Monthly Archives: April 2023

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God earnestly waits – Part One

15 For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning [to Me] and resting [in Me] you shall be saved; in quietness and in [trusting] confidence shall be your strength. But you would not,

18, And therefore the Lord [earnestly] waits [expecting, looking, and longing] to be gracious to you; and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving-kindness to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are all those who [earnestly] wait for Him, who expect and look and long for Him [for His victory, His favor, His love, His peace, His joy, and His matchless, unbroken companionship]!  (Isaiah 30:18, AMPC)

Confidence in the world or in God? Many believers would say they put their trust in God more than anything else. In this series of blog posts, we will explore what it is like when Satan deceives us into idol worship. My experience was that, like Israel, for a while I depended on worldly methods first rather than God to solve a big threat from the enemy of our souls – depression. The story has a very happy ending because God did heal me and made me stronger than ever. He gave the “double recompense” mentioned in Isaiah 61:7.

The message of Isaiah 30 – light for the afflicted and oppressed. In a nutshell, the message of Isaiah 30 is that anything less than dependence on God first eventually leads to sorrow, shame, humiliation and confusion. However, while we struggle with the misery caused by our depending on things of the world, God is lovingly, longingly waiting to shower mercy and loving kindness on us (v. 18). When we return to Him, then God helps us utterly destroy our enemies. And He gives us abundant life while He restores us.

In Isaiah 30, Israel depended on Egypt rather than God to save them from their bitterest enemy but God promised to save them when they returned to Him. Let’s get the background for this story.

Historical Background of the Book of Isaiah: The name Isaiah means “Jehovah is salvation” or “Jehovah saves.” While Isaiah prophesied in Judah, the Southern Kingdom, Assyrians had already destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel. As Halley’s Bible commentary explains, prophets are “the spiritual conscience of the nation. They are appointed to remind kings, priests, and the people of their obligations to God and people.” (p. 363).

Isaiah Chapter 30: Isaiah 30 is one of the “Sermons of woes upon the unbelievers in Israel.” (Open Bible, New American Standard, p. 626).  Chapter 30 is labelled “Confidence in Egypt versus Confidence in God.” Chapter 30 occurred in the reign of the very wicked king Ahaz. When surrounded by his enemies, instead of turning to God for help, this horribly evil King Ahaz took the treasures out of God’s Temple and sent them to Egypt, to purchase help.

The Assyrian threat. For Isaiah’s entire life, the Assyrians threatened Judah’s existence. Isaiah witnessed the destruction the Assyrians inflicted on God’s people, including captivity and exile of the entire Northern Kingdom, part of Judah (the Southern Kingdom) and the near capture of Jerusalem. Throughout his life, during the reign of four kings, Isaiah warned over and over that Jerusalem and Judah would be destroyed because of their wickedness. But he also offered comfort with these promises from God: 1) the Babylonian exiles would be allowed to return to Jerusalem; 2) a righteous, suffering servant would bring salvation; 3) God would set up a new, righteous kingdom.” (1984 NIV Bible (Zondervan, page 593.)

One way to apply this Bible story is to see ourselves as Israel and the Assyrians as an illustration of our worst enemy. The prophet Isaiah’s warnings to Israel on how to deal with their enemy apply to us as well.

Read Isaiah 30.  Take time now to read Isaiah 30 and see what God shows you. After that, read the following overview and summary. The summary states the principles I see demonstrated in the story as they applied to my struggle with depression.

Overview:  We rebel against God when we rely on anything more than Him. Eventually, the very thing we lean on starts destroying us. God will answer us when we return to Him, He will destroy our enemies, and He will give us joy as we fight together to destroy our enemies.

Summary:

