October 11 – Your Vindication (Isaiah 54:15-17)

“No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me, declares the Lord.”(Isaiah 54:17)

IN WORD:
A cold, hard truth in this fallen world is that those who side with God will share His enemies. They are numerous, and they can be vicious. They often have little regard for truth and a great capacity for scheming. David found it to be so with Saul, the prophets discovered it with their prophetic rivals, Jesus experienced it with Roman & Jewish leaders, and Paul heard it from other preachers and churches. Whenever God does a great work, either in your heart or in your world, it will be greatly opposed. Those who are His servants will face the opposition firsthand.
The key to victory in such a situation is not in retaliation or rebuttal. It is in calm faith and patience. None of the above examples went on the attack. We who claim God as our defender must not take up our own defense. We must stand firm, and that means we must sometimes speak out. But we can never challenge ungodly attacks with like responses. And those who trust God have no need to do so, anyway. He gives us His promise: He will protect us. No weapon will prevail, no accusation will stick — at least not in the long run. God has a way of vindicating His servants that is beautiful in the end. The aggressors fade into oblivion; the righteous remain in His glory.

IN DEED:
Have you been under attack? It may be the overt work of aggressive people, or it may be the subtle work of devious spirits. Either way, your response is to be godly. God has allowed the attack, perhaps to strengthen you, to teach you godly warfare, or to instill faithful patience. So be faithful and be patient. The deeper your trouble, the more satisfying your vindication in the end. But the vindication can only come from God. When we try to work it out ourselves, it loses its savor. Let your accusers murmur. The promise of God will be forever fulfilled in its time.

“Patience is our martyrdom.” -Gregory the Great-

October 10 – His Prescription for Obedience (Isaiah 51:12-16)

“Who are you that you fear mortal men, the sons of men, who are but grass, that you forget the Lord your Maker?
(Isaiah 51:12-13)

IN WORD:
Our actions are often guided by other people more than they are guided by God’s Holy Spirit. What a travesty of the Divine plan! The One who created us, who has bought us back, who sustains us daily, is the One we push to the back burner in order to please the fickle opinions of transient minds. How can we break out of this fear of man?
We can escape only by an intentional, emphatic focus on who our God is. We must rehearse his Word and His past mercies in our minds. We must train our hearts to care first and foremost for Him. We must understand the relative lack of power of people compared to the almighty Lord of hosts. We must remember that He holds heaven and earth, time and eternity, welfare and calamity, and the keys to every human heart in His hand. There is no one else we try to impress who wields such power. Not even close.
God’s prescription for our obedience is to let Him fill our minds. But we so often fail at this. We’re worried about others laughing at us, criticizing us, looking down on us, and shutting us out of their circles. Instead, we should be preoccupied with the awesome prestige of our God: He alone can comfort us (v. 12), He made us (v. 13), He stretched out the vast expanse of the heavens and laid the firm foundations of earth (v. 13), He runs the currents of the oceans (v. 15), and He established a people for Himself (v. 16). Who else would guide our paths?

IN DEED:
It is a delusion of fallen sinners that causes us to place more value on human opinion than on God. And we’re hypocrites about it: We stress our independence and freedom, yet enslave ourselves to public opinion and the shifting sands of culture.
God calls His servants to be released from captivity. The spirit that is full of Him will not be so deluded. His opinion alone matters, and it is liberating. Stand firm on His truth, never be moved, and let fear be far from your heart!

“It is only the fear of God that can deliver us from the fear of man.” -John Witherspoon-

October 9 – The Beat of God’s Drum (Isaiah 51:7-8)

“Do not fear the reproach of men or be terrified by their insults.”(Isaiah 51:7)

IN WORD:
Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you had no concern for others’ opinions? Would your choices be different? We’d like to think not; few of us consider how swayed we are by our desire for a good reputation. But think about it. How many things do we do (or not do) simply because of how it will look to our family, our friends, our co-workers, or even strangers? We’re affected from the clothes we wear, to the parties we attend, to the jobs we take, to the neighborhoods we move to — and, unfortunately, to the words we say and the morals we live by. We are far more influenced by cultural norms than we want to be.
Consider all of those who really stand out in Scripture as obedient servants of God — Abraham, Noah, Moses, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and so on. What do they have in common? They cared more about what God thought of them than what others thought of them. Their reputation in the eyes of God was of greater value than their reputation in the eyes of men. Even in the case of Jeremiah, who grieved over his adversaries’ harsh words, obedience to God was more treasured than acceptance among peers. Those who make a difference in God’s Kingdom are those who refuse to conform to the kingdom of this world.

