Lion of Grace

These verses called on the Israelite's and us today to fight injustice towards the poor and needy and downtrodden. We are to free the oppressed, act justly, love mercy and most important walk humbly. We are to treat people fairly and justly and have mercy on those who have less than we do. We are to not walk arrogantly towards those who "have not" as so often is with those who have a lot. We all, even those with a little, have opportunity to give to those less fortunate than us. Even giving your last $10 or $20 to someone who has nothing is a blessing. Some excuses we have for not giving and being generous to the poor come as a result of our judging another and their lifestyle often out of our own missed perceptions. We usually don't have the whole story or situation, yet we cast our judgement on someone that needs help. We rationalize that because they don't have much, they must be lazy and don't work hard or don't have a drive for success. We don't think they "deserve" a bail out. Thank Heavens Jesus didn't look at US that way! Sometimes, it's easier to leave the care in the hands of well known charities or even worse, the government. The most ludicrous example I ever saw though was when a charitable organization I once volunteered at refused a woman (with children) who worked full time at a minimum wage job, any food or clothing because she had an alcoholic husband who didn't work but "should" be working to support his family. After she left devastated, I heard them arrogantly picking her choice of husband apart, saying she got what she deserved. I couldn't stay there after that! It broke my heart. Tough love helps some people because it helps them to realize life isn't about free hand outs for life or that any kind of behavior is acceptable. But tough love can be harmful too if a relationship has not been established and there isn't trust and love between the two parties. Tough love meted out by just anybody can seem harsh and judgmental and sorry to say often is.

We learn from these verses that God is kind. He cares for the down and out, the outcast, the forgotten ones, the unpopular, those who are burdened by life and by our sins. He is gentle and humble in heart and desires that we find rest for our souls. He wants to take our burdens upon Himself if we would just accept Him and allow Him to. The paradox here is that God is most holy, higher than all things, esteemed greater than anything and yet, He is willing to bend down to the unholy, to the lowest of lowly, the humble and contrite. In our society and worldliness and even in churches I'm sad to say, we would think He champions those who "appear" holier than others and who lead so called good lives or are esteemed in their positions. Jesus, on the other hand, seeks the fallen, the sinner, the hurting and those in despair and I am eternally grateful for that! God cares for the downtrodden and the contrite because He sees our souls showing regret for our bad behaviors (contrite) and He knows that the burden from these sins have given us a heavy load of guilt. He wants us to take our guilt to Him who already bore it on the cross and He wants to set us free! He wants to bring wholeness and healing to us. He has compassion on us. He knows what it is like to live as us. No, I don't think I or my church congregation care for others with the same intensity. We judge too much, pick and choose too much and really don't give our hearts to people with the same intensity.

Keeping a sacred day of rest honors God because He commanded that we do. He gave us the Sabbath as a day of rest just as He rested by example after Creation. It is a day to cease from everyday labor and is given as a command because that is good for us and God is all about what is good for us. We must though, also look at the word "sacred". Blessed is the man who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it. Morality and piety must be present. We should not only keep a command and take our rest but we should present ourselves humbly and with high regard for the Sabbath in the presence of God and taking our rest in Him. This can be rather lost in some churches today as people meet for exclusive social connections (leaving others out) or for business purposes or who go to church without reverence and hearts and minds fully on God. How often do we see the root of sin fully established through gossip, discontent, complaining, haughty pride and arrogance on any given Sunday? All those desecrate the Sabbath and we need to highly guard our hearts against this and honor God with a pure heart of worship with our hearts and minds on Him. Thank you Holy Spirit for this lesson! A wonderful reminder!!! Of all the options listed: Sabbath worship and rest Sunday worship and rest Sunday worship/no rest No worship/no rest I would say either Sabbath worship and rest or Sunday worship and rest best honors God. I don't think it's Saturday or Sunday that counts but that we come before God and observe the rest He commanded us to take with a humble and right spirit before Him. Sunday worship/ no rest and No worship/no rest dishonor God as they are in rebellion of what God commands for our own good. Our society has become SO busy and goal oriented for success we have forgotten God altogether. We may go to worship on Sunday (fitting that in) but if we don't rest in Him we usually are just going through the motions. No worship and no rest to me means God has either been placed last in life or He is long forgotten. Which keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it? The original meaning of Sabbath was the 7th day of the week observed by Jews as a day of rest. (Sunset on Friday until sunset on Saturday) But, the word was also used to indicate other scriptural periods of solemn "rest" or cessation of usual activity. (Sabbatical year: a year of rest for the land observed every 7 years.) Christians used the word Sabbath as a day set aside for solemn rest and devotion. We commemorate the resurrection of Christ which took place on the first day of the week (Mark 16:9) being Sunday. The emphasis here is more on "rest" or setting aside a time to cease from our usual agenda and set aside a time of devotion to seek and praise God. The day doesn't matter. Our focus should be on God and not desecrating the time we have set aside to thank and worship Him. It's the first fruits of our time. Many will give the first fruits of their income, yet totally not give of their hearts and minds to Him on any given Saturday or Sunday! We should come humbly before Him in thanksgiving and praise just for Who He is, our thoughts on Him and nothing else!

