I AM THE LORD WHO (PART 6)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

“I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you.”

Isaiah 48:17a

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Back in Isaiah 44, I had written a five part series titled, “I Am The Lord Who”, a series which highlighted a number of proclamations from the Lord as to who He was and what He could do for His people. In that study, we found the Lord proclaiming Himself as the Maker of all things, the fount of perfect truth, the One who builds and edifies on His firm foundations, the Miracle Worker who can do all things, and finally, the One who calls us to accomplish His purposes. Today, as we continue our look at Isaiah 48, we find the Lord continuing to tell us much more and so I am picking the series back up for five more installments. In part 6, we are reminded that the Lord is the only One who knows what is best for us. Look again at our scripture passage:

This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

“I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you.”  Isaiah 48:17a

When we were growing up, how did we learn about how to live?

Our parents taught us didn’t they?

We were so little and for a short time, unable to do anything for ourselves. We were fully reliant on our father or mother or both for everything. The world was completely new to us and thus we were very unaware and naïve unto its ways. We were rather care-free and unaware of how dangerous our surroundings were. All we knew was that our environment was fertile ground for exploration and experience. Our parents were our watchdogs.

As we grew older, we started to be more independent. We were able to go to school and apart from our parents for long stints of time and yet, we still had guardians watching over us and educating us, imparting the knowledge we needed to develop intellectually while still keeping a watchful eye on our behavior and the behavior of others.

Finally, we reached a point where we were adults. Our primary and secondary educational days were over and we were ready to spread our wings and fly off to experience life on our own. It was an exciting time and of course we all thought we were more ready than we really were. It didn’t take much time being out of the nest to understand that life wasn’t exactly easy and it was even just a little more than scary as we tried to make our own way through it.

Can you relate to this rite of passage? Isn’t life like this?

And even as adults with some years under our belts, we find life seemingly always ready to bring new challenges our way, sometimes just when we started to think we had things all figured out.

This is why this word from the Lord today is so important to us, no matter what stage of life we are in. For despite how things always seem to change, bringing us new degrees of uncertainty along the way, the one constant we have is the Lord and the direction and instruction He provides us. People may come and go in our lives but the Lord remains ever present and consistent in that He always guides us the right way. No one else provides the faultless counsel we find in Him. No one.

You see, the Lord and the Lord alone knows what is best for us. He has a plan for all our lives and has told us so in these words you may have heard before:

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11  

The Lord wants the best for each and every one of His children and will always be available to show us the right and righteous way as we walk through life. All we need to do is to turn to Him and trust in His ways, following His will in unwavering obedience.

There is no proper way (or better way for that matter) for us to live.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com