Isaiah: Lord have mercy on me.
Five and a half years ago while recovering from surgery, I spent a lot of time in my favorite book, Isaiah. I thought one day I might publish my story. I saved countless entries, and now I look back and see them as stone's of remembrance for me, to celebrate His work that continues in my heart. I read some journal entries this morning from 2010, and God blessed me. So if you're an Isaiah fan, you might be encouraged here. I am not a theologian, so I just read and pray and write. There are several posts listed by date. His Word says "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. "(John 10:27 ESV). Keep or toss. :)
- · 2/22/10 I'm reading Isaiah everyday, my favorite book. This section is so good about trusting God, not people. We can love people without fear because He is the one holding us. ("perfect love casts out fear 1 John 4:18) Everyone fears someone, sometime, or tries too hard to please sometimes. This is so comforting. He is our everything!
12 “I, yes I, am the one who comforts you.
So why are you afraid of mere humans,
who wither like the grass and disappear?
13 Yet you have forgotten the Lord, your Creator,
the one who stretched out the sky like a canopy
and laid the foundations of the earth
... And I have put my words in your mouth
and hidden you safely in my hand.
I stretched out the sky like a canopy
and laid the foundations of the earth.
I am the one who says to Israel,
‘You are mine!’”
· 2/26/10
Isaiah
55:10-13
10
“The rain and snow come down from the heavens
and stay on the ground to water the earth.
They cause the grain to grow,
producing seed for the farmer
and bread for the hungry.
11 It is the same with my word.
I send it out, and it always produces fruit.
It will accomplish all I want it to,
and it will prosper everywhere I send it.
12 You will live in joy and peace.
The mountains and hills will burst into song,
and the trees of the field will clap their hands!
13 Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow.
Where nettles grew, myrtles will sprout up.
These events will bring great honor to the Lord’s name;
they will be an everlasting sign of his power and love.
and stay on the ground to water the earth.
They cause the grain to grow,
producing seed for the farmer
and bread for the hungry.
11 It is the same with my word.
I send it out, and it always produces fruit.
It will accomplish all I want it to,
and it will prosper everywhere I send it.
12 You will live in joy and peace.
The mountains and hills will burst into song,
and the trees of the field will clap their hands!
13 Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow.
Where nettles grew, myrtles will sprout up.
These events will bring great honor to the Lord’s name;
they will be an everlasting sign of his power and love.
· 2/26/10
My sweet
friends, if my emails are getting annoying...pray me off the couch!!! I just go bonkers when I read Isaiah, especially the second half! I just
want you to feel the same encouragement that I feel!! I love you! God
loves you!
He heals the
crushed in spirit and the humble...with courage...hang on! That word
"crushed" says it all to me...I feel the "crush" as I type
the word...we've all been there...but when "surrender to God" and
"humbleness" meet with "crushed" it makes a
beautiful "Revival of the soul"...I can feel those words too!
Isaiah 57:15
15 “The high and lofty one who lives in eternity,
the Holy One, says this:
“I live in the high and holy place
with those whose spirits are contrite and humble.
I restore the crushed spirit of the humble
and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.”
He
lives to care for the poor through us, He wants to heal and protect us!
All of you giving of yourselves through His strength are
directly in His will. The giving can be to any kind of poor, poor in
spirit, poor in money, poor in health...and the giving comes in many
forms: prayer, love, attention, money, time...don't compare your calling
with anyone else...just give of yourselves as He gently leads.
Isaiah 58:6-9
6
“No, this is the kind of fasting I want:
Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Let the oppressed go free,
and remove the chains that bind people.
7 Share your food with the hungry,
and give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them,
and do not hide from relatives who need your help.
Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Let the oppressed go free,
and remove the chains that bind people.
7 Share your food with the hungry,
and give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them,
and do not hide from relatives who need your help.
8
“Then your salvation will come like the dawn,
and your wounds will quickly heal.
Your godliness will lead you forward,
and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.
9 Then when you call, the Lord will answer.
‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.
and your wounds will quickly heal.
Your godliness will lead you forward,
and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.
9 Then when you call, the Lord will answer.
‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.
“Remove
the heavy yoke of oppression.
Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors!
Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors!
