ODJ: when to forget
January 1, 2011
But forget all that—it is nothing compared with what I am going to do (v.18).
READ: Isaiah 43:14-21
After our first son was born, my wife Miska and I entered a rough stretch in our marriage. We had been extremely close, but now another little person interrupted all that. We loved Wyatt very much, but our relational dynamic had changed forever. Selfishly, I kept insisting that our marriage get back to the way it was before the upheaval. One day, amid a fight, Miska said, “Winn, you are going to have to stop insisting our marriage be what it was. It will be good again, but it will be different.” Isaiah wrote to the people of Judah prior to their Babylonian exile. He reminded them of how God miraculously rescued them generations earlier during their Egyptian exile. He recounted how God was the one who “opened a way through the waters” and made a “dry path through the sea” (Isaiah 43:16). The Exodus story, Moses going toe-to-toe with Pharaoh, plagues raining down, and the people crossing the Red Sea on dry ground had been their defining marker of God’s power and goodwill toward them. So, in the face of their prophesied future exile, some of God’s people may have assumed that God intended to send another prophet and another battery of stunning plagues, another miraculous trek across a sea to deliver them. They may have expected God to act in a certain way. Maybe others, when they heard Isaiah’s words, felt cynical. We’ve heard these stories before, for hundreds of years. But nothing is going to change. Either way, the people had to let go of what they were holding so tightly (either their cynical doubts or their ideas of how God would act). They had to forget what they thought they knew so they could receive the new thing God wanted to do. As novelist L. P. Hartley said, “The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.” —Winn Collier
How are you cynical toward God’s promises or locked in your view of how God should care for you? What “new thing” do you think God may be wanting to do in or for you?
Tweet This
Share on Facebook
Digg This
Save to delicious
Stumble it
RSS FeedRelated
I Call It Church
By Betty Wambui, Kenya I was born into a Christian family and, to say the least, church has always been a central part of my life. Having grown up in Sunday school, I have some fond childhood memories of participating in memory verse quizzes and performing in the Christmas cantata. On top of that, my [...]
ODJ: the hard way
April 22, 2011 Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak! (Matthew 26:41). READ: Luke 22:54-62 In this devo, I will write about a subject of which I must say—with great confidence—is an area of expertise. Yes, I will [...]
ODJ: lost your way?
November 24, 2009 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found! (v.32). READ: Luke 15:11-32 I was 15 years old when I first witnessed a basketball player score for the opposing team. It was late in a [...]
ODJ: dig in
June 25, 2011 [The people celebrated] with great joy because they had heard God’s words and understood them (v.12). READ: Nehemiah 8:1-12 Determined to grow a vegetable garden, I dragged my shovel to a sunny patch of land and pitched it into the soil. The ground was as hard as cement, but I kept digging. Eventually, [...]
Christian Courses
Day Of Discovery
Discover The Word
Discovery Series
Help For My Life
My Utmost For His Highest
Our Daily Bread
Our Daily Journey
RBC Ministries
WarungSateKaMu
Manasociety
雅米
I have been decieved n rejected in past rshps n cant get it out of my head. Each man that comes in2 my life i feel wants to reject n decieve. I think God wants me to forget the men in my past.