“Behold, I will do a new thing.”
It seems to be the catch-phrase verse that is most often quoted at the start of a brand new year. And with it comes to the hope of new beginnings. New resolutions. New dreams. New seasons.
The words of Isaiah first caught my attention in the fall of 2015. When the early hints to the fulfillment of a long-awaited promise just barely began stirring, and the darkness of the weeping-lasts-for-a-night sky was barely softening to a joy-comes-in-the-morning day break.
I started my Monday that November with a simple line in my prayer journal:
Thank You LORD that You are near to the brokenhearted.
It was the three year anniversary of Shawna’s death, and grief ran raw through the gaping hole that cancer left when it took my best friend. That evening, I sat on a restaurant patio and talked about her with a girlfriend. And I shared my heartbreaking and incredibly holy experience with prayer and the privilege of praying her into heaven. The next morning, I received a text message from the same girlfriend I spent that evening with:
When I got home last night, I felt like God was telling me to get on my knees and pray for you. So I got on my knees and prayed for you and your future family. This is what I felt God said to me: It is already done. I am weaving something new inside of her. New life. New beginnings. New legacies. New seasons.
My curiosity was piqued. I wrote the words in my prayer journal, quietly tucking them away. Three days later, I received an email about an upcoming conference I was scheduled to teach at. The verse at the top of the email continued the conversation God had started a couple of days earlier:
Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? (Isaiah 43:18-19)
And so began a fresh rabbit trail of cross-references and promises whispered that were too terrifying to believe, and too obvious not to. So I started to dig as I waited for Him to show His glory. Waiting out the winter for those first shoots of spring flowers to spring out from the barren ground. Waiting for faith to be realized and light to burst forth.
I dug deeply as I waited for the promised new season, and for the answer to my almost ten-year-long-prayer for a child of my own. And I prayed. Oh LORD, let it be just as You say.
Please.
Let it be as You say.
The best part of this story is the detail that followed soon after . The one where God whispered another timeline into another ear, much like the timeline He whispered to me when I first knew He wasn’t going to heal Shawna.
Three months, He told my girlfriend one morning as she continued to pray for our future family. And He continued to repeat it as she continued to pray. 17 times, to be exact. And it was three months after the first whispered timeline (almost to the day) that I found out about the tiny miracle finally growing inside my long-empty womb.
Oh, sweet friends, our God is so faithful. And so vocal. If only we would be brave enough to believe that we do, in fact, recognize His voice.
That being said, I’m so excited to invite you in to a brand new Monday morning email party!
Introducing
Our Dear Monday emails will go out every single Monday morning starting March 6th, and will start by digging into those new-thing-words in Isaiah. But you have to sign up now – the subscription list is only open until 7pm EST on Thursday, February 9th. And once it’s closed, it’s closed!
I can’t wait to start every week with you Scripture-digging right alongside me!
I need this and am thankful for His perfect timing
This was so so timely. “Oh, sweet friends, our God is so faithful. And so vocal. If only we would be brave enough to believe that we do, in fact, recognize His voice.” That sentence moved my heart, thank you for sharing!!
I have had this email in my box to read for weeks now and never had the chance. This week God has put on my heart (several times now) a verse from Hebrews 3 – and the part that continues to stand out to me is “If you hear God’s voice today, do not be stubborn”. I have deceived to focus on these words for for one month- just to see what happens when I deliberately and intentionally set out not only to hear God, but to listen. And obey. Even when I want to be stubborn and disagree. Or worse, ignore what He is speaking to me.
I love that having just finished my morning time with God, I decided to finally open this email and read it and it is filled with God (I honestly shouldn’t be surprised) speaking to me again…confirming to just listen for His voice. He is here. He is speaking to us in so many ways. All we have to do is listen.
Thank you for this beautiful and amazing message. I am positive it touched many more lives than just mine, But it was a beautiful blessing to me this morning and I wanted you to know!