God is doing new things

Prepare: Look forward not back – this is a new moment, a new day, a month, a new start. What would you like God to do with it?

Read: Isaiah 43:16-19 Click here

Reflection: So often the new is simply a replacement or updated version of the old (new clothes, a new car, a new house), with no substantial change. These words that God speaks here turn our attention to God who is doing what is genuinely new. The people Isaiah is speaking to can remember former times (v 18) when God had done great things – the escape from Egypt and slavery, travelling and arriving in the land God had promised, but these times were past and they were in exile. Difficult times.

In situations of decline or loss it is easy to ‘dwell on the past’ (v 18), to look nostalgically, often with regret or anger, at what seems to be irretrievably lost, or to seek ways to bring it all back. God, however, moves forward seeking to bring about new things in each generation.

God speaks these words to the Israelite's but also to us today "See I am doing a new thing". God was about to do something. To get it ready, to set it in motion for the Israelite's. God goes out before us and we are to watch out for his new thing and then join in with what he has planned for us.

Prayer Ideas

Pray that God would show you:

• What good things are happening where you live? Things being done by people of faith or those with no faith. 
• As you look on the internet read the papers and see what is there going on in your area. Ask God what He is celebrating.
• Ask God if He is calling you or your church into one of these areas?