God welcomed believing and ethical foreigners and eunuchs to full status in His temple in that we see the worship of God moving beyond a tribal religion to an international faith proclaimed by Jesus. All would now be welcomed through faith in Jesus. For our churches today, that implies we are to welcome everyone. God loves everyone and invites them to be full citizens of His Kingdom. I am in a very good church, but if I would have to name a weakness there it would be that though everyone is "welcome", not all are really "accepted." By this I mean that everyone can come and be at the church and everyone is even invited to find a place to serve and that is good, but not everyone is invited into "relationship." It's easy to greet everyone and find them a slot to serve in and stick them in groups to meet twice a month, but much harder to sincerely love them and want to befriend them and really want to share your life/time with them in intimate relationship. It's really sad to see it. I can make a difference by seeking out the ones on the fringe that are struggling to make friends. I can offer my life to them to be friends with them and sincerely give my heart to them. People need to give their hearts not Christian duty.

Wow! That's a hard question! There are many New Testament passages that cross reference Isaiah 53, but if I have to choose one passage that best sums up all of Isaiah 53, it would probably be 1 Peter 2 starting at verse 21 and ending at verse 25. Christ suffered for us, He committed no sin, no deceit was found in Him, when He was reviled He did not revile, when He suffered He did not threaten but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously, He bore our sins on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness, by His stripes we are healed. He is the shepherd and overseer of our souls.

The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 Without Christ bearing the punishment for our sins, we would be condemned to death. Through Christ's atoning sacrifice, we have eternal life in Him.

Substitutionary Atonement in my understanding of it, is when Jesus (the innocent, without sin, servant) took our sins and bore the weight of them and was punished for them. We, (the guilty ones;sinners) can now be free (forgiven; pardoned) of those sins and we now obtain the righteousness of Christ (but only by what HE did. Never in and of ourselves) It is because of the covering of Jesus' blood that we are made right with God. It is through this sacrifice He willingly gave for us and only through faith in this gift to us that we will be saved. When anyone comes to believe in this truth, they enter into the Kingdom of God and Jesus' righteousness covers us. If anyone rejects this gift, they are not covered by the blood of Jesus and remain in bondage to sin and are unrighteous. Sin can only be cleansed by the blood of Christ and righteousness before God is only given through His blood and the righteousness of Christ.

I'm most convinced that Jesus saw His own mission and destiny by two New Testament Scriptures. 1) Luke 4:18-21: Jesus declares at the beginning of His ministry that He is indeed the One who has come to fulfill the prophesy that was proclaimed in Isaiah 61. 2.)Luke 22:37: At the end of His ministry, right before Jesus was handed over to be crucified, He states, "It was written about me and is happening now." Jesus KNEW in the beginning and at the end what was happening and that the prophesies had been written about Himself. I'm convinced!

