Joshua Watts

Let me share with you a passage that has been SO life-giving to me recently..

“In His love and mercy He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them” (Isaiah 63:9).

With the verse in its context, the prophet Isaiah is asking the Lord to bring about the redemption He promised and for forgiveness of the sins of Israel. And of course, we know this prayer was answered, not in the lifetime of Isaiah, but in the sinless life, tortuous death, and powerful resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. With our retrospective understanding, we can clearly see, then, that Isaiah’s praise and prayer to God was also prophetic. The above passage is ultimately fulfilled through Christ.

Anyway! Back to the verse!

I have been having extended ‘selah’ moments in the beautiful truth that God lifts us.

What love. What grace. This arrests me so much because I know that I simply don’t deserve to be lifted. The fact that God even chose to consider me is surely a testament of His kindness and is based on no merit of my own.

Friend, seriously grasp this concept. God has lifted you up to a place of honor and prosperity. He has pulled up a chair for you at His table. He has invited you into close quarters, as one of His dear friends. He has elevated you from a mindset of guilt, fear, and condemnation, into a mindset of victory, faith, and generosity.

He lifts our heads. We have reason to look up!

Maybe this is difficult for you to believe. Oftentimes we read Scripture and assume that we are the exception to God’s promises and love. A profound quote from Christa Black Gifford, co-songwriter of “One Thing Remains,” that I read recently is, “If you are not anchored in the goodness of God, you will lower your theology to match your pain.”

Selah.

Perhaps because of the heartache or guilt or pain or loss we have endured in life, we are subconsciously convinced that God is good only sometimes. He is good, we suppose, with exceptions. He is good, but we must understand sub-articles A, B, and C, and the disclaimer in tiny print at the bottom of the Bible. And when we do this, we make our perception of reality the standard, instead of allowing the truth of Jesus Christ to be the standard.

But that’s just it. God’s word and perfect character is the standard. After all, He is God, and our circumstances and feelings are most definitely not.

You are no exception to God’s goodness. God is good, and He does good. You will not find harm or fear or insecurity or darkness in Him. If you find that you struggle with God’s goodness toward you.. you may have unknowingly crafted a theology apart from the Word of God. A perspective of God who is conditionally good is not accurate. Spend some moments in your regular prayer time asking for the Holy Spirit to renew your mind (Romans 12:2). What has stopped you from believing that God could be good to you? Allow the Word of God and the peaceful presence of Christ to shape your perspective.

“I waited and waited and waited for God. At last He looked; finally He listened. He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud. He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn’t slip. He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God” (Psalm 40:1-3).

“You, God, shield me on all sides; You ground my feet, You lift my head high” (Psalm 3:3).

“God frees prisoners— He gives sight to the blind, He lifts up the fallen” (Psalm 146:7-8).

Let God lift you. Let Him elevate you to a new pattern of thinking. Let Him lavish His love and blessing on you until you resolve firmly in your heart that this is your ‘new normal.’ As a father will bless his child on Christmas morning with numerous gifts that she has been hoping for, let God give you the desires of your heart. You are not the exception to His promises! You are the intended recipient of His kindness, my dear friend.

My heart,
Josh