"He will not fail nor be discouraged, till He has established justice in the earth; And the coastlands shall wait for His law" (Isaiah 42:4)In this chapter, Isaiah speaks about the characteristics of Christ and gives a prophetic outlook into some of the things He will accomplish. Christ would come to offer a new covenant and to be a light to the Gentiles, who at this point had little hope for salvation. This was His purpose. Verse 4 says that He would not fail nor be discouraged until the time His task is completed. What does it take to have this sort of confidence?
I believe that Jesus first knew what His purpose was. He knew who sent Him for that purpose. The One who had sent Him couldn't fail and He, having the same Spirit of the God who sent Him, also could not fail. As imitators of Christ, I think this is the same attitude we ought to have. We ought to be confident that whatever God has sent us to do, it will not fail in its purpose and we ought not be discouraged. For me, it happens too often. People don't show up to events or I get little support for something I'm trying to start and I get discouraged. If we can attain this sort of confidence, that whatever God has called us to do it will succeed, I think that would even drive our actions a little differently. Instead of moving cautiously, we'd move boldly. Instead of defining success by numbers or whatever other measures we use, we find a new & more accurate measure. I'm not saying we lower our expectations to build our confidence. I'm saying that we define success by our obedience. Were we obedient to what God called us to do and did we do it to the best of our ability? Did we water the field? Because only He can provide the increase anyway.
Please keep me in prayer b/c honestly a lot of this was for me. Going through some things that have had me discouraged & unfocused. I'll keep praying for you guys too.
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