Light of my world

Your sun shall no more go down,

nor your moon withdraw itself;

for the LORD will be your everlasting light,

and your days of mourning shall be ended.

Isaiah 60:20

There is a time coming, Jesus, O Light of the world, where You will be all the light this world will need. No more night will bring dread. No more long darkness, alone, weary, cold and tired, will prolong our hope of Your new day. There will be only Your bright dawn shining on. It will be glorious!

And Jesus, You are even now the light of this heart! I am weary. I am cold. I am anxious as the long lonely winter nights come to me. I miss the warm days… the bright sun… the brilliant hope… the healing warmth of light. And so I pray for the seasons You have made to keep turning… for this long year that You control to change for me, even as winter nights serve Your purposes to remind me of what was in my past by what is in the present so I trust what will eventually be in Your future. I live with anticipation.

The hope of each dawn that You bring, Lord, points me to a greater hope yet to come for all the world. A day will come where with Your light all mourning everywhere, even in my heart, will end… all sorrows in the night will be forgotten… all weeping will be eclipsed by the bright joy of the light of Your revealed love. Shine soon, O Great Light of the World! Amen

Sometimes at night, when I am afraid

I cover my eyes, cover my shame

So here in the dark, broken apart

Come with Your light and fill up my heart

O Great Light of the World

Fill up my soul

I’m half a man here

So come make me whole

O Great Light of the World

Come to impart

the light of Your grace

to fill up my heart

— Bebo Norman

A Redeemer has come.

“And a Redeemer will come to Zion,

to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the LORD.

Isaiah 59:20

God promised a very sinful and disobedient people (read Isaiah 58 and 59 for the full context of just how disobedient Israel had become) that He would, in an act of pure mercy, provide the means for their sins to be atoned. God Himself would both punish sin and redeem sinners. God saw the complete inability for Israel to either keep covenant with Him, or to atone for their own wicked ways. They were completely incompetent and impotent. No human could intercede between God and mankind. God would have to provide the intercession and He promised to do so Himself (Isaiah 59:14-16).

God stepped in when sin was the great divider that kept His loved creation from Him. God interceded when there was no person who could. When justice needed to be done, God sent His Son to perform it. When righteousness was far away, Jesus came near. When truth was stumbling and falling in the public square, Jesus came to boldly declare Himself the Light of the World… the only Way… the only Truth… the only Life! When God’s people and the entire world needed saving, Jesus was the hero who arrived to be our Savior!

Armed like a warrior for battle against all evil (see the description in Isaiah 59:17-19), Jesus arrived to fight for all that was needing to be saved. His righteousness was on display. His salvation became ours. He came in holy zeal to right all wrongs, to make evil pay for past oppression, and to renew a godless world with a rushing, glorious river of mercy and grace!

Lord Jesus,

Today I thank You for being my Redeemer. Today I am grateful that You have become the salvation of all who believe the gospel. Today, my prayers of gratitude are for the glorious hope Your salvation has renewed, not just in my heart, but for the entire world. The Redeemer has come. You are here now, saving now, loving now, and You rule this world in Your saving mercy!

Amen

at peace and grateful

“Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the LORD,

“and I will heal him.”

Isaiah 57:19

God’s peace is extended in this prophecy to the entire world. It is a peace offer that is global. All people far (Gentiles) and near (Jews) are offered the same peace. It is a peace that is Messianic. Only Jesus can offer this kind of universal peace. It is a peace that is gracious. God offers it despite knowing our sins, and in a mercy, He limits His judgment (Isaiah 57:16, 18). It is a peace that renews and restores. God heals the wounds made as sin has festered in our hearts.

As I reflect on this extended grace, mercy, and peace, I realize they all pour into my heart daily. I am one of those far from God that Jesus has now drawn near in peace. Thank God He calls those who are far from knowing Him into His love and grace! I too know that Jesus is my peace. He is my only solution. He is my Savior. He is my Lord. I know the grace of God… the riches of His love in Christ… as I live in Jesus, given all that I need for life and godliness in His great and precious promises. 

It is a peace that showers mercy over me who by nature am  a broken and awful sinner. I know my heart. I know where my sin and pain and broken experiences have twisted me. And God’s mercy is more than all my sin! 

And I also know His healing peace… especially this year of change, loss, and humiliating sorrow, when the broken pieces of this shattered life dream have begun to be healed, strengthened, and restored as only Jesus can do!

Lord,

I thank You for all this. And in peace I trust where it is all going. I am Your Work… Your redeemed life… Your story to write for Your glory!

Amen

wasteland no more

Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;

instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;

and it shall make a name for the LORD,

an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

Isaiah 55:13

I felt the heat

gritty sand at my feet

hot blast in my face

of moisture not a trace

I staggered through the thorns

hands and feet sore and torn

the wilderness I knew

felt abandoned, Lord, by You

The empty dunes stretched for miles

I’d forgotten all the past smiles

distance magnified by my pain and sin

desert blast of burning wind

dry brush and weeds all scattered

staying alive was all that mattered

Wandering further, drifting away

I tried to reach out — tried to pray

Words fell empty to the sand

desperately needing Your saving hand

Reduced by wasteland to my bones

I cried out for You to lead me back home

And then one drop of rain fell

and showers watered that dry personal hell

until verdant flowers and leaves appeared

and once again my Lord came near

Thorns replaced by river cypress

briers broken, washed into that old mess

Your vibrant Word watered it all

into a woodland shady and tall

and as this fragrant garden grew

I saw it all renewed by You

I felt Your Word reshape this husk of a soul

I know Your Spirit has made me whole

cool breeze of heaven in the air

calls me by faith to see Jesus here

wasteland eclipsed by new creation

I am in awe of this grace-filled situation

everlasting sign from my Father above

I praise the Lord of renewing, saving love!

