Study from God’s Word… Isaiah, Chapters 41 – 43 … Passage for Reflection: Isaiah 42: 3 … NIV He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
My Journal for Today: The prophesies of THE Messiah are wondrous, … by Isaiah and others, … hundreds of years before He was born in Bethlehem; and some of these prophesies spoke of the very way Jesus would bring the message of the Gospel to God’s chosen people. Yes, we know that the close Disciples of Jesus didn’t quite get it until the cross and His resurrection; but even the tone of Christ’s life was like that described by Isaiah in prophesying of the way the Messiah would bring His message.
As you read today’s prophetic words about the tone of Christ’s message, we certainly know that Jesus was no wimp - as evidenced by the two times he ripped apart the Temple as He expelled the robbers who had desecrated His Father’s House. But looking at the way Jesus gently went about the land during His ministry, the tone of His message fits perfectly with what was described by Isaiah almost seven centuries before His birth. Jesus quietly, but powerfully, went about telling the people about His coming kingdom. And Jesus would not be silenced. He could not be snuffed out by the religious leaders of His day. He was burning with God’s truth; and He spoke the truth in a way that could not be broken by those of His day.
And we know how He quietly, but with infinite strength, went to the cross, not even speaking a word against those who mocked Him and unjustly sent Him to His death. And that, my friend, is our model of tone when it comes to living and expressing the truth of the gospel message. We are to quietly, but strongly, live out the truth of the gospel in our lives. When people see and hear the way we live our lives and the testimony we witness to the world, they should see/hear Jesus in and through us. The tone of our lives should be quiet surrender, just as was Jesus life and words about His Father in Heaven.
And as I contemplate my life – as I hope you are doing right now if you’re reading this – I am convicted that too often I can get too harsh, or even too silent, with the tone of my life. I need to be even-toned and straight forward with how I live my life, ever trying to do as Jesus commanded me in Matt. 5: 16, … to shine His light in an ever darkening world so that they may see His light shining through me.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, that is my prayer today … to quietly – but powerfully – shine Your light for all to see. Amen
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