Anguish!
Opening Prayer
Lord, how mighty You are! I pray that–because of Christ my Lord–You will use Your power on my behalf.
Read Isaiah 64:1-12
[1] Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! [2] As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! [3] For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. [4] Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. [5] You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? [6] All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. [7] No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins. [8] Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. [9] Do not be angry beyond measure, LORD; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people. [10] Your sacred cities have become a wasteland; even Zion is a wasteland, Jerusalem a desolation. [11] Our holy and glorious temple, where our ancestors praised you, has been burned with fire, and all that we treasured lies in ruins. [12] After all this, LORD, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure? Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
How do you observe wrath and forgiveness?It seems that the prophet is overwhelmed with a sense of the need for God to act–but fearful that he might! When God acts, it is not always gentle. Look at the words used to describe this in 1-3. Mountains tremble. Nations quake. Isaiah is overwhelmed with the thought of both his and the people’s sinfulness (6,7). And yet he knows that, despite this, God longs to forgive the people, who are in fact his own children (8). So God gives him a picture of how this extraordinary relationship works. A potter takes a lump of clay and transforms it, molding the clay into a pot. His strong fingers manipulate the material, forcing it into shape and making it useful. Then the same fingers, so harsh a moment before, lovingly caress the pot, smoothing it and making it beautiful. Suffering can seem to last forever. Yet we may be given the gift to see beyond the horror of the moment to a place where singing and rejoicing come naturally.
Apply
Today, how do you need God to come to your help (5) and look upon you with compassion (9)?
Closing prayer
Lord, show Yourself powerful to overcome the suffering that’s present in my life. I will give You the glory.
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