“A New Thing”

So I’ve been spending some time with God this evening, and He brought me to Isaiah 43. I began reading and was enjoying the powerful words of this chapter. The beginning has these beautiful verses: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” Powerful! I continued reading, forgetting that these verses were in this chapter until I came to them:

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:18-19).

For those of you who were reading my blog before coming to China, you may remember the significance of those verses in my life. I was, to say the least, rather a disaster before moving here. I was overwhelmed with mixed feelings over knowing God was leading me here, yet being completely devastated over leaving my life, family, and friends back home. I was afraid of what I would face here. I knew God would strengthen me, but I expected to struggle through every day here. It was during a time with my dear friend, Carmen, that God brought these verses to my mind. He spoke very clearly to me that day…

I am just a generally anxious person. For most of my life, I haven’t done extremely well with any ‘new’ things. I don’t adjust to change very smoothly—at least emotionally. I may appear on the outside to handle them well, but I am normally an emotional basket case. So I expected nothing less… actually much worse… from the China experience. Then God spoke: “Katherine, stop remembering the way you’ve always been. Stop remembering the defeat you’ve faced before and the struggles you’ve fought through. I want to do something new! It was quite clear to me that those words were from Him… and I wanted with everything I had in me to believe them. But I think all along there was still a piece of me that doubted. Oh, why do I doubt?

He has blown my mind. I really feel like a different person… and I know that it is by His grace alone. He makes all things new… and He doesn’t leave His children unchanged. I am so very grateful for that. Looking back on my life journey, I am in awe of the changes He has brought about in me. Life still scares me sometimes. In fact, I have a Mandarin tutoring session tomorrow that still gives me a few butterflies. But I can’t express to you the peace and joy He gives me each day here. I read Psalm 86:12 today, which says, “I give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify Your name forever”; and I was led to stop and give thanks to Him… so I did. I wrote Him a thank you note. Taking the time to stop and thank Him for the beautiful blessings He is giving me each day here was a beautiful reminder. Put simply, guys, He is incredible! Let Him blow your mind! Expect great things from Him! Why do we expect mediocrity out of the awesome God we know?

Let Him do a new thing in your life… oh, He so longs to…