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In Christ, Mark
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 so that you may know that I
am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. For the sake of Jacob My
servant, of Israel My chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of
honor, though you do not acknowledge Me.”
Isaiah
45:1a, 3b-4
This ends this
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Today is the fourth in an eighteen
part devotional series from the 45th chapter of Isaiah focused on things the
Lord says to King Cyrus of Persia, things that equally speak to all of us as
believers and God-followers. So far, we have heard the Lord tell us that He is
with us and for us as we walk through life, every second of every minute of
every hour of every day. We also have been told by Him that He breaks down the
gates that might hinder and bars that might imprison us in life’s
circumstances, keeping us from being able to fully carry out His will and way.
Finally, the Lord has assured us that in and through Him, we have hidden riches,
treasures of heaven that come in abundance into the secret places in our hearts
when we make Jesus our sole treasure in life.
All this would be enough on its own
but as we typically find with the Lord, He provides for us far beyond anything
we could ever imagine and certainly more than we can comprehend or even
appreciate. Let’s look at what He has to say to us today:
“This is what the Lord says to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand
I take hold of so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who
summons you by name. For the sake of Jacob My servant, of Israel My chosen, I
summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not
acknowledge Me.” Isaiah 45:1a, 3b-4
In regard to King Cyrus, the Lord
was summoning Him by name and bestowing a title of honor on him, not for the
glory of Cyrus but rather for the sake of Israel, the servants of the Lord.
After a seventy year penalty of exile for their disobedience and disrespect
toward God, the time had come for the people to be allowed to return to
Jerusalem to begin reconstructing the city, their lives, and their
relationships with God. An impetus was needed for all this to happen and that
impetus was King Cyrus and his Persian forces. The Lord was sending them to
battle Babylon with a guaranteed assurance of victory for it was His will for
it to happen and when the Lord wills for something to happen, it will happen.
In the end translation, Cyrus and
his Persian soldiers were simply instruments of God’s will to carry out and
fulfill His purposes. He summoned them to do so. All they had to do was carry
our His wishes.
Friends, if you are committed to
the Lord in your life, then you are His servant and bound to seek and follow
His will for your life. Like Cyrus and his fighting forces of Persia, we are to
present ourselves before the Lord each and every day as instruments of His
will, offering ourselves fully to Him just as He freely offers Himself freely
to us. We are to seek His purposes because He summons us by name and has
bestowed on all of us a title of honor.
What is that title, you ask?
It’s “Sons and Daughters of the
Lord Most High,” an identity proclaimed by the scriptures:
We are the temple of the living God. As God has said:
“I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and
they will be My people.” And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be My
sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:16b, 18
I will be their God and they will
be My people. I will be a Father to them and they will be My sons and
daughters.
This is what the Lord says to you
and me today and every day, the Lord who ever summons us by name to serve Him
and others through all we do.
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
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