STAND YOUR GROUND (Isaiah 7-8)

If you don't take your stand in faith, you won't have a leg to stand on. (Isaiah 7:9, MSG)

Hmm. I read chapters 3-4 and couldn't find anything to write about. Today is overflowing with wonderful truths, so many that I had a hard time deciding. That says more about where I was on Thursday than about God's Word.

Although chapters 7-8 include separate prophecies, they all reflect on the truth of standing in faith. Foundational truths of why and how we take that stand.

How about--When all is said and done, the last word is Immanuel--God-With-Us. (Isaiah 8:10, MSG).
How fitting that "the" Word (in John 1) has the "last word." After all debates end and all wars cease, He will still be standing. He is the foundation, the rock on which I stand. Sing it with me. "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ, the solid rock, I stand. All other ground is sinking sand." Oh, and what is Jesus's name? Yup. Immanuel, God with us.

Take these words to heart: If you're going to worry, worry about the Holy. Fear God-of-the-Angel-Armies. The Holy can be either a Hiding Place or a Boulder blocking your way." (Isaiah 7:12-14, MSG) What a great picture of "fear God". He is either the place to which I run when I am afraid (Oh, Corrie Ten Boom and The Hiding Place). Or else He is the thing that I fear. He places a boulder that I can't climb on and when things go far enough, the boulder can smash. Strong, hard, immoveable--all I want my defender to be, all I don't want in my opposition.

The last verse that stood out to me is one of those "I wish this wasn't true" passages. It talks about the times God "remains in hiding." If you want a great book on the subject, try Seeking God's Hidden Face by Cecil Murphey. Thursday I felt a hint of that, when I read God's Word and it felt dead, not the living organism that I have encountered over and over again during this nibble experiment. If God seems silent--it doesn't always mean something is wrong. Isaiah gives us the only answer to a time of silence: While I am waiting, I continue to hope. I don't give up on Him.

Take your stand on faith.
Stand your ground and hope.

They both say the same thing.