A New Creation
Open Your Bible
Isaiah 63:15-19, Isaiah 64:1-12, Isaiah 65:1-25, Matthew 26:20-50
BY Annie Downs
Text: Isaiah 63:15-19, Isaiah 64:1-12, Isaiah 65:1-25, Matthew 26:20-50
A few nights ago, I threw myself down in my big fluffy chair to read Isaiah 65. It had been a long week with things going “differently” than I’d expected—meaning, EVERYTHING FELL APART. When days like these come to an end, all I know to do is make myself a cup of chai tea with almond milk, diffuse some essential oil that promises to ease all my stress, and sit down, Bible open, to whatever passage someone has encouraged me to read, just hoping it might make a difference in my attitude.
Those nights. You know the ones I’m talking about? The nights when you start spinning, thinking about how things could be going better, how life seems harder than it should be and isn’t exactly what you thought you were signing up for. As I read from Isaiah that night, I talked to God about what I was seeing on the page and how I longed for Him to show up.
Honestly, it’s not that I need Him to fix everything that feels broken in my life. Sure, sometimes I want a quick, easy fix to my problems, but I know what planet I’m living on. I know things here are hardly ever easy and never ever perfect. Jesus said it would be hard, but that He had overcome (John 16:33). Why don’t I remember that verse more often?
Trust me: there are plenty of nights when I just want to turn on Netflix and let episodes of Friends run back-to-back until even the screen seems to ask, “Are you still watching?” But this night was different. I knew I needed the quiet, not the noise or some other distraction. I knew I needed to connect with God, not pull away from Him.
It was a forced behavior, to be sure, but that happens in all relationships, doesn’t it? Moments when you want to isolate, but then you remember the commitment you’ve made, and somehow love leads you back toward relationship instead of running away from it.
So I drank my tea and I read. And there it was: New heaven. New earth. New.
Yes, I thought, I want NEW. I want a world where destruction—of places, of culture, of dreams and hearts and hopes—is barely a distant memory. I don’t know if it was God’s Word, the diffusing oils, or a combination of the two, but my heart started to calm down.
I think that’s what these pages and stories from Scripture are meant to do for the people of God—to remind us of what God is actively doing today and what He’s promised to do when He makes all things new (Isaiah 65:17). He is the One who answers even before we call. He is the One who acts while I’m still asking. He is the One who promises He’s present in any and all circumstances.
On that Tuesday night, before I’d even finished calling on Him, God answered me with peace and connection—with His very presence.
I think that will be the best part of the “new” that’s to come: God’s palpable and pervasive presence, uninterrupted by my sin or attitude or even Netflix. There’s so much about our eternity that is going to be beyond good, but being face to face with the God who hears and sees and answers and loves me completely? That’s the part I look forward to the most.
57 thoughts on "A New Creation"
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Yes! All of these have been my thoughts this week. Thank you for sharing!
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This passage and devotional was so timely! Over the past few years of lots of trials and difficulties, I slowly started to pull away from the Lord. And it really started with just small changes…choosing to spend time watching TV instead of in His Word, choosing to stay home instead of going to Church or Bible study, stepping away from serving, etc. And I’m not trying to point to legalism, but rather saying that these were the small decisions that would end up pushing me further and further away from trusting the Lord and into a world of (trying to) trust only myself. And eventually I found myself in a place of hopelessness and honestly just hating the person I had become, so void of love and peace and joy. And yet, God didn’t give up! Just like we’ve been reading in Isaiah, God is in the business of pursuing and restoring His people. And He showed me that it would be the small decisions that would also lead me back into fellowship with Him. And this time they wouldn’t be done out of a sense of duty and obligation but out of a deep trust and love and commitment to Him. And man, it is like a whole new relationship with Him! So thankful that God loves us enough to not let us stay where we are!
