Be Not Dismayed

--more notes from RZIM Summer Institute, Amy Orr-Ewing speaking richly on the promises in Isaiah:


"Let the peoples renew their strength...

"You whom I took from the ends of the earth,
    and called from its farthest corners,
saying to you, “You are my servant,
     I have chosen you and not cast you off”;

¹⁰ "Fear not, for I am with you;
    be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
-from Isaiah 41:1-10

"God’s omnipresence is personal: “I am with you, you are Known.”  The God who terrifies, whose presence is a reality, is with us.  Personally yours, your God.  He is saying, “You and I are inextricably linked.”  “I am your God.” “I will help you.”  If we can do it without Him our visions and dreams are far too small.

“I will strengthen you.”  This God is the Lord who is the judge of all the earth.  He is the one who strengthens us.  This is Truth, this is Reality.”

Two commands: 

Do not be afraid

Do not anxiously look around you

Four promises:

I am with you

I will strengthen you

I will help you

I will uphold you with My righteous right hand

Accompanying thoughts from Daniel 7:13-14:

1.        God is the Judge.  The God of all time, the judge, He is the one who will call all people.  Do you believe it?  If you do, it will shape how you live and think.

2.       The Lord is the Ruler of all rulers.  However great Cyrus was, God is infinitely greater.  We are unduly impressed by earthly rulers.

3.       The Lord is the uncreated First One.  He is the First reality of all realities.  That’s the one who says, “Do not be afraid.”

The covenant name for God  means “the first” – Yahweh.  Comes from the verb “to be”.  Used 6,000 times in the OT.  In the ancient cultures if you made a covenant it was for life.  It means for us, “We now have a shared identity.  We belong together.”  He is the God who bears the scar in covenant-making.  That’s the God who upholds us.

               

4.       He is the God who chooses us.  Vs. 8 “I have chosen you”

Stop defining and limiting your future by your past.  God is greater than your past, your personality, your pain."
--notes from talk given by Amy Orr-Ewing

"It is not from the secret counsels of Heaven, of which all are ignorant, but the open communications of Heaven, to which all have access, that we extract hope." Thomas Chalmers