Your ‘God timeline’
by Dr Pauline Simonsen
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I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord … because of all that the Lord has done for us (Isaiah 63:7).
Read Isaiah 63:7–14
Have you ever taken time to look back over your life and trace the companionship and care of God with you over the years? It’s worth doing. It’s an exercise in faith to look back at the events of your life and see how God was present and how he acted for you in them. And also to look at the deeper undercurrents in your walk with God: the times of growth, when your faith deepened, or times of struggle or distance.
Each year, I ask my students to draw a ‘God’ timeline of their lives, including some of these times and seasons. The exercise inevitably reveals to each person again the wonderful faithfulness of our God and reminds them that their lives have purpose and direction under his Lordship.
Something like this is going on in our reading today. Isaiah looks back to ‘recount the gracious deeds of the Lord, the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, because of all that he has done for us’. The prophet looks for the loving action of God for Israel when God saved them and showed them mercy. Isaiah’s reflections are beautiful: the God he describes is tender and compassionate, even as the same God acts with might and power on his people’s behalf.
There are times when the people rebel and grieve the Holy Spirit; there are times when they wrestle with God, and it feels like he is fighting against them (verse 10). Sound familiar? Israel’s journey is our journey, too, and we share the same weaknesses. But we also share the same God! And the Holy One of Israel, who lifted his glorious arm and divided the waters of the Red Sea to lead his people to safety, is the same God who brings each one of us through the waters of baptism into a new life in Jesus. He breathes and seals his Spirit in us, carries us through the hard times and gives us rest.
What would it do for your mind and heart today to ‘recall the gracious deeds of the Lord for you’? How might that exercise of reflective faith encourage you through the day ahead? Maybe you could recount what the Lord has done for you to someone else today and share faith and hope with them. It might just be the best, most heartening thing they hear today.
It is good to give thanks to the Lord and sing praises to the Most High. God, it is good to proclaim your unfailing love in the morning and your faithfulness in the evening … You thrill me, Lord, with all you have done for me! I sing for joy because of what you have done. Thank you, Gracious One! Amen. (Psalm 92)
Pauline leads a Bible college and offers spiritual direction in Palmerston North, New Zealand. She’s married to Roger – who is recently retired – and she enjoys having him home a bit more. When she gets some free time, Pauline loves cooking and reading and likes nothing better than sitting with a cat on her lap and watching the birds in her garden.
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