It seems that our problems have become God-sized and our God has become small in comparison. In Isaiah 43 the first three verses lay out for us this contrast. The waters of trials become rivers of difficulties, which intensify into fires of destruction.
But He is with us, prevents us from being overwhelmed, and not burned or consumed by our troubles. His person, power, promises, protection, provision, and providence are sure. So how do we get our great God to be God-sized in our lives and our problems to be what they are, an opportunity for our God of power to work?
Isaiah chapters 40 through 53 not only declare the Lord’s prophetic truth, they also are filled with the person of our God and His great work. So we can read these chapters with a two-fold prayer focus. One is to acknowledge the greatness of our God and the second is to take what God does in these chapters and make His working a personal prayer for our lives. Isaiah 40 begins as a request for comfort and a desire for the Lord to speak tenderly to us. Make these two requests to be your personal prayer requests. Then look at these chapters for God’s person and work.
Here are six examples of God’s person and work which can be your personal assurance in 2022:
- The Creator God is still working His creative power in our lives and already knows all He needs to know to do His work. See Isaiah 40:12-14
- The Lord has called us in righteousness and takes us by the hand and keeps us. This covenant-keeping God, provides the light of His truth, an ability to see the truth for our lives, and rescues us from our situations. He is the Lord and requires unconditional, and continuing loyalty and worship. See Isaiah 42:6-8
- Our God is a whole-life God. From our mother’s womb through the whole of our lives to and through old age He will carry us, bear us up, and save us. We will always be His people, the work of His powerful hands. See Isaiah 46:3-4
- We must remember and call to mind God’s past works of power in our lives, and acknowledge He alone is God, has no rivals, and there is no one like Him. He alone has an eternal purpose for our lives according to His wise counsel that will be accomplished in our lives as we trust Him. See Isaiah 46:8-10
- The Lord our Redeemer, the Holy One, is the Lord our God. He teaches us for our benefit and leads us in the way we should go. See Isaiah 48:17
- Trust Him to fulfill these assurances in your life for 2022. Look what He has already done for us in Jesus. See Isaiah 53:3-6
Many years ago, a dear Christian who depended on the Lord’s person, power, promises protection, provision and providence shared Isaiah 58:11 with me:
And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
In 2022, trust the powerful Person and Work of God.
By Delbert Baker, retired BFC pastor
from Newark BFC, Newark, NJ.
