He Makes A Way

God has surely been working on me on the inside this year. He has challenged me in what I say I believe about  Him verses the beliefs held in the depths of my heart. How can I tell people He is worthy of our trust and is a faithful Father if I question if He will be faithful to me?  I have seen His goodness and how He can bring beauty from ashes in the past, but how quickly I can forget His faithfulness. My life can display the lack of faith like the Israelites, who just experienced deliverance of captivity and saw mighty miracles by the hand of God, begin to grumble and complain against the God who saved them. Hebrews 4:1-2 says the redeemed Israelites gave up their promised land to wonder through the wilderness because "the word which they heard...[was not] mixed with faith," Jeremiah 17:23 says "Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck, that they might not hear and receive instruction."

How desperately I need The Lord's instruction.

I am thankful for a God who is not finished with me and He continues to carve away and working a new thing in my heart. There are times of darkness where I can't find the light and it feels like a wasteland. He really is there in every season of the soul, faithfully loving me, and He is teaching me to trust Him more.  In the unseen and times where I wonder if He is done with me, He makes a way.

"Behold I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up! Can you not perceive it? I am making a  way in the wilderness, and streams in the wasteland to give drink to my chosen people, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise." Isa 43:19-21

 



 

Where are  you chosen one? Maybe you are in your own desert places. He is a God who sees (Gen. 16:13)  and He rejoices over you with singing (Zep. 3:17) even when we cannot see it. He may be making a new thing in you.



The verse earlier on in Isaiah chapter 43:2 says ‘When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.’  It’s not  ‘if you pass through waters'  but ‘when’.  It will happen. You will go through difficult, dark times but He will be with you, making a way to the praise of His glory and grace.

And when we are brought out of the wilderness into the promised land, we are equipped to comfort others as we have been comforted (2 Cor 1:3-4) and strengthen our brothers (Luke 22:32). No dark night of soul is ever wasted in God's economy. “It is God who is at work in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” (Phil. 2:13,14)

 

I want to trust in His faithfulness even when I don't understand. I want to trust Him even when I cannot see. I want my life to line up with what I say I believe. I pray that for you too, chosen one. Let's lean in hard to the presence of God in this New Year. Let's give Him open ears and heart to hear Him teach us through His Word what it means to follow Him and trust Him with our lives. Let's give Him open eyes that we may see others around us in their own wasteland to remind them God has not forgotten them. He is still there during obstacles, emotional upheavals, loneliness and devastating circumstances. If everyone walks away in your life, He is there. He is there in your desert places even when those places last weeks or years. He is God in your wasteland and God in your promise land so that we may proclaim His praise.



The lyrics from 'Steady Heart' by Steffany Gretzinger

I can't see what's in front of me.
Still I will trust you.
Steady heart that keeps on going,
Steady love that keeps on holding,
Lead me on.
Steady grace that keeps forgiving,
Steady faith that keeps believing
Lead me on

Verse 2
Though the sky is dark,
And the wind is wild
You'll never leave me
Though the night is long
There is a coming dawn
The light is breaking

Verse 3
And as the dawn breaks
And the clouds clear
In an open space
Together we will run