SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 40:12-31
OBSERVATION:
The basic message is, ‘how can you criticize or complain about Me, don’t You realize who I am?’
God made it all, in a way, with a wisdom and a power that far surpasses us.
We have a lot of nerve to compare God to a statue, to reduce Him to our terms.
God is in charge, He directs and sustains the highest stars and the most powerful princes.
Everything God does is designed to help the weak and to humble the proud.
God is challenging His followers for forgetting Who He is, what He is like, treating Him like a man-made statue and complaining about Him.
The ones who soar are the ones who wait (trust, depend, lean) on the Lord.
APPLICATION:
As I read this I hear the question, ‘do I do this? Do I forget how big, great, smart, powerful God is? do I complain about how He does (or doesn’t) do things? do I minimize God to a mental idol, a pathetic idea that hardly compares with Who He is?
God is encouraging me to rely on Him, to keep my perspective straight – this world, these trials are nothing compared to Him.
We (I) need a big picture perspective, to see the world (and my life) from God point of view, that will help me soar despite my circumstances.
PRAYER:
Lord, You are awesome and You are good, thank You for holding the whole universe together AND for holding me together. Help me to soar with You! Amen.
Scripture: Isaiah 40:12-31
Observation: Isaiah is describing more of the power and the majesty of the Lord.
Application: Over the past month, there have been a number of passages Psalm 147, Psalm 62, Isaiah 35, Psalm 30, Psalm 35, and even Deuteronomy 6, that speak of the greatness and the power of God. When I read this passage today, for a few brief moments it struck me and reminded me of my older brother….when we were younger and growing up. You see, I have 5 brothers and we grew up living on a farm with lots of jobs and chores we had to do together. Every once in a while an argument would develope and a physical fight would break out. My brother, being older and stronger than me, would usually end up on top of me pushing my head into the floor and not stopping untill I would say “uncle” and admit that he was right, the greatest, the best, never wrong, and all that other stuff. And then, just as he was about to let me up, he would re-nag and do it all over again making me repeat the same words over and over again.
Now I know that God is not like my brother but there are times when I feel that he is doing it to me also…..he forces me to exclaim, proclaim, and admit his greatness and his power. I feel like I am under duress and that he will not quite untill I am chewing on the words!
Prayer: Thank-you Lord for continually getting in my space and my face and making me see you as you really are….great and awesome.
PS. I think I could take my brother now …..but my mom woun’t let me.