God will remove the sins: From many nations From all of us From my people From many Of many The Lamb in Isaiah 52:13-53:12 actually "takes away the sins of the world." This is a universal sacrifice of salvation because everyone will have opportunity to receive salvation through this sacrifice. "Those who believe on (the sacrifice of) the Lord Jesus will be saved." Jesus' sacrifice is wasted on those who refuse to believe that the blood of Christ cleanses them from all sin and unrighteousness. Those who reject Jesus, do not accept Him as their Savior and will not enter into the Kingdom of God. He though, died for all....even those who would ultimately reject Him.

Seeking the Lord entails acknowledging that we don't know the real or full truth on our own. We have finite minds. God has an infinite mind. We need to be humbly seeking His truths and when He reveals them, we resolve to let go of our truths and embrace His truths as our own. God's ways and thoughts are different than our own because we are so limited to really having a sure truth. We need to embrace His truths for success in our lives because He is all knowing and we would be foolish to embrace our own false truths or even our own partial truths. It would be a lie and unproductive to rely on our own perspectives. Repentance is necessary for this process because it humbles us and causes us to acknowledge we were wrong, in sin and that His truths are sovereign. It breaks down our pride in self and our limited knowledge. We humble ourselves before Him to acknowledge we are in agreement that He is greater than we are and we should therefore listen to Him and that we are willing to be taught by Him and led by Him. If our seeking is shallow, we have not really put away self and have not really submitted ourselves to His ways. We can end up either denying His truths or embracing half truths to please ourselves and to indulge in our favorite sins. We are to be "all in" confessing we wholeheartedly agree with His truths and will seek to live by them. If we put off seeking the Lord when we hear His invitation, He may withdraw from us. He allows us to go on alone in our own self delusions and we will reap the consequences of them and living in non truths. Is it ever too late to seek the Lord? We are warned to not put this off and to appreciate and accept the day of our salvation, but I wouldn't judge another to absolutely say anyone couldn't seek God after any time period. I think God rejoices over any prodigal and repentant sinner no matter how late. No, no real success can be found by other means than seeking the Lord. All things (and successes) in this world are temporal. Seeking God will give us everlasting success in things that really matter. That we came to know Him and secured salvation for our souls through Him and will have eternal life!

People spend their lives doing things that they know will not satisfy them deep down inside because satan has blinded us with lies when we feel empty or depleted. Even Christians can fall for these lies and stray from the truth when we feel a need for a substitute for God to fill us. Everywhere we look in this world there is some kind of temptation or promise that the next best thing is going to make "me" happy. "Me" is the key word here because it all comes from trying to gratify self. When we eventually fail to gratify self (and it always happens) then we are led farther and farther away in trying to find that elusive happiness. We either become more and more selfish or fall into depression because we remain so empty and eventually become hopeless. If we are not immersed in the Word every day and in close relationship with God, it is easy to fall prey to these sins. Love of pleasure and self lead away from God and what pleases Him. Pleasure can be found in cheap places and thrills lead to a need for more and more gratification. Love of self leads to selfishness, pride and lack of any moral compass because it is all about feeding self. We lose a sense of right and wrong in treating others and self becomes so important we walk all over others to fulfill our own needs or we bend the rules with no conscience to get what we want. This all leads into sin and darkness and can progress until we find ourselves in a deep pit of despair. God's gracious invitation in this passage is to come and be filled with spiritual food and drink. The kind that truly fills and is everlasting. Anyone can come, either rich or poor because the cost is free for anyone who will accept this offer. What God has to offer is good, will satisfy forever and will give life to our souls. Oh yes!!! This invitation is perceived as good news to those who hear it that are open and accepting of this promise and invitation. I remember years ago reading this passage when I was lost, steeped in sin and living in darkness. This invitation captivated me and I was so ready to be free of the disappointments and the lies of the world on how to be filled and satisfied. At the time I didn't fully understand this passage, though it was a light I could see at the end of the tunnel I was lost in. I chose to believe there was something more out there and this person Jesus had something I wanted to understand. Good news indeed! How can I (or do I) issue this invitation in today's vernacular? Like the woman at the well!!! I say to others, " Come see a Savior who told me everything I ever did and showed me a way out of my sins into wonderful freedom! He took me out of darkness and despair and He has loved me like I have never been loved before! You just HAVE to get to know Him!!!"

