Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

Hard to wait amid the rubble and the guilt

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Isaiah 63:16-17, 64:4, 6-8
You, Lord, are our father, our redeemer you are named forever.
Why do you let us wander, O Lord, from your ways, and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?
... No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but you doing such great deeds for those who wait for him.
...All of us have become like unclean people, all our good deeds are like polluted rags; we have all withered like leaves, and our guilt carries us away like the wind.
There is none who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to cling to you; for you have hidden your face from us and have delivered us up to our guilt.
Yet, O Lord, you are our father;
we are the clay and you the potter:
we are all the work of your hands.

I grew up working hard. I followed generation after generation of German farmers breaking soil, moving rocks, caring for livestock in blizzards and droughts, getting up very early every morning of every week of every year of their lives.

That hard work that I have become accustomed (addicted?) to moves the earth an inch, protects me from the elements for a season, provides shelter and food and safety for the few people in my family ... but only just for now, only when God touches all that work with blessing. When the wind shifts to calamity, how do I "rouse myself" to cling to Him if all I know is work and holding on and grasping control out of the thin air?

Like all the Bible writers, Isaiah comes back over and over to the one truth that never changes. God is God, and I am not. I need Him, He doesn't need me. He is my source: He gives and I receive. I admire Him, fear Him, respect Him ... I am loved by Him.

I don't have to know how to come to God. He comes to me. He shapes everything (how big is that word, "everything"?), including me, with the touch of his hands. His creativity knows no bounds. There are no limits on his love. He is always making all things new. When He says wait, I will wait. When he says work, I will work.

And I will fear no evil.

Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me, O Lord. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Your meats are tender and warm, and your oils are sweet. By your leave, Lord, I will dwell in your house forever.

Devotions Archive

Hard to wait amid the rubble and the guilt

Sunday, November 30, 2008