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That’s awesome! I hope you continue to see how He’s working in your life–He’s not going anywhere. ;)
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“but then you remember the commitment you’ve made, and somehow love leads you back toward relationship instead of running away from it.” – This reminds me so much that love in all forms isn’t just a feeling. Love is action, love is showing up even on the days we don’t want to, love is continuously growing and learning. And it never fails, I always grow the most, and most comforted when I DO love even if I don’t feel like it. THAT is when it’s most rewarding and fulfilling!!
http://www.littlelightonahill.com
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This is the part that stuck out for me as well. I’m the queen of isolating. QUEEN. God has been working on me with this. I was actually just choosing to isolate again, and then BOOM, this message. I won’t. I’ll make the effort and ask God for help. Thank you for the reminder that when you DO love even when you don’t feel like it, that’s when it’s the most rewarding. I needed to hear that. Thanks, Keri.
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This lent has been unexpected. Started out eliminating alcohol incorporating more yoga and less TV. Then, after almost 3 years of trying I finally got pregnant. I’m 7 weeks today – no more exercise for now. I’ve been constantly worried I won’t see the baby or somehow it didn’t make it. I hate this feeling. This feeling like I’m not trusting God because we’ve struggled so much. Like this life is for everyone else but me. I go in today and please pray that this kid is still thriving and all the spirulina smoothies are working! Most of all please pray my anxious is replaced with God’s confidence. I really want to enjoy this time of my life. Happy Holy Week!
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Oh wow what a blessing! I’m really excited for you!
Fun fact your little one is almost done creating every organ in its ENTIRE body! Seriously by around 8 weeks, a heart, brain, liver, kidneys & feet are all formed and now just get to grow and keep developing!
I pray great comfort over your heart and mind today. I pray that you take all your worries and fears to God, he is big enough to hold them all! This is the beginning of an exciting new chapter! May the little one grow strong and healthy! -
Congratulations!!! What a wonderful event for lent
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Praying for you!
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I hope God calmed your spirit today, and I pray He does that every day in the future. :)
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Thought this was a great devotional that really spoke to me. This has been a difficult study, trying to get through Isaiah and keep the big picture in mind. This reminds me to stay close to God and not continually try to do things my own way with God as an after thought.
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Since He is the One Who answers even before I call, and since He is the One Who acts while I’m still asking, and since He is the One Who promises He’s present in any and all circumstances, and since He is God and He is good and He loves me, I can be at peace. Thank you, Annie and SRT, for the reminder. I so love “since”! All truth. All good.
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So very true Churchmouse & you said it so well! I too would like to thank SRT for giving and sharing such wonderful guidance to God’s word. We certainly couldn’t make it without our Lord!
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“…you did what was evil in my eyes, and chose what I did not delight in” …But then: “Therefore, my servants shall eat but you shall go hungry.”. This comforts me so much, that no matter how crazy this world gets, if I’m seeking the Lord, if I’m choosing what delights Him (doesn’t that seem easier somehow?) even when the current culture tells me my beliefs and God’s ways are wrong – that He will take care of me. Even when the faithful were led into exile, He took care of them, He was with them. Maybe it wasn’t the way they would have preferred! But He kept His promise to them, and He will keep His promises to us, even when the world seems to be going to hell in a handbasket.
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Yes!!
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I am struck by Isaiah 54:8…Yet You Lord.
The previous verses are a stark reminder of just how filthy I am even when I am trying to cover myself in “righteous acts” that are like dirty rags before the holiness of God. Isaiah asks how then can we be saved? (v. 5). Great question Isaiah…it certainly is not by our own attempts! And then I read Matthew and the Yet You Lord takes on a whole new level of meaning as it sinks in that even though even my attempts to be righteous before God are deeply unclean, God bent low in the form of His Son who would look upon His sleeping disciples with love (and probably some frustration!) with the full weight of the end on His heart and mind. He would even look Judas, His betrayer, in the eyes and still call him a friend. How can we be saved? Through the willingly given, broken sacrifice of Jesus. If it wasn’t for the compassion and love in the Yet You Lord, Jesus wouldn’t have come to die for me for God could have just said “oh well…maybe next time.” But He didn’t. He doesn’t. He is working and redeeming every moment of every day because despite how much I fail and flail around, He is still my Father, my Creator, My God who will continue to draw and pursue me until I take my final breath. It’s the most wonderfully overwhelming truth of my life!
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You are so right! Love the insight
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I love how you described God as “Yet, You.” Thank you!
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