Isaiah 21:2
A hard and grievous vision is declared to me: the treacherous dealer deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, O Elam! Besiege, O Media! All the sighing [caused by Babylon’s ruthless oppressions] I will cause to cease [says the Lord].
Many of the chapters in Isaiah are about prophecy. This one seems pretty standard but the very end grabbed my heart. "All the sighing" feels like all the discomfort and the inner turmoil and the uneasiness will end. God is saying its going to come to an end. That's such a beautiful statement. Why? Because God's promises are always fulfilled. In this season, I so need to know that it will cease. I so need to know what the one I love will be okay and not from her but from On High. He's got her in ways I'll never be able to and I'm so thankful for that.
Isaiah 21:6
For thus has the Lord said to me: Go, set [yourself as] a watchman, let him declare what he sees.
Sometimes you need a witness. Sometimes you need someone else to see what you've seen or are seeing for more perspective. There is value in having someone bear witness to what's going on in your life. I occasionally tell people the things God's revealed to me because nothing builds faith like seeing God bring something to fruition, whether or not its in your own life. What I've found is the more I've sought God, the more clearly I've heard Him. Nothing clears the way for God like actually clearing the way. I let secular music go. I let inappropriate visual media go. I made a commitment to seek Him in the morning and the evening and to write this devotional. Can I tell you early on He was faithful to make promises to me I wasn't even expecting and that He's been confirming them time and time again? He has. Nothing in my actual life has changed but my perspective has. My ability to rest and believe in Him, to trust Him has grown. I'm so glad that early on, when I was sure it was God but afraid to tell people, that I did because now we've both got a testimony!
Isaiah 21:16-17
For the Lord has said this to me, Within a year, according to the years of a hireling [who will work no longer than was agreed], all the glory of Kedar [an Arabian tribe] will fail.
And the remainder of the number of archers and their bows, the mighty men of the sons of Kedar, will be diminished and few; for the Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken it.
I'm not in the place. The Lord has never given me a time period. I think that's a radical level of faith...and one I'm no where near. I'm still in the "do this until" phase. I know you wouldn't think doing something with no end date is easy but in some ways it is. I know when I need to do something different He'll let me know. He's never going to leave me without instructions. I think that's one of the things that's changed in my relationship with Him. The more I've relied on Him, the more direct He's been with me about what I'm supposed to be doing. This is especially true for me now. I think having a date is radical though because its not a promise for something is a promise for something by a certain date. I can't. I'm not there yet. I don't need no dates from On High. I'm just getting comfortable with until and believing for things I can't see at all. I can see how this is definitely a place I want to be with God but its also terrifying. I gotta get my "until" together first. I can't choose this, but if it be His will, I'd like to see my "do this until" become physically present before we move to exact dates. Lord, help me.
Isaiah 22:5
For it is a day of discomfiture and of tumult, of treading down, of confusion andperplexity from the Lord God of hosts in the Valley of Vision, a day of breaking down the walls and of crying to the mountains.
Listen, this couldn't be more true, on so many fronts. The one that pulls at heart and humbles me to my knees contains all of these things: confusion, perplexity, discomfort, tumult, crying. All of it. And thought its not happening to me directly, its happening to the most important person in my life. Living in a space where I know the truth of God and what He has for me doesn't allow me to act as though I don't. She's my heart. Can I tell you it helped me break down some walls in my own heart? I remember I wrote a post about saying I love you when ever I wanted and I'd stopped that. I'd done that out of a place of withholding, not because I didn't feel it but because I didn't want to be that vulnerable. Life is about vulnerability. That wasn't a decision not made out of love but made out of fear. God didn't give me a spirit of fear. Why am I acting like He did? That's a wrap. I do love her and she should hear it all the time. I think I would have gotten to this place eventually but eventually isn't promised. Today is the present I've got from God and I'm going to use it.
Isaiah 22:14
And the Lord of hosts revealed Himself in my ears [as He said], Surely this unatoned sin shall not be purged from you until [you are punished—and the punishment will be] death, says the Lord God of hosts.
The wages of sin are death. There is nothing that can be done by a human to atone for sin. I mean imagine trying to repent for everything you do wrong? If I had to do that, I'd be constantly repenting and I'd never get anything done including a completed repenting list! But Grace. Sweet, unending, ever present grace is real. And its radical. Its far more encompassing that we believe. Just the like the depth of love God has for us can't be fathomed, neither can grace. I believe and have always known that the work of the cross is finished. All my life my mother has sang the 7 Last Words of Christ at my home church. One of the words is "It is Finished." Its got this amazing baritone solo in it and the message is simple. It. Is. Finished. There's nothing to be added or taken from what Jesus did on the cross. All sin for ever is wiped clean for those that love Him and believe, by faith, that they are save by what? By grace. Salvation by faith alone in the FINISHED work of the cross. This verse doesn't apply to those of us who believe. That's what Jesus gave us. The gift of life with the Father.
Isaiah 22:25
In that day, says the Lord of hosts, the nail or peg that was fastened into the sure place shall give way and be moved and be hewn down and fall, and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off; for the Lord has spoken it.
One day the sure thing won't hold. I know this place well. God gave me someone that I placed a little too much faith and trust in. I needed them, relied on them in a way that wasn't healthy. And that thing, my sure thing, my thing from God didn't hold. And when I tell you all I had was Jesus, ALL I HAD WAS JESUS. And therapy because it was that traumatic for me. God sent me this person and now they're not here? I didn't understand for a long time. But when I got my Jesus thing right, can I tell you I got my person back too?
But had I not gotten them back, I'd still have gotten my Jesus together. Can I tell you He's never going to give way? He's never going to leave you or forsake you? You'll never be alone with God? Because the burdens you have are light for Him. Give Him your pain and your struggle. He's got it. He's my very present help at all times. Sometimes I feel like He's just around the corner but the indwelling of the spirit makes Him literally closer than a brother. No one can be closer to you than to live in you. I love that relationship He restored, but I don't need it. I need Him, desperately and always. And I'm so glad that all I have to do is ask and He's there. He's always there. And I can tell the truth. I can be whoever or how ever I am and He's got that too.
No comments:
Post a Comment