Israel’s Light will become a fire, and its Holy One, a flame. In one day it will burn up Assyria’s thorns and thistles.
While God sent Israel into Assyrian captivity due to serious rebellion and disobedience, He also punished Assyria for their treatment of Israel. We may open the door for the Devil to come in and wreak havoc in our life, but God will use our imprisoned state to draw us back to Him and will destroy the Devil’s forces against us when He begins to restore us. In one day, God can burn up everything that has taken us captive and held us back from possessing the land God has given us.
God is Israel’s Light in this verse. When He becomes a fire, it is a symbol of God’s judgment. The fire of His judgement will burn away everything that has been a thorn or a thistle to us once the thorns and thistles have completed their work, which is to draw us back to Him. He will lovingly clear the way for us to walk forth in the purpose He has planned for us. The thorns and thistles merely redirect us back to Him.
Are you hurting from the pain of thorns and thistles in your life? Seek God alone, and turn them over to Him. In one day, His flame can burn away everything that is hindering in your life. Trust Him to do what only He can do, and praise Him. He will clear the way for you.
And they will be called the Holy People, the LORD’s Redeemed; and you will be called Cared For, A City Not Deserted.
Joel 2:25
I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust ate – the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust – My great army that I sent against you.
God owes us nothing. Our own sin warrants hardship and destruction. Out of His great love for us, however, He chooses to redeem and restore us. We must always remember that Jesus was the perfect sacrificial lamb. Any efforts we make at holiness fall far short from perfection and are not enough to deserve salvation nor any blessing from God. Because of His mercy and grace toward us, He redeems us from our own self-made pits and restores us to blessing. Somehow, in the midst of God’s blessing upon us, He is glorified.
We are holy because God makes us holy. We are redeemed because He chooses to redeem us. He cares for us and does not desert us for His name’s sake. We are His through Christ, and He lovingly claims us as His own children, regardless of our failures and weaknesses.
God sends the locust into our lives to bring us to the end of ourselves and to seek Him. His intention is not to destroy us but to keep us from destroying ourselves. While He does not owe us a thing, He has chosen to restore whatever the locust devours in our life. In Him we have great hope for today and tomorrow as His children and heirs with Christ.
When life seems unfair – and it does at times – we would do well to remember that God exalts the humble and opposes the proud. His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are higher than our ways. Submit to Him with humility, and rejoice in the fact that He chooses to redeem and restore us, even if our pit is one we dug for ourselves. We are Cared For, A City Not Deserted. Praise Him for His great love toward us, and rejoice in Christ, our Great Redeemer! Hallelujah!
If you do not stand firm in your faith, then you will not stand at all.
I cannot think of truer words to describe the current world in which we live. Never has the word of God been challenged as it is today, and never have I seen evil described as good and good regarded as evil as I do now every time I turn on the news. Persecution, trials, temptations, and hardships all cause us to question God’s goodness and His love for us. If we rely upon our feelings or upon our personal perceptions, we will be easily deceived into believing that God does not exist or that He really doesn’t care about us. We must cling to the objective truth of God’s word and stand firm on what it says, rather than succumbing to the pressure from the world around us.
1 John 5:4:
…because everyone who is born from God defeats the world. And this is the victory that has defeated the world: our faith.
The Devil is after our faith because our faith is what overcomes the world, where he has dominion. Expect him to hurl every weapon of doubt, fear, anxiety, deception, offense, or accusation against you to cause you to question God’s love for you. Let God’s word be true and every other voice a liar! Now is the time to be in God’s word on a daily basis and meditating on every promise you find. Speak His word over every evil or troubling situation in your life, and stand on His word, rather than what you see in circumstances. Stand in your faith, and speak life over dry bones. Your faith has overcome the world. It is a done deal!
The past events have indeed happened. Now I declare new events; I announce them to you before they occur.
The past is the past; we cannot change it or deny it. Neither can we live in the past. We must accept the present and look toward the future. God declares new events in our life, and He often tells us about them before they occur. Do we have the faith to let go and accept what He has in store?
