Isaiah 30:15,18

15 For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said, “In repentance and rest you will be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength.” But you were not willing.18 Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, and therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; how blessed are all those who long for Him.

The idea for this prayer today came from one of our missionaries, Anita Gonzalez. Anita was involved in the singles ministry I led when I first came to Northwest. Anita is a courageous woman maximizing her singleness to serve the LORD with whole hearted devotion. This has been her verse for the year as she seeks direction for future ministry in her country. Let’s be sure to pray for her today.

The thing that strikes me about this verse is that God often gets a bad rap for being an angry, mean, standoffish war monger in the Old Testament. The context here in Isaiah is Israel running back to the old Egyptians for shelter. Talk about mean people! Look at what God is doing—He is longing, He is waiting. He wants to be gracious, to be compassionate. However, maybe in our hustle and bustle and problem solving and planning and preparing, maybe we just are not willing to wait and see the salvation of the LORD.

God Most High, I confess that I, more often than not, would like to figure it all out, work hard and get control, than to give You freedom to work beyond me, supernaturally and in ways that makes it clear You alone do great wonders. It is so difficult for me to know what this looks like in raising my children, loving my wife, pastoring a church in Dallas. It is clear that the elements of repentance, rest, quietness are more luxuries to me than necessities. Forgive me, I have sinned. In this moment, I long for You. Thank You for the gift of some believers in Jesus who wait for these emails because it creates a necessary discipline for me.

Please personalize this prayer for your situation in life.

Thankful to God for the technology that allows us to connect in this way,
Neil