See, I Am Doing a New Thing (Isaiah 43:18-19)

Uh, welcome to uh 915 devotional. We're starting a couple minutes late. Kind of seems like it's the norm. I'll go back to trying. I know you yelled at me for starting late and I'll try and make sure that we don't do that. But today we're going to be uh today's Columbus Day. If you didn't know, it's a holiday. So, welcome. Uh, and today unknowingly even kind of talks a little bit about maybe what a holiday would be like, Columbus Day. And so, let me throw the scripture up here. We're going to be uh we're going to be in Isaiah today. Um and we're going to be in two verses in Isaiah.

We're going to be in in Isaiah 43:18 and 19. And I think we might for the week talk about uh these these scriptures, the scriptures that talk about what it looks like to look back and and what it looks like to look forward. And and back in August, we covered Philippians. Um, I don't know that we'll recover it, but it's a it's Paul talking about forgetting what's behind and and straining toward what's ahead. And and and Isaiah talks about something very similar. And so, here we are in Isaiah. So, this is a major prophet in the Old Testament. And he's he is uh he's the voice that God uses to speak to the people.

And so, he says, "Forget the former things. Do not dwell on the past." And then the next verse, which if I could figure out how to get there, I guess I have to click on scripture on and click next verse. There we go. All right. And then the next verse says, see, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up. Do not do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness in the stream in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. And so uh so let's uh let's talk about this now. So uh forget the former things. Do not dwell on the past. So Isaiah is talking to the Israel nation which at the moment is lost its temple.

It's lost its land. It's lost Jerusalem. Uh they're in captivity in Babylon. And so the prophet Isaiah is telling them, "Forget the former things." And what he's really saying is, "Forget about the fact that I rescued you once from Egypt." Forget about that. He says, "Don't dwell on that." We we have a tendency as a as a group of people to to to dwell on the past. And whether that's dwelling on the past because it was something that was a failure or we're dwelling on the past because it was something good. Isaiah doesn't make the distinction here.

Paul doesn't make the distinction either. He says, "Stop dwelling on that." That that's not where your focus should be. If we take a look at a car, the windshield is really big. The rearview mirror is really small. It doesn't mean we should forget the past. doesn't mean we just wipe it out and erase it. What it means is our focus and where we should be dwelling is what's in front of us, not not what's in the past. And so Isaiah goes on, he says, "See, I am doing a new thing." And so he's talking about God. God's doing this new thing. He says, "Now it springs up." And he asks the question, "Do you not perceive it?" And here's why.

Most times when God starts something new, it's small in your life. It's a small change, but if we're too busy focusing on where we came from, if we're too busy thinking about uh the failure that we just walked through, or if we're too busy thinking about the successes that we had that maybe we're not living right now, and often times we miss the very thing that God's got for us today. It's that small seed, that thing that's just that's just getting started. And so Isaiah is is is the voice from God. So God speaks to Isaiah and Isaiah speaks to the people.

And so Isaiah goes on to say, "I'm making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wastelands." And so what he's saying here is God's saying, I I I'm not promising you that I'm going to take you around the desert. I'm not telling you that that I'm going to just uh you know make sure that you've got you know nice mattresses to step on everywhere you go. That's not his promise. In fact, he says just the opposite. What I'm going to do is I'm going to put streams in the wasteland. I'm going to make where you're at comfortable for you. Uh I'm going to be there with you.

I'm going to walk through this process with you. But please stop looking at the old things. He's not erasing the past. He's just saying that we can't build our house back there. It's gone. You can't, as much as you want to be the high school quarterback, those days are over. And we got to stop thinking about those things. As much as you loved your last job and you had made a great paycheck and you love working there, the business closed. You can't go back there. God's got something new for you. And if we will take the time to look forward, take the time to read our Bible, take the time to be still and quiet and watch the seed that he's planted, it will spring up.

And then we'll have a good understanding of the path and the direction that he's got for us. And so if I can leave everybody with that one image of the car, the windshield and the rearview mirror. And and often times when we think about not thinking about the past, we immediately think about, well, okay, I got to forget all the bad stuff. Well, that's true, but you also have to forget about the good stuff. Isaiah is telling the Israel nation right here, forget about the fact that he split the Red Sea. Forget about the fact that he rescued you from Egypt.

