Today’s scripture: Isaiah 44:1-8 (NRSV) (The Message) (KJV) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (Stephanie Morgan):
Have you ever had days when you just felt like you weren’t good enough? I know I have encountered many days like this. In fact, I could write page after page passionately expressing to you how and why I didn’t measure up in the past and even in the present. I’m sure there are many of you who are in the same boat as I am. Today’s scripture passage gives us a renewed hope and courage to believe the wonderful things that God has proclaimed about each of us.
You and I are perfect to God! You might be thinking, well I didn’t read that in this passage. However, I hear it loud and clear every single time I read that passage. Let me help remind you (and myself) why we are absolutely perfect in God’s eyes. Listen to the first and second verse again as it reads in the Amplified Bible: “Yet now hear, O Jacob, My servant and Israel, whom I have chosen. Thus says the Lord, Who made you and formed you from the womb, Who will help you: Fear not, O Jacob, My servant, and you Jeshurun [the upright one — applied to Israel as a type of the Messiah], whom I have chosen.” My heart personally melts when I hear those words. The Lord makes it clear to Jacob first of all that he has been chosen! After that, the Lord declares that God made and formed Jacob from the womb! The Lord then goes on to let Jacob know that God will help him, and that Jacob should “fear not.” If Jacob possibly had doubts, God tells him again that he was chosen.
It’s clear that God crafted Jacob from conception to his own perfection. The Lord created a precious, beautiful person and saw flawlessness before ever sending him out of the womb. God only does works of perfection. This is the one true God (verse eight in the Amplified version says, “Besides me there is no God”)! If God made Jacob perfect, then God made you and me perfect also.
We need to stop and realize that we are Jacob. We are perfect. God created us all beautifully, perfectly to God’s liking so that we could be exactly what God wants us to be. We are all different children with unique callings. We need to stop degrading ourselves and realize that we don’t have to be anything other than what we were created to be. God created people of all different sizes, shapes, races, ethnicities, and sexual orientations. We all have different gifts, talents, passions, and callings. In my case, these were infused together to create the one and only … me.
Life can be fearful and exhausting to deal with at times. I encourage you to remember that the Lord assures us in this passage that God will help us and we should not be afraid. The One who formed us perfectly in our mother’s wombs loves us so much. God chose you, just as God chose Jacob!
Thought for the day: Let’s all do our best not to walk in fear, but to follow God and remember how God sees us instead of how we view ourselves. If you’re having trouble, go back and read these verses and insert your name in place of Jacob’s. You just might start to see how significant you are!
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.