IN DEED:
God calls us to a holy stubbornness. It’s not a stubbornness that turns a petty disagreement into a major war or that will not be teachable under any circumstances. It’s the kind of resolve that does not go with the flow of the culture. We cannot speak only of what is politically correct — that’s a terribly un-prophetic thing to do. We cannot sacrifice biblical standards for modern moral expectations. We cannot bow to the pressures of our peers or blend with the contexts of elitism, corporatism, politicalism, classism, or any other -ism out there. We must march to the beat of the ultimately different Drummer — God Himself. We must seek only His voice and follow only His commands. We must strip ourselves of all hindrances to discipleship, and we must not be swayed.

“Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream.”
-Malcolm Muggeridge-

October 8 – Strength in Fellowship (Isaiah 50:4-9)

“He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.”(Isaiah 50:4)

IN WORD:
Isaiah spoke words of judgment and words of mercy to a crowd that was skeptical of both. His calling flew in the face of other “prophets” who were representing God falsely. The judgments on other nations god told through him were welcome news; the judgments he foretold of God’s chosen people were not. In short, he followed a calling that often went against his culture and challenged his courage. He represented a holy God to an unrighteous people.
So do we. Our calling is strikingly similar to Isaiah’s. We may not be assigned the task of foretelling judgment with the specifics Isaiah saw, but we are assigned to live purely, speak truthfully, and witness to both the holiness and the mercy of our God. Sometimes the message is popular. More often, it is not. Our calling, like Isaiah’s, often goes against our culture and challenges our courage. It sets us up for total dependence on our Creator.
Isaiah could fulfill His calling because he could hear the voice of God. When we think we might have heard something that sounded like it could have been the voice of God, we go out into our world with fear, trembling, and very little conviction. When, on the other hand, God wakens us in the morning and tunes our ear to His voice, we can walk in the strength of faith. Our teachable nature becomes the key to our confidence.

IN DEED:
Those who are not teachable are trying to talk themselves into security and confidence. They appear sure of themselves, but deep down they aren’t. Those who are teachable, however, hear from God. There is no greater boost to one’s faith than to know that however strange or countercultural the voice we’ve heard, it is the voice of the Almighty — the invincible warrior of God, the Sovereign who sways human affections, the Beginning and the End. There’s a calm assurance in the one who knows he or she is in fellowship with the Creator. A heart sensitive to Him will go forth in intensely certain faith. It has met with God.

“God desires and is pleased to communicate with us through the avenues of our minds, our wills, and our emotions.”
-A.W. Tozer-

October 7 – Hope in Power (Isaiah 50:1-3)

“Was my arm too short to ransom you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you?”(Isaiah 50:2)

IN WORD:
What keeps us from obeying God fully? What stands in the way of our turning that last vestige of personal autonomy over to His authority? It can’t be that His will is questionable — we saw that in Isaiah 48:17. It can’t be that His willingness to forgive and restore is lacking — we saw that in Isaiah 48:18. Could it be that His power is insufficient to meet our needs? Do we question His ability to intervene in our deepest troubles and our darkest hours?
We would never openly question in our minds the power of God. We know better. We believe that He created this world and that He holds it in His hand. But how relevant is that power to us? Sometimes we wonder. When a situation is somewhat difficult, we feel that prayer may still have a chance. But is a situation is really bleak, we give up our faith that an answer will come. The degree of difficulty influences our perception of God’s ability to work.
Why? Why would the level of difficulty have anything to do with whether we believe God will answer or not? He has been clear throughout Scripture: There’s nothing too difficult for Him! We believe in the God who parts the seas, who slays Goliath, who heals the blind and the lame, who cleanses lepers, who turns water into wine, and who cannot be held in a tomb! What is it about our situation that causes us to give up our hope?

IN DEED:
If you’ve ever maintained hope when problems are solvable and then give up hope when they are not, you have forgotten the God of the impossible. Your situation does not scare Him. He is not desperately trying to figure it out. He takes great pleasure in bursting into an impossible situation with an answer no one had thought of. His greatest reluctance is the lack of faith engaging Him from the middle of that situation. He looks for faith so that when He bursts in, He will be recognized. It must be genuine faith, persistent faith, and bold faith. It’s absence, as in Isaiah 50, causes Him great grief. Remember that He stands ready to save.

