1. HE IS: My Everything
Isaiah 9:6–7 Isaiah predicted that a child would be born who would be our everything. The variety of names reveals his character qualities: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Until Christ comes to govern the world, he wants to govern your heart and be your everything. When you’re perplexed, let him be your Wonderful Counselor. When you’re weak and fragile, trust him to be your Mighty God. When you feel that everything around you is changing, remember he is your Everlasting Father. When anxiety knocks, lean on the Prince of Peace. When you’re searching for what completes you, look to your everything.
2. HE IS: Not Angry
Isaiah 12:1–3 The prophet predicted the time when the Messiah would come to save his people. When the people turned to the Messiah, God would in turn strengthen and comfort his children, and Israel would praise the Lord because his anger had turned away.
He is not angry. While God is angry at your sin, he does not hold on to his anger with you. When you turn to the Messiah for salvation, he turns from his anger over your sin. He loves you, and as his child, you are the recipient of his comfort, not his anger (see also Hosea 14:4–8).
3. He Is: First and Last
Isaiah 44:6 The covenant people were going to be taken captive by a nation enmeshed in idolatry. Therefore, God warned them against worshiping idols by reminding them that he alone is God. He proclaimed that he is the first and the last, the only God.
We too live in a land where people bow to false gods. Beware! Anything you value above God is an idol. Is he the first thing you consider in the morning and the last on your mind at night? If he’s not first and last in your life, then maybe he’s not your Lord at all.
4. He Is: The Sustainer
Isaiah 46:3–4 Even though the people had wandered from God and were destined for punishment, God offered them hope. He promised to sustain them. He didn’t promise a life of ease, but he did promise to be their sustainer. The same God who had carried them thus far would carry them through their trials.
Though you may be experiencing hardship and heartache, don’t doubt that God has loved you from the moment you were conceived. Throughout your life, he is the sustainer who will carry you from the cradle to the grave.
5. He Is: A Man of Suffering
Isaiah 53:1–6 The prophet foresaw that the Messiah would be a man of suffering. During his life Jesus experienced loss, unfair treatment, rejection, physical pain and spiritual sorrow. On the cross, he took the sin and misery of the world onto his own shoulders.
Aren’t you glad that Jesus understands pain? Isn’t it comforting to know that the God-man did not choose an easy, sheltered life? He knows what it feels like to hurt. What sorrows are you carrying? Let him bear them for you (see Matthew 11:28–30). Place your pain on his strong shoulders. He’s familiar with suffering and will carry your pain for you.
6. He Is: The Potter
Isaiah 64:8 The prophet Isaiah understood that human beings, like clay, can be shaped and molded for service by surrendering to God the potter. At our best, we are the work of God’s hand.
The potter created you for a purpose—to serve him. If you allow it, he will make you into a vessel that pours out his love to others. You must be supple clay in God’s hands, not resistant to his sometimes-painful process of molding your character. Repentance of sin softens your spirit so you can be formed into his divine design.
7. He Is: The Holy Hope
Jeremiah 14:7–9 Judah’s drought was a sign of God’s displeasure with his people’s sinfulness. So Jeremiah talked with God, acknowledging the people’s backsliding and sin. God was Judah’s only hope, but the people failed to repent.
Are you experiencing a spiritual drought? Has drinking at the wells of pleasure left you thirsting for true fulfillment? If your backsliding is great, know that he is the only hope. Return to God and talk with him. Confess your tendency to wander. He will quench your thirst, save you in times of distress and be your true and lasting hope (see Romans 15:13).
8. He Is: Foreseeing
Jeremiah 32:1–25 God instructed Jeremiah to buy his uncle’s field, knowing full well the Babylonians would soon conquer the land. This signified to the people of Israel that God was planning to bring them back to their home. Because God foresees the future, Jeremiah could trust God’s seemingly ill- timed instructions. (Who invests in land right before captivity?!)
