Podcast-Feed25th April 2010 - Dave Harper - Relying On God
Dave spoke in Isaiah 50:10 – 51:-3 about how we needed to rely on God, especially when we feel that we are in a dark place.
At the end of the third servant song (50:4-9), we are challenged with a question (50:10) – who listens to and obeys the servant’s voice? The instruction that follows is directed at those who are in a dark place and who do not know the way forward. They are encouraged and directed to trust and rely on their God and beware the danger of lighting their own torches and making their own light. Self reliance is not the answer , in fact it leads to torment. Darkness does at times come into our lives. It is not failure but it does test our trust in God and can deepen our trust and relationship with Him.
So how to find such a place of trust and reliance?
• Listen. This is a frequent refrain, we need to ask God to speak into our situation and look for his voice and his word. ‘Listen to Me’ occurs three times in verse 1, 4, and 7 and the ‘me’ is God. (Verse two makes clear that the ‘me’ is the One who called Abraham – God himself)
• Look. What God has already done in our lives can be a help to believe for the future. God reminds the listener of their salvation history that goes back to Abraham who is our father in the faith. Its rock solid. Look too to Abraham (and Sarah), who was called by grace so that God could bless him and multiply him. Trust comes from knowing God’s character, knowing he called each of us and that is heart is to bless.
• Comfort and compassion. Difficulty can cause us to question the goodness of God. Paul speaks of his own affliction in the first chapter of 2 Corithinians, an affliction that caused them to despair of life, but he then says ‘ this was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead’!. Out of this experience (1: 8-9) he can speak of God’s comfort and God’s compassion in the opening verses of the letter. God is compassionate and turns our waste places into a garden, the desert into Eden. Waiting through a dark time for this is hand and we are encouraged to receive comfort, to let Him comfort us in such a time and believe in His compassion. He is able and He is willing to express his compassion to us
• Rejoicing. Joy and gladness, thanksgiving and singing are to come,(3) sorrow and sighing shall flee away (11)
2 Big Questions
1] Isaiah 50:10 says that when we find ourselves in a dark place and do not know what to do we should trust in God and rely on him and to beware the dangers of lighting our own torches (making our own solution and being self reliant).
How can we trust in the God when we are in darkness and how do we rely on Him?
2] Base camps are good, they keep you safe and have all the basic requirements for survival . But if we only live at base camp , life gets just a little dull! Being right with God through faith in Jesus is base camp. Growing in our ability to receive from the hands of God and to be able to give it away is the adventure we are all on that takes us up the mountain of the Lord. He blesses and He multiplies and is full of compassion for all He has made.
Are you pressing on into receiving out of God’s fullness? What holds you back? What spurs you on?
Listen now! (0:42min / 12MB)