The promise that no weapon formed against you shall prosper means that though others may come against us and our work or our character or try to displace us from what God has willed for us to do, God will be faithful to intervene for our cause. We may have to suffer for awhile, but in His timing, their weapons and tactics against us will prove to be unproductive and without merit. No, this doesn't mean we won't have to conduct spiritual warfare through prayer and faith, it means we will be called to draw on prayer and faith. Our enemies may be allowed for a time to wage war against us, but with prayer and faith they will be defeated. We just need to hold on! We are assured the victory!!!

Jerusalem was barren without God's favor in that their city was destroyed, their children slain, and the survivors were sent off into exile. Jerusalem felt like a barren woman with no children and rejected by her husband. When Isaiah says "Your maker is your husband" it speaks of a covenant (like a marriage covenant) to the people of Israel. Now, God will be like a husband to them, taking care of them, providing for them and no longer rejecting them, but loving them in a covenant relationship being forever faithful to them. In the New Testament, "bride of Christ" means the church as the bride and Christ as the husband. The wife (the church) is to submit to her husband, be pure and chaste before Him and be adorned with the good works she has done out of love and obedience to Him.

A messenger or carrier of good news is so beautiful because they bring good tidings and a message of hope or comfort. They bring joy to the people and give much peace. They bring light into what has been dark and they share promises of a better day! The original historic content for this was when the Jews were brought news of their return from captivity in Babylon. "Say to Zion, your God reigns! Burst into songs of joy together you ruins of Jerusalem for the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem." Paul applies this verse in Romans 10:15 by saying that those who are sent to preach the Gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things have beautiful feet. He is referring to preaching the Gospel of the good news of Jesus Christ and salvation for all peoples.

I can trust the Lord to guide me when I can't see where I'm going first by trusting in Him and His promises to me. I can renew my mind by reading my Bible and remembering and relying on His truths to see me through. I can pray for strength and remain in close communion with Him. I often see Him as my Shepherd and I, his lamb, walking very closely by His side in these times. I know He knows the way and I just have to stay very close to Him to get to where He is leading. Walking by faith means knowing God has your way planned and though you can't see it, you know He is in absolute command of where you are being led. Yes, I've experienced fear in these situations, but when I do, I usually find I've taken my eyes off of Jesus and have them more on my circumstances than my trust in Him. I start to feel anxious and worn but when I return to Him and His truths, then I receive peace and patience in my circumstances. I renew my trust in Him and can quietly wait knowing He has not forgotten me and He loves me. I continue this way with confidence in Him. Creating my own light is useless. My light is dim and my understanding small. If I trust in my own understanding or my skewed perspectives, I can get off course pretty quickly. If I put my trust in myself or anyone else it's a sure bet I'm going off course.

Isaiah is talking about the suffering servant, Jesus in these passages. Jesus was open to the Father to listen and hear from Him. He was entrusted to speak what the Father told Him to the weary and worn. "He has given me an instructed tongue to know the word that sustains the weary." "He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught." Jesus was open to seek the Father and receive instruction and a word for the people. To declare these messages was costly but Jesus was faithful to do so. Jesus suffered by being beaten. "I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. "Jesus was mocked, spit on, and was falsely accused. He was condemned to die as an innocent man and was crucified. The Messiah, Jesus, was vindicated when He rose from the dead. He was proven to be the Son of God! Death could not hold Him. The grave could not keep Him. He crushed satan under His feet and overcame sin. He will be vindicated at the end of the age when He comes again to reign as King over all! Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord and He will reign forever and ever! AMEN! The character qualities we need when our vindication doesn't happen soon enough is patience and long suffering. We need to trust in faith that our Father will come to judge justly for us in His time.

