Saturday, August 22, 2009

Who's that guy holding your right hand? What's He saying?

Isaiah 41:10-13
“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.
Behold, all those who were incensed against you shall be ashamed and disgraced; they shall be as nothing, and those who strive with you shall perish.
You shall seek them and not find them- those who contended with you. Those who war against you shall be as nothing, as a nonexistent thing.
For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you’. -NKJV

“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish.
Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.
For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.” -KJV

Father, thank you, that you will never leave us. We know that as we go through life, you will stay with us. You will uphold us, and we won’t have to fear. And when we are attacked, you will defend us, in Your glorious time. You will put them so far away from us that we will never see them again. You are a great God to take us out of our sin and protect us like this. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Encouragement Night was one of the harder things I did this week. As I write this, I’m still not sure what the Lord will shape this into. But I know when He reveals His Will to us, it will be greater than anything I can ever do or think of for Him.
As I try to understand God’s Will for Encouragement Night, I wanted to start out with this verse. God was speaking through Isaiah to the people of Israel, promising that he would watch over them. After Jesus came along, it’s no longer just the families in the nation of Israel that gets to follow God, it’s anybody who wants to. So consider these words like God talking directly to you.
As school starts up again, I hope and pray that we can face the new year with the Lord as our focus. We will have no fears, and as those who doubt our God tease and harass us, we'll rest and trust in the fact that they can’t do anything to us, but our God will make them ashamed and disgraced, while He lifts us up for serving Him to the best of our abilities.
Maybe it's not the most Christian of images, but this passage always makes me smile and imagine a few of the kids who harassed me last year as they meet God at His throne. It also kind of makes me want to look at the sky and say, 'can I help? can we go now? right now, God, in front of everybody else! ashame them!'. Oh yeah, totally just wanting to show God's glory to others. I'm sure that was my idea. (afterthought, maybe? just a sweet plus to the whole situation, for me? kinda) But these things will be greater if they are done in God's time. As someone who has little to no patience, it can be a hard thing to accept, I know, but that's the way our Father wanted it, so that's the way it happens.
It is my prayer that this post and especially this passage be encouraging you in your walk with the Lord.

In His Service,
Joyce

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