“What is impossible to God? Not that which is difficult to His power, but that which is contrary to His nature.”
-St. Ambrose-

October 6 – Peace Like a River (Isaiah 48:17-19)

“If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea.”(Isaiah 48:18)

IN WORD:
If only. Those two words are small in their grammatical place meant but enormous in their tragic implications. They mean that things could have been different. Much different. They mean that if the response of God’s people had been other than what it was, much heartache could have been avoided. Blessings would have flowed, but it didn’t. If only.
Like Isaiah, we’ve spoken them, too. Everyone has regrets. That’s part of living in a fallen world. We know that if we had been more diligent and faithful, our lives today could be radically different than they turned out. Even if we’re happy right now, we wonder what could have been and what would have been. Why? Because sooner or later we come to a melancholy realization: Life can always be better.
We seek the God of comfort to tell us why bad things have happened — why we’re in debt, why we lost that job, why our family isn’t a happy one, why our dreams aren’t fulfilled. But deep down we know. It isn’t because God let us down; it’s because we let Him down; We didn’t live up to His instructions. That dreaded rebellious streak that we all seem to have, has led us in futile directions contrary to the explicit teaching of our Maker. We don’t know what we were thinking when we went away from Him, but we want to come back. His plan is better; we know that now. We want to be restored to a place of peace like a river and righteousness like the sea.

IN DEED:
That’s the beauty of the gospel of grace. It never puts us in an unredeemable position. Whenever we say, “If only,” God says, “Now you can.” Maybe there are lost years, but they are past. God can redeem them for a bountiful future. The important thing is that we’ve learned that His voice is not demanding for His own ego, but insistent for our own good. We can follow Him with trust that His way leads to peace and righteousness. We must follow Him with that trust. If we can, we’ll be blessed. If only.

“Stayed upon Jehovah, heats are fully blessed, finding as He promised, perfect peace and rest.” -Frances Havergal-

October 5 – Suspicion of God (Isaiah 48:17-19)
“I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.”(Isaiah 48:17)

IN WORD:
A rich young man came to Jesus one day and asked Him some spiritually sensitive questions. He wanted to be right with God. Jesus gave him an answer, but in the end it wasn’t what he wanted to hear. He would have had to let go of his idols — his wealth, his agenda, his will (Matthew 19:16-22). Underlying his refusal to accept the call of Jesus was a suspicion that perhaps God didn’t have his best in mind. He would have to look after himself.
This verse in Isaiah only becomes relevant when there’s a conflict between our desires and God’s. When we and God want the same thing, we have no trouble walking His way. But when obedience contradicts the leaning of our heart, we have a heart problem. We find it difficult to conform to the will of God. Underlying that difficulty is the same suspicion the rich man had — the thought that perhaps God’s way will not actually work out to our advantage in the end.
We must sacrifice a lot of good theology to believe that. We must reject the love of God or the wisdom of His will if we are to place our own agenda above His. But how easily we do that! It is imperceptible to us when we are making our decisions, but it is a prominent eyesore in the spiritual realm. Disobedience implies that we’re more concerned about our well-being than God is. Such thin ice is a dangerous place to be.

IN DEED:
God doesn’t want us to consider His will as an option. He wants us to pursue it as an imperative. But He doesn’t want us to pursue it with suspicion in our hearts. He’d rather we understand: Even when His will is hard, it really will lead to the best possible outcome for us.
How the heart of God grieves when His people will not follow His wise direction! It is like a father watching his child harm them-self. It isn’t rational, but sin never is. We must replace our irrational behavior with a deep belief in the goodness of God. His teaching is always the right one.

“There are no disappointments to those whose wills are buried in the will of God.” -Frederick William Faber-

October 4 – The Voice of a Prophet (2 Chronicles 36:15-16)

“He who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains understanding.”(Proverbs 15:32)

IN WORD:
The bulk of the Bible between Genesis 3 and Revelation 19 is largely corrective. In many different ways, it addresses an utterly fallen human condition, through remedy and through judgment. It points out — repeatedly — that we are in need of a change.
That’s not a very popular position in this world. We don’t like to be confronted with our sin. Many have emphatically rejected Christianity because there are commands and judgments in its Scriptures. We often ignore the God who loves His creation enough to divert us from our own destructive ways. But whenever we’re out of line, He must point it out. Through His Word, given through His prophets, God speaks. And whether we like it or not, His voice often calls us to be dramatically different.
The voice of a true prophet is always a voice crying in the wilderness. It is a lonely voice of redirection, showing all of us wanderers how to get to the city of God. It is often not welcome. If it were, it would not have been necessary to begin with. This world doesn’t like correction, and it’s often not interested in getting to God’s city. We simply can’t afford to absorb its independent ways.

