God's Awesome Word! :)

I have a chronological Bible that Reagan and I are reading this year, and so the verses are a little jumbled at places – especially the Old Testament prophets and histories. Today, I was looking up one of my favorite passages in Isaiah, and after reading it, I flipped to the next page and it was a passage in Kings where the king is praising God for saving him from the grave – he declares he was saved to praise the Lord, and so that’s what I want to do right now by sharing what I read in Isaiah.

Isaiah 30: 15 – 26 says, (in my NIV Bible, this passage is in a section of Scripture labeled “Woe to the Obstinate Nation”)

This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says:
“In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.

You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’ Therefore, you will flee! You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’ Therefore your pursuers will be swift! A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five, you will all flee away, till you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.”

Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; He rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him!

O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious He will be when you cry for help! As soon as He hears, He will answer you. Although the LORD gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, This is the way; walk in it.” Then you will defile your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!”

He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows. The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel. In the day of great slaughter when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the LORD binds up the bruises of His people and heals the wounds He inflicted.


HOW AWESOME IS THAT!! For someone who has been reading the Old Testament and is humbled of how much like the Israelites I am, this Scripture just spoke so loudly of God’s love for His people, including me – and including all of you!! Clearly, Reagan and I are very much in a period of waiting right now with our plans for children – this Scripture spoke to that. Rarely does one passage really seem to hit EVERY area that I’m working on with God, but this one does it, and I hope it speaks to at least one thing going on in your lives today. We have such a compassionate Father who is just waiting for us all to turn to Him and seek Him as our strength to get through whatever we are facing. And when we do so, we will hear that small voice directing us. How AWESOME is that! When we do this, He will be so great that whatever we’ve put in front of him will be like garbage to us.

I just had this discussion with one of my best friends this week – I don’t think we have an “If I do this, then He’ll do that” God, but I do believe that if I am obedient, if I repent of my sins and take my refuge in Him alone, then I will see His blessings all around me – all the ‘junk’ gives me blinders, makes me choose things that are just simply less than His plans, and the part of all this that just amazes me is that He never stops waiting for me to wait solely on Him…when I make that decision, He is there with love and healing. Our God is such an AWESOME GOD!!