{"id":1573,"date":"2022-01-09T20:34:20","date_gmt":"2022-01-09T19:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=1573"},"modified":"2022-01-09T20:34:22","modified_gmt":"2022-01-09T19:34:22","slug":"this-is-the-way-walk-in-it-isaiah-3015-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=1573","title":{"rendered":"This is the way, walk in it Isaiah 30:15-21"},"content":{"rendered":"

You may know the famous saying often read at the start of the new year, written by Louise Haskins and quoted by King George VI of England in his 1939 Christmas message to the British Empire.
\n\u201cI said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, “Give me a light, that I may tread safely into the unknown,” and he replied, “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
\n\u201cPut your hand into the hand of God.\u201d This new year will be both exciting and challenging. We all need to put our hands into the hand of God!
\nI have spoken before on wonderful God\u2019s promises to his chosen people in Isaiah 43.
\n16 This is what the LORD says\u2014
\nhe who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters,
\n17 who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together,
\nand they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:
\n18 \u2018Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
\n19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
\nI am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
\n20 The wild animals honour me, the jackals and the owls,
\nbecause I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland,
\nto give drink to my people, my chosen,
\n21 \tthe people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.<\/p>\n

We face this new year with the God who is always doing new things. God encourages us to look for the new things he wants to do in our lives and in His Church. God is indeed the God who can do immeasurably more than we can ask, or even imagine!
\nSo we look for the new things He is going to do in 2022.
\nHoly Spirit, we welcome You. Holy Spirit, we welcome You.
\nPlease accomplish in me today Some new work of loving grace, I pray;
\nUnreservedly have Your way. Holy Spirit, we welcome You.
\nWe need God to do new things among us, for a number of reasons. These are exciting days as we are stepping out in faith in our new Building Development Project. This will stretch our finances more than we anticipate and I suspect also interfere with our activities more than we are prepared for. But we are starting this new adventure at a time when the church is actually weaker than it has been in the eleven years since I arrived. Covid has taken its toll on our events and activities. Attendance at our morning services is low \u2013 many have not returned to worshipping in person with us yet and some have moved on. Some of our activities have not begun again and our circle of contacts is much smaller than it was before the lockdowns began. Of course, we are not the only church facing these challenges \u2013 very many churches have been hit even harder than we have. But we certainly need God to do new things among us. As Psalm 127:1 tells us, Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labour in vain.
\nWe cannot rest on our laurels just remembering the things God has done among us in the past.
\nIsaiah 43 18 \u2018Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
\n19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
\nAs we seek to perceive the new things God is doing and seek God\u2019s guidance for the way ahead , for tonight here in Isaiah 30 we find four pointers.
\nIsaiah 30 15 This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says:
\n\u2018In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.
\n16 You said, \u201cNo, we will flee on horses.\u201d Therefore you will flee.
\nYou said, \u201cWe will ride off on swift horses.\u201d Therefore your pursuers will be swift!
\n17 A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee away,
\nAs we go forward with God, we must avoid making the mistakes the Israelites made. It was always God\u2019s plan and God\u2019s desire that His chosen people would find their strength in him. God always wanted His chosen people to trust in Him and depend on him and let His power be revealed in them and through them. But time and again they struggled in their own strength. They put their trust in earthly resources and their own efforts. So things went wrong for them. But that is not how God intended things to be!
\nPsalm 20 6 Now this I know: the LORD gives victory to his anointed.
\nHe answers him from his heavenly sanctuary with the victorious power of his right hand.
\n7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
\n8 They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm.
\nAs we go forward into 2022 we much put our trust completely in God and not in the least in our own human efforts \u2013 not in our own strength or wisdom.
\nGod always wanted his power and glory to be manifested in His chosen people. But they didn\u2019t trust him enough! We must make sure we are depending on God alone.
\nIsaiah 30 15 This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says:
\n\u2018In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.
