Journey In Isaiah

This may not seem Loma life related but for me, it definitely is. It's a constant struggle to find time to have a quiet time with God here at Loma amidst the business of school and the amazing friends I've got as well as now having a roommate. Despite the great community, I definitely have been having to try extra hard to slow down and read but today I did and the Word was really speaking to me so I thought I'd share my thoughts that I thought.

Passages are from Isaiah 43-44

“Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you… fear not, for I am with you; everyone who is called by name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

The Lord God, Yahweh, sees us, His children, His chosen people, as precious, honored, and loved. We were each created for His glory. I feel like this is a huge thing to realize. We weren’t created just to do great things. We weren’t created so that people think we’re great because of our accomplishments, we were created for God's glory, not our own.

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”

So often, we dwell on things in our past but God tells us not to think of the old things. He promises that He is starting something new in us and for us. I find it extremely important that He asked, through Isaiah, “do you not perceive it?” because I think so often, we as people, tend to miss the new things God is doing in our lives because we are thinking too much about things in the past, remaining oblivious to the present.

“I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”

This verse also goes along with our dwelling on our pasts. Therefore, if God doesn’t even remember our sins, why should we? We focus so much on all of the junk that we’ve done in the past and constantly remember our sins and let them destroy us. But, we live under a God that doesn’t even know recall the sins we’ve committed, He’s forgotten them! God doesn’t keep a list of every wrong that you’ve done and hold it over your head, so why do you?

“I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.”

God has not only forgotten our sins, he’s blotted them out, as in gotten rid of them for good, not just thrown them to the side or hidden them as if one would throw dirty clothes under their bed. The clothes one throws under their bed are still there the next day. That’s not what God does with our sin. He has gotten rid of them like mist. Mist is a form of water that is so quickly separated that it quickly vaporizes and disappears as if it was never present. This is what God has done with our sin. He’s spread our sins so far from us that they’re virtually not there anymore. Because of this, God calls us to return to Him, to stop seeking to gain His favor or hide our mistakes, but to return to Him. He has redeemed us. We should walk in the knowledge that we are a redeemed people, knowing that our sins are no longer a part of who we are.

Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The old things have gone and the new things have come.