As most of you who probably follow my blogs know, my mother past away October 3rd and I have returned to the states.
Something I wanted to share with all of you is how much the Lord has blessed me even during this time of great heartache and how He has comforted me.
I few days before the news of my mom my team and I had decided to pray for the person on our left and wait on the Lord for any visions, words, etcetera to show us how to prayer for them more specifically. Many people talk about praying and God giving them a verse but that had never happened to me except for this time. I saw in my head Isaiah 40 so that’s what I shared with my teammate on my left and we weren’t sure if it really meant anything for her at the time. Later after the news one of my friends back at home, who had lost her father to cancer a few days before my mom had passed, shared with me a few verses from Isaiah 40 that had comforted her. My friend would often write verses for me on notecards and leave them for me and the verse she wrote for me this time was from Isaiah 40. The day I logged on to my bible app the verse of the day was from Isaiah 40 and a guy I met who had recently joined PBC and knew someone on my squad left me a comment on one of my blogs with the encouraging words of Isaiah 40. I knew then that Isaiah 40 was meant for me not my teammate. So I thought I’d share those words with all of you as well, since it is so evident that the Lord wanted me to hear them.
…and some people question that God is real.
Isaiah 40 (ESV):
Comfort for God’s People
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended,
That her iniquity is pardoned
That she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins
A voice cries.
In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
And every mountain and hill be made low,
The Uneven ground shall become level,
And the rough places a plain,
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
And all flesh shall see it together,
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken
The Word of God Stands Forever
A Voice says, “Cry!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass, and all beauty is like the flower of the field
The grass withers, the flower fades
When the breath of the Lord blows on it,
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flowers fade,
But the word of out God will stand forever.
The Greatness of God
Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good news;
Lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good news;
Lift it up, fear not;
Say to the cities of Judah,
“Behold your God!”
Behold, the Lord God comes with might,
And his arm rules for him;
Behold his reward is with him
And his recompense before him
He will tend his flock like a shepherd
He will gather the lambs in his arms
He will carry them in his bosom
And gently lead those that are with young.
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
And marked off the heavens with a span
Enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure
And weighed the mountains in scales
And the hills in a balance?
Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord,
Or what man shows him his counsel?
Whom did he consult,
And who made him understand?
Who taught him the path of justice,
And taught him knowledge,
And showed him the way of understanding?
Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
And are accounted as the dust on the scales;
Behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.
Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,
Nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
All the nations are as nothing before him,
They are accounted by him less than nothing and emptiness.
To whom then will you liken God,
Or what likeness compare with him?
An idol! A craftsman casts it,
And a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains.
He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot;
He seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move.
Do you not know? Do you not hear?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is he that sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
And spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
Who brings princes to nothing,
And makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness
Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth
When he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble
To whom then will you compare me,
That I should be like him? Says the Holy One.
Lift your eyes on high and see;
Who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
Calling them all by name, by greatness of his might,
And because he is strong in power not one is missing.
Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel,
My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God?
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
His understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
And young men shall fall exhausted;
But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles;
They shall run and not be weary;
They shall walk and not faint.
I’m not sure if this has any special meaning to you, but it definitely did for me.
