Isaiah 42: 16-17
I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them. But those who trust in idols, who say to images, “You are our gods,” will be turned back in utter shame. NIV
This is beautiful.
I am the blind. I am unable to see anything beyond this moment in time, while God, who is not bound by time, can see it all — from the beginning to the end, from everlasting to everlasting.
Here, God promises to lead me, step-by-step, along the unfamiliar paths of the rest of my life. The implication here is that I must get out of my comfort zone. If the steps of my life are predictable, if I do the same things in the same way each day, if my eyes are not open to those around me and to how I can help them, I’ll miss the blessing of doing God’s work.
But, if I’m willing to trust God with my whole heart and with my whole life, He will “turn darkness into light before (me) and make the rough places smooth.”
I love that.
Months ago, I looked at Psalm 119:105 – Your word is lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. At that point, I spent a couple of days thinking about the mechanics of that verse. God promises light at my feet … step by step, moment by moment … as I walk the path of my life. He doesn’t promise to give me anything more than I will need to put the next foot down with confidence. This verse echoes that. He will turn darkness into light before me, as I walk, and He will make the rough places smooth, so that I won’t be tripped up along the way.
He will not forsake me! How comforting is that?
But, here’s the kicker, “But those who trust in idols … will be turned back in utter shame.”
Before the last day or two, I had not seen worry for what it really is … an idol that I was trusting more than I was trusting God.
I am simply amazed at how this project has unfolded. God has given me each piece of the puzzle to solve my worry problem slowly and deliberately, and, only at the point where I am able to assimilate the part of the answer that each scripture holds.
He has waited until near the end, until this word search on “trust” to reveal to me the abomination that my worry is. It is an idol. A despicable thing. One that I am finally strong enough to recognize and stand up against.
Yesterday, I thought briefly about something that scares me, and the temptation to worry flooded over me. It was almost palpable, like a big blanket that I could wrap myself in.
But, I didn’t do it. I banished it. A reader gave me a wonderful insight. She said, “Let our worries be cast out in Jesus name and may His comfort and providence be with us all the days of our lives.”
In Jesus’s name, I will not worry.
God, the one true God, is the Lord of my Life.
My trust is in Him.
That’s what I’ll think about today.
365 Days of Peace 