“Do not remember former things, nor consider things of the past. Here I am, doing a new thing; Now it is springing up—do you not know about it? I will surely make a way in the desert, rivers in the wasteland.”
–Isaiah 43:18-19, TLV
Over the past three years our lives have been upended by—to name a few—the uncertainty of Covid, the War in Ukraine, and the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.
The Lord impressed on my heart though—through the above Scripture, and in witnessing His Spirit being poured out on people worldwide—He is indeed, “doing a new thing.”
The Lord, our Hound of Heaven,1 nipping at our heels, is waking many, calling all of us to return to Him. Telling us to look Heavenward, the Lord is saying to us, Don’t focus on the past—mistakes, stumblings, or on the way things used to be—but keep your eyes on ME.
Sometimes, when the swirling storms of life seem to make our circumstances seem insurmountable, that is hard to do. It is easier to become discouraged. David felt that way when he asked,
“Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why are you murmuring within me?”
And then he remembered:
“Hope in God, for I will yet praise Him,
For the salvation of His presence.”
-Psalms 42:6, TLV*
Hope is not found in circumstances changing for the better. Nor in life returning to the way it once was. Hope is found in the Lord’s Countenance. It’s His abiding Presence that lifts our souls, giving us His peace and His joy.
The Lord is the way in the desert and the river in our wasteland.
“Then the angel showed me a river of life—bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb down the middle of the city’s street.
On either side of the river was a tree of life,
bearing twelve kinds of fruit each month;
And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
-Revelation 22:1, TLV
Is your heart stirred with expectation when you read this truth?
I don’t know what will happen today or tomorrow. Only God does. But what I do know is that when the Lord’s Presence is with us, when we are abiding in Him, everything else pales in comparison.
Philippians 4:8 (TLV) tells us,
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any virtue and if there is anything worthy of praise—dwell on these things.”
In His love,
Kimberly
*The Hound of Heaven, a poem by Francis Thompson was first printed in the periodical Merry England in 1890.
[1] Merry England, v. 15, no. 87 (July 1890), pages [163]-168
*In other translations, this verse is notated as Psalms 42:5.
