Isaiah 25:1-2 - O LORD, I will honor and praise your name, for
you are my God. You do such wonderful things! You planned them long ago, and
now you have accomplished them. You turn
mighty cities into heaps of ruins. Cities with strong walls are turned to
rubble. Beautiful palaces in distant lands disappear and will never be rebuilt.
Isaiah started this chapter with a shout out to the God that
had done so much for him and the people he was directed to foretell the future
too. He didn’t just praise God for the good…He thanked God for the mighty
cities that had been turned to rubble. He
thanked God for fulfilling the horrible fates he had to predict to others.
It must have felt odd to him to thank God for
destruction. It must have broken his
heart to utter praise for the lost lives and devastation God had brought in
that time. I empathize with him in this because I remember how very hard it was
to thank God for the divorce….and how much harder it was to thank God for
taking my second husband Mitchell so soon after we were married.
I realized…after I had taken the time to thank him…how much
closer it drew me to God. He used the
brokenness and emptiness I felt in that moment to reveal a ton of sin in my own
life. And when I cried out to God in my complete devastation from losing
Mitchell… I crawled right up in God’s lap.
He used that broken moment to help me realize that I had built a wall
of pride and selfishness around my heart. It was then that God really showed me
how he should be number one…and that I don’t need human love to be happy. It
opened the world of writing to my soul…and showed me one of the tasks he has
given me….a way for me to learn and study his word…and share his truth with
others at the same time.
Thank you God for every good and perfect thing in my
life. Thank you for every tragedy as
well. Thank you for using these times of sorrow to reveal the blessing behind
the loss. Forgive me for ever thinking that I could be anything on my own. Thank you for breaking me…and emptying me of
the mess I was in. Help me to grow
closer to you every moment of every day.
Use me Lord to help others see the purpose in the pain they may be
feeling and thank you for it so they can feel the greatness of your comfort and
love. Amen.
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