February 10, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Then you will say in your heart,

‘Who has begotten these for me? I was bereaved and barren. I was exiled and rejected. So, who has reared them? Look, I was left all alone, so where did they come from?’” (Isaiah 49.21)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

Let’s remember a simple truth: we are never alone!

God is working at all times on your behalf for His glory. God does nothing without reason and never without providing resource. God goes before us. He stations Himself behind us. He surrounds us with His presence. But most of all “God is with us.” If God is all of this, how can we say that we are alone and thus incapable of increase in knowledge, wisdom and strength?

In all of the aforementioned statements there are scriptural references which validate the point. God uses the most profound example in the world to describe who we are to Him. He calls us “His people, the people of His hand.” This means that God has created us, shaped us and is forming us in the image which bests represents the goodness of humanity which He desires. That image is none other than Jesus of Nazareth, God’s only begotten son. It is an image that we are able to relate to because in appearance we look like Him. Further, Jesus said to His disciples who asked for Him to show them the Father, “If you have seen Me, then you have seen the Father. The Father and I are one.” He will go on to say, “The Father and I are one just as you and I are one.” Can we follow this logic to reason then that “The Father and us, we are one“? Is it too hard to conceive? “How can this be?” you may ask. “For I,” you say, “am a sinner and in God’s eyes am worthy of death and to be the victim of lawlessness.” This is then the image which is provided to us profoundly as if being “one with God in Jesus Christ” isn’t profound enough, we are called “His sheep, the sheep of His pasture.” This means that we are the responsibility, opportunity and blessing of “the Shepherd.” As God was and is the Shepherd of Israel, His people, so is Christ the Shepherd of The Church, those who will call themselves God’s people in the name of Jesus who is the Christ.

The sheep are never alone. Even when they may wander astray, the shepherd will go to find them until they are found. While the 99, follows the parable told by Jesus, are “left behind” they are not left alone. The Good Shepherd provides “a comforter, a guide, a presence” to stand in His stead. Practically, the shepherd will pen the sheep together for their safety and leave behind a guard at the door. For those of the Church, that protector, comforter and guiding presence is the Holy Spirit (and those imbued with the Holy Spirit.) The sheep are never alone. They may think they are because of the circumstances which surround them and feel the impotence of absence. Nothing could be further from the truth. This should be encouraging to us and challenge our thinking to adopt a different way of thinking. The evidence is given to us in the works of God in our past. Even when we think God is not at work, God is working all things together for our good.

This is the profound meaning of God’s reply to those who see the blessing but cannot believe it. They cannot believe it though they see it and ask “How can this be?” Is there anything impossible for God to do? Which portion shall we choose to believe? Our unbelief or that there is an impossibility for God? In the words of Joshua, “As for me and my house, we will choose to serve the Lord God.” Faith in God produces faith in us. By faith are we made well, strong and productive.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness which we know is folly but righteous works which declare Your glory and further witness the truth that can set all who believe free from death. So may we live by the name of Jesus our Christ. AMEN.