This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me,” declares the Lord. Isaiah 54:17b

I recently told my daughter, as we drove, that the apartment complex on the way to her work was where a friend of ours used to live before she passed from diabetic coma about 5 years ago, passed way too young and yet lived a full life to that point. My family loved her and she loved us and surely shaped a kind heart in our children as their forever Sunday School teacher and VBS craft lady. She was the sweetest and loved the Lord and loved people, most generous even when she was living on borrowed time and borrowed dime. She knew was not perfect, never pretended that. and knew she needed the Lord and people. She was in frail health with asthma and more, I’m appreciative that she didn’t fret through our covid-era of uncertainty that folks with good health freaked out in. I’m thankful that she is in Heaven for the most important reasons of wholeness in healing and seeing and embracing our Savior Jesus. I’m so thankful for the calmness of Heaven knowing God is in control even in the current spiritual battles waged for us in spiritual realms. I am thankful for knowing that now.

My friend was in my dream just this morning, she looked well, a white blouse, sat calmly next to me, I rarely saw her calm, and she spoke of something that now escapes my awake mind, only that we spoke of the realization that she was past into Heaven, knowing calmness, and passing good vibes back to us on the other side of the holy divide, (and maybe passing good candy too, lol)… Interesting dream that disappeared from my mind so rapidly like a vapor, even I wrote a wonderful devotion in that pre-awake moment, in my head, gone now, all I remember was there’s Isaiah scripture to now look up pertaining… give me one minute… ah yes.  

Ah, there are so MANY good scriptures in Isaiah of being certain that the Lord fights our battles, wins our wars, lives to lead us, died to save us, rose to rescue us, and now calms us in any storm including death. Jesus is our Salvation and STRENGTH.

Interesting how we are to think of STRENGTH for the day, and we need it. Especially we need to have STRENGTHEN to remember God has a calmness in Heaven which could be passed to us on earth if we remember that He has everything under control. Nothing in His Word returns void. 

Yes, better than heavenly candy is heavenly calmness that we will have, let us tap into that now, today, and be strong to live the life we are called to live.  “Awake, awake, arm of the Lord, clothe yourself with strength!” 

Amen 

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Here are a few Isaiah scriptures, please do read for STRENGTH:

This is what the Lord says: “Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed.” Isaiah 56:1

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“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Isaiah 55:8-12

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The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. Isaiah 52:10

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“Hear me, you who know what is right, you people who have taken my instruction to heart: Do not fear the reproach of mere mortals or be terrified by their insults. For the moth will eat them up like a garment; the worm will devour them like wool. But my righteousness will last forever, my salvation through all generations.

Awake, awake, arm of the Lord, clothe yourself with strength! Isaiah 51:7-9

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…. ISAIAH WRITES 500 YEARS PRIOR IN PROPHECY AS IF JESUS HAS ALREADY COME HAD ALREADY WON – HE HAD HE HAS HE WILL HE WON.  

All of Isaiah 53: 

Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered,  he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

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“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you,…” Isaiah 55:1-3