We cannot choose to worship and follow God while clinging to detestable idols. There is only room in your heart for God or room for idols. It is impossible to live life as a pagan Christian. Once we are under the grace of God the idols have no hold, God takes preeminence over all parts of your life, and hope is secured even in your frailty. ”If you return, O Israel, declares the LORD, to me you should return. If you remove your detestable things from my presence, and do not waver, and if you swear, ‘As the LORD lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.’” Jeremiah 4:1,2  Will you choose the life of devotion to God? Will you trust in the sufficiency of the cross of Jesus Christ? Will you return to wholeness in Jesus Christ? We were made to fellowship with God.

The life that we lead expresses the choice we’ve made. Will the wrath of God be satiated or will you be the  object of wrath, the only avenue of deliverance is found in Jesus Christ. Will you hope in Jesus? Will you hope? Will you live? ”A lion has gone up from his thicket, a destroyer of nations has set out; he has gone out from his place to make your land a waste; your cities will be ruins without inhabitant.” Jeremiah 4:7 As you look at the ways the people of Israel ebbed and flowed in devotion to God you will glimpse how your soul ever changes. It is the propitiation of Jesus Christ that brings rest to our souls. Stop striving and rest. Stop binding your soul to idols. Trust in Jesus.

The people of Israel needed to hear how far they had strayed from God. They declined from devotion to God into lustful idolatry seeking to fulfill their desires apart from God. The people abandoned God who intimately led them to the promised land as He daily proved that He was faithfulness and sufficiency. ”Your evil will chastise you, and your apostasy will reprove you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the LORD your God; the fear of me is not in you, declares the Lord GOD of hosts. ”For long ago I broke your yoke and burst your bonds; but you said, ‘I will not serve.’ Yes, on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down like a whore. Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine?” Jeremiah 2:19-21 Why do we easily stray from God even after we have experienced His goodness? We have all we need in God but we believe the lies that we are not truly satisfied in Him.

Is the story of Jeremiah any different than that of Christians today? We are called to be a light in this dark world pointing towards hope. Jeremiah was set apart as a stronghold against the sin in the lives of the Israelites. The world is full of phallic alters that are continually bowed down before. As disciples of Jesus Christ we must navigate this world of idols and speak the truth that Jesus Christ is all that is needed. Strength is not required to go and tell. Eloquence is not a necessity to communicate. The truth that Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary for the sins of the world is eloquence and strength. Will you tell of the greatness of the perfection that will destroy the idolatry of the world?

The book of Isaiah is a story of God’s faithful love toward those He calls His own. Despite repeated rebellion, God was not thwarted. The continual thread of Isaiah is one of God bringing hope, healing, and wholeness to a hurting world. The promised hope is glimpsed throughout Isaiah. “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’ The voice of your watchmen-they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the LORD to Zion.” Isaiah 52:7,8 The truth found in Isaiah is that God restores. He restores the physically broken, the emotionally persecuted, and the hopelessly lost souls of the world.

The death of Jesus Christ is the hope that we live for today and what the people in Isaiah awaited for with a fervent expectancy. Today we are awaiting again in a fervent expectancy of the day when God will return again. Trust in the hope that is secured in the person of Jesus Christ. Rest in His all sufficient sacrifice as you await His return. Never forget that your hope is secured in Him.

For anyone who has found themselves despairing over life; I implore you to look at a nation who experienced great highs and ultimate lows as they learned to follow a God who loved them. The people of Israel were consistent in their inconsistent devotion to God. When life became easy they would stay from God only to remember him in the midst of despair. God was compassionate to the cries of his beloved, “Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, with no one passing through, I will make you majestic forever, a joy from age to age. You shall suck the milk of nations; you shall nurse at the breast of kings; and you shall know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.” Isaiah 60:15,16

Can you see the brilliance that is contained in the words of God? Hope is not dependent upon our ability or the luck we have. We cannot rely on anything but God for our hope. ”Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.” Isaiah 60:20  Hope built on anything other than God is truly not hope. We cannot presume to believe that we can attain hope apart from God. ”The least one shall become a clan, and the smallest one a mighty nation; I am the LORD; in its time I will hasten it.” Isaiah 60:22  We are made whole and complete in God and there is no want or desire when we are in God because He is our everything.

“I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.” Isaiah 61:10,11  Some two thousand years ago God Incarnate, Jesus Christ, Our Hope, came to earth to pay the complete penalty for our sin and restore our fellowship with God. God lavishly bestowed grace upon us so that we could live. We are a part of His great story and plan to restore creation. Will you join in this great adventure? Will you trust in the death of Jesus Christ? Will you depend on a dependable God?

