Isaiah 3:1 “For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water.”
If you were on a ship carrying gold, and that ship was sinking, what would most interest you? Would you like to have your hands full of all the gold you could carry, or would you like to have your two hands around a flotation device? It really is a matter of perspective; you cannot have it both ways! There are actually stories about the scenario above where men on sinking ships filled their pockets with the loot around them, only to find out that they weighed too much to stay afloat!
Isaiah 3 reminds us that sometimes God has to empty our hands in order to fill them. God took away all of the things His people were depending on instead of Him. From their food supply to their individual giftedness (“the counselor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator”), God had to empty their hands before He could fill them. Often we are not much better. We don’t see what God has that is so much better than what we have grasped in our hands.
We serve a God who has the bigger picture in mind. He has planned it all from eternity past! He is more concerned about you than He is about the things you possess. We get so wrapped up in the gift that we forget the Giver!
Spurgeon put it well when he said, “Christ is never empty to any but those who are full of themselves.” Sometimes God has to take away before He can give. He always has what is best in mind and He cares about you. Remember, God cannot fill a hand that is already full of something else. Do you have empty hands?
Prayer Requests:
1. Service tonight in Land O’ Lakes, FL
2. Sign Language School this week in Armona, CA
3. Florida Regional Youth Conference this weekend (2.4)