1 Thessalonians 5:17

pray without ceasing

One of the shortest verses in the Bible is one that convicts me, without ceasing….

This is one of those concepts that blows my mind.  Praying throughout the day, about every situation, about every problem.  My issue is not the praying, its not hard to pray… its the without ceasing.  I’m not one who has an issue praying when times are good.  For some reason it is easy for me to pray when times are good, but I have hard time remembering to pray when times are tough, or during a hard situation.  Maybe I’m the opposite of you, but its something that I struggle with… praying through the hard times, which is ironic, because I know that when I do stop and pray I feel better.

Do you struggle with praying without ceasing?

I pray, that I would pray without ceasing.

Will you do the same?

in Christ,

Isaiah

Isaiah 7:9b

If you are not firm in faith,
you will not be firm at all.

I was reading along in Isaiah, and this verse hit me in the face like a spiritual wrecking ball.  God is speaking through Isaiah to Ahaz, saying that if you stand firm in faith, knowing that I am stronger than the Assyrians – stronger than any army, then you will be firm.  But… if you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all… you will fall.

Something about this passage, the exchange between God and Ahaz struck a chord with me.  It is very easy to not be firm in the faith that God is in control.  The past couple weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions as we closed on our house.  From being sure we were closing to finding out we needed more money to close, to finding that money, to be worried that we didn’t fix everything well enough for the appraisal to… the list goes on and on.

But God is faithful.  He is firm, He is the Rock.

If we do not stand firm in Him, we will not be firm at all…

Be firm in faith,

in Christ,

Isaiah

Isaiah 6:8

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

Being as Isaiah is my namesake, I do like to read through Isaiah often.  I suppose that could be viewed as narcissistic, but since I hope to be half the man of God that Isaiah was, maybe not.  I pray that my life show the meaning of my name, “The Lord is Salvation!”

Here in the text above, Isaiah is standing before the Lord, having just heard the chorus of, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.”  Where he was standing shook from the force and power of the voices… so we see an awesome display of the power of God.  But then something weird happens…

God says, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

Almighty God is asking who will take his message to the people.

The Lord is asking who will speak words of life to those around us.

God, Creator, Father is asking you… “Whom shall I send?”

May we all like Isaiah say, “Here I am… Send ME!”

in Christ,

Isaiah