THIS IS WHAT THE LORD SAYS (PART 11)

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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 to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of. Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground.”

“Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘The potter has no hands’? Woe to the one who says to a father, ‘What have you begotten?’ or to a mother, ‘What have you brought to birth?’”

“This is what the Lord says—the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Concerning things to come, do you question Me about My children, or give Me orders about the work of My hands?”

Isaiah 45:1a, 9-11

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

Maybe the only certainty about life is that it is absolutely uncertain. We simply have no way of knowing how things are going to happen, no matter how well we attempt to predict. Just this morning, someone very dear to me made contact and shared events that just happened yesterday, events that have cast their life into total flux and confusion. More questions are in play than associated answers and that doesn’t typically lead us to where we like to be and that is in our comfort zone. In the midst of the storm, we usually have two questions: When is this going to end?, followed by, and then what? Of course, there can possibly a third question that creeps in, a dangerous pondering that we should avoid at any cost.

What is that question?

Simply, it’s this: Why is this happening to me Lord?

We do this, right? We find the audacity to look toward the heavens and wonder why the Lord we are going through our circumstances and do so with a mindset that screams out to Him, “Why would you do this to me?” or “How could you do this to me?” The truth of the matter is often, we are at the root of our own problems. We create our own circumstances due to our poor decisions. Still, everyone is going to go through their share of hardships and challenges in life and we shouldn’t begrudge these occurrences, as unpleasant as they might be, but rather know that the Lord is working just as hard in our bad times as He is in our good ones, to draw us closer to Him and refine our faith, to develop a greater trust and reliance in Him than we had before our difficulty came upon us.

In the end translation, it’s easy to have faith when everything goes well. The true test of our faith in the Lord comes when trials and tribulations strike us, and as I mentioned earlier, these can come at anytime, often completely unannounced.

So back to the matter of questioning. As we look at our scripture for today, I believe the Lord is sending us a message loud and clear. He is saying:

“Do not question me.”

Look again at these verses from Isaiah 45:

“This is what the Lord says to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of. Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground.”

“Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘The potter has no hands’? Woe to the one who says to a father, ‘What have you begotten?’ or to a mother, ‘What have you brought to birth?’”

“This is what the Lord says—the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Concerning things to come, do you question Me about My children, or give Me orders about the work of My hands?”  Isaiah 45:1a, 9-11

Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker. The warning can’t get much more ominous than that. This is why questioning the Lord is not very smart. We are already in difficult circumstances and then we turn around and compound the matter by questioning the Lord, our Creator, and end up heaping even more woe on our heads.

Friends, we need to know that the Lord is always at work within our life situations, even when it might seem like He is distant. We are always clay in the hands of the Master Potter who is forming and shaping us into His image. We have no more right to dictate to the Lord than the clay in the potter’s hand and frankly we’re just as helpless without Him. For the Lord gives us shape and form, He and He alone makes us into who we need to be just as the clay is formed into things that are of use. Only instead of plates and cups and jars, we are made into people who can be used for His purposes.

I don’t know what you are going through today but I do know this, the Lord loves you, the Lord cares for you, the Lord is in control, and the Lord is going to work things out for your good as He does for all those who love Him (Romans 8:28). Never question these things and as we have learned through the word of the Lord today, never question Him for He told us not to do so and we have no other option than to respond in obedience.  

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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