Song of Hope

"Listen to me, you stubborn people

who are so far from doing right,

For I am ready to set things right,

not in the distant future, but right now!

I am ready to save Jerusalem

and show my glory to Israel"

-Isaiah 46:12-13

I spent some time this morning, after Dean walked out the door to work, on our first day of "reality" as newlyweds, reading in God's word. I haven't had much direction in my reading of late, but I decided a month ago or so to start reading the passages of hope and invitation that start in Isaiah 40 and continue through the end of the book.

This verse caught my attention. It sent a thrill of excitement through me. God is ready to make this world right again. Right NOW! But then, as I mulled the thought over in my head, I felt it couldn't really be true, could it? God made that promise to Israel 400 years before Christ was born, and now we're 2000 years past Christ's birth, and "things" in this world are still not set to rights. A lot of the time it seems like things are going from bad to worse, so how can this promise of God's be true?

"I am ready to set things right in you." Those are the words that came to my mind.


I'm a stubborn person. There are some days when I am so, so far from doing right. D and I just spent an incredible 2 weeks celebrating our new life together, alone and with others, but even feasting on love and the bliss of finally being married and the joy of God's blessing on our lives we still managed to be stubborn sometimes, to be far from doing right; we still wound up apologizing to each other after hurting each other in brief moments of peevishness or tiredness.

God is ready to set things right in me. And I believe that he has been setting things right in me from the day I chose to follow after him. I want it all to be done in a Mary Poppins-tidy-up-the-nursery snap of the fingers, but that's not really how it works, apparently.

"Meadow I am using you to set things right in my world"


What an amazing charge. Not only is God working in me to set things right in my heart and mind, but he is working through me to make things right in his world, and he is doing it right now. He is doing it in D's and my heart each time we say "I'm sorry" to each other, he is doing it in his world as I relinquish control of my life and yield to him and do right.

"I have cared for you since you were born.

Yes, I carried you before you were born.

I will be your God throughout your lifetime–

until your hair is white with age.

I made you, and I will care for you.

I will carry you along and save you."

-Isaiah 46:3-4

It is God who is doing this work in me. All glory and honor to him!