Wednesday of the Second Week of Advent
I let out a Hallelujah over our two readings for today! Get ready to receive a phenomenal blessing as you enter into God’s Word. It’s especially a double-whammy of goodness today! I like The Message translation of the Isaiah text. You can find it here. I also appreciate how the NIV translates it – here. Let the impact sink in as you read the three translations. Pause and consider that God’s promises are true for you. Not just for others, not hypothetically or objectively true somehow, but true for you! Let’s reflect on the reality of God’s identity and attributes and receive God’s promises:
God is eternal and everlasting. God is our Creator who knows us as intimately as every star in the universe. God never tires. God never gives up on us. God is all-knowing. As people who hope in this God who loves us extravagantly and unfailingly, let’s personalize God’s promises to us, and declare from God’s Word:
God will give me strength when I am faint; God will empower me when I feel weak; God will renew my strength such that I feel like I’m soaring; because of God’s power at work within me, I will run and not grow weary, I will walk and not grow faint. I pray you sense a revival in your spirit as you make those scriptural declarations in the first person.
In The Message, we see God’s question to us posed like this: Why would you ever complain, O Jacob, or, whine, Israel, saying, “God has lost track of me. He doesn’t care what happens to me”? I imagine we’ve each felt that way from time to time. May the reality of God’s eternal presence and intimate care for you give you encouragement and lead you forward in hope this day. Let’s rebuke, reject, and renounce any lying voice that tells us that we are abandoned by God and outside his loving care.
Similarly, we hear and receive Jesus’ promise and assurance in our Gospel text. When we feel labored, burdened, and weary (and who among us often doesn’t?!), our Lord invites us to come to him. I will give you rest, Jesus says to you and to me. I will give you rest. I will give you rest. I will give you rest. Can we confidently trust in this promise today? Can we receive it for ourselves? How does this rest come about? It’s by allowing Jesus to place his yoke upon us. Picture two oxen yoked together to pull a heavy wagon. Farmers team a young, inexperienced ox with an older, wiser ox who knows what to do. The younger learns from the older. Paradoxically, Jesus gives us this metaphor of labor to teach us what it means to rest. I think he’s saying that even in the midst of situations in which we feel most overwhelmed, overworked, and crushed under life’s burdens, we can experience true rest. What are we to learn from Jesus as we become yoked with him? I think it’s his meekness and humility. As we practice humility, we can grow in our ability to remain prayerful, expectant, and submissive, relying on God to provide the strength we need. I don’t know about you, but for me, often my feeling burdened and exhausted comes from foolishly laboring in my own limited strength and feeble efforts. My prayer today is that I can submit and surrender more fully to my extravagant Creator who wants me to soar like an eagle, my merciful Savior who offers me his easy yoke and shows me how to rest, and the powerful Holy Spirit who strengthens me beyond my wildest imagination. I pray this for you, as well.
As I reflect on God’s Word, songs often come to my heart that are based on the particular scripture text. You might want to pray along with Lincoln Brewster as he sings “Everlasting God.” You can find the song Here. It’s a great one inspired by our Isaiah text. God bless you to rest and to soar this day.
- Elizabeth Wourms