Christianity Oasis Forum

[HisOwn]

Sun. Is. 40:1-5

“Comfort, yes, comfort My people!”
Says your God.
2 “Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her,
That her warfare is ended,
That her iniquity is pardoned;
For she has received from the Lord’s hand
Double for all her sins.”

3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make straight in the desert[a]
A highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be exalted
And every mountain and hill brought low;
The crooked places shall be made straight
And the rough places smooth;
5 The glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
And all flesh shall see it together;
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”



Comfort… What a good word for me for now. Maybe for you also.

God is a God of Comfort. He sent his son Jesus to BE our COMFORT and when Jesus left, he sent the HOLY SPIRIT whose actual name is COMFORTER.

Our warfare is ended…and our iniquity is pardoned…for we have received fro the Lord’s hand forgiveness. Wow. So when we mess up and turn to God with repentant hearts we ARE pardoned. He knew we needed that one time PARDON but he also knew we would need daily freedom tOo.

The warfare being ended is enmity with God. Because of Jesus’ coming, our warfare with God HAS BEEN ended.

V 3 says: The VOICE of one CRYING in the WILDERNESS…to prepare the way of the LORD. To make straight in the desert a highway for our GOD.

Jesus did that. John proclaimed he would. Isaiah prophesied he, John, would proclaim it and JESUS has done it. We may feel like our road is too lonely (wilderness), or too hard, or too dry, or like situations in life are rising like a flood to drown us but we have this prophetic promise which has come TRUE already. It is done.

v 4 says…EVERY valley shall be exhaled and EVERY mountain and hill brought low. The CROOKED places SHALL BE made straight and rough places smooth.

Whatever your valley right now is, whatever you mountain or maybe right now yours is just a hill or a bump in life…. whatever places are crooked and you seem to zig zag this way and that way….whatever place is simply TOO HARD/ROUGH…those places are places to SEE Jesus at WORK.

After the valley… a testimony where we are able to exalt God’s work in bringing us through. Every mountain and hill and yes even the little bumps of life, we can look back and see where God sent this person, that verse, this song (in other words HIMSELF) to bring them low. We look back and we can see times in our life where God DID make the crooked places straight and the rough places smooth.

Perhaps you are thinking of such a time right now. Maybe God is calling one to your conscious memory.

Would anyone like to share?

In sharing we do as v 5 says… God does these things, in part to give us things to share with others but that is ULTIMATELY so HIS GLORY will be REVEALED for all the WORLD to SEE.

Have you ever thought, either looking back or even while “buried” under circumstances of life, that God has a deeper bigger purpose? To REVEAL HIS GLORY. So that ALL the world can see. You personal world may be limited. But we all have family, neighbors, clerks at stores and yes people right here at the 4G who are watching and walking with us. We ARE and DO and CAN share by sharing our testimonies which will point others to God’s Glory in our lives. In the little things and the huge ones as well.

As I was meditating on this verse, several others came to mind:

God’s ways are NOT our ways.

Isa 55:8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.

All our trials are used to help others.

2 Cor 1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

God has GOOD plans for our lives. Jer. 29:11 amp 11 For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.

And the two sides of “OVERWHELMED” . Isa 43:2 says: I will be with you when you pass through the waters, and when you pass through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. You will not be scorched when you walk through the fire, and the flame will not burn you. But Psalm 61:2 says WHEN our heart is OVERWHELMED we are to CALL on the Rock. Guess what? That Rock is Jesus the very spoken of in our Isaiah passage today. ( smile)

Psalm 61:2 From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.