According to these passages, God will gather His people. He assures them that He will never forget them. He promises to bring many back to Jerusalem. So many that the city will seem to small to contain them. Yes, God loves Jews who haven't trusted in Jesus yet. He loves them like a mother has love for her child. He tells them that even if a mother would ever forget her child, He will never forget them. He has them engraved on the palm of His hand and their walls are ever before Him. I can show love for Jews through prayer, support of missionary's in Israel or befriend any Jews I may come to know. I can personally show the love of Christ to them and witness to them.

People always tend to disregard or discriminate against aliens in their country because they are usually so different from what they consider "the norm." Our societies tend to like cookie cutter people. They like everyone to follow what society dictates of how we should look, how we rate success, what our mannerism should be, what we should be driving and what our friends should look like. If anyone strays from that or is an alien that has never learned those statuses, then for some reason fear sets in and those labelled "not the norm" are disregarded, not included, and discriminated against. In some ways I think the root is in pride in things that don't really matter, but also it's a shallow attempt of being worthy. Trusting in men for worth and not God. What happens, is that instead of seeking to understand the other person or the aliens way of life, people try to make them conform or in the event that they can't or won't, the attempt is made to show them in a bad light, draw more people against them and get rid of them altogether. I can increase my love for people of other nationalities by drawing on the love God gave to me! (After all, I was once an alien before I came into my spiritual family!) I can set aside useless worldly society rules and humbly try to engage in friendship and personal relationship with others not like myself. I say humbly, because I would need to be open to what God is trying to teach me through the person who is so different from me. I would need to remain strong in truth, but be willing to see what God is showing me. When I am engaged in a personal relationship, I can come to understand other customs, ways to live and I can look into a person's heart with better understand what God wants me to give to them too. To be a light to the nations means to engage others from all over the world, not excluding our own country, even those absolutely not like ourselves, into relationship to love and shepherd and share the good news of Jesus Christ! The church serves in this capacity not only locally, but regionally and internationally and there should be a balance of service in all these areas.

Wow! I found these difficult questions! God is not the source of evil but He can "allow" trouble to accomplish His purposes or to grow us or even to turn us back to Him. He is the source of prosperity and poverty. He can give or take away but I don't know as we can judge one as better than the other.There can be curses with riches and blessings in poverty and vice versa. Not everything that looks like a prosperous blessing is a real blessing and what some may see as misfortune, like poverty can actually really be a good place to be. I like to pray on that subject from Proverbs 30:7-9. I think the point is recognizing God as the source of all things whether we are rich or poor. We know He is in control whether we are prospering or not, healthy or sick, happy or sad or in any circumstance. I just think that we can not understand the mind of God and what He is doing all the time, but we can understand He is sovereign. Sometimes though, it is called to our attention that we are responsible for some of these misfortunes because of sin. God gives us a "wake up" call through some kind of trouble and we are stopped to turn to listen to Him. All in all, we should be paying attention to what God is doing in our lives and we should be in tune with Him, abiding in Him, asking the way, desiring wisdom and for Him to reveal our shortcomings. If we do this, we will be given better discernment as to what He is doing in our lives good or bad.

Cyrus could be called by name more than a century before he was born because God revealed his name to Isaiah, His anointed prophet. God gave Isaiah the prophetic assignment to reveal it. Cyrus was anointed by God to decree that the Jews could return to Jerusalem. He was also anointed to return some of the temple furnishings and to finance the temple's construction. "He will say of Jerusalem,'Let it be built" and of the temple, 'Let the foundations be laid." How can an unbeliever accomplish God's purposes? It's simple! God can accomplish His purposes through anybody! This shows us how sovereign He is! He can make or will anything, through anybody if He so desires. He can give or take away. He can heal or destroy. He is Almighty God!!! We simply can not judge another person. We don't know what God is doing in another person's life and we don't have a say in it either. We only have our own tiny little perceptions when it comes to others and what God is doing in or through another's life. We need to be humble and in prayer more than arrogant and taking matters into our own hands when it comes to other people.

