WordLive - Year OneSample

Prepare: Bring to mind your favourite Bible verse. Thank God for the strength it gives you.

Hanging on to hope
I still remember Aunty Bess taking me shopping to buy oddments of material, the last bits of a roll that weren’t any use for anything else. Then, before my eyes, these remnants were transformed into pretty clothes.

In Isaiah 7:3 we read that Isaiah’s first son was called ‘the remnant shall return’. He was given that note of hope to hang on to through all the troubled times. The remnant may be very small (v 22) but it will consist of people who ‘return to the Mighty God’ (v 21).

Turning around
These are not necessarily people who have always remained true to God or holy; these are simply people who have recognised their sin and ‘turned around’. They have recognised where true dependability lies (v 20), and are no longer terrified by the apparent power of foreign invaders.

We all have our ‘Assyrians’ that we are frightened of, but Isaiah’s words remind us that we have to stop giving them undue weight, and turn back to God who alone can be relied upon. And, just as God could build a new community of people from a tiny remnant, remember that he continues to grow his church today.

Respond: You may feel very small, or alone, as a Christian. Bring your ‘Assyrians’ in prayer to him today, and ask for his strength to undergird you against them.

http://www.wordlive.org/Session/Classic/2012-12-28