If your faith has become a race in which you have lost sight of God what can you do. What hope is there for those who have become so entangled in their self-built religion? What if you feel that you have strayed from God? “Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.” Isaiah 58:9-11 Will you cry out to God? Will you desire that your heart be burdened for Him? Will the hungry of the world burden you? Do the aching hearts of the people of the world cause your heart to ache? Ask God to burden your heart to reach out to a hurting world to be His light in the darkness.

Have you placed your hope in God? Is the dilemma that you face one of trust and dependence? “And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,’ declares the LORD. ‘And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD: ‘My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children’s offspring,” says the LORD, “from this time forth and forevermore.’” Isaiah 59:20,21  A redeemer came through Israel to the world. Jesus Christ lives today so that you may live tomorrow. The first step toward being a light in the dark world is for you to see the light yourself. Will you trust that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty of sin for you?

The answer to finding hope in despair is found in Isaiah 54. Hope for the hopeless. Joy for the downcast. Love for the unloved. “Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. For the LORD has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God.” Isaiah 54:4-6  We are complete only when we are with God. There is no other thing in heaven or on earth that will satisfy the desires of our hearts. We must identify ourselves with God alone.

Do you have to win this wonderful completeness that is found in God? Do we have to start this process and get to the benchmark of success before God will acknowledge us? “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.” Isaiah 55:1,2  The wonderful truth of God’s love is present in Isaiah 55. Come and drink anyone who thirsts. Come and drink freely no money can buy this drink because there is no price. The love of God is freely given. The idea of something being free is contrary to the ideologies we encounter on a daily basis. The world tells us that we must work hard to fulfill all of our desires. God is telling us that we need not toil for His love because it has been extend towards us long before we ever knew we were desiring that great love. Do not waste your life striving to make yourself complete. Trust in God alone to make you whole.

Listen to the words in Isaiah. Realize these words are speaking to your condition. Will you seek the LORD while he may be found? Will you call upon him while he is near? God is ever present and waiting for you to come to Him. You need not clean up your life before coming to Him. Will you start your journey of faith? Do you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sin? Today can be the beginning of your hope filled future. Will you trust? Will you believe?

I would love to do nothing short of retyping the hope drenched text from Isaiah 52 and 53 but I know that it would be of greater worth for you to read it yourself today. Remember that as you read that this is the one who died for your sins. He was despised for you. He was stricken for you. He was afflicted for you. He was crushed for you. He died for you.

“He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” Isaiah 53:3

“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” Isaiah 53:7

“Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.” Isaiah 53:10

Jesus Christ died as a ransom for many. Will you today place your hope and trust in His death on the cross of Calvary? He is waiting for you. He is lovingly waiting to welcome you home. Will you embrace this grace of God?

“My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm they wait. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner; but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed.” Isaiah 51:5,6  Once, for all time Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sin and transgression. We must abide in the wonderful truth found in the cross of Calvary. God has taken hold of His own people and His work will never falter or diminish. ”Behold, the Lord GOD helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up. Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.” Isaiah 50:9,10

Take the words of God to heart and find peace for your weary soul. When your health fades away. When your money cannot buy happiness. When love fades over time. Remember the words of God, “I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor, when he sets himself to destroy? And where is the wrath of the oppressor? He who is bowed down shall speedily be released; he shall not die and go down to the pit, neither shall his bread be lacking. I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar- the LORD of hosts is his name.” Isaiah 51:12-15 Will you trust in the Lord? Will you trust in the provision of Jesus Christ? This is who you are.

Have you gotten the point? Have you seen the flaw of humanity? We believe life is all about us and what we do. It does not matter who we are or what we have acquired. Our life is all about God and not about the idols that we have built up and forged through our wanton lives.

Isaiah 44 portrays our lives full of idols perfectly. Take a moment and read the story found in Isaiah 44. What do you see in this story? There are craftsmen who have toiled and worked to make a living in life. ”The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it.” Isaiah 44:13-15 Out of his toil the carpenter made a living but he also built an idol that became all he worshiped.

Does this tale of idolatry hit home in your life? Why do you toil and work away day after day? Do you desire to build up wealth, possessions, and prowess? We must be on guard that we do not become more killed at creating idols than living a life devoted to God. ”They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, ‘Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?’ He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, ‘Is there not a lie in my right hand?’” Isaiah 44 18 -20  Do not become disillusioned that your salvation is obtained from the things you collect. Idols promise to give you everything but they only leave you helplessly deluded grasping for more things to quench the thirst in your weary soul.

We must take heed and guard our lives and the lives of our families. There is nothing more important than the relationship we have with God. “Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his companions shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are only human. Let them all assemble, let them stand forth. They shall be terrified; they shall be put to shame together.” Isaiah 44:10,11  Hold on to the beautiful truth that grace was given to you to bring you the hope of salvation. Jesus Christ is our hope. Delight in Him alone and you will never be disappointed.

“The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

“You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

“You are not far from the kingdom of God.”