Hearing God Say "I Love You"

So I was reading through some chapters of Isaiah the other day with my friend Janet, and I was struck by this particular passage (Isaiah 43:1-4, emphasis added):

Now, this is what the Lord says,
the one who created you, O Jacob,
and formed you, O Israel:
“Don’t be afraid, for I will protect you.
I call you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I am with you;
when you pass through the streams, they will not overwhelm you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned;
the flames will not harm you.
For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your deliverer.
I have handed over Egypt as a ransom price,
Ethiopia and Seba in place of you.
Since you are precious and special in my sight,
and I love you,
I will hand over people in place of you,
nations in place of your life.

 The verse in bold really hit me hard - it surprised me.

I feel like, growing up in the church, we've always been taught that God loves us, but it sometimes has a tendency to feel really intellectual or abstract.  We quote John 3:16 all the time - "For God so loved the world," and hey, "the world" includes me, so I guess that means God loves me?  Right?  I mean, it makes logical sense, I guess.

But there is something far more impactful about hearing God say the words, in first person, "I love you."

And he actually says those words in the book of Isaiah.

I remember a period when I was part of a small house church in Boston.  We were trying to understand the concept of "listening to God."  Many of us were used to praying to God, but we were definitely not used to quietly listening for his voice.  It felt more than a little strange, and kind of awkward.

I'm not sure I ever "figured it out," although I remember one time I was trying to meditate quietly and listen as best as I could, and as bizarre as it may sound, I actually did think I heard something from God - and it was those three words: "I love you."  It was a very weird feeling, and I was not sure of what I had experienced.  If I remember correctly, I pretty much kept it to myself, uncertain.

At the next church house meeting, another young lady shared her experience with trying to "listen to God," and her description of her awkward and strange attempts felt like it could easily have been mine.  And she shared what she thought was the only thing she had heard - and how she felt it couldn't be right, it was too simple, it was what she wanted to hear, etc. - and it was exactly the same thing I had heard - "I love you."

I felt like that confirmed it for me.  I believe God is waiting to tell those three words to anybody who will hear them.

He said it directly in Isaiah 43, after all, so it's not unprecedented.

But Chris, you might be saying, Isaiah 43 wasn't written to you.  It was written to the people of Israel.  Yeah, you're right.  And guess what?  Through the sacrifice of Jesus, those who call on his name are grafted in to the tree of Israel, so yeah, it applies to me, and it applies to anyone in Jesus.

In fact, John 3:16 makes it clear that God's love is beyond even Israel or those who are in Christ - he loves the world.  God's love is the starting point for us all.

But yes, if you want the particular promises of Isaiah to apply to you, reconciliation with God is available to you right now through Jesus.  God is longing to say "You are precious and special in my sight and I love you" to everyone who will hear it - and he sent his son as a confirmation.  That reconciliation can be had through him right now - if you're not sure on the particulars, go and ask any of your Christ-following friends.  I'm sure anybody would be ecstatic to share.

No matter what you think you've done, or how far away you think you are, the Creator God of the universe has something important he wants to tell you.

Let's Get Mayed

"Do not be dismayed."

It's a phrase that shows up more than a few times in the Old Testament, especially if you read the New Revised Standard Version. It struck me the other day while reading through the book of Isaiah:

"I said, ‘You are my servant’;
I have chosen you and have not rejected you.  So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."  (Isaiah 41:9-10)

(This comes shortly after Isaiah 40, which is, in my opinion, one of the most awesome chapters in all the Bible.  If you're ever in need of serious comfort, there's some great stuff in there, and chapter 41 continues the theme.)

So why should this particular verse strike me?  There are something like a bajillion other ones just like it throughout the Old Testament.  Well, because of that word "dismayed."  A lot of the times similar thoughts are translated "afraid" or "discouraged," but "dismayed" kind of hit me because I've been feeling that a lot lately.  "Afraid" and "discouraged" both seem to have more of a "fear" slant to them than "dismayed," which seems to communicate (to me at least) a little more the feeling of having given up.  Fear may be a part of it, but "dismayed" puts more emphasis on the hopeless feelings rather than the fear.

