Isaiah 58:11-12 “The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in." Today's episode talks about how when we are struggling it is really hard to wait on God's timing. It looks at how this verse reminds us that God is always there with us and that He will give us what we need when we are in those hard places. It also shows us that God will restore us. Music:"Adding the Sun"fine us. It is not fun, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
In Parched Places
Isaiah 58:11-12 “The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in."
This scripture verse was given at a prayer group meeting recently. This morning, I was looking through my prayer group notes since we have finished the Be Bold Series, and I thought I would get back to using those verses for a bit. When I read today’s verse, I knew it was perfect because I know so many people who are struggling right now. I know so many people who have been praying for relief from physical ailments and feel as though their prayers have not been heard. Or maybe they have been heard, but they are not sure they have the strength to wait for God’s timing.
This scripture verse tells us that God is continually guiding us and that He will satisfy our needs in parched places. How many of us feel like we are in parched places? How many of us feel as though we are in a desert and relief is nowhere around? We look out as far as we can see in all directions, and there is nothing. We are all alone with no end in sight. Sometimes we feel as though there is no hope in sight either. We want to be hopeful, we want to believe that God is going to heal us, and yet each day that goes by, we struggle more and more to believe it might happen.
I have a friend who has a son who lost his job. We prayed for her son for a very long time. He struggled to pay his bills. He had to move out of his home. He had to give his dogs away because he had to move in with a friend and sleep on their couch. I am sure he struggled believing that a job was coming his way. I am sure he had moments when he doubted he would ever find a job again. I am sure he questioned where God was in all of this. He knows his mom was praying for him that whole time, so what was taking so long? Why wasn’t God answering the prayers that he knew people were praying for him?
He now has a job and things are going well. God did answer his prayers and those of all who were praying for him. The thing that is hard for us all to understand is why it took so long. I am sure you have your own version of this story, too. Maybe you have many versions of this story. Why did the adoption process take so long? Why did it take so long to get pregnant? Why did I have to struggle so long with cancer? Why did I have to suffer in pain for so many years? Why, Why, Why?
If you are asking God why for something right now, I want you to know that it is ok, and that you are not alone. None of us understands God’s ways. No one here on earth knows why He does what He does and why His timing is what it is. The one thing we do know is that he is all-knowing and all-powerful. We can be assured that He does have a plan. We don’t understand the plan because we don’t have all the facts. We don’t know what is to come. We know our story, but we don’t know anyone else’s story. We don’t know how God might use what we are going through to help someone else. We don’t know how God will use what we are going through to help us become the person we need to become.
When we are confused, when we feel lost, we can turn to Scripture to find answers, to find promises. If it is in scripture, then you know you can rely on it. You can stand on it as truth. Today’s verse says that, “The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong.” How many of us needed to hear that today? How many of us needed to hear that even though we feel like we are in a desert, God is actually there with us, and we are not alone. God is not only there with us, but He is forever guiding us, and He will satisfy our needs. I know this verse was meant for me to use today, too, because the next line is oddly specific. He will make your bones strong. How many of us feel like that is exactly what we need today? I know several of you listening are struggling with your bodies. You are struggling with physical ailments, and you definitely need God to make your bones strong. Some of you feel you are fading fast and can’t fight anymore. If that is you, I hope you hear God talking to you specifically today. I hope you hear Him telling you that He will give you the strength you need, the nutrients you need, the healing you need. He will make your bones strong so you can continue to stand and fight whatever it is you are fighting. HE IS THERE WITH YOU!!
Then it says, “you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.” I feel as though this is God reassuring us that even though we feel as though we have nothing left to give, we will never run out. He will give us exactly what we need for that one day, that one hour, that one minute. When you feel like you have nothing left to give, remember this promise from the Lord: “You will be like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.” The enemy will tell you that you have nothing left to give. He will tell you that your water has dried up and you are failing fast. He is a liar. The Lord only speaks the truth. So when He says that you are a spring of water, whose water never fails,” then you can take that to the bank. You can stand on that promise. You may feel empty, but God is there giving you whatever you need to keep moving forward, even if it is at a really slow pace.
I almost didn’t include the last verse, as I usually try to just focus on one verse at a time and go deep. However, I thought this last verse was something we all needed to hear. It says, “Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.” I felt this was important to include because I didn’t want to leave you with the thought that God meant for your story to end where you are. He is saying that He will give you what you need to get through the parched place you are in right now, but He doesn’t leave you there. I feel as though if I ended with that last paragraph some of you might be thinking that although it is reassuring that God will give me what I need in this difficult time, I still don’t want to be stuck in this time forever. I still need relief.
This last verse shows us that God will not leave us here. He has a plan. Our ancient ruins will be rebuilt. The sense I got when I read this was that our lives would be rebuilt. We will not be the same person we were before we went through this. We will be stronger. We will be more resilient and persistent. We will be made new. This is how God always leaves us. He doesn’t leave us broken and weak. We may feel weak, but when we are weak, God is strong. God can work through us powerfully when we admit our weakness and ask Him to step in and help us. We look at all we have lost and think it is lost forever. God can restore anything we have lost. He can give us back lost time, He can give us back lost loved ones, He can give us back everything. We see this when we look back at the story of Job. We often think of Job as the suffering servant. We think of all he had to go through and how he remained faithful. However, I don’t think we spend enough time thinking about how God repaid him for his suffering. God restored all he had lost. He gave him back everything he had lost two times.
Maybe in the really hard times. The times when it feels like you will never get better, you can think about how God will reward you for your suffering as well. What might He give you back? What might he bless you with that you didn’t have before? How might God be using your suffering? My dad tends not to request prayers for himself because he knows that God is using his suffering to help others. He also knows God will give him what he needs to bear the suffering. I agree with both of these, although I do think we should always ask God to heal our suffering and have others pray over us. I am sure the thought of how God might be using his suffering brings comfort to my dad, and it can bring comfort to you, too.
The very last line says, “You shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.” You can repair the breach. You can restore the streets. Your story, your testimony, can bring someone back to the Lord. Your story of how you made it through the hard time by the grace of God can let someone else know that they can make it through, too. It might be just what someone needs to hear to return to the Lord and ask Him for help. God was with you in your parched places; others may need to know He will be there for them, too!
Dear Heavenly Father, please bless everyone listening. Lord, we love you and we are sorry we get so frustrated waiting for your timing. We don’t understand it, Lord, which is hard for us. We want to believe your plan is better than our plan, and yet our plan seems so great to us. Please help us see your plan more and more. Please help our will align with your will. Please fill us with the strength and patience to wait for your timing. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I pray you all had a great Easter weekend and a wonderful Easter Season to come. This morning, Pope Francis passed away. He got to go be with our Heavenly Father, which is wonderful for him and yet sad for us. I pray for the repose of his soul, and also for the selection of the new Pope. May the Holy Spirit lead that selection process, and may the perfect person be selected! I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. I pray you remember how much Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in October 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My children, sometimes I ask you to step forward. Sometimes, I ask you to step back. Sometimes I want you to run. Sometimes I want you to walk. Sometimes I want you to sleep. What I want most is for you to be docile to whatever I ask.”