June 21 – Isaiah 49
This beautiful chapter mixes some prophecy concerning Jesus, coming Messiah, and prophecy about the return from exile of the Jewish people to their homeland. I am not smart enough to completely figure out which is which, but I love reading all these words of reassurance that God is indeed working on behalf of His people. They have not been forgotten. He does see.
Do you ever need that message? I surely do. Sometimes when I am in a hard season of life, it feels like the gloom will never end. This chapter and these words tell me otherwise. God is the One who leads me beside “cool waters” Isaiah tells me in verse 10. He comforts. He shows compassion to His people. And, wonder of wonders, He cares for our children and will bring them back from captivity as well. There are some wonderful verses here to turn into prayers for wayward children.
Here’s an example of how to do that from Isaiah 49:24-25 in the NIV translation.
Here’s the verse: “Can plunder be taken from warriors, or captives be rescued from the fierce? But this is what the Lord says: ‘Yes, captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce; I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save.”
Here’s the prayer taken from that verse: Lord, sometimes I feel like my child has been captured by this culture and the evil one and the opposition is so fierce that I despair. But You, Lord of all, are able to take back my captured child from a warrior and retrieve my child from the fierce. Oh God! Contend with those who contend with me and save my children! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
My verse: Isaiah 49:16 “See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands. Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem’s walls in ruins.”
My response: Oh kind and loving Heavenly Father, how I love this picture you drew for me, here. You do see ruins. You do see the grief. We are always in Your mind and You love us so much we are literally written in the palms of Your Abba-hands. Thank You for this reminder that You see. You care. And You will, in the proper time, deliver and rescue us!