Julie
· 3/5/10
Dear
family and friends, I am getting off the couch a little bit! But, enjoying this season of my body healing and my soul being fed, filled,
revived and restored! I'm just sharing from the heart. Just putting it out there, hoping not to clog your inbox. Please feel
free to delete, God knows who needs encouraging, I don't!
I know God wants me to share what HE has shared with me about receiving forgiveness from God and a clean slate! Not everyone struggles with this, but I did for most of my life. I was a compulsive confessor as a child, fearing God in the wrong way. If you struggle ore have every struggled with receiving forgiveness, this is huge
You might already know the passage in Psalm 103:12, it is used a lot.
" as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." This is a powerful passage that shows how the Cross has removed out sins from God, when we repent.
Well, there is a fresh picture of this in Isaiah. God brought this to me a few years back when I struggled with condemnation and was not able to even grasp forgiveness! But before I go there, another passage tells how His "mercies are new every morning"
I know God wants me to share what HE has shared with me about receiving forgiveness from God and a clean slate! Not everyone struggles with this, but I did for most of my life. I was a compulsive confessor as a child, fearing God in the wrong way. If you struggle ore have every struggled with receiving forgiveness, this is huge
You might already know the passage in Psalm 103:12, it is used a lot.
" as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." This is a powerful passage that shows how the Cross has removed out sins from God, when we repent.
Well, there is a fresh picture of this in Isaiah. God brought this to me a few years back when I struggled with condemnation and was not able to even grasp forgiveness! But before I go there, another passage tells how His "mercies are new every morning"
Lamentations
3:21-24
"Yet I still dare to hope
when I remember this:
"Yet I still dare to hope
when I remember this:
The
faithful love of the Lord never
ends!
His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance;
therefore, I will hope in him!”
His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance;
therefore, I will hope in him!”
But
sometimes I think passages are mentioned to us so many times that we don't really hear the message.
Years back, I was struggling with compulsive thinking, depression, and fighting
an eating disorder. I had to fight everyday, and everyday I would make it
a little longer before I fell. The battle was fierce. In God's time
and by His grace and mercy, I found strength and victory. Healing and
victory came in repeating HIS Word over and over and over, not trying to
memorize...trying to survive! This next passage was one of those that I
was clinging to as truth.
This passage mentions clouds and morning mist, things that are gone in minutes! God's call to return to Him never ceases to amaze me! The whole book of Isaiah is a call to return. I still get stuck in ruts sometimes, and this verse always brings me freedom and hope to move on, out of my sin.
This passage mentions clouds and morning mist, things that are gone in minutes! God's call to return to Him never ceases to amaze me! The whole book of Isaiah is a call to return. I still get stuck in ruts sometimes, and this verse always brings me freedom and hope to move on, out of my sin.
Isaiah
44:22
"I have swept away your offenses like a cloud,
your sins like the morning mist.
Return to me,
for I have redeemed you."
"I have swept away your offenses like a cloud,
your sins like the morning mist.
Return to me,
for I have redeemed you."
The
morning mist leaves everyday, clouds blow by and the same cloud never
returns! God see our sins, "offenses" like the morning
mist! Confess and go in His strength! A fresh start!
· 3/8/10
I am sharing one last favorite from Isaiah. There are many more, but I had not
thought (or God did not suggest! Because I would make you crazy!!!)
to jot them to you until recently. I bet you have them all underlined
anyway. Maybe you will go dig for some more, but these have been some of
the nuggets from times in my past until now in Isaiah. To be
honest, I really wasn't going to send any more out...just tired right
now. But God would not leave me alone about it, so there must be at least
one friend God wants to encourage today.
You
know that I am not a scholar, so
it's just simple minded clinging here. I am sure there is so much contextual information and prophecy that I
don't understand. But that is not my goal. My goal is to
testify to the power of God's Word and how God has used it in my life.
Mini summary about the POWER of God's Word:
Mini summary about the POWER of God's Word:
Hebrews 4:12 "His Word is full of living power." Proverb 4:21-22 "Don't lose sight of MY Words, Let them penetrate deep within your heart, for they bring life and radiant health to anyone who discovers their meaning." And of course, Is 55:10-11 which I shared another day, 10 “The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry.11 It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it."
