Isaiah 43

ISAIAH 43

God continues to pledge allegiance to me whether my past is tainted by sin or with success by His very hand.
I have seen God’s hand directly involved in my life. Just last night a tree fell in our backyard. Had it crashed to the west, it would have come through our bedroom window and jumped in bed with Sherry and I. It lays in our backyard this morning pointing directly towards the east. Should I attribute this to an unusually kind wind, or providential care?
About two years ago, we were able to buy our house for some $50k less than what we had been trying. Was this a freakish reaction of a recessionary market, or God’s really cool enabling help with our finances?
My daughter recently had her wisdom teeth taken out. One in 25,000 die from going under the influence anesthesia. My daughter is perfectly fine. Was this fine-tuned medicine, or God’s loving care of my precious first born?
I am a witness of God’s hand in my life. I have seen it over and over, and yet I forget. God always approaches me from a very intimate position. He knows my name, and yet I tend to forget to speak His as I fly through my days. God has provided me with water during desert times, and I can still remain unexhausted and unused as an unappreciative recipient of grace. I have unwittingly brought God my sins and desperation, but not my sacrifice and worship.
Why is this? How can this be?
Maybe I’m stuck in the past. Perhaps past sin continues to grip and cloud my ability to see God. It’s possible that past success keeps me from seeing His current, new activity. That’s certainly a strange dynamic, isn’t it? I loved and am now warmly romanticizing the coddling events of the past so much, that I am unmoved by a living and present God today. To neglect and shade my eyes from God’s current activity, can mean I’m locked into distant memories. Gratitude is a Godly trait that lets me remember the past with open hands, but fear is a non-God characteristic that entrenches me in the past without a desire to peek ahead into the glory of what God is doing right now. One approach helps me to be a living sacrifice that offers continual worship. The other takes me off the altar completely so that I can’t even see the spiritual reality of a fallen tree, healthy finances, or common anesthesia.
So do I argue this with God? Do I state my case otherwise? I can. I can review my past in a peculiar way that rationalizes and approves my inability to make the most of my opportunities now. However, I would bet before I start, that this would be a losing effort on my end.
God knows my name today. He knew it yesterday, and I am grateful. He also knows my name today. He’s doing a new thing with me today. That resilient fact must spur me towards gratitude and worship.