We’ve experienced an extreme make-over
Isaiah 43: …a people custom-made to praise me.
God has good news for his people. The destruction of the past is ending and a wonderful plan of salvation is being put in place. Things are going to change for the better as the dry times end and times of refreshing come. God will bless his people who, in the words of this passage are, “a people custom-made to praise me.” Those who first heard these words never considered the possibility that those “custom-made” people could include anyone but their own nation. We, though, have the whole story; how God’s Son came to us to remake us into new people, a people who are his very own. If it can be said that Israel was a “custom-made” people it might be added that, through Christ, we’ve undergone an “extreme make-over” in which everything about us has been transformed by the work of Jesus. The result of this “customizing” encounter with the Lord is that we become enthusiastic worshipers of God. Our new native language is the language of praise. For us, life isn’t a daily struggle in which we whimper words of complaint and need. Our first thoughts and the words we most easily say are those of praise to God. Israel was custom-made for that purpose and we’ve been made-over for the same thing. We’re redesigned to praise the Lord.
Take Away: My purpose is to bring praise, glory, and honor to the Lord