Is. 45-46
God is not limited in doing what He has purposed to do. He says to Cyrus, “I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me.” (Is 45:4b) and, “I equip you, though you do not know me” (Is 45:5b). God uses people who do not know Him and even people who do not want to be used to fulfill His purpose. As He says, “I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God” (Is 45:5a). To take this a step further, if God names and equips those who don’t even know Him, how much more does He do for those of us who are called by His name?
Another thing that stuck out to me in this reading is Isaiah 45:9-10. “Woe to him who strives with Him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’? Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’ or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’”. This strikes me for two reasons.
First, my Bible study group did a study by Jennifer Rothschild called “Me, Myself, and Lies”, which addresses the lies we tell ourselves in our thoughts. Such thoughts are largely self-focused, whether we are bashing ourselves for being somehow less than what we think we should be or misinterpreting and over-crediting other’s opinions of us. This passage reinforces to me that putting ourselves down, calling ourselves names, and seeing ourselves any way other than how God sees us is just not right. We are His craftsmanship, loved and cared for by Him, and we should give ourselves the respect that deserves.
The second reason is in many ways in line with the first. This passage reveals the problem with this whole “gender identity” movement that is going around. God created each of us the way that we are. Who are we to say that He made us wrong? Who are we to say that this pot should have handles and that pot should not? To not accept ourselves as God created us is an act of defiant rebellion against Him! We are talking about the God-created physical structure, of course. To excuse errant feelings and attractions as God-created doesn’t stand. These things come from our heart – our flesh – which we have seen from Paul and other scripture is bent toward sin and death. This is our human nature, which Christ came to save us from. So, as always, to follow the flesh is rebellion against God.
Rom. 8:22-39
I love what Paul says in the last part of Romans 8. “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn?” (Rom 8:33-34a). Who indeed? If God says that we are righteous (and if Christ lives in us, we are), then there is no one who can question or change that. Even the law cannot condemn us! God gave and we accepted His love. There is nothing in existence that can ever take that away from us.
Paul actually covers two aspects of the permanent nature of God’s love. First, in verse 35, Paul says, “Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword [separate us]?.” These are all situations, circumstances, and experiences. Meaning, whatever we have to go through, God’s love will be with us to carry us through. He will never leave us or forsake us.
Second, Paul says in verse 38-39, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” These are outside forces. The truth here is that there is nothing and no one too powerful for God and nowhere that is out of His reach. This means that God is fully able to fulfill His promise to never leave or forsake us. Nothing can keep Him from it. And because God is with us, and because it is God who is with us, “in all these things we are MORE than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (Rom 8:37). How awesome is that?!?