A Year with God

Selection Taken From:
A Year with God by R.P. Nettelhorst

Make this the year you let God's Word "dwell in you richly"---and marvel at the results! Each entry in this 365-day devotional features Scripture verses in which God speaks, accompanied by insights and applications to enhance your understanding. Learn what God says about hope and fear; perseverance and quitting; companionship and isolation; and more! 384 pages, softcover from Nelson, Copyright 2010.

Ever Since You Were Born

Listen to me, descendants of Jacob, all you who remain in Israel.
I have cared for you since you were born.
Yes, I carried you before you were born.
I will be your God throughout your lifetime— until your hair is white with age.
I made you, and I will care for you.
I will carry you along and save you.
To whom will you compare me?
Who is my equal?
Some people pour out their silver and gold and hire a craftsman to make a god from it.
Then they bow down and worship it!
They carry it around on their shoulders, and when they set it down, it stays there.
It can't even move!
And when someone prays to it, there is no answer.
It can't rescue anyone from trouble.
Do not forget this! Keep it in mind!
Remember this, you guilty ones. Remember the things I have done in the past.
For I alone am God!
I am God, and there is none like me. - Isaiah 46:3—9 NLT

Misplaced trust is disastrous. The Israelites had depended on their idols. They had ignored the one God who could have helped them. The Assyrians invaded Israel around 722 BC. They took captive a little fewer than thirty thousand people, mostly the upper classes and the well-to-do because they were most likely to lead an uprising. God spoke to the Israelites who were left behind after that destruction, who wondered what the future might hold.

Even though they might not have realized it, God had been taking care of them since before they were born, and he would continue caring for them until they were old and white-haired. There was no stage of their life where God was not present. They could not get away from him, no matter how hard they might try. There was no way that God had or ever would abandon them.

In contrast, the idols were nothing more than the wood, stone, or precious metals out of which they were manufactured. How could the Israelites ever compare God to them? They were worthless. We don't carry idols like those any longer, but we've made new ones of our jobs, our abilities, our technology. But if the economy goes bad, if we get sick or disabled, if the batteries run out, or we can't find a plug, what then? The new idols are as worthless as the wood, stone, and metal ones.