The depth of His death

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;

by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,

make many to be accounted righteous,

and he shall bear their iniquities.

Isaiah 53:11

I must not forget what it cost my Savior to redeem me and all those who will trust Him. It was more than just ending a human life. It was also an anguish of soul unimaginably vast. The death Jesus died was not just physical. Many people have heroically given up their physical lives. Jesus also experienced an emotional and spiritual death… an anguish of soul… unique to His sacrifice for those who believe.

And where did this anguish of soul find its roots? It was anguish because He bore our sins. In the massive sin debt Jesus took upon Himself He suffered as the Holy One of God. The Lamb of God that took away the sin of the world shouldered an unspeakable evil as the cup of the wrath of God was poured upon Him by the Father. All the sin of all the world of people, from all time, was borne by Jesus on that dark afternoon we know as “Good Friday”. 

Jesus also had an anguish of soul from all the brokenness, all the griefs, all the sorrows He bore all at once. He took on Himself every depression any human ever had or will have. Every tear-filled grieving over loss was nailed to His cross. Every sorrow over a broken relationship was felt in His heart. All human suffering from every war, every atrocity, every genocide, every infidelity, every family rebellion, every broken heart was His anguish as He died to take all our pain, our sorrows, and our iniquities upon Himself. It was God’s will to crush His only Son with the weight of all our sickening sin and grief (Isaiah 53:10).

Lord Jesus,

I really cannot fathom the extent of Your sorrow as You bore my sin, and all sin and sorrow of all time on Your cross. I am in remarkably dumb-founded awe of the intense depth and breadth of Your love as You gave Your life, and of the power of Your resurrection beyond all that darkness, depression, and death! Thank You, Lord! You are worthy of all worship, all commitment, all my heart!

Amen

When God says, “Here I am!”

Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak; here I am.

Isaiah 52:6

God, in power, in delivering might, in a mercy undeserved by His people Israel, promised to deliver them. They did not earn it, yet God gave them hope that after stern judgment would come a great deliverance. God had given them over to captivity (“You were sold for nothing” Isaiah 52:3) and He would bring them out again just as dramatically (“you shall be redeemed without money” Isaiah 52:3). Yet even though the captive rulers of Israel despised God’s name, He would be merciful and deliver them again (Isaiah 52:5).

Why would God do this? Why would He deliver them again? Why would He redeem a broken, rebellious, and oppressed people who did not worship Him despite their losses? He did it to make Himself known. He redeemed them so they would see Him, believe Him, worship God again. He did not wait for them. Without a doubt a redeemed generation would know God had brought them back. God didn’t just make their circumstances better. God redeemed them to HIMSELF. And they would know Him, not despise Him. The God Who had seemed distant would quickly rescue them and sweep them up close in an embrace, announcing with love and authority, “Here I am!” His power, presence, and mercy would be undeniable.

When God makes Himself known… when He redeems a people for Himself… Here are the experiences they should expect:

• Good news is proclaimed (Isaiah 52:7).
• Peace is known (Isaiah 52:7),
• Happiness is felt (Isaiah 52:7).
• Salvation is theirs (Isaiah 52:7).
• Joy abounds (Isaiah 52:8).
• Singing breaks forth (Isaiah 52:8-9).
• Comfort is real (Isaiah 52:9).

In Jesus, God has come near… announced to the entire world: “Here I am!” Jesus has brought redemption to the enslaved, healing for the broken, and pardon for the rebellious. And in Jesus we have good news, peace, happiness, salvation, joy, rejoicing song, and comfort!

he who comforts you

I, I am he who comforts you;

who are you that you are afraid of man who dies,

of the son of man who is made like grass,

and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker,

who stretched out the heavens

and laid the foundations of the earth…”

Isaiah 51:12-13a

God is comfort. God comforts His people. These words, spoken to a rebellious people who turned from God, only to experience His judgment and justice, were an encouragement to a people still loved by God. His love demanded He do what would be necessary to bring them to a re-commitment to His Covenant. And so He sent Babylon to Jerusalem to take away a generation from Judah. In the ruins of Jerusalem the survivors staggered in fear. And God, through His prophet, brought comfort again. As His people in pain and trial turned to Him again, God would use their deepest failures and pain to rewrite a story of His restoration of them.

Fear takes our eyes off the comforting control of God’s loving and mighty ways. But even in desolation God asks us to take our eyes off the ruined landscape and look to Him. God asks us to stop looking horizontally at what seems hopeless and instead to gaze in faith vertically at our only hope in Him! “I am he who comforts you.” Yes, Lord, You are!

How then does this historical account of God’s restoration of Israel inform our own needs for His consolation today? I don’t think my suffering is due somehow to ways in which I have broken covenant with my God. In fact, as a child of His, reborn in faith in Christ, adopted into God’s family, and heir with Jesus, I believe grace rules over all my experience… even loss! That alone is a huge comforting perspective. God’s comfort is great.

But honestly, I get disappointed by human comfort alone. To this day the least comforting thing people still say to me is something like this: “I can’t imagine what you are going through.” Really? You can’t imagine death and sorrow? No, what you mean is, “I am uncomfortable identifying with your loss. I don’t want to think about me going through the same thing.” Thanks for nothing, O man! Literally. Human inability to comfort aside, God says the exact opposite. God IS comfort. He knows loss because Jesus gave His life. Jesus carried our sorrows on the cross. God knows the pains that people push away. Jesus experienced them. He designed my circumstances and is right beside me in them for His glory and my good. It is God Who comforts the hurting.