Pastor's Blog

I was thinking about a fascinating verse from Isaiah 43 recently.  In this chapter, the Lord speaks to His people Israel, and He makes three claims for His self-identity.  He tells Israel. “I am your Redeemer.”  As such, He has chosen them and called them; He has redeemed them and ransomed them.  In other words, they have a very special relationship with Him.  The second claim the Lord makes is, “I am your God.”  The nations are so blind and deaf that they can’t see it.  Israel, however, is specially commissioned as the Lord’s witnesses, uniquely called to share God’s revelation with all men.  Then there is the third claim:  “I am your Holy One and King,” and because He has a special relationship with Israel and a special plan for them as well, He will deliver them and they will praise Him.

Was Israel overwhelmed at the privilege they had as God’s people?  Did they take their responsibility seriously?  No.  Instead, as the Lord says in Isaiah 43:22, “You have not called on Me, O Jacob; but you have become weary of Me, O Israel.”  This rebuke should provoke some serious thinking on the part of all of us who are Christians.

Note first, that in spite of all God had done for His people and in spite of all He had promised His people, they did not pray.  Were they, like many of us, just too busy to pray?  Not likely.  Rather, they may have been upset that God wasn’t working in their behalf as they thought He should.  In our lives, abandoning prayer is also often a symptom of disillusionment with God.  It says, “What’s the use?  Things will never change.  God doesn’t see, and God doesn’t seem to care!”  When you find that you no longer have any interest in prayer, it may be because you are angry with God, or upset that He has not answered your prayers in the way you wanted Him to.

However, even more thought-provoking is the possibility that we have become tired of God:  “you have become weary of Me,” the Lord says to Israel.  These are indeed tragic words.  Three hundred years or so later, the prophet Malachi would deliver the Lord’s message:  “‘Your words have been arrogant against Me,’ says the Lord.  Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against You?’  You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked in mourning before the Lord of hosts?’” (Mal 3:13-14).  Even so, the Lord goes on to say through Isaiah that He has not asked anything unreasonable of His people.

If you’re honest, you will admit that there have been times when you have experienced the same thoughts.  Life hasn’t gone the way you had hoped.  Your children haven’t turned out the way you wanted; instead they have been rebellious.  The marriage you hoped would always be a fairy tale romance has crumbled into divorce.  You have chronic health problems and can find no relief.  Your career is stuck in park, and you see no future for yourself in the current situation.  Perhaps you have been betrayed by friends or even other church members.  Your anger at God has turned to a bitter resignation.  You’re tired—physically, emotionally, and above all, spiritually.  You don’t want to be bothered with the Bible, with prayer, or with the church.  You just want something to go right for a change.

So how do you cope with this?  With God’s amazing love and grace!  Look at this passage.  The Lord doesn’t disown His people, for His very next words are, “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins” (v. 25).  Like Israel, you don’t deserve forgiveness, but then that is what grace is all about.  However, the Lord warns that if Israel doesn’t repent and accept God’s forgiveness, then He will have to discipline them (v. 28).  He’ll do that with us too.

Search your heart.  Are you prayerless?  Are you feeling tired of God?  Turn back to Him who has chosen you, loved you, redeemed you, called you, and promised to care for you!  Get a fresh start.  You’ll be glad you did!