Tag Archives: isaiah 43

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Deliverance

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Max Lucado

You’ll get through this! You fear you won’t.  We all do. We feel stuck, trapped, locked in.  Will we ever exit this pit?  Yes!  Deliverance is to the Bible what jazz music is to Mardi Gras: bold, brassy, and everywhere. Out of the lion’s den for Daniel, the whale’s belly for Jonah, and the prison for Paul.

Through the Red Sea onto dry ground. Through the wilderness, through the valley of the shadow of death. Through!  It’s a favorite word of God’s. Isaiah 43:2 says, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you… when you walk through the fire, you will not be burned.”

It won’t be painless. Have you wept your final tear, received your last round of chemotherapy?  Not necessarily. Does God guarantee the absence of struggle? Not in this life. We see Satan’s tricks and ploys, but God sees Satan tripped and foiled. You’ll get through this!

From You’ll Get Through This

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – No More Same Old Same Old

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Do not [earnestly] remember the former things; neither consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing! —Isaiah 43:18, 19

In today’s scripture, God says He is doing a new thing. As you move into the future He has for you, you will encounter all kinds of new opportunities, and challenges. The days ahead will be full of new experiences, things you have never done before. You may not know how to do them, but you will learn. Everything you are doing today was new to you at one time—and look, now you can do it.

Continuing to face new challenges and develop new abilities is extremely important to your growth and maturity. As you walk with God into your future, you will hear Him say, “You have not done this before, but don’t be afraid. I’m taking you to a place you have never been before. I’m going to ask you to do something you don’t know how to do!” God has already been where He is leading you, and He has prepared the way. Step out in faith and you will experience the faithfulness of God.

We think and say, “It’s time for a change! I need something new,” and then we hesitate to embrace that new thing when it comes. If you are ready for something new and fresh, don’t be afraid to embrace it when it comes.

Don’t stay trapped in the past. Let go of what lies behind and press into the great future God has planned for you. I can promise you: God is with you. He will lead you. He will strengthen you. He will help you.

Love God Today: With God’s help, I will embrace every new thing He brings into my life.

Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon – God’s people in the furnace

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“I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” Isaiah 48:10

Suggested Further Reading: Isaiah 43:1-7

Beloved, the first thing I will give you is the comfort of the text itself—election. Comfort yourself with this thought: God says, “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” “The fire is hot, but he has chosen me; the furnace burns, but he has chosen me; these coals are hot, I do not love the place, but he has chosen me.” Ah! It comes like a soft gale assuaging the fury of the flame. It is like some gentle wind fanning the cheeks; yes, this one thought arrays us in fireproof armour, against which the heat has no power. “Let affliction come—God has chosen me. Poverty, you may come in at the door—God is in the house already, and he has chosen me. Sickness, you may come, but I will have this by my side for a balsam—God has chosen me. Whatever it is, I know that he has chosen me.” The next comfort is that you have the Son of man with you in the furnace. In that silent bedchamber of yours, there sits by your side one whom you have not seen, but whom you love; and often when you know it not, he makes your bed in your affliction, and smooths your pillow for you. You are in poverty; but in that lonely house of yours that has nothing to cover its bare walls, where you sleep on a miserable straw mattress, you know that the Lord of life and glory is a frequent visitor; he often treads those bare floors, and putting his hands upon those walls he consecrates them! If you were in a palace he might not come there. He loves to come into these desolate places that he may visit you. The Son of man is with you, Christian.

For meditation: There are some things that can only be proved in times of trouble (Daniel 3:17,25,28,29; James 1:12; 1 Peter 1:6,7).

Sermon no. 35

12 August (1855)

John MacArthur

John MacArthur – Possessed by God

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John MacArthur

“You are . . . a people for God’s own possession” (1 Pet. 2:9).

When Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd; and I know My own, and My own know Me” (John 10:14), He stated a truth that has been especially dear to me since the early years of my theological education. One of the pleasant memories from my seminary days is sitting in chapel and singing the hymn by the nineteenth-century lyricist Wade Robinson “I Am His and He Is Mine.” I may never fully comprehend the depths of what it means to belong to Christ, but I will forever glory in it.

