Category: Old Testament

Prepare Ye, Prepare Thine

Featured ~ Sowmya Gali

Isaiah 25: 6-9

6. And in this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wines on the lees.

7.  And He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations.

8. He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces; the rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth; for the Lord has spoken.

9. And it will be said in that day: “Behold, this is our God; We have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord; We have waited for Him; We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”

Another year has come to a close and a new year has dawned upon us. Let us thank our good Lord for carrying us through another year filled with a mixture of joyous and anxious moments, tragedies and pleasant surprises. Our good Lord has never failed us. We rose up from our mistakes and are forging ahead equipped with better experiences. Throughout this tumultuous year, our Lord stood by us like a pillar of strength. Thanks be to Him!

As I look forward for another year, I am reminded of a song “Prepare the way” by Darrell Evans and Eric Nuzum. We are reminded to prepare ourselves for God’s reign in our lives. First and foremost, we need to prepare our hearts, our homes and the people of God for our Lord. However, knowing my Savior, I couldn’t help but see the underlying desire of my Lord for this preparation.

Our Yahweh God loves us so much that He sent His only begotten Son to save us, die instead of us and restore us to our Heavenly Father. In addition to the rescuing and restoring of our souls, He deeply desires that we are in perfect joy, peace, health, and success while we are in this world. It is just like Him. It is His very nature. He desires that we be restored everything that the devil has stolen from us: health, joy, success and peace of mind. In so doing, He is preparing a people who are just after His own heart: generations of people who live for the Lord, live in the Lord and live by the Lord. He desires to see people who are victorious, healthy, gracious, peaceful and always joyful. Such a generation of people will bring forth a heaven on earth that we now only dream of. A heaven that we so look forward to where there is no strife or tear, we could as well have it right here when there arises a generation who strive to live God-centered lives.

Make ready your hearts, make ready your homes and make ready a people of God in this New Year as our Restorer God is making His move to restore everything that we’ve lost: our joy, peace, love, health and success. It is not just a one-time restoration but a wave after wave of overwhelming blessings that will chase us down and wash over us. A time will soon come when we will look up to Him and say, “Lord, why do you love me so much?” In that time, all we can do is surrender to His love with raised hands, tears of joy and eyes longing to behold such a loving God face to face. Prepare yourselves, prepare your families and prepare a generation of people for our God. Our Restorer is waiting to make His move!

Prosperity in Captivity

Featured ~ Sowmya Gali

Jeremiah 29: 4-10

4. “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon,

5.‘Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce.

6. ‘Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease.

7. ‘Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.’

8. “For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams which they dream.

9. ‘For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them,’ declares the Lord.

10. “For thus says the Lord, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.

King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians have sacked Jerusalem and Judah. They have taken into captivity several thousands of Israelites to Babylon. The Israelites, who disobeyed God despite repeated warnings by God through His prophets, saw with their own eyes the utter destruction of their beloved city and their holy temple. God, in His infinite mercy and everlasting love for His people, inspired Jeremiah, the prophet to write these words. Jeremiah sent this letter to the elders, priests and all the people who were in exile.

God, instead of breathing down condemnation on a people who were living in exile in fear, encouraged them to move on with their lives. He neither abandoned them nor forgot them. On the contrary, He showed them mercy and granted favor in the sight of the Babylonians. Here, He is instructing them to live their lives as normally as possible. This instance prompts us to ask the question: ‘which conquering nation would allow its conquered subjects to build houses, gardens, assimilate into their society and lead productive lives?’ We can see how the Lord’s hand has guided the Israelites, protected them and prospered them in a strange land. Even though, they were slaves of Babylon, they did not live like slaves. Furthermore, God instructs them to pray for the welfare of the city of Babylon. Because in the prosperity of Babylon, lies the prosperity of the Israelites. Even in captivity, the Israelites flourished. In addition, God gives them the timeline of their return to Jerusalem.

We, as children of God, may be in dire situations: enslaved by our circumstances, stagnant and unhappy with career, life, finances, etc., battling a health crisis, nursing elderly parents or a sick person, waiting for a breakthrough, or some other situation. We may think that life has come to a standstill. Despite endless prayers, we don’t seem to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our circumstances have not improved. We don’t see any of God’s promises being fulfilled. Life seems to be on hold. Day after day, month after month, year after year, time seems to be rolling by, while you remain where you were.

As disheartening as this sounds, take heart, my fellow saint! Go about your life as normally as possible. Live your life as God commanded you to. Remain faithful and steadfast in His love. Live in anticipation that the breakthrough will come any moment. Just because we don’t see the result we are expecting, doesn’t mean that God is not working. God has set a time for the return of the exiles back to Jerusalem. He didn’t say how they were going to return. The Israelites may have thought that God will wipe out the Babylonians and miraculously, He will take them back to Judea just like He did when He brought them out of Egypt. History tells us that Babylonians were overthrown by Medes and they in turn were conquered by the Persians. Through His prophet Isaiah, He said that during the reign of Cyrus, the remnant will return.

Life may be at a standstill but our Sovereign Lord is still on the throne. Nothing happens outside of His will for His children. All He wants is our utmost obedience. All He desires is our utmost loyalty. All He asks is our utmost trust. ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’ Jeremiah 29: 11 When our Lord has the perfect plan for our prosperity, for our future, why then should we worry? Let us go about our daily lives diligently, honestly and expectantly. We may be in captivity, but our souls are free. We may be enslaved, but our hearts are grateful. We may be confined to our circumstances, but our lives are bursting with joy. Let us not allow our circumstances to keep us captive but let us allow God to prosper us even in our captivity.