Between the past and the new events of the future lies a time called “Now.” Now is often a time of waiting and wrestling with the change from what once was to expecting the new events that will make the change worth the frustration. Now may also be a stage of limbo while we wait for decisions or circumstances to occur that enable the new events to take place. Now is all we are assured while we wait in faith for what God decides to do next. Therefore, we must make the most of Now with full expectation that God is working out the future.
Who are the people God has placed in your Now? Cherish them and learn all you can from them. What has God given you to do in your Now? Do it with all your might as to please Him. Don’t let the loss of the past or anxiety of the future rob you of what God is doing in your life Now. Live in each moment with full expectation that God is bringing about new and exciting events for your future. Today is a stepping stone for tomorrow, and we will never get today back. Let’s all make the most of our Now and trust God for new events that make our future much different from our past. He is always at work in us, so embrace Him Now.
Leave Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans! Declare with a shout of joy, proclaim this, let it go out to the end of the earth; announce, “The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob!”
In the Old Testament, Babylon, is synonymous with sin and pride and often represents idolatry, cruelty, and greed. It is the picture of self-absorption and considers no one more important than self. Babylon was the oppressor of God’s people and is the new oppressor of God’s church. The prophets referred to the Chaldeans as the inhabitants of Babylon.
God allowed Israel to be taken captive by Babylon, which means “confusion or to confuse.” Indeed, selfish pride confuses us into thinking more of ourselves than we should and to consider only our own comforts above God’s word. When we cater to our own selfish desires or seek our own personal comfort rather than obeying God’s word, we fall prey to the captivity of Babylon.
God calls His people to come out of Babylon and to leave the land of the Chaldeans. He has redeemed us by the blood of Jesus, and we are not to stay in the comforts of captivity. True freedom and blessing are found when we leave our own selfish ambitions and forsake the stronghold of pride in order to follow Christ with our whole heart. When we flee from selfishness, confusion gives way to clarity, and God’s blessing and anointing are able to flow to us and through us, giving us real life.
For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand and say to you: Do not fear, I will help you.
Any time God has called us to something or is doing something in our life, we will encounter resistance. Not everyone will be happy for you. Satan will hurl as many obstacles and darts as he can to prevent you from moving forward. If God has ordained it, however, nothing can stop it. We must remember that we are His, and He holds our hand to help us through those rocky places.
We need not fear any resistance we encounter when God has instigated our move. He will address those who contend with us, whether spiritual or physical. We are simply to trust Him and move forward as instructed.
Rejoice in knowing that God holds your right hand today. Do what He has called you to do, and trust Him to do what you cannot. He is your great help in time of need, and all who trust in Him will not be ashamed. Keep your eyes on Jesus, and let God fight your battles.
Nations will see your righteousness and all kings your glory. You will be called by a new name that the LORD’s mouth will announce. You will be a glorious crown in the LORD’s had, and a royal diadem in the palm of your God. You will no longer be called Deserted, and your land will not be called Desolate; instead you will be called My Delight in in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land will be married.
If you have ever embarked upon a restoration or home improvement project, you know fully well that what starts as a simple minor repair can easily turn into a major overhaul. Restoring one area of your home may make the rest of it look shabby, so you have to continue your restoration project to include other areas. Eventually, a beautiful transformation will take place, and while you may be exhausted and broke from the endeavor, the finished product is much more appealing and usually increases the value of your home. The same is true when God begins a restoration project from the ruins of our lives.
This passage is a wonderful promise from God to His people for restoration. He promises here that all nations will see the righteousness of Judah and Jerusalem. For us, that means people will see the righteousness of Christ in us because we have no righteousness of our own. God gives us the righteousness of Christ and transforms us into His image. What others will see is Christ in us, the hope of glory.
God promises to call us by a new name. This new name signifies a change in status. Where we were once deserted or rejected, we will now be seen as a glorious crown in God’s hand – something wonderful He has made for His glory. Notice that you will not RECEIVE this glorious crown; you will BE the glorious crown! This is not something we work to earn. On the contrary, this is what God molds us and fashions us to be in Christ.
The LORD will announce our new name with His own mouth. In other words, God will reveal to the world who we are in Him and what He created us to be – a stunning crown that glorifies Him. We don’t have to prove our worth or seek significance in others; God reveals who we are by His anointing.
