‘LOOK, I AM DOING A NEW THING’ (Isaiah 43.19)
As we approach the second anniversary of the original Covid lockdown, and as infection rates fall, we are all hoping that the pandemic is now on its way out. I our thoughts about being rid of the pandemic, It can be tempting to look to the time before we had ever heard of a coronavirus, and to think life was without any problems at all, back then. Of course, there are aspects of things under Covid restrictions that have limited our lives so much, which we long to be rid of, but let us remember that things were not a bed of roses prior to 2020.
In February, the Bible group on a Thursday evening was looking at passages from the book of Isaiah. Written to God’s people at a time when they were going through a really hard time – famine and drought in the desert, on top of being in held in servitude to the Babylonians – it rang true for us today. In this context, in chapter 43, God tells his people ‘forget the former things, look I am doing a new thing’. He says, don’t go dwelling on the past – don’t go thinking things were so much better in the past, because what I have in store for you for the future is so much better. Look at the NEW thing I am doing for you.
What is that ‘new thing’? As with all true prophecy, that can be answered in different levels. One level looks to Christ – the coming of the Saviour who was to die to set us free. Then, on a farthest horizon, is the return of our Lord at the end of time, when all will be judged by God, and his children will be awarded their place in his kingdom. And there is another horizon, before that final one, which shows what God is doing among us today, in 2022. I firmly believe he is doing a new thing in our midst right now. However I do not know what that is, yet. God is doing a new thing. That doesn’t automatically mean we need to be doing things differently – His new thing might just be working in our hearts and minds to see what we are currently doing in a new light.
As we emerge from the pandemic, it is important for us as a church to be listening to God, to seek his will in what our worship, lives and witness will look like. That is one very good reason to spend time ‘waiting patiently for the Lord’ (Psalm 27.14). The Day of Prayer being set aside at Holy Trinity on Ash Wednesday 2nd March is one opportunity to do that – do join us at some part of that day.
As we wait on the Lord, He speaks to whoever He chooses. If you sense God might be saying something to you at this time – do let us know! Contact details are on the inside cover of this magazine.
Tina Upton