What is considered “new” to us? Could it be something that we have not yet even experienced or dreamt of yet? Still, there is something about this word that draws us and catches the attention of many. Hearts tend to lean into the freshness and hope that it brings, yet in the same way, we often allow fear, frustration, doubt or pain to set in causing us to not see beyond where we are at the moment.
The Lord’s promise in this Isaiah passage sets the unique example of what has been and what will be. It is a promise of hope and deliverance from the desolation, destruction, and chaos found as the Israelites journeyed through the wilderness. The Lord only intended their journey to take days, however, because they kept dwelling on the past (good and bad) experiences and were afraid to do what God had asked it became a pilgrimage of 40 years in the making. All the Israelites could see at the moment was drought and famine; pure hopelessness. They allowed questions and complaints to surround them every second of the way and continued to get hung up on their past victories and frustrations. They stopped expecting and believing that God was going to come through again. They allowed the former things to consume them and blind them from seeing the hope of the promise to come.
Often, we are the same. We somehow get on the hamster wheel of reliving our past victories and believing that there is nothing more. We allow the defeats and failures, the unforgiveness and pain to overtake the promises He has spoken over us. We let the old of yesterday out shadow the new of tomorrow.
What is it that you once were hoping for? What keeps you hung up and not able to believe again? Is there something you are still holding onto that is clouding your vision and hope? If so, can you release it all and believe that He wants to do something new for you? It is possible, friend. Hope in Him.
“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth,
do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
