Isaiah 38
❇️ Hezekiah after his illness wrote:
Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish ………..You have put
all my sins behind your back (v17)

❇️ Hezekiah’s words show us a rare paradigm in suffering. He shows that though suffering is painful yet it can be redemptive by making a person realize his sinfulness and repent.

❇️ Suffering is normally considered as loss whereas Hezekiah says his suffering was for his benefit.

When does suffering become beneficial❓
❇️ Suffering can make us either better or bitter. It becomes beneficial if we become better people when we increase in attitudes like humility, tolerance, patience, fortitude and repetent etc through our suffering.That’s when suffering leads to sanctification and become redemptive .

❇️ Hezekiah must have had that experience during his illness which made him a better person.

❇️ How do we respond to our sufferings? By and large we blame situations and others like God and even virus for our suffering.We turn bitter and refuse to accept our part that caused our suffering.

❇️ God allows suffering in our life to
▪️correct us
▪️teach us
▪️sanctify us
▪️make us better & stronger
▪️depend more on him etc.

❇️ Hezekiah also says, “You have put all my sins behind your back.” When we repent, God forgives, puts all our sins behind his back and remembers our sins no more (Is.43:25). What a generous package our God offers when we repent !!!

Why does God do that❓

❇️ It is because God’s love is
▪️perfect
▪️unconditional
▪️unfailing

❇️ God puts all our sins at his back because his eyes are too pure to look on evil (Hab.1:13). God being loving and holy works to our benefit in our suffering if only we repent.

✅ Insights learnt:
▪️Suffering is redemptive too
▪️God puts our sins behind his back
▪️God doesn’t remember our sins after he forgives
▪️God’s love is perfect & unfailing
▪️Accept and change our part that caused suffering

Dr.E.Christadoss
Vellore 🙏🏽

Isaiah 40:31 “But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.”

Reading the entire chapter of Isaiah 40, verse 31 is truly where we see the power and promise: “But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.”

In this chapter, Isaiah is speaking to people who are in extreme distress for a variety of reasons.

There are some seasons of life that leave us feeling like we’re falling more than flying.

Seasons of falling bring these distress-filled feelings front and center.

Throughout this entire chapter, Isaiah reminds us that God is in charge of everything.

But……… he also challenges us to wrestle with their doubt, sin, fear and questions.

Hard seasons bring questions.
And just because we have questions doesn’t necessarily mean we’re questioning God.

After reading this chapter in a sobering posture of the reality of life, I’M REMINDED THAT OUR GOD IS VERY REAL, INCREDIBLY STRONG AND BIGGER THAN ANYTHING SEASONS OF DISTRESS CAN BRING.

He creates a way for us to go up higher, or as this verse says, “soar,” in the midst of it all.

How?

By waiting in trust for God to strengthen us through our sorrow.

But this isn’t necessarily a sitting-still motion…………….
It’s a space where we fill our time with worship instead of worry.
It’s when we simply pray His promises when our words are hard to find in prayer.
And it’s how we reject our distress-filled doubt with the reality of who our God is.

All of these things can help us get up when the trials of this weary world try to keep us down.

And one day, we’ll be able to look back on our seasons of falling and see the God who helped us get back up, again and again.

Each day, when our heart starts to ache, pull out Isaiah 40: 28-31 and let this promise from God help us back up.

📍Wait in trust.
📍Worship through the worry.
📍Remember who our God is.
And find ourselves experiencing a strength to carry on that can only come from heaven’s throne.

Jooley Mathew Z
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