That was a fant it was a glorious moment in the Israel nation. He's telling them, forget about it. If we continue to focus on that, then we don't leave room for God to have the next big miracle in our life. And so, that's the point. That's what we want to do. So, do it's not just forget the bad things. It's stop dwelling on the things that were great back then as well, too, because God's got something even greater for you as we move forward. All right. So, thoughts, comments, suggestions, and remember, you got to unmute yourself down below. To me, the the past for me was Grace had it the you know freedom it's we we have a harder time forgiving ourselves of things in the past and that's part of what freedom is is the past things to let them go and to forgive yourself on them so you can move forward.

That's kind of where that brings me. Our church has got a great program called freedom which is exactly what it's designed for. Yep. This verse could be broke. This verse could be broke down like so many different so many different ways and so many you know like when I hear like we're gonna put a stream put a stream through a wasteland like in like like literally like injecting living water into a waste case like me, you know? It's just that's what I that's what I just pulled straight from that. That's what jumped out to me, you know, just injecting Jesus Christ into a waste case.

Man, that's awesome. Yeah. I have something to say. Um what what happens when you have trauma and in order to get through it you have to get back to the past. Yeah. So so in in in our church we have a program called freedom and it's it is addressing those things and so you want to do that. We we don't want to there's scripture that says remember the things that I've done. He's God's not saying erase the history. But if there's something that you need to deal with in order to move forward, then you have to deal with it. You have to pull it up. You have to identify it.

You have to ask God to heal that. And then you have to forget about it. And then you have to move forward. We can't live back there. So it is important to address those things. Don't wipe them out. Don't bury your head in the sand. That's what that God does not want us to do that. He wants us to bring those things to him. He wants us to set those things at the foot of the cross. He wants us to call them by name and identify them. Ask him for forgiveness and healing for those things and then give it to him and move on. Don't go pick it back up. That's right.

I found it interesting that that you say um not just the bad thing but the good things that you did because sometimes we tend to dwell how good we were at something and we're trying to be just as good moving forward when probably what you were doing what we were doing we were good at it at that time that was our season that was our moment and God is telling us I have something new for you I want you to move forward with what I have for you now. What you did back then was great, but that's done. Your season is over. Your moment's over. Yeah. He's got a He's got a new habit for you.

He's got He's got some other direction or path he wants you to go down. That's why we That's why they're called seasons, right? They they come and they go, right? Anybody else? All right. Well, then let's uh let's pray this Monday out and and get on with our day. Bow our heads. Father, thank you so much for today. Thank you uh thank you for uh for giving us this wisdom, Lord, for for knowing that we're not supposed to erase the past, but it is also something that doesn't define our tomorrow. And so, Lord, I pray that we would remember that that uh identify those things that have hurt us, put them at the foot of the cross, give them to you, God, and then move on.

and then be still, be quiet, watch for those new beginnings, those things that are springing up. Lord, we know you use that that farming analogy in scripture because it's so true in our lives. And so, Lord, I pray that each of us would would be looking for that that we would be meditating on on that part of our life, not meditating on the thing that we can't change, the past. No matter how much we want to, we can't change what happened yesterday. I can't change that I blew it driving in the car yesterday or I can't change the fact that that that I did this glorious thing two weeks ago.

None of those things are going to are going to make today what it should be. Father, looking at you and keeping our eyes fixed on you and moving forward will do exactly that. So, Father, I pray that you give us the wisdom uh to do those things. Uh Lord, watch over us today and guide us. uh allow us that every time we get in the car and we grab that steering wheel to remember this verse, Isaiah 43. Lord, that that we would remember to meditate on the things that we can see going forward, not to strain our necks looking back at at what we missed or what we don't have or the glory from yesterday.

Father, um write that on us. Allow us to be able to live that out. allow us to know that that there are some dry times and when we have those dry times and whether they're in ourselves, Father, and we've got we've got to have that living water like William said, Lord, or or whether it's just a difficult season to know that if we continue to focus on you, that you're going to put that stream right there for us, that we're going to have the water that we need to drink, that we're going to have the the comfort that we need, not because of our circumstance, uh but because we know who we are in Christ.

Father, we love you. We praise you. We thank you and in your son's name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right. We'll see you guys tomorrow, same time. Have a good one. Thank you.

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly edited for readability.