I can fulfill my purpose to show God's glory by sharing my testimony. My testimony is one that shows God can do miraculous works in anyone's life. I share it to give praise and glory to God. It is only His healing power that could have brought change into my life. No human, including myself, could ever overcome the types of sin in my life without His help. All glory and honor are due to Him! Thank you Jesus my redeemer! To be His witness, I will share the Gospel and other will know the truth and the truth will set them free! To proclaim His praise, I will praise His name through good and bad, and I will worship Him no matter my circumstances. I give Him the adoration that is due to Him. Some obstacles I face in fulfilling these purposes is fear of rejection in sharing the Gospel and also in getting caught up in my circumstances and giving away to distrust or feeling sorry for myself. When that happens, I don't praise Him as I should and I can get disgruntled for a little bit. I benefit from fulfilling my purpose by being filled with joy when someone accepts the Gospel and I'm renewed in overcoming my fears about sharing it. I also benefit when my testimony is received and God is glorified in another persons life as I see the changes in their hearts too. Hallelujah! I also am blessed with much peace when I can praise God through the storms in my life. I grow closer to Him in peace and trust and there is no greater blessing than that!!!

God's servants are blind in that they gave praise to idols, following them and not God. They couldn't see what God was doing right under their noses! They had seen many things of the mighty works of God but hadn't really paid all that much attention to them. Their eyes and ears are open, but they do not see or hear anything. How like us sometimes with God showing Himself in mighty ways and saving us and protecting us, yet we turn a "blind eye" to Him and complain in our circumstances or we refuse to trust Him or even to remember all the times He was for us! The servant in this passage is Israel. (And a good reminder for us!) I would guess my own degree of blindness in the last 5-10 years could be summed up as "gaining sight." My life is totally different than 10 years ago and I have grown very much in listening and trusting and remembering God's greatness in my life. I truly was awakened through different lessons from God and repented and grew in His love and grace and in trusting His sovereignty. I'm quicker to repent and abide in Him knowing He can help me understand so I can see or hear. How effective is a blind servant? Not much but God can produce miraculous works even through the blind....but that's HIS work...not theirs! Look at Cyrus! He didn't know God but was used by God to bring the people Israel out of exile in Babylon. How effective am I? Way more than I ever used to be, but I'm sure not perfect. I still have my blind spots. Thank God for His grace and mercy and patience with me!

For God's people to be a light to the nations means to carry the Gospel to others. Not in just words either, but by actions. We are to preach and demonstrate salvation and God's grace so the eyes of the blind may be opened to truth. Then those who are captive to sin and deception will be freed from the prison of darkness they are in and will walk into the marvelous light of love and grace. I let my light shine in my family by speaking and demonstrating truth to them. I need to show them what Godly reactions are and teach wisdom and discernment so they are better prepared for living Godly lives in a sinful world. I have done this not only for my sons and daughter but now for my grandchildren. I am a light by leading Bible studies and also by speaking truth into small groups and to those I mentor. I have been a light to the homeless and the hopeless and the weak by taking them into my home to live there, restoring hope through Jesus into their lives. I have encouraged them to continue on and overcome in their circumstances and have tried to be an example of unconditional love through their trials and setbacks. I have chosen to volunteer in areas that cares for the poor and have given of my time to support charities that will help the hopeless, the poor and the outcast. I was also called to take a young man into my home for a year. He was from an atheist family and God sure opened doors to demonstrate the Gospel to Him! He was baptized though sadly the other family members rejected Jesus. Most of all though, I am a light in how I treat people on the most mundane days of my life. Being helpful, serving others and easing another's burden are all ways I shine my light. Visiting the elderly or doing yard work for them. Helping at church doing the things no one "wants" to do. Caring for my family because there is joy in it though it may be repeated jobs over and over. Laundry, cooking, cleaning. Our joy in those things are a great witness of unconditional love, the love of Jesus. I think we have forgotten that even in the mundane parts of our lives we can be shining a great light. It doesn't have to be spectacular things though God will surely give us those things to do to! How well do I do? I grow everyday and ask God to show me other ways to shine my light that will represent this covenant relationship with Him. Some days I'm attuned to Him, some days, sadly I miss the mark, but always He is faithful to help me grow!

