February 21, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Hear Me, you who know what is right, you people who have taken My instruction to heart: Do not fear the reproach of mere mortals or be terrified by their insults. For the moth will eat them up like a garment; the worm will devour them like wool. But My righteousness will last forever, My salvation through all generations.” (Isaiah 51.7-8)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“MY justice will become a light to the nations.” (verse 4)

“MY righteousness will last forever.” (verse 8b)

God will let us live without promise. I get like so many others wondering why God needed to intervene at all when He could have made it where no intervention was ever needed. No, I am not speaking of a God who created the heavens and the earth and then just let things happen any which way. God does not act without purpose. God’s purposes will always be resourced for success. Those who experience His purposefulness and His resource are those who heed His instruction and take it to heart. Yes, I will continue to go back to the Creation Story because we must begin at the beginning in order to grasp the end. In the end, the truth is “Love wins.” Authentic love is known by those who heed God’s word and take it to heart. Those who do will face the myriad facets of life, good and bad, and be justified by the faith they put in God. Putting their faith in God allows them to receive the faith God desired to put in them. God has always desired to do so. God has faith in us. We must have faith in Him. It is not a faith that God must prove using our standard for validation. We must have faith in Him and believe in Him. Doing so allows us to experience the love which God has always had for us.

What in the Creation Story tells us this? It starts with the obedience to God’s instruction. He commanded the Holy Spirit to “move.” He sent out His Word and it returned to Him fulfilled. In response, all that exists was created. And then God “loved” it. He spoke His word of love over it as a blessing. The blessing anointed each act and each response with the naming of “goodness.” Culminating with the creation of humanity in the persons of man and woman who were fashioned in the image of all that was holy, God blessed it doubly. His Word accomplished what it intended and the whole of creation was resourced in abundance. Everything was “good, even very good” in that first “creation week.” It was “good” until it wasn’t.

When wasn’t it good? It wasn’t good when God’s creation disobeyed and ignored His instruction and followed its own way. The decision was made to consider another way of living. A kind of living that moved contrary to God’s will and purpose. We know that part of the story well. It was the story of the “infusion of confusion.” We have been living in the legacy of that “confusion” ever since. It has been passed down from generation to generation. Yet, God’s Word never changes. It remains steadfast and endures forever. It is a Word of promise that those who will heed God’s instruction and take it to heart will be blessed with the fullness of His righteousness. No matter the efforts to act apart from or against God, God’s desire to love His creation never ceases. In fact, because of the “infusion of confusion” we see the absolute fullness of God’s love which must include God’s wrath. It was always there. It was always a part of God’s love which moved against the darkness with love speaking His truth in love. We should call it discipline.

God’s discipline is different that the world’s discipline. God’s discipline confronts the darkness and calls it out into the light. The world’s discipline confronts the light and calls it into the darkness. What God wills is transformation, putting chaos back into order and restoring the healthy balance which creates eternal life. What the enemy wills is deformation, producing chaos to disrupt any sense of order and keep creation off balance producing eternal death. Regardless, in faith and by faith, we know that “love wins out.” The darkness cannot consume the light. The light will overcome the darkness. Those who pursue the light will be in conflict with the dark. Those who pursue the darkness will always fear the light. And we see this worked out at the Cross of Calvary. In the midst of all the deconstruction produced by the forces of this world which the enemy of God and humanity sought to manipulate, Jesus suffered and died. He did so in faith. He did so holding on to the promises of God. The very promises which God spoke to Israel in the days of the prophets, especially Isaiah. Yes, there are other great words from the good prophets which speak of the end of evil and the victory of righteousness. It is in Isaiah, however, that we are given the insight to the Messiah and the Suffering Servant who surrenders His life for others. He obeys God’s instruction and takes it to heart. In so doing, He is blessed beyond measure with the goodness of God’s love and life. David saw it when he wrote, “Though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil; You are with me!” Mighty ones, the world may want to upend your life and reduce it to chaos but trusting in God will put an end to those efforts.

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.