July 11, 2024

Isaiah 55.10, 11 (NIV)

“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.”

Trust God to take his own Word and touch hearts with it and through it.*

We like to make things hard on ourselves – even in spreading the Gospel. We look for new and creative ways to share the Word of the Lord with a lost world. We agonize over methods and our success rate.  We worry as if it all depends on us. But wait! It’s God’s Word and it is accompanied by his power. All he asks of us is to “rain it down” upon the earth. He’ll see to the rest.

In John 12.32, Jesus gives us another illustration of how little we have to do with our results, when he says, “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” John adds a note that Jesus was referring to the manner of his death, but there are often layers of truth to be found in God’s Word.  It takes nothing from the writer’s intentions when we apply the words to another principle: lift Jesus up and he will do the rest.

His word, which once spoke the universe into existence, has gone forth again, and has lost none of its ancient power.*