Nothing is too hard for God—not your housing situation, your health or your happiness. He foresees what will happen before it happens and has a plan to redeem whatever you’re facing. You can trust God to bring his promises to pass in his perfect way and time.
9: He Is: Good
Lamentations 3:22–26 The weeping prophet, Jeremiah, grieved over the fall of Jerusalem. Yet he found consolation in the fact that God’s compassions are new every morning. Although the people had sinned and the city was destroyed, Jeremiah knew that God is good to those who hope in him.
If you’re grieving over the destruction in your life and you’re longing for a fresh start, seek the Lord. He is good and is able and willing to give you a new beginning. Because he offers a fresh batch of compassion every morning, he’ll help you put the past behind you when you hope in him.
10: He Is: Pleased
Ezekiel 18:23–32 Some people portray God as a cruel deity who wants to zap unsuspecting sinners. In Ezekiel’s day, the Israelites accused God of unfairly punishing the people for the sins of their parents. But through Ezekiel, God revealed that people are responsible for their own sin and that he is pleased when people turn to him.
God is not begrudging. He doesn’t overcomplicate salvation in the hopes of disqualifying some. He doesn’t enjoy anyone’s death. Rather, he is pleased—thrilled, delighted and satisfied—when you come to him and live (see Luke 15:7). Imagine—the God of the universe, pleased with you!
11: He Is: The Ancient of Days
Daniel 7:9–10 Daniel saw a vision of world history where each successive empire was depicted as a fierce beast, culminating in the rule of the antichrist. In the midst of the vision, Daniel saw the Ancient of Days, God himself, regally seated on his throne to judge the nations.
He is the Ancient of Days—timeless, enduring, unchanging. How unlike us. While our lives are quick blips on the screen of time, he was, is and is to come. And the Ancient of Days freely offers us eternal life with him—a permanence, security and future we could never earn for ourselves.
12. He Is: Healing
Hosea 6:1–3 Hosea recognized that the God who, in justice, chastises his children for turning away from him will also, in mercy, heal them. The Lord rains his refreshing, healing forgiveness on those who acknowledge him.
God may allow pain in your life. He may allow you to be torn to pieces and injured by life. Why? So that you will return to him. These afflictions are a severe mercy—though painful, they are the catalyst for you to press on to acknowledge God. He will heal you, bind up your wounds, restore you and invite you to live in his presence.
13. He Is: My Strength
Habakkuk 3:16–19 Knowing that the land faced devastation, Habakkuk set his mind on God rather than circumstances. He told himself, I choose to be patient; I choose to rejoice even when (not if) disaster comes. With this perspective on life, he could confidently say that God was his strength.
Sometimes faith requires that we make a hard choice that contradicts what we can see. When the circumstances of your life look bad, remind yourself that God is in control. Like Habakkuk, you can choose to trust God. By making the choice to trust, you too can discover that God is your strength.
14. He Is: Stirring
Haggai1:13–14 As the Lord’s messenger, Haggai reminded the people that they had put much energy into building their own homes, yet God’s house remained a ruin. God himself stirred up the people to work on his house, the building project he was passionate about.
God is also stirring in the hearts of his people today. What is he stirring you to do? Build his house? Reach out to a hurting friend? Witness to your unsaved neighbor? Give? When you are attuned to his stirring in your heart, and open to doing whatever project he is passionate about, he will use you.
15. He Is: A Refiner
Malachi 3:3 The people had grown indifferent to the Lord, but Malachi saw that because of their backsliding, God would turn up the heat to bring them back to righteousness. He predicted that God would sit as a refiner.
If the heat has been turned up in your life, perhaps God is refining you. He monitors the temperature of your trials so the dross of sin will rise to the surface. He wants to sweep away your iniquities as the silversmith sweeps away the impurities tainting precious metals. Though the heat might feel painful, it’s purifying, making you shine and reflect his glory.
Drawn from Flourish: The NIV Bible for Women.
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