Remember?

"Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,' calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it." Isaiah 46 : 8 - 11

He has spoken, and He will bring it to pass. He has purposed it and will do it.

This is a powerful statement and stands true independent of which side of faith you choose to plant yourself in. He is God and He is eternity itself, and He therefore possesses both the will and power to shape the entirety of history; including the familiar details of our lives. These He weaves into the fabric of eternity, and we find ourselves right in the middle of this great big story of God who has purposed to redeem us and bring us back to Himself.

So when God speaks it happens, and there is nothing that you and I can do to stop Him.

In this passage of scripture, God is speaking to the Israelites, assuring them that there is no other God but Him, and that all other gods and idols would bow down to the One true God; Yahweh.

The people He is speaking to; the Israelites, continuously fall into serious error because they compared inanimate objects to God almighty, who is the very breath we breathe. They equated God to the gods of the feeble work of their hands.

But like theirs, and ours, our hands are only capable of creating shape and form, but not life. Life has one source, and that source is God. And He breathes life into creation, giving it out in abundance, because in addition to being all-powerful He is also generous.

God speaks tenderly to us, and makes promises to us, guarding them with the intention of fulfilling them. He doesn't owe anything to us, but gives us promises so that we would know Him and learn to take Him at His word. He takes His word seriously.

And He calls us to remember, because we are the ones that forget, we are the ones that lose it; we lose Him. We misplace God, and like the Israelites, equate Him to our depreciating assets and decaying society, yet He has remained the same.

He remains the constant of our lives.

So our lives come and go, they shine brightly and then fade, but through it all God is working and speaking; shaping eternity to conform to His will, like He said He would.

But where does that leave us?

Right in the middle of a story that isn't ours, inside a narrative created before we were even a thought. But what has remained is God and His voice that still speaks and calls us to remember Him that has declared the end from the beginning.

It leaves us in the place where all we have is God and the word He has given to us. Because His word is enough for Him, and therefore is enough for us. For there is nothing else He has chosen to give us but His assurances, and we can only receive them and truly live into them by faith.

God's voice is powerful and completely divine, and our lives function because He has spoken them into being. This same voice is still speaking, creating, aligning, shaping and shifting. And He asks to to remember it, to remember Him, because when we do, we emerge with the confidence that He will continue to be God, and we will continue to be held by Him in the same hands that hold the entire universe.

When we remember, we begin to see again that God is trustworthy and faithful, and that we can build our lives on the authority of His word. For it is true, and will happen, as He said it would.

He is no man that He should lie, remember?

"...I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it."

_ Takunda