A New Thing - by Niki Melton

​Isaiah 43:19 (CEB) Look! I'm doing a new thing; now it sprouts up; don't you recognize it? I'm making a way in the desert, paths in the wilderness.           
God is moving, making a new thing, something recognizably different.  If that is the promise, then why do we expect things to look the same? Should we not be joyfully expectant of something so new it touches all the senses as different?  Think about that “new car smell”.  Completely foreign from your previous vehicle, and yet in the excitement of a new experience is borderline uncomfortable?  The fit is good, the feel is right, but yet it just doesn’t seem like its yours?  So is the grace of our Lord.  He is good and faithful, and his kindness is undeserved.  But his promise is true, his grace is ours!   
Sometimes when we have something new happening, we have to leave something behind.  Sometimes it is something so good and comfortable that we just want to make it work in the new situation.  Or maybe we feel a responsibility to the old, and there is a sense of needing to see something to completion, or obligation to something’s usefulness.  Ever thought about nasty-lasties?  You are running out of a condiment and you purchase a new one, may be the same product, or may be something different that you are excited about.  Do you throw the old away without finishing it?  Or do you try to make use of what you still have, before opening the new? Sometimes if the new item is different, we open it in our anticipation to try it, but still hold on to the old because “there’s something left”.  If God tells you to leave it, do you listen?  Are you putting aside the new thing God is doing out of an obligation to the past?
Today, know that God is doing a new thing… he gives us grace and mercy for all that is past.  The requirement is that we walk by faith, even when it isn’t as comfortable as before, or if we have to leave something behind.  The gain is so much more!