Paying Attention to God’s Renewing Work in Our Lives

Scripture — Isaiah 43:18-19 (NRSV)

Do not remember the former things,
or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.

Devotion

Through the prophet Isaiah, God promised to do a new thing for his people. Yes, in the past, God had done marvelous things, most of all delivering the Israelites from Egypt (Is 43:16-17). But God wasn’t finished. In fact, God was beginning through the prophecies of Isaiah to do something new. Yet this new work wasn’t very obvious in the time of Isaiah. Israel still faced hard times and the prospect of foreign domination. Surely they would have wondered: “Where is the new thing God has promised? Why can’t we see it now?”

As Christians, you and I face a similar situation. For example, Scripture proclaims that if anyone is in Christ, that person has been made new and begins to participate in the reality of the new creation (2 Cor 5:17). Yet when we look at our lives, when we see our failures and frustrations, we often can’t see the new thing God has done in us. If God were to ask, “Do you not see it?” our answer might well be, “No. I really don’t, or not very often, at any rate.”

This suggests an interesting question: How can we see God’s renewing work in our lives? There are no easy answers, no quick solutions. We need to look carefully and prayerfully at what God is doing in and through us. In times of quiet, we review our lives with the Spirit’s help, noting not only our struggles, but also our growth in Christ. Such reflection helps us cooperate with God in the Spirit’s renovation of our lives. Moreover, it gives us a reason for gratitude as we thank the Lord for this new work within us.

Sometimes, I find that others can help me see God at work in me when I cannot. At points in my life, I have been helped to see the Spirit’s work in me through members of a small group. At other times, I have been helped by a spiritual director. My wife, Linda, also reminds me of ways God is at work in me when I feel discouraged. The insights of others don’t lead me to boastfulness, however. I’m not encouraged to get puffed up with the thought of how wonderful I am. Rather, I am once again able to see just how wonderful God is—how gracious, patient, and loving.

Before wrapping up this devotion, I want to add one more comment. Isaiah 43:18 reads, “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.” Sometimes people have interpreted this to mean that we should never think about the past. Happy memories and sad memories are equally forbidden. Yet this is certainly not what God is saying through Isaiah. After all, the Israelites were commanded to remember what God did in the Exodus. And Jesus told his followers that they were to remember his sacrifice on the cross through the experience we call Communion. So, Isaiah’s prophecy should not be interpreted so as to ban all remembrance of the past. Rather, it warns us not to get stuck in the past, not to yearn for “the good ol’ days” in a way that prevents us from receiving and celebrating the new thing God is doing now.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Reconciling the Whole World (2 Corinthians 5:16–21).