A New Thing
Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19
My dad had a brown leather wallet he wore in his back pocket. His pants had a perfect indent where the wallet lived. When I was a child, I don’t remember him having any other wallet. It contained important cards, money, special receipts, and our school pictures. Every now and then he would have to clean out his wallet, as cards would expire and receipts were no longer needed. He seemed to do it when the wallet got too full to close.
As the years went by, the wallet began to wear out. I recall the progression. It started out as faded areas of the leather. After many years, the faded leather thinned and caused a tiny hole to form. As the hole got bigger, I often suggested he get a new wallet. However, he wasn’t interested in a new wallet. He had grown to love his wallet, and it had served him well. Time went on and finally, the hole became so big that the cards would no longer stay in the wallet. Out of necessity, he finally had to buy a new wallet.
The only time dad was willing to look at a brand-new wallet was when he had exhausted use out of the wallet he used day in, day out, for maybe 20 or more years. The new wallet was on a shelf, in a store the whole time, just waiting to be purchased. It was never going to be sought out or bought until he put down the old, worn, torn wallet.
Do you have a “wallet” you simply won’t let go of? You’re used to the routine. You’ve been doing it the same way for years and it’s comfortable. Maybe in our own lives, we get used to routine. We don’t really like change. We pray and pray for God to work in our situation. We want God to do a new thing. We are waiting and waiting, then we get frustrated because we haven’t seen God work.
Maybe God is waiting on us? Maybe He wants us to let go of the old before he can do something new. Maybe He wants us to “put down the old, worn, torn wallet.” Maybe he wants us to put down or let go of past hurts. Maybe He wants us to put down or let go of broken relationships. Maybe He wants us to let go of or put down what could have been. Maybe he wants us to change our routine or the way we think. What does God want you to let go of so He can do a new thing? The only way He can do something new is when “we don’t consider the things of old or remember former things.” Sometimes He can’t work because we are hanging on for dear life to the old thing.
What is God asking you to let go of so He can do a new thing? How will you Devote2day?
Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:18-19