Isaiah 49:1-26

Waiting for the Lord, supposes that we want Him to do something for us, bestow something on us, or fill some relation to us. It implies that we have sought Him, that He has promised, but that He delays to answer our request. It proves that no substitute can be found.

This promise SUGGESTS that there may be fears, lest He should not come; lest after all we should be disappointed. This supposes, that there may be temptations to distrust the love, faithfulness, and goodness of God; to...

"Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted His people, and will have mercy upon His afflicted." Isaiah 49:13

So sweet are the comforts of the LORD, that not only the saints themselves may sing of them, but even the heavens and the earth may take up the song. It takes something to make a mountain sing; and yet the prophet summons quite a choir of them. Lebanon,...

No doubt a part of the wonder which is concentrated in the word "Behold," is excited by the unbelieving lamentation of the preceding sentence. Zion said, "The Lord hath forsaken me, and my God hath forgotten me." How amazed the divine mind seems to be at this wicked unbelief! What can be more astounding than the unfounded doubts and fears of God's favoured people? The Lord's loving word of rebuke should make us blush; he cries, "How can I have forgotten thee, when I have graven thee upon...

Jesus Christ is himself the sum and substance of the covenant, and as one of its gifts. He is the property of every believer. Believer, canst thou estimate what thou hast gotten in Christ? "In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Consider that word "God" and its infinity, and then meditate upon "perfect man" and all his beauty; for all that Christ, as God and man, ever had, or can have, is thine-out of pure free favour, passed over to thee to be thine entailed property...

The Bible is fairly full of tokens of God's marvelous care for His people. During Israel's forty-year trek through the wilderness, they ate food from heaven (Exodus 16:4), had an unfailing supply of water (1 Corinthians 10:4), and were equipped with shoes that never wore out (Deuteronomy 29:5).

It is the same in our wilderness journey. To prove this,...

Even though all modern versions translate this verse differently, the King James Version enshrines the valuable truth that friendships must be cultivated. They thrive on attention but die through neglect.

An editorial in Decision Magazine said, "Friendships don't just happen; they have to be cultivated - in short, we have to work at them. They are not built on just taking, they are built on giving. They are not just for the good times, they are for the bad times as well. We do not hide...

Stephen had been brought up on the mission field. He professed faith in Christ at an early age and had been the means of leading several to the Lord. When he first came back to the States to attend college, he maintained a good testimony. But then he began to drift. Coldness set in. He compromised with sin. Soon he began to dabble in Eastern religions.

When his parents came home on furlough, they were heartsick. They pled, reasoned, and entreated, but he was adamant. Finally they went...

It is not uncommon for a person to become discouraged in his service for the Lord and to quit. I suppose that most of us have faced that temptation at one time or another. Therefore, in today's reading I would like to share four passages that have been a tremendous encouragement to me and that have kept me from quitting. The first is Isaiah 49:4 : "Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely...

Perhaps throughout the wide domains of God, there is hardly any sight more remarkable than that presented by the little flock of believers who, in this world of iniquity and of misery where Satan's seat is, regard the Lord as their King and are kept by him through faith unto salvation. Their existence is a marvel; their peace and joy another; their triumphs another. They are without a visible Leader, and have no visible Comforter; yet they pursue their way and have an invincible hope....

What an inconceivable length and breadth, depth and height has every such declaration as this! The whole life-journey of the Christian is a journey into the treasures that he heaped up in this sentence. In it, in fact, are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. After a month of some peculiar experience, let the believer come and look into this verse, and he will find what he never found before. In the avenue commanded by this verse, no two Christians are at exactly the same place; no two...