sense. It doesn't have to be comfortable. It doesn't have to be easy. But my eyes are on Jesus, and He beckons me to trust Him, to take that first step. That's all He asks. He'll do the rest if I just look to Him.

I might wonder: How will God do this one? But that's just what He's waiting for -- to bring the dead back to life, to perform this miraculous rescue, for me to see that it's all Him. The impossible obstacles, the heartbreaking griefs, the terrifying storms are not to be seen as the end … but as the glorious opportunity to see God work in the midst of all of it.

And as I keep my eyes on Him, as I follow Him in the midst of the unthinkable, the river of impossibility will dry up.

I. Will. Make. It. Because. Of. Him.

His blessings always follow my letting go, my trusting Him to do what only He can do. It's His delight to do those very things that I cannot … and it is my blessing to watch Him do it!

Wait ... And Run the Race

God really confuses me. I should probably try to quit figuring Him all out, but I just can't bring myself to that point. I know I can't put Him in a nice, little box and label Him ... but I have to admit that for years, I've tried to do just that.  I KNOW that a God small enough to put in a box is not big enough to meet our needs. We need Him to be so much more than that, but yet I try so diligently to fit Him in there! He continues to surprise and amaze me, and honestly, I like it that way. BUT, there are things that are still confusing to me.

Like when I felt like He was telling me the other day to "Wait, and continue running the race." Uh yeah, that made absolutely no sense whatsoever to me. To this girl, waiting is sitting there, doing nothing, being totally unproductive ... and running a race is the exact opposite!! In fact, I can safely say that I do NOT like to wait ... and that I would NOT like to run a race (if I ever actually did something like that). Yup, God's Word to me didn't make sense ... and I didn't particularly like either choice.

Of course, I had to sit and contemplate what He was telling me. The more I thought about it, the more it actually seemed to make sense. All through Scripture, God tells us to wait, and I've learned over the years that (for me!) waiting is letting God do His perfect work while I wait for Him to work. It's not unproductive. It's watching the Master do what He does best while the apprentice (me!) watches and learns. It's being protected. It's waiting for the best and bypassing the "that'll do" things. There are many things in my life that I'm waiting for ... many areas that I'm daily and fervently praying about ... many things that only God has control over and only He can work while I watch. So, this is the area where I wait (not always patiently, not always well, but always assured that God knows what He's doing and is in control) ... and, in the meantime, I continue running the race.

And life is a race, isn't it? We continue doing what we know we need to do ... we continue putting one foot in front of the other ... we continue searching for the goal line ... we continue training. We can't stand still because then life passes us by, yet when we run there's one goal in mind -- and that's to be where God is. And again, I don't run the race patiently or well a lot of times. I get tired ... I complain ... I feel sorry for myself ... but I also know that I can't stand still or go backwards. We've come too far together (God and I) in this race for me to give up now. When I get to the finish line, I want to be greeted by a "Well done, thou good and faithful servant" and know that the waiting AND the race weren't in vain, I was never alone, and that God was glorified through it all.

So, for today, I'm waiting ... and running the race. Surprisingly, it makes perfect sense.