The Greek word translated “possession” in 1 Peter 2:9 means “to purchase” or “acquire for a price.” Paul used it in Ephesians 1:14 to speak of “the redemption of God’s own possession.” Everyone is His by creation, but we as Christians are uniquely His because He paid the price to redeem us from the bondage of sin and death.

God’s ownership of believers is emphasized throughout Scripture. Paul admonished elders to “shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28). He said to the Corinthians, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19-20). Titus 2:14 says that Christ “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem [or purchase] us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession.”

Isaiah 43:21 says, “The people whom I formed for Myself, will declare My praise.” That was to be Israel’s purpose, and it is yours as well. God chose you as His own possession and gave His Son to purchase your salvation. You are His eternally, so live accordingly and rejoice in such a glorious privilege!

Suggestions for Prayer:

Make it your practice to praise God abundantly for the privilege of belonging to Him.

For Further Study:

Read John 10:1-33.

What characterizes the Good Shepherd?

What did Jesus claim about His relationship with God the Father?

How did the Jewish leaders react to His teaching?

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Greg Laurie – You Are Not Alone!

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Have you ever felt as though you were all alone and nobody cared? You might be surprised to know that the great apostle Paul felt this way too. In his final epistle, he wrote, “Everyone abandoned me” (2 Timothy 4:16 NLT). Know this: God has not abandoned you! He can compensate by His own loving presence for every earthly loss.

C.H. Spurgeon wrote, “If all else forsook him, Jesus was company enough. If all others despised him, the smile of Jesus was approval enough. If the good cause seemed to be in danger, in the presence of his Master, victory was sure. The Lord who had stood for him at the cross now stood for him in the prison. It was a dungeon, but the Lord was there; It was dark, but the glory of the Lord lit it up with Heaven’s own splendor.”

Listen: Better to be in a jail with the Lord than to be anywhere else without Him. Jesus is with us as well, in the good and bad times of life. God reminds us in His Word, “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you” (Isaiah 43:2 NLT).

When Jesus hung on the cross, He cried out the words “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). Those were not delusional words. They were factual. Jesus, at this point, was most likely bearing the sins of the world. Here is the good news: Jesus was forsaken for a time that you might enjoy God’s presence forever.

Know this: Jesus will never forsake you. You have His Word on that. Jesus said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). Or from the Greek it would translate out more like, “I will never, no never, leave you nor forsake you.”

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Charles Spurgeon – Forgiveness

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“I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” Isaiah 43:25

Suggested Further Reading: Acts 8:26-40

There are some passages of scripture which have been more abundantly blessed to the conversion of souls than others. They may be called salvation texts. We may not be able to discover how it is, or why it is, but certainly it is the fact, that some chosen verses have been more used of God to bring men to the cross of Christ than any others in his Word. Certainly they are not more inspired, but I suppose they are more noticeable from their position, from their peculiar phraseology more adapted to catch the eye of the reader, and more suitable to a prevailing spiritual condition. All the stars in the heavens shine very brightly, but only a few attract the eye of the mariner, and direct his course; the reason is this, that those few stars from their peculiar grouping are more readily distinguished, and the eye easily fixes upon them. So I suppose it is with those passages of God’s Word which especially attract attention, and direct the sinner to the cross of Christ. It so happens that this text is one of the chief of them. I have found it, in my experience, to be a most useful one; for out of the hundreds of persons who have come to me to narrate their conversion and experience, I have found a very large proportion who have traced the divine change which has been wrought in their hearts to the hearing of this precious declaration of sovereign mercy read, and the application of it with power to their souls: “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.”

For meditation: The texts often quoted by Spurgeon towards the end of his sermons—Mark 16:16; 1 Timothy 1:15. Has God used a particular text to bring you to himself?

Sermon no. 24

19 May (Preached 20 May 1855)