DOING A NEW THING

“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.”     Isaiah 43:19 NIV

 

As Isaiah wrote prophetically to Israel, they were mired in the desperate circumstances of captivity and exile. God wanted to put their eyes on the new work He would do, so He began with a reminder not to remember the former things. If they remained stuck in the failure and sin and discouragement of the past, they would never move forward to the new thing God had for them. It is a fascinating and instructive switch between Isaiah 43:16-17 and Isaiah 43:18. In Isaiah 43:16-17, Israel was told to look to the past by remembering the great things God had done for them at the Red Sea. But in Isaiah 43:18, they were told, do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. We must remember the past in terms of God’s great work on our behalf. But staying stuck in the past can keep us from the new thing God wants to do in our lives. Let us not make an idol out of the “new” as the people of Athens did, “who spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.” (Acts 17:21). God asks the same question today. “Will you stay in step with My Spirit?” As God’s people, we don’t need to be afraid because He will make a road in the wilderness, He will provide rivers in the desert. When our Lord makes a promise, we worry about the details or the obstacles that may get in the way of the fulfilment of the promise. He replies to us, “Don’t worry about it at all. I will make a way in the wilderness. I have resources and plans you don’t know about. Leave those problems to Me.”

 

PRAYER THOUGHT

Lord, we will not be afraid of the new thing You are doing in our lives.

 

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Thank You, Lord, that You will make a way in the wilderness of our lives for You have resources and plans we don’t know about. We leave those problems to You. AMEN

 

I.B.R.A. Readings

Mark 12:1-12

 

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