December 19
Verse of the Day for December 19
For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.Isaiah 55:12 KJV
The Key of Joy · Day 19 of 31
Reflection · 4 min read
Joy In What You Already Have
Two small words carry verse thirteen. Instead of the thorn. instead of the brier. God does not move his people to a new garden. He grows something new in the same ground.
For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
The fir tree comes up where the thorn was. The myrtle, a sweet smelling shrub Israel cut for its feasts, comes up where the brier tore at people's ankles. Same soil, same field, different harvest.
That is a quiet word for anyone who keeps waiting for a different life before they can be glad. The joy of verse twelve, mountains singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands, happens on the road out of where you already are.
And it is all tied to God's word in verse eleven. it shall not return unto me void. What he has spoken over you is already working in the ground you have, even if all you can see for now is thorns.
Look around your room, your street, your office today. Name one thing you already have that you have only ever seen as a thorn. Ask God what he might grow there instead.
He does not change the field.He changes what grows in it.
God's word is already at work in the ground you stand on.
The thorn's place can become the myrtle's place.
Carry this today
What thorn in your present life might God be planning to replace rather than remove you from?
Pray
Read Isaiah 55:11–13
11So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. 12For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 13Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
Keep praying
Reflection by Collins Asein, from the daily devotionals in the PrayerKey app. Bible text: King James Version.