Isaiah 40: Part 4 — A ‘Time With God’ Audio Devotion

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Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

A voice says, “Cry out.” 
And I said, “What shall I cry?”

“All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”

Isaiah 40:1-8

Transcript

Good morning.

As we head into this day, I hope that you have put God first in your life.

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Now to some degree as we think about the mindset of the world around us – that idea sounds pretty ridiculous, doesn’t it, as if you would put God first?

I mean at best you’re going to give God a little place in your life, you know, a Sunday corner of your life, or maybe if you’re involved in a home group during the week if you’re a Christian, or maybe you’ll give him a few thoughts about, you know, maybe there’s a God.

But first place in your life, that’s a little extreme, isn’t it? But really when you think about life, just consider what we mean when we say God. It means that before there was anything else in there, this universe, there was God

And everything that is came to be because he decided it would be, and that includes you and me, and God is at work in this universe carrying out His purposes.

And you and I are a part of that.

So is it really unreasonable for God to be first?

No, it’s not at all, is it?

It’s the most reasonable thing that could ever be.

If you are a Christian and you really believe that God is who He says He is, then the most unreasonable thing would be for you to put yourself first.

Just listen to

How Isaiah describes God in Isaiah chapter 40 starting in verse 21.

To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness will you compare with Him? As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, a goldsmith plates it with gold, a silversmith fashions chains of silver. He who is too poor for such an offering selects a tree that does not rot. He seeks out for himself a skilful craftsman to prepare an idol that will not totter.

Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the vault of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.

Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in, he it is who reduces rulers to nothing.

Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless? Scarcely have they been planted. Scarcely have they been sown. Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, but he merely blows on them, and they wither. And the storm carries them away like stubble.

To whom then will you liken me that I should be his equal, says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars. The one who leads forth their host by number, he calls them all by name because of the greatness of his might and the strength of his power. Not one of them is missing.

Well, as you listen to that, who do you think should be number one in your life, yourself or God?

God is the center of this universe. He is the center of your life, and when you put him in the center of your way of thinking about life, your life comes in line with reality.

And you’re able to move with God in what he’s doing in this world, and when you are moving in God’s direction in your life, then God’s blessing and power pours out in your life.

Don’t you want to experience that?

I’m John North.

To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.

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