OK, so last little bit here. How do
we win the battle is relentless it seems. And we often see it played out in
PEOPLE, ACCIDENTS, ILLNESS, REBELLION, HURT! The physical realm. But
there is so much more going on. The HEAVENLY REALM. We
were not meant to fight alone or even understand everything. But I know
that God tells us that NO WEAPON will defeat us, and interestingly the
"tongue" is part of the battle here used for bad or for good.
Isaiah
54:17 (NASB)
17No weapon that is formed against you will prosper;
And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their vindication is from Me," declares the LORD. “
17No weapon that is formed against you will prosper;
And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their vindication is from Me," declares the LORD. “
I take this
verse and speak it out loud. That ultimately NO WEAPON of the enemy
(tongue, illness, accident...) will win! In the end, our heritage as
children of God, and His righteousness is our vindication for all
eternity! Sometimes trials are allowed by God and I am not declaring
every hardship is the enemy. But I'm betting "giving up" is of the enemy!
So then
Paul explains things a bit!
2
Corinthians 10 (NIV)
3For though we live in the world, we do not
wage war as the world does. 4The
weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish
strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that
sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."
I used this verse so often back when I struggled for the transformation of my mind! The compulsive, paranoid, fearful, self-hating cycle of thoughts that would crash on me like the ocean waves all day long, until with God's powerful Word, the tide began to go out! Oh...that soft smooth sand with little flickers of crab life scattering about...new life, new thinking!
I also learned that speaking out praise was truly a powerful weapon! Oh, how our Maker loves to hear our praise! I'm telling you, when my kids say "I love you mommy" it breathes life into me! Just multiply that times infinity and know that God loves to hear that from us! The "weapon connection" is in this next verse:
I used this verse so often back when I struggled for the transformation of my mind! The compulsive, paranoid, fearful, self-hating cycle of thoughts that would crash on me like the ocean waves all day long, until with God's powerful Word, the tide began to go out! Oh...that soft smooth sand with little flickers of crab life scattering about...new life, new thinking!
I also learned that speaking out praise was truly a powerful weapon! Oh, how our Maker loves to hear our praise! I'm telling you, when my kids say "I love you mommy" it breathes life into me! Just multiply that times infinity and know that God loves to hear that from us! The "weapon connection" is in this next verse:
Psalm
149
3
Let them praise his name with dancing
and make music to him with tambourine and harp...
and make music to him with tambourine and harp...
6
May the praise of God be in their mouths
and a double-edged
sword in their hands,
There are
many verses detailing how faith and speaking
out truth were the weapons, not strength or willpower! Just see
Hebrews 11 for the many people of faith. But also notice at the end of
the chapter, they did not all receive what they thought...their victory was on
the side of eternity. We can never
forget that! God is outside of
time and space, and SO IS OUR DESTINY AS HIS CHILDREN!
But what a
comfort found in this next verse. "The eternal God is your refuge, and His everlasting arms are under
you...He drives out the enemy before you; He cries out, "Destroy
them!"
Deuteronomy
33:25-27 (NIV)
25 May the bolts of your gates be of iron and bronze;
may you be secure all your days.”
26 “There is no one
like the God of Israel.
He rides across the heavens to help you,
across the skies in majestic splendor.
27 The eternal God is your refuge,
and his everlasting arms are under you.
He drives out the enemy before you;
he cries out, ‘Destroy them!’
He rides across the heavens to help you,
across the skies in majestic splendor.
27 The eternal God is your refuge,
and his everlasting arms are under you.
He drives out the enemy before you;
he cries out, ‘Destroy them!’
I often need to slow down and
surrender, give up trying to control, giving up trying to map it out. God
has been walking me through that again, even now. When the sweetness of
surrender met with faith washes over me, "the tide begins to go
out" and peace begins to settle in. What a relief! And
the Word of God is there for me to cling to and speak out, not always
understanding, but KNOWING. Then Psalm
51:15 "Unseal my lips that I may sing your praise!" David's
cry after asking for and receiving forgiveness.
I don't know, was I just rambling
here? I can't wrap my arms around it! But, I love Isaiah and how it
takes you through the journey, past, present and future. Be blessed
today!
Here's My Heart Lord, David Crowder
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