IN DEED:
When the prophets speak — whether they are the prophets of Scripture or the prophets of our age — we must listen. The loving Father will always correct His children, and we must be open to His correction. Not to have ears that hear Him is suicide. It is like walking off a cliff because we’ve ignored the true path we were pointed to. It just doesn’t make sense.
Do not stress about the affront to your ego that the Word of God will spark. It is a loving affront. Can you hear it? It is the voice of your Father, and it will lead to life. Be sure to heed the voice of discipline. It will bear the marks of love, and it will always point you home.

“The voice of God is a friendly voice. No one need fear to listen to it unless he has already made up his mind to resist it.”
-A.W. Tozer-

October 3 – Timing (Psalm 27)

“Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”
(Psalm 27:14)

IN WORD:
Why does the Bible so insist on our waiting? We are given instruction after instruction to “wait on God.” There is story after story about someone who wanted to rush Him — Abraham, Saul, Peter, and many, many more. Why are we always being told — not so subtly, either — to slow down?
Because our timing is almost invariably faster than God’s. His agenda for a situation includes deep workings and intricate details. We just aim for superficial symptoms. He intends to grind His grain very, very fine — an excruciating work on our character that will not let coarseness remain. Or, to use another metaphor, He burns His ore long and hot, removing not just the impurities that can be seen with the naked eye, but all that exist. We usually don’t care about such thoroughness. We want to get out of our difficult situation quickly or to achieve our success suddenly. For us, time is of the essence. For God, time is essential.
A direct correlation to the wisdom we learn from God is the patience our hearts can tolerate. Foolishness is impatient. Wisdom knows the God who redeems us and can look patiently with hope toward His deliverance and His victory. We don’t have to know how things will turn out; we know the God who is sovereign over those things.

IN DEED:
What does that mean at a practical level? It means that answers to prayers often see delayed in our minds but are decisive in God’s. It means that deliverance often seems slow to us, but to God, it is already accomplished. It means that when we act on our impulses, we’re violating His patient plans. It means that when our blood pressure is rising and our plans are sweating, God’s voice is always saying, “Be still. Settle down. I am on My throne!”
Can you hear Him? If you’re in a rush, probably not. But how many times was Jesus in a rush? How often does the Word describe God as panicked? How many people who have invested their lives in Him have been let down in the end? Relax. Wait. Be strong; and take heart.

“On every level of life, hurry and impatience are sure marks of an amateur.” -Evelyn Underhill-

October 2 – In His Dwelling (Psalm 27)

“In the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling.”
(Psalm 27:5)

IN WORD:
We tell ourselves frequently that God will keep us safe, and there are numerous scriptural promises that will back that up. But there’s an often neglected element of those promises that we need to emphasize. God will keep us safe in His dwelling.
What does that mean? David surely thought of the tabernacle and the planned temple when he wrote. Are we to view our church buildings — or even the now non-existent temple of Jerusalem — as the locale of God’s safekeeping? We know better, of course. But what does it mean, specifically, to be in God’s dwelling? When can we know He’s keeping us safe?
Dwelling in the house of the Lord is a state of mind and a condition of the heart. Or perhaps it would be better to consider it a state of faith. Our physical location isn’t the key; the overflow of David’s heart in verse 4 is. We are to dwell where God is, and, in New Testament terminology, let Him dwell in us. It is to be an everyday attitude. And we are to have a continual mind-set of awe and inspiration. If we are seeking God with all our hearts; if our desire is to dwell wherever He is, regardless of what it takes to get there; and if we’d just love to gaze upon His beauty; then we are in the safety of His strength. We’ve got nothing — absolutely nothing — to fear.

IN DEED:
That doesn’t mean, of course, that God only keeps us safe when we’re perfect. It doesn’t even mean that He never keeps us safe when we’re recklessly out of His will. In His mercy, He often does. But we can’t be confident in our rebellion. If our hearts are turned away from Him, either in hardness or lukewarmness, we lose our confidence in His shelter.
But the heart that is inclined toward Him, though it may go through hardship and pain, will never go through catastrophe. He will not allow it. Suffering is a part of this world, and He does not eliminate it for us yet. But the presence of the Lord is a safe place. Nothing touches us there without His specific permission. There’s no better place to be.

“I know not the way God leads me, but well do I know my Guide.” -Martin Luther-