  • Verses 1-9: Anything less than dependence on God for strength and protection eventually leads to great sorrow, shame, humiliation, and confusion.
  • Verses 10-12: Dependence on the world and worldly ways–rather than God–for strength and protection, shows we are rebelling against God.
  • Verses 13-17: This rebellion removes part of the protection around our heart and, eventually, “at some distant day” the enemy attacks through this open door with sudden, total destruction. That happens because we refused God’s warnings to return to depending on Him, quieting ourselves and letting our trust in God give us strength. And because we said no to God and went our own way, thinking we could outsmart, or outrun our enemies, our enemies will totally terrorize us
  • Verse 18 (The verse we will examine in detail): God earnestly waits, longing to be gracious, to have mercy and compassion on us. God is faithful and just, so therefore we are blessed if we wait and hope for Him, with expectation. He will be gracious and faithful to our waiting and trusting in Him.
  • Verse 19-22. God hears His people when they cry out to Him, and He answers by letting us constantly hear His clear instruction, even though He hid Himself and gave us adversity and affliction when we turned from Him. After that, we will totally turn away from putting anything before God because we will understand how disgusting that is to God.
  • Verse 23-26: While God is healing the wound He inflicted because of our sin, He will abundantly bless our work and our life. He will give refreshing water everywhere and give us seven times the usual light.
  • Verse 27-28: God will burn with anger, with indescribable consuming fire and power, when He comes to fight for us.
  • Verse 29-33. We will have the highest possible joy while God annihilates our bitterest enemies, completing the destruction He has prepared for them.

Application questions:

  1. Do I depend on anything or anyone more than I depend on God?
  2. When I have a need or a hurt, where do I turn first?
  3. Is there anything in my life more important to me than God?

Prayer:

Oh, Father, help me as I search my heart with the lamp of Your Word! I confess that my heart is desperately wicked and I cannot understand it. I depend on You to cleanse my heart, and I submit to You.  Amen.

 

Bounteous blessings

 

“. . . and in His law he meditates. . . ” As I slowed for a red light, the rich resonant voice of David Cochran Heath said,

“Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. (psalm 1:1-2, NKJ)”

“Hmmm,” I pondered. “Psalm 1 is saying to mediate on the law of the Lord. Hmmm.”

I recently began listening to the Word while driving by using an audio copy of the Bible on my phone. I had been meditating, deliberately, purposefully, for many months now and this latest tool was a big help. I had been meditating on Scriptures addressing areas where I needed healing and maturity. “Meditating on the law” sounded different. Was I truly meditating on the law? Or was I missing something?  Following are some things I discovered as I sought to understand. First, I reminded myself of what God means by meditation.

What is meditation? To meditate is “to dwell on anything in thought; to contemplate; to study; to turn or revolve any subject in the mind.” (www.webstersdictionary1828.com). Synonyms include to ponder, muse, brood, concentrate, be lost in thought, think deeply and carefully upon–and my favorite—to chew the cud! Cows chew their cud up to eight hours a day, chewing each mouthful 40 to 60 times so the grass will be digested properly and absorbed by the body. The cow eats the grass and then, later chews it. We read the Word, and then, later, we think about it until it is digested.

Meditation on the Word changes us from the inside out. To meditate means to ponder and think about a verse or passage so long that it becomes part of you. Grass, properly chewed, becomes part of a cow. The Word, properly meditated upon or thoroughly chewed and swallowed, becomes part of who we are. The Word changes our innermost being. It renews our mind (Romans 12:1-2).

Meditation is NOT yoga. When we meditate, we do not repeat a mantra or try to make our mind blank. We are thinking about and talking with the God Who made heaven and earth, God Most High, and His Word to us. We are purposefully thinking about Him and what His words to us mean.

What is “God’s law”?  Simply stated, the law is a set of rules that regulate behavior. It also means, in the Biblical context “the precepts, the instructions, the teachings of God” (Psalm 1:2a, AMPC). The entire Bible is “God’s law”, because it explains, either by direct statement or by illustrative story, how His laws work and how His believing children are to live this life.

How do you meditate on God’s law? One particularly productive lens to use in meditating is pondering cause and effect.  A thief may ponder the effect of getting caught and thereby control his impulse to steal. With our desperately wicked human heart (Jeremiah 17:9), we all need laws to help us avoid wrong behavior. We also need His laws to show us what is good – how to please God, to grow, and to deal rightly with others.  It is not enough, however, to hear the law once or twice. We must thoroughly understand how God’s laws work. That includes understanding cause and effect.

Pondering causes and effects — God’s laws. David is credited with writing many of the psalms. As he (and other psalmists) reflected on the history of God’s people, the consequences of their obediences and disobediences to God’s laws, David pondered cause and effect and thus received instruction in God’s laws.

David also found comfort in recalling God’s dealings with him personally. How often does David start a psalm by pouring out his troubles to God but then reminding himself of what God has done in the past and reassuring himself that God will again deliver him?  As we hear David release his emotions to God, then hear his thoughts about God’s awesome nature, His sovereignty, justice, tender mercies and loving kindness, David’s thoughts become our own. David’s words give voice to emotions we otherwise could not express.

