Wow! Now That's Amazing Love!

Isaiah 43:1-4,11,18-19: "But now, this is what the LORD says-he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior . . . you are precious and honored in my sight, because I love you . . . . I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no savior . . . . Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."


What a tremendous passage of hope and encouragement do we find in the words of God mentioned above. God, the Sovereign Creator of all things, is petitioning the covenant community not to be afraid, for they have been rescued from a perilous fate by the mercy of a loving Lord. Through no merit of their own, but solely through the grace of God, the redeemed have become God's precious treasure . . . He knows and calls them each by name, and He summons them to abide with Him forever in His eternal blessedness.


Today, when we yield ourselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, He in turn directs our paths in such a way that we are protected from the raging waters of despair and judgment that are rushing against those who have no such relationship with God. Because of God's great love for us, He has given us an intrinsic worth and honor that is beyond anything that we ever have deserved. And because of God's great love for us, He shields us from the towering inferno of His wrath that we ought to receive from Him, because of our sinful rebellion against His Holiness. God's amazing love is just that . . . it is amazing. For the One who should pour out the full measure of His wrath against us, instead promises to walk alongside us and protect us through our life pilgrimage into eternity. This is love and salvation at its finest.

One thing that the Evil One would do during our journey is frustrate us to the point of discouragement and capitulation. He will tempt us to reflect upon the sinful habits of our past in order to frustrate our focused obedience on the Lord in the present. He wants us to become so dejected by our past that we would conclude that God could never forgive us and we might as well "live up" our sinful patterns to their fullest. After all, if we cannot be forgiven for the past, we should at least get as much satisfaction out of our sin in the present.


God encourages us that if we have repented of the things of the past, we should stop dwelling upon them. God is working miraculously in our lives today, so that the streams of blessing are beginning to flow in the once barren wasteland of our souls. When we are surrendered to Him as our Lord, He in turn begins to work supernaturally in our lives to accomplish great things for His glorious kingdom. It is then that we are able to reach our fullest potential for the Lord.

If you have repented of your sins and confessed Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then celebrate the promises that He gives to you in the above passage from Isaiah 43. The Lord of Hosts loves you so much that He knows you by name, He gives you honor and value, and He promises to protect you from the torrents of disaster. If there ever were hope to be found in the world, it is here! And as the Apostle Paul has encouraged us to do . . . "let us put on the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing" (1 Thessalonians 5:8b-11).