Now abide faith, hope, and love…
“My people will live in safety, quietly at home. They will be at rest."
A Hopeful Promise
In the scripture, Isaiah 32:18, God promises that His people will live peacefully in secure homes and undisturbed places of rest. Just hearing and reading these words almost feels like an invitation to lean back, drop your shoulders, close your eyes, and take a deep breath. What a delightful promise from the Father to His people following years of suffering.
However, before describing this peaceful outcome, God first promises in verse 15 that their difficult circumstances will change only after they encounter His Spirit:
“...till the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field...”
After the Holy Spirit Comes...
Before they experience peace and God-given rest, they experience His Spirit. In the second half of verse 15, we see that the outpouring of the Spirit is linked to growth and abundance. What was once a wilderness becomes a fruitful field. A harvest has replaced the parched, dry land.
If your home feels as uncomfortable right now as living in dry and parched land, seek God’s presence more earnestly. David gives us language for that prayer in Psalm 63:
“You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.”
Tonight, find rest in the promise that God responds when we draw near to Him. James, the brother of Jesus, writes in James 4:8:
“Come near to God and He will come near to you”
And Psalm 16:11 reminds us that in His presence there is fullness of joy.
The peace that we long for isn’t found merely in our changed circumstances, but in the presence of the One who first changes us.
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