SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 33
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
O Lord, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress. [Isaiah 33:2] He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure. [Isaiah 33:6]
Isaiah expresses the deep-rooted confidence and hope that those who trust in the Lord have – even when everything is falling apart all around them.
The Lord provides grace, strength, salvation, a solid foundation, a rich store of salvation, wisdom, knowledge.
But the key to this is sincere, genuine loving reverence – “with deepest, tenderest fear” as the hymn says.
Such a person who loves, honours and submits to the Lord as the highest, the best, the ultimate, finds all their daily needs met.

Notice how their loving reverence expresses itself – in a life that honours God and blesses others: He who walks righteously and speaks what is right, who rejects gain from extortion and keeps his hand from accepting bribes, who stops his ears against plots of murder and shuts his eyes against contemplating evil– this is the man who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress. His bread will be supplied, and water will not fail him. [Isaiah 33:15-16]
This is the God-pleasing life – one that loves God and loves people (the fulfillment of the law) – and this is the person that has hope, strength, perseverance through distress and hardship.
And at the end of it all, they will receive never-failing joy and blessing: No one living in Zion will say, “I am ill”; and the sins of those who dwell there will be forgiven. [Isaiah 33:24]
But those who do not love God and love people, and rather live for self and selfish pleasure, they will reap what they have sown – those that betray will be betrayed; those that destroy will be destroyed [Isaiah 33:1]

In this chapter I hear the echo of the prayer Jesus taught His disciples.
This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ [Matthew 6:9-13]
A person oppressed by the evil one, by temptation, by awareness of their guilt and by hunger, looks to God for hope and help, honours His Name and obeys His will.
This person has a deep, deep hope and assurance, no matter what is going on around them, that they are held firmly in the love and power of God their Father.
They do not cower in fear before Him, they lovingly honour and revere Him and genuinely desire to live a God-pleasing life (To do His will on earth, in their own lives, as it is in heaven).
They trust in God for their daily needs, for forgiveness, for strength against temptation and for protection and deliverance from evil.

This is the heart and spirit of a Jesus-follower, humble and submitted to the Lord, trusting in Him even through the tough times, dependent on Him for hope and help.
Is this the spirit that characterizes my prayer?
How about yours?

PRAYER:
Lord, too often my prayers are shallow, or selfish, but today I am reminded to love and revere You deeply, from the heart, and to live for You will all of my being. This is the key to all the treasures that You promise me – help, hope, strength, wisdom, knowledge, healing, forgiveness, and eternal life.