\nWE need to find our strength in quietness and trust, in repentance and rest. We need to stop trying to do God\u2019s work for him all the time and let God do his mighty deeds among us. I believe that the new things God will do among us in the coming year are exactly that \u2013 new things which GOD will do. Not new things we will invent and work at and make succeed. But new things GOD will do in our midst by his sovereign power.
\nHe longs to do much more than Our faith has yet allowed,
\nTo thrill us and surprise us With His sovereign power.
\nWhere darkness has been darkest The brightest light will shine,
\nHis invitation comes to us, It\u2019s yours and it is mine.
\nCome on in and taste the new wine, The wine of the kingdom,
\nGod is waiting and longing to do new things among us!
\nIsaiah 3018 Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!
\n19 People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you.
\nGod is just waiting for us to cry out to him for help. To acknowledge our complete dependence on Him. Not on our own skill or experience or ideas. But on God\u2019 grace without which we can do nothing.
\nJeremiah 29 11 For I know the plans I have for you,\u2019 declares the LORD, \u2018plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
\nGod has great plans to do new things amongst us. He is just waiting for us to pray to him and seek him with our whole heart! But the new things God is planning to do amongst us will not necessarily be comfortable or easy.
\nIsaiah 30 20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction,
\nThe people of the Exile to whom Isaiah wrote knew all about the bread of adversity and the water of affliction. And that is the destiny of the people of God in every age. Forget the heresy of health, wealth and prosperity. The children of God will not have an easy ride to heaven. 1 Peter, James, 2 Corinthians all, say the same thing.
\n2 Corinthians 4 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus\u2019 sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.
\nFollowing Jesus is not easy or comfortable. The destiny of all Christians is to follow Jesus Christ the suffering servant. If you do not bear the cross you will not wear the crown
\n2 Corinthians 12 9 But he said to me, \u2018My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.\u2019 Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ\u2019s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ\u2019s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
\nSo in the midst of all the excitements of 2022, we should not expect the road to be easy. Many of us could well indeed experience the bread of adversity and the water of affliction in the new things God is going to do. But that will not be a sign that we are failing God or wandering from his path. Rather our sufferings will be the channel through which the glory of God will be revealed. So in the new things God is going to do it will be vitally important that we allow Him to guide us every step of the way. And he gives his chosen people a wonderful promise of his guidance.
\nIsaiah 30 20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. 21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, \u2018This is the way; walk in it.\u2019
\nGood News Bible If you wander off the road to the right or the left, you will hear his voice behind you saying, \u201cHere is the road. Follow it.\u201d
\nWe all need that voice behind us telling us which way to go. Especially when God is doing new things among us. Especially when the going gets tough. We need to hear the voice of God saying \u201cThis is the way, walk in it.\u201d God will speak to us in many ways: through his word the Bible; through spiritual gifts of prophecy and discernment and words of knowledge and wisdom; through dreams and visions. But above all God will speak to each one of us through that still small voice of calm, the Holy Spirit inside each one of us as we seek God\u2019s face in prayer separately and especially together.
\nWe will need God guiding us to the right ways to help back into the church those we have lost contact with over the last two years. We will need God guiding us to the best ways to share the love of Jesus as we emerge from Covid omicron. Probably starting before the end of the year, the church will also need God\u2019s guidance and wisdom to navigate a period of pastoral vacancy, which may be especially challenging if Covid is still casting any kind of shadow over our country by that stage.
\nSo as we step out in faith into this new year and we need put our hands into the mighty hand of God. We need to put our trust in God and not in ourselves.
\n\u2018In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength,
\nWe need to call out to God in prayer.
\nJeremiah 29 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
\nAnd we need to make time and space to listen to the still small voice of calm guiding us.
\nIsaiah 30 . 21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, \u2018This is the way; walk in it.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may know the famous saying often read at the start of the new year, written by Louise Haskins and quoted by King George…<\/span><\/p>\n

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