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Isaiah 30:15-18<br />
15<br />
For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:<br />
In returning and rest you shall be saved;<br />
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.<br />
But you refused 16 and said,<br />
“No! We will flee upon horses”—<br />
therefore you shall flee!<br />
and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”—<br />
therefore your pursuers shall be swift!<br />
17<br />
A thousand shall flee at the threat of one,<br />
at the threat of five you shall flee,<br />
until you are left<br />
like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,<br />
like a signal on a hill.<br />
18<br />
Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you;<br />
therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you.<br />
For the Lord is a God of justice;<br />
blessed are all those who wait for him.<br />
. My question: What is the message for<br />
us today? Reading further I saw that Isaiah is instructing his people on how to deal<br />
with their<br />
They feared the Assyrians. Instead of listening and trusting<br />
God, they chose to take matters into their own hands, listen to false prophets and flee.<br />
Is Isaiah's message to them not also the help he offers us? In this world we face many<br />
fears: war, weather disasters, illness, job loss, divorce, death, depression, concerns for<br />
our children, etc. When these things happen, in anger or fear we may take matters into<br />
our own hands instead of trusting God to get us through.<br />
As a Mental Health Nurse who feared whether I had made the right decision in<br />
dealing with life and death situations, I would lay awake at night worrying.<br />
Then the Spirit led me to follow Isaiah's message: to trust in the strength and<br />
knowledge God had provided me and put the rest in His hands. That blessing<br />
helped me through many situations. I have a dog that has fur that grows over her eyes.<br />
By chance I found a cute card with a picture of another such dog. The caption under it<br />
was "We walk by faith, not by sight." There is a peace in having such faith. It helps get<br />
us through our fear and anger.<br />
Dear Heavenly Father, help us remember that in times of trouble when we sinfully cling to our own<br />
devices, You wait for us with compassion to show us mercy and justice and a peace. Amen.<br />
- Greta Robinson
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