Isaiah 12:1-2 ‘And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.’
God is a God of forgiveness and patience. Forgiveness, very basically, is the act of forgiving. To forgive means “to give up resentment of or claim to requital for,” as in forgiving an insult. To go a step further, we can define the word ‘forgive’ as cessation of feelings of resentment against, such as against an offender. In another sense, and the sense that we think of in theological terms, to forgive would be “to grant relief from payment of,” such as forgiving a debt. The wage (or debt) of our sins is spiritual death. Death of our spirit makes reconciliation to God impossible. To say this another way, without God’s forgiveness, we must pay the debts we incur as a result of our sins, the wages of which is death in the spirit. We will all die in the flesh… our life is lived in order to determine who will experience a spiritual death as well. Fortunately, our transgressions do not have to hold a permanent debt because of the gracious and forgiving God that we serve.
Above all, he is a God of love and compassion. His love overshadows our transgressions and through His love, we have been redeemed through Jesus Christ by way of repentance and spiritual growth. God loves, comforts, and protects us even when He is angry with us. His love overshadows and ‘turns away’ His anger when we are in a struggle… when we struggle with the unknown; when we struggle with confusion; when we struggle with loneliness, feeling abandoned or cast aside… His compassion, grace and mercy are with us when we are sinners, and when we are saved. He loves us all! When we struggle with the flesh; when we struggle with the Spirit, His love overshadows all else as He sees us through. We do not possess the power to compromise God’s purpose in our lives. He is perfect, as is His Will. At times, we allow ourselves to feel dismay because of our struggles, but God has a purpose for the experiences He allows us to endure. We can refuse our purpose by living in our own will and denying His Will for us, but we cannot compromise our purpose. It remains unchanged, whether we seek it or not.
Isaiah 12:3-6 ‘Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day shall ye say, Praise the LORD, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted. Sing unto the LORD; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth. Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.’
When we see people able to enjoy stability and financial freedom while living in utter sin and following Satan’s temptation and deceit, we ask God, “Why am I not this blessed? Why can I not enjoy a better life? Why can I not live as they live, when I am Your child and they are children of the world?” This world hates us BECAUSE we follow Jesus. Jesus said in John 15:18, “If the world hates you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.” In saying this, there is the inference that we were comfortable in this world before we were saved by His blood because the world accepted and loved us as sinners. Once we became followers of Christ, we have joined in the heavenly family and have turned away from the ways of the world. God will bless us ABUNDANTLY and we will live eternally with wealth far beyond anything imaginable here on Earth.
God will also bless us on Earth… no matter how big our struggle is, He always proves to be a God of provision and despite our worries and small faith, God always makes a way. Because ‘…the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.’ (Luke 17:6) We must be patient and faithful and trust that we will never need for anything as long as God is our Father because He is faithful to the faithful and His timing is perfect. As it has been said many times before: He may not always come when we call Him, but He is always on time.
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