I’ve written about two particular scripture passages a lot over the past months. On a quiet Florida bike trail I had a thought that linked them.
In the Old Testament, God speaks through Isaiah to the exiled Israelites. He assures them, and us, that He is at work in our lives. He tells us we’re not prisoners of the past. We can look forward with hope, the confident assurance that God is doing a new thing in our lives.
Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:18-19
A few centuries later, Jesus walked toward His disciples on the water. After a long, exhausting night, they thought He was a ghost. They cried out in fear.
But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Matthew 14:27
I wrote about this passage here. “It is I,” is the Greek construction ego eimi. It’s the same phrase Jesus uses when He says, “I am,” as in “I am the way, I am the truth, I am the light …”
So it’s as if Jesus says “You can be courageous because I am. You don’t have to be a victim of your fears because I am.”
And that’s the link that occurred to me on that quiet trail. I hear Jesus saying something like:
“Remember that new thing God talked about all those centuries ago? I AM that new thing. You don’t have to summon the courage on your own, or let go of the past on your own. You can be courageous and face the fear because I AM. I’m with you. I already won the war.”
No such thing as a same-old-same-old day, because Jesus is a new thing every day. We can step forward boldly, with courage, because God kept His centuries old promise to do a new thing.
He’s still keeping that promise—every day.
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