We're not promised that following God will be easy ...... from the Rectory 26th August

Isaiah 50:7-10

Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame. 8 He who vindicates me is near. Who then will bring charges against me? Let us face each other! Who is my accuser? Let him confront me! 9 It is the Sovereign Lord who helps me. Who will condemn me? They will all wear out like a garment; the moths will eat them up.

10 Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant? Let the one who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on their God.

Someone recently said to me, you have been through a very difficult time, with so much going on. This led me to reflect again on where my inner strength comes from. As I child I observed the way that mum and dad coped with losing two of their children to a muscle-wasting disease. Their quiet determined faith inspired me to follow their example. Also, knowing that God had chosen me makes me extremely thankful.

The Bible never promises that following God will be easy. It is full of passages encouraging us to remain faithful even when the going is tough. Isaiah was well aware of times when things don’t go according to plan: times when God seems distant and remote and it feels as though he does not even hear our prayers, let alone answer them. He compares this to walking in darkness. (vs 10) (The prophet is not refereeing to the darkness of sin but the absence of God’s presence to guide us.) this is sometime referred to as the dark night of the soul.

How should react at time like this? Because we know that God loves us and have experienced his faithfulness in the past then we should be determined to continue to press on, trusting God, even though the storms of life relentlessly batter us and there appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel. we can be 100% confident that in the end God will once again prove faithful and will vindicate us. I love the way that Isaiah puts it in verse 7, he says that he sets his face like flint. In his second letter to the Corinthian Paul also helpfully reminds us that as Christians we are to walk by faith and not by sight.