Isaiah 43:18-19 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Today's episode talks about how important it is to not stay stuck in the past. It also talks about how God may send help this time in a way that is different than last time. He is doing a new thing, so we must be on the lookout for it or we may miss it. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
I Am Doing A New Thing!
Isaiah 43:18-19 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
I chose this verse because it made with think of the Chosen and it also made me think about what we talked about a lot in Encounter Ministries, which is a Renewal of the mind. In the Chosen people are always saying Jesus is doing things in a new way. It’s like He is teaching similar stuff to what they already know and yet He is saying it in a completely new way. There are shirts with sayings on them from the Chosen and two of them are “We are not what we were,” and “Get used to different.” These shirts show us that after you have encountered Jesus, truly encountered Him, you are not the same, and that is a good thing.
I wanted to look up the meaning of this verse just so my thoughts on the verse didn’t override what the verse was actually saying. I am glad I did because I was focusing mostly on the words, “I am doing a new thing!” This was what made me choose this verse because Jesus was doing a new thing during his 3 years of ministry. He was doing and saying things that people hadn’t done or said before. He was not afraid to speak the truth, the harsh realities to everyone and yet he spoke them with love. He spoke them in a way they could actually hear them and be changed by them. Do we let the words we read in the Bible change us? I was thinking this type of renewal of mind is what God was talking about in this verse. However, after reading more about this verse, I think it is about a renewal, but maybe not exactly what I was thinking.
The first part of the verse is saying, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.” God does not want His people to focus on their past. Sometimes we can get stuck focusing on our past and where we have been instead of looking ahead to where we are going. I don’t think it was just about the problems they had in the past, I don’t think God wanted them to think about how He had helped them in the past either. The next verse says, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” God is telling them He is going to help them in a different way than He has helped them in the past. Do you know why it is important to tell them this?
Have you ever been expecting things to look a certain way and when they don’t you dismiss them? What if you were so sure God was going to save you in the same way He did last time, that you missed the help He sent this time? There is a parable of a drowning man that I think illustrates this idea. A fellow was stuck on his rooftop in a flood. He was praying to God for help. Soon a man in a rowboat came by and the fellow shouted to the man on the roof, “Jump in, I can save you.”The stranded fellow shouted back, “No, it’s OK, I’m praying to God and he is going to save me.” So the rowboat went on. Then a motorboat came by. “The fellow in the motorboat shouted, “Jump in, I can save you.” To this the stranded man said, “No thanks, I’m praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith.” So the motorboat went on. Then a helicopter came by and the pilot shouted down, “Grab this rope and I will lift you to safety.” To this the stranded man again replied, “No thanks, I’m praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith.” So the helicopter reluctantly flew away. Soon the water rose above the rooftop and the man drowned. He went to Heaven. He finally got his chance to discuss this whole situation with God, at which point he exclaimed, “I had faith in you but you didn’t save me, you let me drown. I don’t understand why!” To this God replied, “I sent you a rowboat, a motorboat and a helicopter, what more did you expect?”
This might be a silly parable and yet I think there is some truth to how we think or behave at times. Sometimes we think we will know how God will save us, or how He will give us help. Sometimes we are so sure we are right that we might miss out on what He really wants to do for us. In one of the witness Wednesdays I talked about how Tony had been wanting to get out of the military for awhile and yet nothing was panning out for him. Then out of the blue he needed to get out of the air force and the perfect civilian job opened up for him. It didn’t look like the answer he was looking for and actually, he had stopped looking for any answer. He had decided to stay in and was ok with that idea. However, God knew where his heart was and although the method God took was not ideal in Tony’s eyes, the outcome was greater than we could have imagined.
This verse is for each one of us. “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” God does not want us dwelling in the past. It is ok to briefly look back at the past to see how far you have come and to make sure you don’t make the same mistakes again, and yet we aren’t meant to stay there. Our focus should be on where we are going? How will we ever get there if we are always looking back and never looking forward? Also, hear God when He says, “I am doing a new thing!” He is speaking this to you and to me. He wants to do a new think in your life, let Him. Be on the lookout for this new thing. If you are looking, you will find it.
The last sentence in the verse is for some of you in particular today. You need to hear this today and although I thought I chose this verse for all the reasons I already listed the Holy Spirit is telling me He chose this verse so you could hear this today. “I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” God is wanting you to know that He is making a way in the wilderness for you. He is making streams in the wasteland. I know if feels like there is no way forward, I have been there. I know if feels impossible to see how you will get out of this situation. I have been there too. The answer is, God is making a way. It is ok that we can’t see the way because God doesn’t have to follow a path, He can make a path. He can do miraculous things to get us out of the completely ordinary and normal trouble we find ourselves in. He loves us that much!! He loves you that much! If you are in the middle of the wastelands right now, if you feel like you are in the wilderness, know that the Holy Spirit picked this verse just for you and He wants you to know God is making a way through it all!
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we want to see you in our everyday. We thank you for doing something new and we ask you open our hearts and minds to see the new thing you are doing. Lord, we thank you for making a way where there isn’t one. We ask you to help us to keep believing that this is possible and that you will get us through this. Also, Lord, please take away this worry and this stress. Help us to focus on you instead of our problems. Lord, we love you and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you all for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I wanted to let you all know that I am running a special on my book. If you order from my website, findingtruenorthcoaching.com or you CLICK HERE, then I will write a personal message and sign the copy before I send it to your house. If you didn’t know I wrote a book, it is a book that explains the various ways that I grew my trust in God to a point where I now know when I am in trouble, He will take care of it for me. I worry so much less about things because I know He is in control. If you would like the same, check out my book. It’s called Total Trust in God’s Safe Embrace. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!