Tag: powerful God

Lift Up Your Eyes

New Testament Reading:  Mark 9

Psalms Reading:  78

*Old Testament Reading:  Isaiah 39-40

Do you not know? Do you not hear?  Has it not been told you from the beginning?  Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?   – Isaiah 40:21 (ESV)

Since we are covering a couple of chapters at a time in the Old Testament, there is a lot of information to consider every day.  Today, chapter 39 tells of a good man doing a bad thing.  King Hezekiah shows all his wealth to the king of Babylon.  King Hezekiah was trying to impress the envoys from Babylon.  He was enjoying the recognition, honor, flattery, and praise from men.  It seems that Hezekiah’s pride made him unable to see the destruction that could come from doing such a thing.  Isaiah tells him plainly in verses 6-7, Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” 

Hezekiah started out as a godly king.  He was given a gift of an additional 15 years of life (see Isaiah 38).  Sadly, he did not use those extra years wisely.   Instead, he became proud and focused on himself.  Something to take from this chapter is that it is how we use our time that matters in the end. 

Beginning in chapter 40, the rest of Isaiah is largely a message of comfort.  Isaiah prophesies about John the Baptist, Jesus, and the reward he will bring.   Isaiah reminds us that God is our Creator and that His creation makes Him evident.  Verses 25-26a say, “To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One.  Lift up your eyes on high and see:  who created these?”  We need only “look up”; to consider there is a God who designed and created everything.  We are told he is mighty, strong in power, everlasting, and does not faint or grow weary. We need to know that about God.  This is also sound advice in general.  To “look up” is to take our eyes off of ourselves.  When we “look up” at God and what He created (this includes other people) we put ourselves in a position to see how God can use us. 

Then Isaiah turns the message a bit, from telling us how powerful God is to telling us that God will give us power and strength.  To whom does he offer these?  To those who “wait for the Lord” (verse 31).  I am not a scholar; I haven’t taken Hebrew or Greek.  I don’t usually get caught up in words, but in studying this passage, I found this word study very interesting.  The word wait in the English language is passive.  Apparently, the Hebrew language has about 25 words for wait.  The one used in Isaiah 40:31 is qavah (kaw-vaw).  Qavah means to wait actively with anticipation or to look eagerly for.  It is sometimes translated as hope.  It is impossible to wait on the Lord without hope. 

Amy Blanchard

Reflection Questions

  1. What does “to wait actively with anticipation” look like for you at this stage of your life?  What are you waiting (hoping) for?
  2. Lift up your eyes; look for God in everything around you.  What/Who do you see? 
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Complaining

Numbers 11-12 and Psalm 42-43

A couple of years prior to Numbers chapter 11, the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt.  They were being mistreated by the Egyptians, and they wanted out!  God answered their plea, and he delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians.  It wasn’t an easy process though, as man could not have done it alone.  God had to perform a number of miracles along the way to free the Israelites. 

If we fast forward back to Numbers 11, the Israelites begin to complain because they are hungry.  They complain to Moses who then complains to God.  It’s as if the Israelites completely forgot all of the miracles that God performed in the first place to get them out of Egypt.  When I read about how the Israelites complain time and time again about being hungry, thirsty, or whatever, I get irritated with them.  I ask how in the world could they complain after all that God has done for them?!

Unfortunately, the more I think about the Israelites complaining, the more I realize similarities between them and many of us today, myself included.  God may not have rescued us from the hands of the Egyptians, but He has done so much more than we could ever begin to ask.  God laid down his own Son for us, so that we could have everlasting life in His coming Kingdom.  That’s powerful!  After all that God has done for us, we still have our bad days.  We still have our days in which we complain to God about the current issues we are experiencing in life.

From the outside looking in, the problems that the Israelites faced seemed like such small issues in the big picture, and the truth of the matter is that they were.  The same could be said about many of the small issues that we face on a daily basis and have the audacity to complain to God about after all He has done for us.  I’m all for being honest with God and expressing our real, raw feelings to God, so I don’t think that’s the issue.  Rather, maybe we shouldn’t let the small issues that we may experience affect us so much.  We need to put all the temporary issues that we experience into perspective.  Most of the issues that a lot of us, myself included, may complain about aren’t even worth complaining about in the first place! 

A small bump in the road may seem like a giant mountain when we are going through it, but hindsight is often able to put those issues into perspective.  Let’s work on putting those small issues into perspective in the moment, which is a lot easier said than done.  If we do this, then our positive attitudes will uplift us and those around us.

A note from Psalms:

“Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling!” Psalm 43:3

This ties directly in to our conversation yesterday about being led by God.  Pray for God to send out his light and truth to us to lead us where He sees fit.

-Kyle McClain

Links to today’s Bible reading – Numbers 11-12 and Psalm 42-43

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Calm in the Storm

Mark 4-6

mark 4

Tuesday, May 9

Do you like the power of a storm or are you terrified by that power? Are you one to sit on the porch and watch as a thunderstorm rolls in or run for cover when it is forecasted? I have always been captivated by the incredible power of a storm. I love to feel the temperature change as the front rolls in, you can almost feel the electric in the air as the lightning gets closer and closer. As I watch a storm moving in I can’t help but think of the fact that as powerful as the storm is it cannot come close to the power of our creator. The storm rages in its fury and is uncontrolled as the lightning strikes and the thunder crashes. God is powerful and in control, He put His power to use as He spoke and the universe came into existence.

 

As we read of the storm in Mark 4 we find that this storm raged on and on.  We can almost see the disciples frantically running around the boat trying to secure everything and keep the boat afloat while our Messiah quietly sleeps in the stern. As the disciples rush to wake him and ask how he could be sleeping at a time like this he calmly says to the sea, “Hush, be still.” The wind stops, the waves calm and they go peacefully through the rest of their journey. Sometimes I think we are like the disciples, we get so worked up over what is happening around us that we forget who is living in our hearts. We forget that Jesus has promised that he will never leave us. We forget that God has called us for a purpose. We forget that even if we don’t survive this storm, we have the promise of eternal life in the Kingdom of God. In the storms of life never lose sight of the One who holds you! Never lose sight of the one who can either calm the storm or calm you!

-Bill Dunn

 

(Photo Credit:http://thedailyverses.blogspot.com/2013/09/mark-440-isaiah-4110.html)