And yet, here's God again, telling us:

"Do not be dismayed."

Why shouldn't I be dismayed?  Sometimes, things are awful, aren't they?  I have a Twitter account.  I know what's going on.  Right?  Well, God goes on to say,

"Because your emotions are bad and you shouldn't have them.  So man up and no longer be dismayed, because I said so."

Oh wait, that's what Fake Stream-of-Constant-Criticism God (TM) who lives in my head says.  Let's hear from Actual God:

"I said, ‘You are my servant’;
I have chosen you and have not rejected you.  So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."  (Isaiah 41:9-10)

God gives evidence as to why we shouldn't be dismayed.  He's chosen you.  He's with you.  He's your God.  And there's a lot more where that came from if you want to hop back into Isaiah 40.

Do you believe God when he tells you that?

It occurred to me that there's "dismayed" in English, but no "mayed" or "unmayed" or "premayed" or "undermayed."  So, naturally, I went to the Online Etymology Dictionary to elucidate this mystery and not at all to waste time:

late 13c., dismaien, from Old French *desmaier (attested only in past participle dismaye), from Latin de- intensive prefix + Old French esmaier "to trouble, disturb," from Vulgar Latin *exmagare "divest of power or ability" (source of Italian smagare "to weaken, dismay, discourage"), from ex- (see ex-) + Proto-Germanic *magan "to be able" (source also of Old High German magen "to be powerful or able"), from PIE root *magh- "to be able, have power." Spanish desmayer "to be dispirited" is a loan word from Old French. Related: Dismayed; dismaying.

Neat, right?

Right?

Check out where it says the "may" part comes from Proto-Germanic "magan," or "to be powerful or able."  "Dismayed" literally means "powerless."

There's something to that.  I remember back when I used to *embarrassed cough* play World of Warcraft.  I was part of a raiding guild where up to 40 players could get together to fight incredibly difficult dragons - it was exhilarating, but occasionally frustrating, as the boss monsters kept getting more and more challenging.  More than a few times, we would be fighting some boss or other, and I could see we were making progress.  The raid leader (a.k.a. my brother) could see we were making progress.  Not very much progress, grant you, but we definitely had it in us to win.  But after several hours of trying and dying, trying and dying, some of the team members started to whine and complain.  It didn't seem like any progress was being made to them, so they quit.  And people would start dropping out.

Now, if we had a chance to win with 40 raid members, we really had no chance with 37, or 34, or 28.  One person leaves and it becomes a cascade.  No amount of persuasion or encouragement could stop the chain reaction at that point, and we had to call the raid.  It was immensely frustrating, because we could see that we could win.  It was not the dragon that defeated us.  It was our own dismay.  Thanks to the game's mechanic of infinite resurrections, we knew we hadn't really lost until we had given up.  To be dismayed really is to be powerless.

It's the same for many people I've tutored in algebra.  They would take one look at the x's and y's and arcane symbols and decide they've already lost, even when I knew full well that they had the intelligence to handle it.

Occasionally, though, people with math anxiety actually trusted me when I told them they could handle it.  I offered them evidence - showed them what they had already accomplished, and told them that algebra wasn't anymore complicated once you learned what the symbols meant.  I tried to communicate as much expertise on the subject as I could muster.  And if they bought it - they succeeded.  

I feel like God must be trying to do that to us all the time.  "I will guarantee you victory if you TRY!" he must be practically yelling at us.  "I am with you!  I am in control!  I've rigged the outcome already!  Don't give up before you've started!  Don't give up after the first several hours of setbacks!"

"Don't give up!  You can't lose so long as you don't give up!"

And if we take him up on that, if we believe what he's telling us, so long as we're on his side, we will, in fact, no longer be powerless, because we have his "strength" and "help" and "righteous right hand."

So, let's take him up on that, shall we?

Let's get mayed.