Hope when we feel abandoned, ashamed and afraid (that pretty much covers all of us at some point)

      Isaiah 54: 1 - 8

Although I am no theologian (as aforementioned!) - just a girl who desperately wants to love and know God better - it seems to me that one of the beautiful things about God's Word is that it can be understood in a broad, time-and-place, historical sense and at the same time be taken in a completely personal sense - just as God Himself is both infinite Creator and also intimate Father. So it stands to reason that his Word can have implications for the far-off future but also for your present moment here and now on this crazy side of eternity. To me, Isaiah 54 is particularly one of those chapters in God's Word that can be understood from both perspectives.

It begins:

¹ “Sing, barren woman,
you who never bore a child;
burst into song, shout for joy,
you who were never in labor;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband,”
says the LORD.

The first time I ever read this promise, I smirked in disbelief because I felt very much like a barren woman, and my life was in a seemingly terribly desolate place. I had never birthed a child and honestly, I didn't even dare hope I ever would. Shamefully, I thought it to be beyond God's mercy in my life.

But oh...was I wrong! I love it when I'm wrong - at least on this point! Little did I know that in just a few years after I first read these verses I would have not one, not two, but THREE little miracles of my own. Talk about God's ability to turn the course of our lives on a dime. I've been up to my eyeballs in diapers for the past few years living this one out! Here's a little bit of proof:

Big Guy (3), Sweet Pie (2), and Birdy Baby (6 mo.)

I also believe these verses speak to the spiritual children of the Church at large. Christ's coming ushered in the beginning of a "full house," calling to him believers from all over the world, so much so that God says to:

² “Enlarge the place of your tent,
stretch your tent curtains wide,
do not hold back;
lengthen your cords,
strengthen your stakes.
³ For you will spread out to the right and to the left;
your descendants will dispossess nations
and settle in their desolate cities.

When we are faithful to God's call to shepherd the children he has placed in our paths, whether they are our own flesh and blood or our spiritual children, I believe he in turn will be faithful to our efforts. He certainly was to the apostles of the early church as they sought to raise spiritual children.

God continues on with a command and another promise:

⁴ “Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame.
Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated.
You will forget the shame of your youth
and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.

Anybody else out there like the sound of that? Would anybody else like to just carve out chunks of their past and toss them far out into the ocean, never again having to worry that they might wash back ashore in a wave of shame?

There have been countless times when all I have wanted to do is to forget the shame of my youth and the reproach of the failure of others in my life. Here God promises that I will! And, true to that promise, I am so grateful to say that I have. So much of the darkness of my past has been burned up and purified by the light of the Life that is within me. Not that I am "blocking it out" or just telling myself to forget the past, but the memory of my dark times no longer lurks in the shadows of my mind, threatening to overwhelm me. I have been healed from their power over my mind. Yes, Satan does his best, and sometimes succeeds, to pry from memory something that I would rather not recall - but it does not penetrate my heart and mind the way it used to.

The power of my past is broken because Christ has borne my sins on the cross, scorning their shame for me (Hebrews 12: 2). I do not have to suffer the shame of my sins anymore because Jesus did it for me! And ultimately any remnant of painful memories have been taken captive by Christ's redeeming work on the cross to simply serve as beautiful reminders of God's profound grace in my life.

He truly has the power to work all things for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28). In fact, he specializes in it.

These next few verses just floor me:

⁵ For your Maker is your husband—
the LORD Almighty is his name—
the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer;
he is called the God of all the earth.
⁶ The LORD will call you back
as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit—
a wife who married young,
only to be rejected,” says your God. 

Even when we are rejected or treated as "less than" by those who have vowed to love us, we can cling to this amazing truth - that ultimately, the LORD Almighty is our true husband (or, for you guys, the true Lover of your soul)!

People will, by nature, fail us. Nobody, sad to say, is fully trustworthy, save the One who made us. And amazingly that One wants us! Pitiful, crazy, mixed up, inconsistent, unfaithful, selfish, sorry me. And you (yes, you).


We find true wisdom when we put our hope in the eternal One alone, not another fallen, fallible, finite creature.

Christ alone is the Holy One.

Christ alone is our Redeemer.

And when we turn to and trust him,

⁶ The LORD will call you back
as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit—
a wife who married young,
only to be rejected,” says your God.
⁷ “For a brief moment I abandoned you,
but with deep compassion I will bring you back.
⁸ In a surge of anger
I hid my face from you for a moment,
but with everlasting kindness
I will have compassion on you,”
says the LORD your Redeemer.

Have you known a time when you felt forsaken and abandoned by God? If we are honest, most of us answer in the affirmative.

But even if we have felt that way - be it when we have allowed sin to separate us from his nearness, or when the pain of just living on this broken earth caused his presence to feel a million miles away - the Lord will never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6).

Those feelings of being forsaken, in the grand scheme of things, are temporary. But what is eternal, what is everlasting is his kindness and compassion on us.

Feelings flee and change, but our God cannot. His mercy and love for his servants will go on into eternity. May we not only seek to experience it now in our everyday lives, but also look forward to the hope of dwelling in the presence of our God of unending kindness in the (not-so-distant) eternal future - our heritage as his servants both now and in that great Day to come.