Verse of the day: Isaiah 25:1 O LORD, You are my God. I will exalt You, I will praise Your name, For You have done wonderful things; Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
As I read this verse, in its context, and consider the previous chapter of Isaiah, I cannot help but think of the song written by Tracy Dartt, “God on the Mountain”. A portion of the lyrics read, “For the God on the mountain is still God in the valley. When things go wrong, He'll make it right. And the God of the good times is still God in the bad times. The God of the day is still God in the night.” It is very easy to sing praises to our God when things are going our way. It is very easy to give thanks for the circumstances that go well and end well. How easy is it to give Him thanks and praise when things go sideways? How ready are we to sing praises to God when life “deals us a bad hand”, and tragedy strikes? How do we respond to the consequences of some of the choices we have made in life, or when bad things happen that we have no control over? Is there still room to praise God? Anyone can thank God when the conditions are right. However, real sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving happens when we have no earthly reason to give it; and only in Christ can we offer real praise and thanksgiving that comes from the heart, even in the midst of the worst of times (Heb 13:15). The Prophet Isaiah had just finished writing of the destruction that would come upon God’s people for their rebellion; yet here, immediately following, he breaks out in a song of praise to God for what he knows God will do in delivering His people. Too often, the reason we cannot praise God and find something to thank Him for is that we get caught up in the moment, and refuse to see past the trouble we may be experiencing. The ability to see beyond our circumstances, and put our eyes on Jesus, and His goodness, is what will enable us to sing praises during the worst of circumstances. It is in the midst of tribulations that we need to stop and ponder who God is. For us, the born again believer, because of what Jesus did for us, we can proclaim, heartily, that God is our God! We can praise His Name, for there is no other Name by which man can be saved, and it is the Name we called upon to receive eternal life, and be adopted into the family of God (Acts 4:12). If we honestly take a survey of our lives, how can any of us, who have tasted His goodness, not be able to admit that God has done wonderful things in our lives? The prophet had reason to praise God for the wonderful things He had already done for His people, and knew that their sufferings were the result of their own choice to forsake their God (just like today we have no reason to blame God for the consequences of our own sinful choices). Isaiah trusted the Word of God, and His faithfulness. God had already proven Himself to His people. How often has God proven that His Word is true, and that He is faithful to His children? If we are living for Him, and doing our best to faithfully serve Him, and obey His Word, how can we say that we have not yet experienced His faithfulness? Even when we have been unfaithful to Him, He has continued to be faithful to us. He told us that He would be faithful when He promised never to leave us nor forsake us; an unconditional promise given to us in His Word, as His children (Heb 13:5-6). The bottom line is that our ability to praise and thank Him is directly connected with our ability, in Christ, to recollect and rehearse to Him His goodness to an undeserving people. Rather than focus on our current situation, we need to look forward to how God will use our circumstances to make us more like our Savior, and how much greater our faith and trust in Him will be. Like the Prophet Isaiah, when we praise God for who He is, we will be able to experience the joy that comes with knowing that God’s deliverance, regardless of the time-frame, is sure.
More importantly than being delivered from earthly troubles, is being delivered from eternal condemnation. How can anyone look beyond today’s trials if they have nothing to look forward to? As God’s children, no matter how bad life gets, we have eternity with God to look forward to (1 Pet 1:3-12). Call upon Him today, repenting and confessing your sins (Rom 3:23), and accepting, by faith, eternal life that can only be obtained thru Him (Rom 6:23; 10:13); before it is too late.
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