Check out this weeks blog courtesy of Darren!
At the beginning of this year I shared the following message and I said:
“I believe this is the scripture that God has given for the church the beginning of 2020”.
Isaiah 43:18-19 (NIV)
18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 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.
We know that God doesn't go against His word and that His word equips us.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV)
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
We also know that God is faithful. But for us to exercise faith in and through our lives, we must live by faith.
2 Corinthians 5:7 (NIV)
7 For we live by faith, not by sight
If our lives were predictable and easy then we would not need faith and without faith we cannot please God.
Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)
6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
In the reading from Isaiah 43 the context declares the existence of God, before the creation, before Israel’s creation and before even yours! God did not derive existence from anyone else.
Psalm 90:2 (NIV)
2 Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
God is more powerful than anything, He parted the sea and brought armies to nothing.
Just stop and ponder how amazing our God is. Imagine walking through the Red sea on dry land, the actual sea bed with walls of water to the left and right. Walls of water towering above you. God makes a way through where there is no way. He is a redeemer and saviour, fulfilling what He promises. The Israelites get set free from Egypt and set free from slavery.
God reminds them of what He has done, showing how powerful and able He is. Then it says not to remember them, that is to not just look back and say “the good old days” that was then! Really, the looking back at what God has done in our lives should motivate us to use those happenings as the encouragement to apply faith to the here and now and our futures.
Look for the new thing
Don’t you see it? We need to look and expect and make plans just like we do in pregnancy! We get everything ready.
Making a way
Jesus is the way, the road, the path, our course of direction through life. He makes the way for us.
Streams in the wilderness
Jesus is our stream in the wilderness, He is the living water. He doesn't just make a way for us but He equips us and provides for us so that we might take that direction.
Lets take these words to heart:
“Do not remember…”
Look around so we do not miss what God is doing now.
Let what we have experienced be our encouragement for the future.
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