When Life Gets Hard — Part 4
This is what the Lord says — he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
Scripture: Isaiah 43:16–19
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.”
What does God mean by this? Is He asking His people to forget His mercies, His deliverance, and His mighty works in the past? Is He telling them to stop remembering how He brought them out of Egypt, opened the sea, and defeated the enemies who pursued them?
No. God Himself had just reminded them of those very things. The point is not to forget His faithfulness. The point is this: the new thing God was about to do would be so great that even the Exodus — the greatest act of deliverance in Israel’s memory — would pale beside it. Not a repetition of the old, but something beyond it. To keep looking backward would be to miss what was coming.
Remember What God Has Done
God begins by reminding His people of His power. He had made a road where there was no road. He had delivered them when escape looked impossible. He had saved them when they had no strength to save themselves.
Remembering God’s works should strengthen faith. It tells the heart, “The God who helped before is still God today.” But sometimes even memory can become narrow. We may begin to think God will help again only if He works in the same way, through the same method, and in the same kind of situation.
Do Not Limit God to One Kind of Trouble
The trouble at the sea was behind Israel. Now the Israelites were facing a different kind of need. Their situation had changed, but God had not changed. What was impossible for them was still possible for Him.
This is where our faith can become too small. We may believe God helped before, but in our thoughts we quietly limit Him to the kind of help we have already seen. We fail to realize that God is not limited to one kind of trouble, one kind of answer, or one kind of way.
See What God Is Doing Now
God says, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” That question matters. It is possible for God to be working and for us to miss it because we are only looking for a familiar form.
If we decide in advance what God’s answer must look like, we may fail to see His present work. This does not mean every situation will change exactly as we imagine. But it does mean His help is not restricted to our memory of how He helped before.
God Can Help in This Trouble Too
God can remove what blocks us. He can provide what is missing. He can deliver us from danger. He can sustain us in dryness. He can rescue suddenly, or He can lead step by step.
Sometimes our problem is not that we forgot God’s faithfulness. Our problem is that we expect His faithfulness to appear only in a familiar form. We keep looking for yesterday’s kind of answer, while God may already be showing His faithfulness in a different way.
Do Not Limit God
Isaiah 43 calls us to a bigger view of God. God may have helped you through one kind of problem before. He may have opened one door, provided in one season, healed one wound, answered one prayer, or carried you through one difficulty. But do not assume He can only help in that same way again.
The problem in front of you today may look different. The pressure may be different. The need may be different. The path may be different. But God is not different. The God who helped you yesterday can help you today. The God who worked in one kind of trouble can work in another kind of trouble.
So remember His faithfulness, but do not confine Him to the form of the last answer. Thank Him for what He has done, but keep your eyes open to what He is doing now.
In this When Life Gets Hard series, we have seen four truths for hard seasons. When the future feels uncertain, God goes before you. When everything around you changes, God does not change. When the waters rise, God is with you. And when today’s trouble looks different from yesterday’s, do not limit God.
He can make a way where you see no way, and He can begin His work where you see only impossibility.
