January 15, 2022

Isaiah 49: 4 (NIV)

But I said, “I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing. Yet what is due is in the Lord’s hand, and my reward is with my God.”

To focus on being faithful is a bit different from a focus on being successful.*

Poor Isaiah. He was serving exactly where God wanted him. There was no question that he was fulfilling his ministry – his calling. And yet he despaired over his lack of results. He didn’t know if the seeds he had planted would ever bear fruit. Paul reminds us in I Corinthians 15: 58, “Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” Many Christians work hard in the fields of the Lord with very little to show for it but as John Calvin said, the results are “not always visible to the eyes of men.” Someone else observes that “despondency arises” when we listen to ourselves instead of looking to God as our source of power.*

This verse in Isaiah is remarkable for two reasons: 1) Isaiah is not afraid to speak his mind to God; and 2) God’s answer follows immediately behind his complaint. If you could take a peek at one of my prayer journals, you would find many entries that sound just like this. Before the ink has dried on my whining, God’s answer flows right out of my pen onto the paper, showing me how shallow my faith can be.

To Isaiah, God reveals that everything is in his hands – and what else does Isaiah – or do we – need to know? 

Who we are is often defined by our greatest disappointments.*