Most people believe that there is some sort of God somewhere. To prove that, all you have to do is go to a hospital or a funeral home. People pray to God in those places.
A God who created everything and has now left us alone while we run our day-to-day lives is easy to take. He is on call when we need him, but he does not interfere. It is not hard to believe in that sort of God.
However, that is not the God of the Bible!
The real God is active and involved. Here is how he describes himself: “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 provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise” (Isaiah 43:19-21).
God says that he is forming his people and making us into what he wants us to become. He is the potter and we are the clay (Isaiah 29:16; 41:25; 45:9; 64:8) and, therefore, nothing is completely random or out of control. God assures us that he is leading and “making a way in the wilderness”. He was then, and still is now, our shepherd (Psalm 23).
Faith, then, is like a “stream in the wasteland” or “water in the wilderness”. In other words, it is refreshing and life giving. If your walk with God is burdensome, you are going about it in the wrong way.
The real question is not “Is God at work?” Rather, it is “Are you looking for it?” God’s work is “springing up” everywhere. “Do you perceive it?” (Verse 14)
We do not serve a God who has gone off and left us alone. We serve at God who is “doing a new thing” in us and around us all the time. Faith is not boring or irrelevant, because we know that there is more going on that what we see or imagine.
I have hope because I believe in a God who is doing something good even when things look bad.
“Behold, I am making all things new!” (Revelation 21:5)
A God who created everything and has now left us alone while we run our day-to-day lives is easy to take. He is on call when we need him, but he does not interfere. It is not hard to believe in that sort of God.
However, that is not the God of the Bible!
The real God is active and involved. Here is how he describes himself: “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 provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise” (Isaiah 43:19-21).
God says that he is forming his people and making us into what he wants us to become. He is the potter and we are the clay (Isaiah 29:16; 41:25; 45:9; 64:8) and, therefore, nothing is completely random or out of control. God assures us that he is leading and “making a way in the wilderness”. He was then, and still is now, our shepherd (Psalm 23).
Faith, then, is like a “stream in the wasteland” or “water in the wilderness”. In other words, it is refreshing and life giving. If your walk with God is burdensome, you are going about it in the wrong way.
The real question is not “Is God at work?” Rather, it is “Are you looking for it?” God’s work is “springing up” everywhere. “Do you perceive it?” (Verse 14)
We do not serve a God who has gone off and left us alone. We serve at God who is “doing a new thing” in us and around us all the time. Faith is not boring or irrelevant, because we know that there is more going on that what we see or imagine.
I have hope because I believe in a God who is doing something good even when things look bad.
“Behold, I am making all things new!” (Revelation 21:5)
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