While others may have rejected us – including those who should have supported us most – God will display His delight in us. Our land is our ministry or our inheritance in Christ. It will appear as the joy experienced at a wedding ceremony. In a time of mourning or judgment, God took away the sound of the bride and bridegroom, which means no hope for a bright future. God has promised our land to be married, meaning the promise of continuation and a fruitful lineage.
Rejoice today in the fact that God delights in you, regardless of who may have rejected you. He is fashioning you into a glorious crown, and He will reveal you and display your beauty in due time. Your life is not in ruins; it is in restoration. While the process may look worse than when it started, the end result will be beautiful!
You will see, you will rejoice, and you will flourish like grass; then the LORD’s power will be revealed to His servants, but He will show His wrath against His enemies.
Our faith may be foolish to those close to us, especially when our circumstances arestressful or challenging. If people look only at our circumstances to judge our God, they will be easily deceived. How we respond to unfavorable circumstances reflects our faith, and God’s response to our faith is what reveals His glory.
God’s blessing enables us to flourish like grass, which grows so quickly in the spring and summer that it must be cut weekly. Indeed, God’s power brings blessing to the righteous and judgment to the wicked. Eventually, God makes it clear what is pleasing to Him as He brings His people through fiery trials and shows His wrath against His enemies. While none of us may deserve His blessing, we can’t function without it. We must lose ourselves and be found in Christ to fully experience all the wonder God has in store for us.
Hold on to your faith in the midst of struggling times. God’s word will prevail. Regardless of what your circumstances may say at the moment, one touch of God’s favor can flood you with blessings that distinguish you as a child of God and set your enemies in a tailspin. Cling to Christ, trust in His word, and know that God’s power will be revealed wherever His word is trusted and feared. He will show Himself faithful and true, and the Devil will be made a liar once again.
This is what the LORD says: Preserve justice and do what is right, for My salvation is coming soon, and My righteousness will be revealed. Happy is the man who does this, anyone who maintains this, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.
Life is not fair, and God never promised it would be. People – even those closest to us – will hurt us or let us down. In times of struggle or uncertainty, we need to take these words to heart and simply do what we know to do is right. We can’t help what others do or even what they say about us. We are to fix our eyes on Jesus, continue in our purpose, and trust God to work everything out as it should be.
At the sign of injustice, we can easily be tempted to strike back. (At least I am. Some of you maintain grace much better than I do!) In the end, however, the one who does what is right and keeps his hand from doing evil is the one who is happy. Two wrongs do not make a right; they just make it more wrong.
Romans 8:28 gives us a promise for times like this. God truly works all things together – the good, the bad, and the really ugly – for our good and His glory. Do the right thing, and let Him work it all out. In the end, God’s righteousness will be revealed, and He will win.
Let the wicked one abandon his way, and the sinful one his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, so He may have compassion on him and to our God, for He will freely forgive.
Quite often, the change we long to see in our life begins with changing our thoughts. Small minded, selfish thinking leads to a confined lifestyle. In the verses that follow, God explains that His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are different from ours. To rise above our undesirable situations, we need to take every thought captive and think on that which is lovely, pure, and noble in order to gain a new perspective.
Sinful actions begin as thoughts. Changing sinful habits requires changing our thoughts on the matter. The word, “repent,” in Greek is the word, “metanoia,” which means “to change your mind.” When we repent of wrongful actions, we literally change our mind on the matter and learn to think differently. When we abandon our wrong way of thinking and return to God, He promises to have compassion on us and freely forgive us.
Where do you need a change in your life today? Change your thinking. Reject negativity, and expect God to move. Be open to change and look for something good. Every good and perfect gift comes from God, so concentrate on His goodness instead of life’s trouble. He is stronger, bigger, greater, and ready to forgive and bless you.
Have a blessed day!
PHOEBE Connections, Inc. is a 501(c)3 dedicated to enhancing the lives of widows by building relationships and helping them find new identity in Jesus Christ through serving others. We promote an atmosphere of fellowship, where the widow can connect with other widows to develop friendships and supportive relationships.