I knew this was a great name for a ship as well as a great photo opportunity. RELENTLESS. And oh what a beautiful view… I briefly stopped, and want to revisit this fishing pier. Maybe I can soon. My ‘Anchored’ T-shirt reminds me of You Lord being my foundation. 

“I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.”

It’s Labor Day, not a holiday where we are obligated to do anything, even though we should remember those hard workers who really did improve working conditions, enacted labor laws and better treatment. I might clean my house or get back to a beach today, yeah, but why do I feel this pull? It is because summer is fading fast. Soak up the sand and take at the beach to rest to think about the Lord who blesses and yet listen to the mighty roar of the waves and know He is Lord of all. For in me, in us, He wants us to focus on Him. He is RELENTLESS in wrestling distractions, think Peter still walking on that water. 

Yes, RELENTLESS is the Lord’s Spirit inside us Who doesn’t stop working – calling and working on us- and for HIS Glory. “I will not yield my glory to another.” The Lord wants us to know Him and His Spirit. Yes, the Lord is RELENTLESS, instilling in us a RELENTLESS SPIRIT. 

I put off starting my reading but now will crack open the next section of the Old Testament, Isaiah on forward, prophets prophets prophets. Me thinking I need the mindset of ‘not in summer mode’, but God says don’t wait, these days until Jesus comes again ARE short, not just the summer. And what did God do for RELENTLESS reminders? Keep dropping in huge verses of Isaiah in regular day passages. Isaiah is going to be a huge part of my understanding of how Jesus was foretold. I’m SO appreciative. God says LEARN THIS of how God was working on His people Israel. God is telling us all (now that His Word and Spirit has opened for the Gentiles too) what he told the people then, starting with Moses writing down Genesis, that Jesus would be born to win over sin, crush the devil, cover us with grace. God also told them to flee Babylon, He had already chosen who would win (hmmm, He tells us this too, that Jesus will and has won). The old testament is a testament to the new.

God speaks much through prophet Isaiah that He is slow to anger, and has a remnant of people (remember these Israelites have been a tough crowd to corral) who will experience a NEW CREATION (though many in that time won’t recognize it), and tells them also that He is not willing for others to make up their own idols and take credit for His majesty and plan. God’s Glory is God’s. Our God IS a jealous God, and all glory and honor due is His. 

Now, reading ahead in Isaiah 48, as he uses Isaiah to instruct the people, God is telling them they could have listened before, when they were promised promised lands, and listened before going down a bad way leading to exile in captivity in Babylon, that “your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea. Your descendants would have been like the sand, your children like its numberless grains; their name would never be blotted out nor destroyed from before me.”

Let us not forget to listen to God now. Let us hold onto Jesus because He is holding on to us. Jesus was there in the beginning and His Word says He Wins. Let us get on board with His RELENTLESS SPIRIT now, and ride the waves of life.

Enjoy today, whether you are working or resting, traveling or sitting.  Know that God is going to keep all things going on His behalf (good and evil), making the best of our humanness by letting Jesus lead us. “I am he; I am the first and I am the last. My own hand laid the foundations of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens;...” YES!!!

Thank You Lord for this reminder that You are IN CHARGE.  Let us be appreciative of Your RELENTLESS LOVE. 

Amen

—

Isaiah 48:

“Listen to this, you descendants of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel and come from the line of Judah, you who take oaths in the name of the Lord and invoke the God of Israel— but not in truth or righteousness— you who call yourselves citizens of the holy city and claim to rely on the God of Israel— the Lord Almighty is his name: I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass. For I knew how stubborn you were; your neck muscles were iron, your forehead was bronze. Therefore I told you these things long ago; before they happened I announced them to you so that you could not say, ‘My images brought them about; my wooden image and metal god ordained them.’ You have heard these things; look at them all. Will you not admit them?

“From now on I will tell you of new things, of hidden things unknown to you. They are created now, and not long ago; you have not heard of them before today. So you cannot say, ‘Yes, I knew of them.’ You have neither heard nor understood; from of old your ears have not been open.

Well do I know how treacherous you are; you were called a rebel from birth. For my own name’s sake I delay my wrath; for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you, so as not to destroy you completely. See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another.

Israel Freed

“Listen to me, Jacob, Israel, whom I have called: I am he; I am the first and I am the last. My own hand laid the foundations of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they all stand up together.

“Come together, all of you, and listen: Which of the idols has foretold these things? The Lord’s chosen ally will carry out his purpose against Babylon; his arm will be against the Babylonians. I, even I, have spoken, yes, I have called him. I will bring him, and he will succeed in his mission.

“Come near me and listen to this: “From the first announcement I have not spoken in secret; at the time it happens, I am there.” And now the Sovereign Lord has sent me, endowed with his Spirit. This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands,  your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea. Your descendants would have been like the sand, your children like its numberless grains;

their name would never be blotted out nor destroyed from before me.”

Leave Babylon, flee from the Babylonians! Announce this with shouts of joy and proclaim it.

Send it out to the ends of the earth; say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.” They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and water gushed out. “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”