Surrounded

SCRIPTURE: Is. 40-42; 1 Pet. 3

Isaiah 42:18-25
 Pay attention! Are you deaf?
   Open your eyes! Are you blind?
You’re my servant, and you’re not looking!
   You’re my messenger, and you’re not listening!
The very people I depended upon, servants of God,
   blind as a bat—willfully blind!
You’ve seen a lot, but looked at nothing.
   You’ve heard everything, but listened to nothing.
God intended, out of the goodness of his heart,
   to be lavish in his revelation.
But this is a people battered and cowed,
   shut up in attics and closets,
Victims licking their wounds,
   feeling ignored, abandoned.
But is anyone out there listening?
   Is anyone paying attention to what’s coming?
Who do you think turned Jacob over to the thugs,
   let loose the robbers on Israel?
Wasn’t it God himself, this God against whom we’ve sinned—
   not doing what he commanded,
   not listening to what he said?
Isn’t it God’s anger that’s behind all this,
   God’s punishing power?
Their whole world collapsed but they still didn’t get it;
   their life is in ruins but they don’t take it to heart.

OBSERVATIONS: I’ve spent a lot of my time looking without seeing. I hear, but I don’t listen. And the consequences are the same for me as they are to anyone else. But I, like other Christians, can sometimes make a connection between my disobedience and the consequences of my actions–or inaction.

There are literally thousands of people surrounding Trinity UMC. Homes all around the church building, and neighborhoods all around the homes of our congregation, including mine. And among these neighborhoods lives “a people battered and cowed, shut up in attics and closets, victims licking their wounds, feeling ignored, abandoned.”

APPLICATION: I’m going to pray for the fullness of God’s love to inhabit every minute of their day. I’m going to choose one house in particular, with the Spirit’s guidance, and I’m going to pray for the people who live there. I’m going to pray for their church home. And if they don’t have one, I’m going to pray that God blesses Trinity to be their church home so that we can pour out God’s blessings upon their lives.

PRAYER: Lord, show me which house you wish for me to lift up to you in prayer. Make it glow in the dark so I can’t miss it. Make my choice clear so that I can honor you and reach them for the sake of the Kingdom. In Christ’s name I ask it. Amen.