~ written by Connie Dunmyer
What's an early memory in your life - like perhaps childhood. I don't know why, but I've been thinking about tissues - you know - Kleenex. (Doesn't matter the brand, I always think of them as Kleenex.) Kleenex was a luxury in our house when I was growing up. We never had them. We used toilet paper. Now as an adult, I would give up a lot of things before I would give up my Kleenex. Perhaps you have an early memory that you've kind of put out of your mind because you simply don't live that way anymore. It may be innocuous, like my Kleenex story. It may be funny. Or it may be very painful - too sensitive to touch or talk about. I hear you. I get that.
I want to encourage you today. Frankly, I want to encourage myself. I come to this scripture, and I realize that in all the childhood memories, in all the "former things" of our lives, in joy or pain and heartache – God is not finished. There is more good to come!!
Isaiah 65
If you read my blog regularly, you will see me refer to 1990 often. It was a watershed time in my life. And it was a time where I had a significant crisis of faith, to the point of feigning life. In 1990 I read Isaiah 65, and I thought it meant something entirely different than what happened to us. Hindsight being what it is, I now know that God was doing something else – a “new thing”. And I have learned that even our mistakes do not defeat God’s plan.
2 All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations — 3 a people who continually provoke me to my very face, . . .
Ever feel like you’ve just received a smack by the Father? This may have originally been written about the Israelites, but God is talking to me too.
6 “See, it stands written before me: I will not keep silent but will pay back in full; I will pay it back into their laps 7. . . I will measure into their laps the full payment for their former deeds.”
THIS – vs 6-7 – is what I deserved… to be “paid back”. But I could not pay this price. And in the Father’s infinite mercies and love and grace He also said...
8 This is what the Lord says: “As when juice is still found in a cluster of grapes and people say, ‘Don’t destroy it, there is still a blessing in it,’ so will I do in behalf of my servants; I will not destroy them all.
I had no good thing in me, but God saw my end from my beginning. He saw “the remnant” located inside of me.
12 . . . for I called but you did not answer, I spoke but you did not listen.
God saw that one day I would answer – I would listen and I would hear Him. And this is a blessing the Father ‘sings’ over me, over us, over we who are still listening:
13 Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; my servants will drink, but you will go thirsty; my servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame. 14 My servants will sing out of the joy of their hearts, but you will cry out from anguish of heart and wail in brokenness of spirit. 15 You will leave your name for my chosen ones to use in their curses; the Sovereign Lord will put you to death, but to his servants he will give another name. 16 Whoever invokes a blessing in the land will do so by the one true God; whoever takes an oath in the land will swear by the one true God. For the past troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my eyes. 17 “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.
I think it’s easy to only think of this passage as heaven – that we might experience this “some day”. But I wonder, if it’s not also in the here and now. For when the Lord takes control of a person, He creates a “new heaven and earth” FOR us WITHIN our spirits. We SEE – we BEHOLD things differently. We don’t run after the former things – and eventually those former things are like a life that belonged to someone else (because it was). And to that end, He tells us, promises us, forewarns us … that the former things will not even be remembered. But don’t be sad because GOD IS DOING A NEW THING!!
18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem [Connie] to be a delight and its [her] people a joy. 19 I will rejoice over Jerusalem [Connie] and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.
(~ my name has been added … read it again with your name)
There is something almost fantastical about the thought that God, the Father and Creator of EVERYTHING, would SING over me. Think of yourself, singing lullabies to your babies, singing songs with your children in the car. This is GOD singing over us… Rejoicing over US!
Zephaniah 3:17 “The Lord your God is with you. He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you. He will quiet you with His love. He will rejoice over you with singing.”
I will not allow the devil to get the best of me! I will stand. Help me stay standing. I believe in the Father – the God Almighty – maker of the Universe. And in His Son, Jesus Christ, my Savior – His blood covers me. He is my Salvation, my Brother, and my Friend. He is closer than a Brother. He is closer than a Friend. We are One. And I am living IN the Spirit – Jesus living THROUGH me and IN me. He guides me every day in every way everywhere and in all things – both great and small. I will not stumble and fall. I will stand. I will run. I will live in the will of the Father – because He knows what is best for me, how to make me more like Jesus, and what can bring Him glory through me. Glorify yourself. I am here. For the duration. Whatever that looks like. Because I trust in your Sovereignty and your never-failing Love. Amen.
Find More "Yield" Articles | Get Future "Yield" Delivered to Your Inbox
© 2025: Connie F. Dunmyer, All Rights Reserved.