I was recently asked to give a devotion for one of our Ladies' Nights. I don't take these things lightly and really began to seek God on what He would want me to speak about. Trying to help Him along, I figured it would be from an area He had me in. I have a passion for prayer so I thought it may go along that line. I am co-facilitating a Bible study in our Sunday School class, Duty or Delight, so I figured He may pull something from there. I have been in my own pit for the last couple of years and thought He may even use my time here and the truths I have learned to convey to someone else.
Anyway, one night this past week, I headed off to bed with Bible in hand, thinking I would get some reading in before falling asleep. I found myself in Isaiah 63 - my Bible has chapter headings and this one is titled, "The Day of Vengeance". Wow, that is something you want to fall asleep to; however, I read it but didn't get much out of it. I felt the nudge to read it again; I put up a little fight but did so anyway - again, nothing. The next morning though, I still could not get this passage of Scripture out of my mind. I started realizing this may be what my devotion is to be from - but, Lord, devotions are to be encouraging and uplifting. I don't want to give a devotion about "vengeance" to a group of women looking forward to a night on the town. Also, this passage was not "speaking" to me - that's when He said, maybe it's not about you.
So I started diving in, pulling fom different commentaries and reading in various translations, trying to find something to build on. One piece of material I found, headed this chapter with "A prayer for help and the lamentation over its absence". Now that caught my attention; I can relate to praying for God's help and it seeming like He is nowhere to be found. Can't you? Well, our Lord is trully a keeper of His word and just like He says at the end of Hebrews 11:6, He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. I approached these verses not expecting anything to come out of it for me, but God in His goodness, took what I saw titled as vengeance and tied it all together with everything I was first anticipating - it is about prayer, deliverance, and delighting in our amazing God.
I am no theologian, but in this chapter I see 5 points to remember while you are waiting on God to answer your prayer for help.
1. Remember who your God is. Who are you praying to in the first place? In verse 1, God's chosen people are asking, "Who is this?". Our Messiah answers, "It is I, speaking in righteousness, MIGHTY TO SAVE." He is the Mighty One, nothing is impossible for your God. In Numbers 11:23, God asks Moses if the Lord's arm has been shortened - meaning, in my own paraphrase, have you gone off somewhere that I can no longer reach you? Hallelujah, the answer is "NO".
2. Remember what He has done. God begins to tell them where He has been and what He has done to their enemy - even though they can't see it yet. Towards the end of the chapter, God's people begin to remind Him also of what He has done on their behalf. This tells me we need to be in His word, reading of what He has done in situations past for His people and we also need to be remembering what He has done before in our own lives - He was faithful before, He will be faithful again. Remember when David came up against Goliath, he was sure of God's protection because of past experience - God had helped him to kill the lion and the bear while shepherding the sheep (I Samuel 17:34-37). Fast forward a little bit, David was quick to remember God's help with the lion and the bear when he came before the giant Philistine, but how quickly he forgot that victory when running for his life from Saul. God gave him a little reminder in I Samuel 21:9 when the priest gave David the sword of Goliath and reminded David he had killed him in the valley of Elah. If you can't recall any past victories, ask the Lord to refresh your memory.
3. Remember who your friends/support are. In verse 5, when God was trampling the enemy, He looked but there was no one to help, He was appalled that no one gave support. I am not sure what this means - some of what I read found it similar to the opening of the scroll in Revelation 5 when a search went out to find one worthy to open the scroll - which of course is Jesus. I don't think He was looking around for help - or disappointed that there was no one else to help - for one, I don't think He needs it and two, He is the One True God and I think He is very secure in that. I do wonder if this means He was looking around to see who else cared for His people and their situation as much as He did. I think this shows the importance of prayer - prayer warriors are called just that because it is a battle - we are at war. In the story of Job, with all that was allowed to come his way, he was restored after he prayed for his friends (Job 42:10). In Philippians 1:19, Paul says he was sure his situation would work towards his deliverance because of the prayers of the saints and the supply of the Holy Spirit. We need to be praying for others with the same urgency and intensity we want them praying for us and we need to be boldy asking others to pray for us also - don't hesitate to remind your friends, or your church, that you need prayer. God's looking around to see if there is any support.
4. Remember He feels what you are going thru. Verse 9 says that in all their distress, He too, was distressed. When you are waiting on God - remember He knows what you are going thru and He feels it also - He has not forgotten you.
5. Remember who you are. At the end of the chapter, the people are reminding God that He is their Father, He is their Redeemer, they are His inheritance, they are called by His name - they are His. As a child of God, you will never lay a prayer at your Father's feet and Him kick it out of the way. You are a child of the King and very precious in His sight!
As I was wrapping this up, something else kind of struck me - the original title in my Bible now does not make sense to me at all for this passage - except maybe His vengeance on the enemy, but it made me think how I can so start thinking like this - if I am in need and crying out to God, but He is not responding how I want or as quickly as I want , then He must be mad at me - this is Him turning His back on me and setting me up to fail. He is your deliverer - not your destroyer. We are not called to wrath (I Thessalonians 5:9).
If you are in a "delay", praise Him - that just gives you more time to sit at His feet in prayer. He is good and He is faithful and He answers EVERY prayer.
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