Behold I am doing a new thing
I am doing a new thing…
Its Fall once again. The sounds and smells of summer are coming to an end and athletes everywhere are wrapping up respective off-season workouts and are preparing for competition once again. It seems that this is the most “normal” we have been since the pandemic started in March of 2020 and for many athletes this will be the culmination of a lot of preparation, prayer, workouts and practice.
As Friday Night Lights and soccer seasons and volleyball matches begin to heat up around the county there is great anticipation in the hearts of athletes and a few questions will continue to bubble up within the heart of an athlete, “How will this season go? And what will new look like?”
In the Old Testament the Lord was preparing the Israelites for a new season and he did it in a bit of a peculiar way. The prophet Isaiah is a lynchpin in the story of God and his people and it is through this prophet that God communicated many warnings and truths. In Isaiah 43 God starts by reminding the Israelites of who they really are and whose they really are. “1 But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze…15 I am the Lord, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator, your King.” 16 This is what the Lord says—he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, 17 who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:” Isaiah 43:1-2, 15-17
Specifically, the Lord is reminding the Israelites that he is their God and that he is the one that sustained them through the wilderness season of their lives. He specifically mentions leading them through the Red Sea, destroying the Egyptian army, crossing the Jordan river and the fires that their ancestors survived in Babylonia. But then something peculiar happens in verse 18, after the Lord tells them to remember, remember, remember… he says, ““18Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:18-19 NIV
Wait? Are we to remember, or are we to forget? Why doesn’t it seem God is making any sense? Here’s the beauty of this passage. While the Lord is reminding his people that he has come through for them in the past, he is telling them to forget HOW he did things and be ready for new ways of direction, provision and empowerment to lead them through what he has in front of them.
Athlete
Sometimes we are so focused on what happened in the past and what God did in the past that we cannot receive what he has for us in the future.
If God’s people were looking for God to do what he did in the past they would have been looking for miracles in parting waters rather than waiting on the Messiah to come in a manger.
God’s directive to remember was a call to remember that God is the One who will always bring you through it, but we must be ready for it to happen a new way.
Athlete. This season will be one like no other. Competition will be fierce, you will be worn down emotionally, but you have a God on your side that loves you so much that he is going to make a new pathways for you to experience him and his love for you.
Behold, he is doing a new thing, will you be ready to receive the newness found in him?