These verses teach us that Messiah is the one in whom God delights. He will have the Spirit of God in Him and He will bring justice to the nations. He will be humble and peaceful and will be gentle and tender towards those who are hurting. He won't ever discourage, but will fan even the smallest hint of fire in the sincere seeker. He will be strong and never falter to establish justice on the earth. Those who feel alone or outcast will put their hope in Him. His actions will be characterized by tenderness, but also by righteousness and justice. The Messiah's quest for justice is a main theme in these verses. "He will bring justice to the nations" "In faithfulness he will bring forth justice." "He won't be discouraged until he establishes justice on the earth." Here we see Jesus will be tender towards the weak, the injured, the poor, but He comes to establish justice for them also...not just to heal them. (Which He will.) This is a good warning to those who are mean or belittle and take advantage of power over those who are weaker than they are or who may be under their authority. The difference this should make in our lives, values and demeanor towards others is twofold. 1.) We are to remember all will answer to God's justice, so keep our lives pure and in God's will in our demeanor towards those weaker then we are or who under our care. 2.) For those who are under someone else's thumb and are suffering in it, we are to remember to persevere, stay a Godly course and put our hope and trust in Jesus because though we may suffer for awhile....He is coming with justice and righteousness for His servants!

Isaiah 40:3-5 teaches us that we need to prepare to welcome the Messiah. Repentance and change are the focus here. All of the unlevel places in our lives will be balanced out. Valleys will be raised, mountains brought down. Rugged ground in our lives will be made smooth and God's glory will be revealed in and through the lives of those who do trust their lives to Him. God has promised this to those who believe and when the mouth of the Lord speaks...it will be done! God's tenderness and compassion are shown in verse 11 by describing God as the good shepherd. He will tend to us. He will protect us. He will gather us into His arms and hold us close to His heart. He will always gently lead us. The glory of God vs. the glory of nations are compared. The Nations are described as like a drop in the bucket and are regarded as dust on the scales. They are described as worthless and nothing. There is no mistake in these comparisons that God is Almighty and the nations are under His sovereign rule. Why do we get so enamored by the glitter and glory of the world? Because it is all around for us to see. It feeds our pride. It satisfies self. To see the glory of God takes a faith based perspective and to live by the Spirit demands our minds to concentrate on things of the Spirit. These things are the exact opposite of the world. To be humble. To live for others. If we, for any reasons, stop regular prayer times and close communion with God or are out of His Word to renew our minds, then we can fall prey to everything the world is constantly putting before us. Even one day makes a difference! I recently put all the things I had to do in a day before my prayer time and by the end of the day I was discontent over a few things and feeling disconnected not to mention I was trying pretty hard to have a pity party for myself. Thankfully, God in His mercy showed me where I had strayed the very next morning and I was reminded my prayer time and devotional time are first and foremost above anything else for the day and I need His Word for encouragement and TRUTH in my life. Guess this study was just the exclamation point! The pieces we are most missing is embracing God's character and sovereignty. When we do embrace Him, we recognize our great need for Him. He is in control of everything. There is no one equal to Him or His wisdom and will and nothing that can satisfy like Him. We forget to draw on His goodness and strength and truth and start doing things on our own or we may chose to even walk on our own without Him. We should draw on His wisdom and strength and hope in Him alone. He will change our minds, renew our strength, shift our focus, lift us up, and direct our path.