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| Photo by Bart Heird |
I found out this week that Chicago is a humongous city! Dick and I spent a couple of days there visiting family. Driving in the big city proved dauntingly slow and difficult. And while we have managed to get around Washington, DC on the Metro for years, the intricacies of the unfamiliar Chicago EL deterred us from trying it. New things seem to affect most of us that way.
What about new ideas in the church? Do innovative suggestions overwhelm and intimidate us? Are we resistant to newfangled notions? Have we argued, “We’ve never done it that way”?
Listen to Isaiah 43:
18 But the Lord says,
“Do not cling to events of the past
or dwell on what happened long ago.
19 Watch for the new thing I am going to do.
It is happening already—you can see it now!
I will make a road through the wilderness
and give you streams of water there.
20 Even the wild animals will honor me;
jackals and ostriches will praise me
when I make rivers flow in the desert
to give water to my chosen people.
21 They are the people I made for myself,
and they will sing my praises!”
Our God is the Lord of original thinking! He uses all that creativity to reach us, whether it is in the spiritual desert of our souls or in the wilderness of sin that tempts us. Shouldn’t we be open to the prompting of the Holy Spirit even when it might make us a bit uncomfortable or force us to tread formerly untraveled paths?
Let’s follow God’s instructions through the prophet Isaiah and let go of events of the past and refuse to dwell on what happened long ago. Let us watch for the new thing that God is doing, and join Him in it
What “new thing” is God doing in your church? In your life? How exciting it would be to read in the comments section about these new movements of God!
