Wednesday 7 Mar 2012

Wednesday Reading: Isaiah 41:10-13

Key Verse: Isaiah 41:13
13  For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.

Devotion:
The one thing you learn from reading the Old Testament is that God has always been ready to be there for mankind just as He has promised. God continues to uphold His promises by never failing man. Man, on the other hand, is the one that continues to break promises, continues to turn against God and continues to lift up his own ways instead of God’s ways. How great the temptation that is in the world that it should turn us away from such a great God? If truth be told that temptation is not that great but we are the ones who seek out the easy path or the path where we can gain more from; leaving our God out of our lives just to make them easier!

It is an army that can make a country feel safe. It is a police force that can make a town feel safe. It is the head of a household that can make a home feel safe. But it is God alone that can make mankind feel safe! When He tells us that we have nothing to fear it is because He knows that fact. Throughout history He has shown us that for as long as we are willing to place our faith and trust in His arms, He is willing to hold us safer than anything else can. When God has been by the side of man, man has been invincible. When man has turned away from God to seek his own, he has found out that he cannot lift himself up. Why then do we ignore so much of history?

Is it because we think that we can somehow avoid the same things that man has encountered time and time again? Is it because we somehow think that we will not fail when man has failed for centuries before? Or is it because of our pride that we think that we are better than other great people from the past? God has been trying to teach man for so many years that we have to put aside our pride so that we can exercise our faith in Him by giving Him control. After so many demonstrations of what can go right and all that can go wrong, so many promises held and so many examples of man’s failings, don’t you think it is time for us to start listening?

Above all of this we can know that what God does will always be the righteous way, the right way and the best possible way forward. Yet still we try to give it our own go to see what will happen! There is nothing in our power that will alter God’s ways because we are His creation and certainly not the other way round. When He states that He will hold us by the hand it is far greater than any hand a friend or parent can give us; take hold of it with both hands and trust Him!

Points to Ponder:
What do you seek when you need help?

Are you holding fast to God’s hand?