Lord, you said, you are doing a “new thing!”
You weren’t kidding. We thought the “new thing” would be something totally different!
That somehow it would look like you were turning everything around and making it brand new. No masks! No pandemic! No COVID-19! No death! No fear! That life would be “normal” again.
But that’s not what you meant at all!!
You’re doing something new, is way beyond our comprehension. Though the enemy brings chaos and sickness, robs us of our joy and peace, you want us to walk by faith in you. Because faith moves mountains. Faith restores hope and joy and peace that only comes from having faith in YOU!
You will use all these things to turn us around…so that we will return to you and seek you and humble ourselves before you, that lives, will become “new” and follow you!
The “new thing” really isn’t new to you. It is however new to us! We’ve never walked these roads before. We’ve never experienced this kind of world before. Our ancestors, maybe, but not this generation. So, the “new thing” you’re doing is new to us!
Let us put away our plans, our desires, our goals and surrender our hearts, minds, body and soul to your plans. Your goals, and do, what your word says…not my will but thine be done, on earth as it is in heaven!
Heaven is not lacking. Heaven is not in turmoil. Heaven is not sick or confused. Let Earth, here, be as it is in Heaven. Amen!
You said the kingdom of heaven is within us…now, at this very moment in history in our lives and the lives of our children…. LORD, do not take your mercy from us…but let us be as a whirlwind and spin in your hands to return to you, and change the world forever for your glory.
Even if the ground shakes beneath us, even if the earth crumbles and quakes, if time should be no more and our lives end on this earth…let it be said that your children did not give up, did not give in, that we looked up and see your salvation. You are God! You are sovereign! Nothing comes unless you approve it! I am interceding with you Jesus, to Abba God to bring us to that “new thing” you are talking about, victoriously, and let all people see you have not abandoned your children in America! That you have more for you than against you in this great land. Protect us from the enemy! Turn the tide and let us abide in you and your promises…. With man it is impossible, but with God All things are possible.
Let it be said, that America’s children of God do trust in you, our God! You will not let us fall!!! Amen!!!
~Marla Shaw O’Neill January 12, 2021
Isaiah 43:19
New International Version
19 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 looked up the passage for better understanding in Matthew Henry Commentary~ regarding this scripture!
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He promises to do yet greater things for them than he had done in the days of old; so that they should not have reason to ask, in a way of complaint, as Gideon did, Where are all the wonders that our fathers told us of? for they should see them repeated, nay, they should see them outdone (Isa. 43:18): “Remember not the former things, from them to take occasion, as some do, to undervalue the present things, as if the former days were better than these; no, you may, if you will, comparatively forget them, and yet know enough by the events of your own day to convince you that the Lord is God alone; for, behold, the Lord will do a new thing, no way inferior, both for the wonder and the worth of the mercy, to the things of old.” The best exposition of this is, Jer. 16:14, 15; 23:7, 8. It shall no more be said, The Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; that is an old thing, the remembrance of which will be in a manner lost in the new thing, in the new proof that the Lord liveth, for he brought up the children of Israel out of the land of the north. Though former mercies must not be forgotten, fresh mercies must in a special manner be improved. Now it springs forth, as it were a surprise upon you; you are like those that dream. Shall you now know it? And will you not own God’s hand in it?
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He promises not only to deliver them out of Babylon, but to conduct them safely and comfortably to their own land (Isa. 43:19, 20): I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert; for, it seems, the way from Babylon to Canaan, as well as from Egypt, lay through a desert land, which, while the returning captives passed through, God would provide for them, that their camp should be both well victualled and under a good conduct. The same power that made a way in the sea(Isa. 43:16) can make a way in the wilderness, and will force its passage through the greatest difficulties. And he that made dry land in the waters can produce waters in the driest land, in such abundance as not only to give drink to his people, his chosen, but to the beasts of the field, also the dragons and the ostriches, who are therefore said to honor God for it; it is such a sensible refreshment, and yields them so much satisfaction, that, if they were capable of doing it, they would praise God for it, and shame man, who is made capable of praising his benefactor and does not. Now, 1. This looks back to what God did for Israel when he led them through the wilderness from Egypt to Canaan, and fetched water out of a rock to follow them; what God did for them formerly he would do again, for he is still the same. And, though we do not find that the miracle was repeated in their return out of Babylon, yet the mercy was, in the common course of Providence, for which it became them to be no less thankful to God. 2. It looks forward, not only to all the instances of God’s care of the Jewish church in the latter ages of it, between their return from Babylon and the coming of Christ, but to the grace of the gospel, especially as it is manifested to the Gentile world, by which a way is opened in the wilderness and rivers in the desert; the world, which lay like a desert, in ignorance and unfruitfulness, was blessed with divine direction and divine comforts, and, in order to both, with a plentiful effusion of the Spirit. The sinners of the Gentiles, who had been as the beasts of the field, running wild, fierce as the dragons, stupid as the owls or ostriches, shall be brought to honor God for the extent of his grace to his chosen among them.
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He traces up all these promised blessings to their great original, the purposes and designs of his own glory (Isa. 43:21): This people have I formed for myself, and therefore I do all this for them, that they may show forth my praise. Note, 1. The church is of God’s forming, and so are all the living members of it. The new heaven, the new earth, the new man, are the work of God’s hand, and are no more, no better, than he makes them; they are fashioned according to his will. 2. He forms it for himself. He that is the first cause is the highest end both of the first and of the new creation. The Lord has made all things for himself, his Israel especially, to be to him for a people, and for a name, and for a praise; and no otherwise can they be for him, or serviceable to him, then as his grace is glorified in them, Jer. 13:11; Eph. 1:6, 12, 14. 3. It is therefore our duty to show forth his praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to his service. As he formed us, so he feeds us, and keeps us, and leads us, and all for himself; for every instance therefore of his goodness we must praise him, else we answer not the end of the beings and blessings we have.
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Artist: Kristyn Brown