Isaiah 6:13 – But as the terabinth and the oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land. Our God is a God who gives hope to His people. Whenever there are situations which take away the hope of His people, He comes to give them rays of hope. He recognizes that we loose hope because of disobedience and sin in and around us. Our God shows mercy to people and gives them opportunities to settle their disobedience with Him. He warns people of dire consequences if they live in disobedience and do not come back to Him with repentance. God shows mercy, but will not compromise on His standards. Whoever disregards His Word will have to suffer the consequences of their disobedience. Even those He loves will not be spared of the consequences of their shortcomings and disobedience. But if they confess and repent, perhaps He might relent from destroying them utterly. When the majority strays from Him, He will always have a minority to keep His mission going. We find examples of His grace when He kept a small minority for Himself through the flood. When the vast majority rejected Him, He still kept a Joshua and a Caleb to reach the Promised Land. When Elijah felt all alone, He reminded him of the 7,000 prophets whom He kept for Himself by His powerful hand. Even when God commanded Isaiah to preach messages of warning, the prophet was forewarned about the bleak future in front of him of very few who would remain faithful to God. There is a promise that even when the whole generation of unfaithful people vanishes away, God would still keep a small remnant who would continue to serve Him. This is the message of hope that He wants His children to lay hold of as they see hopelessness around them.
Dear reader, are you discouraged about the extent of lack of godliness that is seen around? Do you get frustrated about the level of disobedience seen even among God’s people as it was during the times of Isaiah’s ministry? Are you experiencing a wave of hopelessness and lack of spirituality around? These are seen around us because of the spirit of iniquity which is growing by leaps and bounds. Lawlessness and disobedience are growing even among the so-called people of God who live by selfish and unrighteous motives and priorities. There is an air of hopelessness because things do not seem to improve, but deteriorate at an increasing pace day after day. Still God wants us to preach, teach and continue to touch the lives of people to see how they would remain faithful to the Lord and His Word. These signs and symptoms of deterioration of the moral environment are increasing day after day and are permeating into the realm of the called out ones also. Through the message to Isaiah, God wants to comfort His true children to be encouraged because He is till on the Throne and that His glory fills everything that is ready to empty itself of the vanity that is around. He wants to remind us to put our hope only in the Lord and not in any other system even in the spiritual realms which are around us. Let us today take a cue from the Seraphs and burn for our Lord. Let us put all that He has given us to His service. Let us use all our energy to praise Him so that our worship will have an impact in the community in which we live. Let us renew our obedience and faithfulness to Him and continue to serve Him so that our hearts and lives will please the God of our salvation. Let our hope in Him lead us forward to run our race and finish our course for His glory.
Psalms 31:24 – Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in the Lord. Thought for Today Our God renews our hope through His Word every day as we live in a hopeless world.