The psalms are of great practical value. The psalms are, after all, one of the five wisdom books in the Bible. Psalms are routinely included in daily Bible reading plans.  Besides being a God-given aid to release emotions, they succinctly state God’s laws and instructions whereas the historical books and prophets use stories to illustrate God’s laws. Most of the New Testament also succinctly states God’s laws and instructions for living.

Learning to meditate, phrase by phrase. As I reflect on past experience, I see how God used my need for regular exercise at the gym to teach me how to meditate. When I first began diligently meditating, I kept copies of verses and passages on the kitchen counter and carried them with me on errands. However, it was at the gym that I really learned how to think deeply about the verses I read. That was where I began meditating-with-the-intent-to-memorize.

This happened accidentally because that span of 30 minutes using weights was devoted to meditating and the only way I could do that was to look at a phrase on my paper, try to hold it in my mind while doing a set of reps, then go back to look at my paper. I was essentially memorizing one phrase at a time. After I repeated a phrase two or three times to myself, while I did the rest of the reps on that particular machine, I would think about what the words meant.

So what did it look like? I would put the paper next to my water bottle on the floor in the corner, then read one phrase and repeat it over and over for two or three minutes while I used one weight machine. Then I’d walk over, read that phrase again or the next phrase, do another weight machine, reread the phrase and so on. By the end of a workout, I would have maybe two or three new verses almost memorized. And, in the process I would have deeply pondered the meaning of words in those verses as well as the links between cause and effect.

So, I began meditating by just trying to think about God’s Word but, by Divine happenstance my efforts at meditation turned into efforts to memorize the Word I was meditating upon. When I was doing things at home or out and about, it was harder to make myself spend that much time repeating one phrase enough times to have the same effect. 

In his priceless book “Gods Medicine Bottle,” Derek Prince relates how learning to diligently study and meditate on God’s Word healed his body when doctors could not.  Joyce Meyer, Kenneth Copeland and many other Bible teachers stress the importance of studying and speaking the Word and having it always in our minds and on our lips.  Joyce Meyer in particular teaches how God’s Word can heal your soul.

Personal victory. Joyce Meyer says “Personal victory over personal problems come from personal time with God.”

It was not until I spent personal time with God, studying and meditating upon what His Word said about my personal problems, that I gained personal victory over depression and anxiety.  And He keeps showing me, week by week, new areas of truth upon which I need to meditate.

Bounteous blessings! The blessings of meditation are bounteous. Here are just a few. Meditation:

  • Heals our bodies (Proverbs 4:20-23, Psalm 103:2-3, Proverbs 3:5-8, Exodus 15:26)
  • Renews our minds (Romans 12:1-2, Ephesians 4:22-24, Colossians 2:2-3)
  • Helps us reverently fear God (Deuteronomy 6:2)
  • Helps us remember what He has done (Deuteronomy 6:12)
  • Leads us toward right standing with God (Deuteronomy 6:25)
  • Helps us teach God’s ways to our children (Deuteronomy 6:7 and 11:18-21)
  • Leads to long life (Deuteronomy 11:21)
  • Makes our way prosperous, enables us to deal wisely and have good success (Joshua 1:8)
  • Gives us a constant connection to the Living Water and makes us fruitful even in hard times (Psalm 1)
  • Makes us wise and gives us insight (Psalm 119:97), and
  • Keeps us in complete and constant peace. (Isaiah 26:3 and Philippians 4:4-8)

For a more detailed look into meditation, see the little booklet “Diligent Meditation” on the “Books and More” page of this website.

God will guide your efforts. God always responds to the heart sincerely reaching out to Him. And we can reach out with complete confidence when we are asking for something that we know He wants for us, such as guidance in studying and understanding His Word.  “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. (I John 5:14-15, NIV).

Your life is no doubt different from mine. You have different demands on your time and resources. But, regardless, I know beyond all doubt that when we ask God for help in understanding His Word better, He leads us clearly.  If you don’t already, won’t you start including meditation in your daily habits?

And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide Himself any more, but your eyes will constantly behold your Teacher.

And your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way; walk in it, when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left.  (Isiah 30:20-21, AMPC)