A New Thing...

I like to explore...my wife likes routine. When we take our walk, I like the variety of different routes,  where she is content to stick to the same route. Driving through the mountains, I see a dirt road and say, "I wonder where that road goes to...should we try it?" And she says, "Ah no..." (I do remember following this urge in my single years and discovered that a standard, 4 cylinder Mustang II can not go up a 50 degree incline)....

Isaiah 43 has been a wealth of insight and encouragement to me over the past several months and I continually review this chapter. What recently caught my attention was the difference in my expectation of how God answers prayer to the reality of how God will answer prayer. I want the routine.... God will be creative in His provision...

Isaiah 43 speaks to God's attention to our fears of life:

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine." (vs 1)
"Fear not, for I am with you;" (vs 5)

It speaks to God's provision for all of our struggles:

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. (vs. 2)

And it recalls God's faithfulness to deliver Israel in the past by referring to the deliverance from Pharoah:

 Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: (vs 16, 17)

However, while calling us to remember God's faithfulness, love and provision, it also calls us to forget the manner in which God answered prayer:

 “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." (vs 18,19)

The creativity of God extends to how he accomplishes His will. Will it ever be the same or always creatively different in how He accomplishes it? If we look to God to accomplish His will like we have seen in the past, we deny Him His character to be creative....We deny the CREATOR. We can only look at the past to see His faithfulness to accomplish His will and keep His promises, not to set the pattern for answers to our future. The recalling of God's faithfulnes to 'the formers things.." leads us to ..."know and believe me and understand that I am He." (v. 10) But we can trust God to continue His creative character in how he accomplishes that in a way that we have never seen before.

So, "Hang on honey... we are going to see where this road takes us...."