Do you feel like you’re an “outsider” among God’s people? Perhaps you have difficulty even understanding what seems like intricate theology, it’s over your head and you get discouraged trying to grasp it. Or (what may be closer to home) you feel outside the social circle that includes the “insiders” at church (or school); you “sit alone.” You know a pain that only “outsiders” can feel so poignantly. Yes, your prayers are laced with lonely tears.
That same precious chapter that encourages the castrated males in ancient Israel to believe they are important people is speaking to you today: “Do not let the son [or daughter] of the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord speak, saying, ‘The Lord has utterly separated me from His people’” (Isa. 56:3). When you feel that you are separated from God’s people, that does not mean that the Lord Himself has separated you from them! What the Lord is saying is, You must believe that He has joined you to His true people and therefore to Him; hold your head high, and come to church (or school) and by faith hold your place in His church (or school). Don’t let Satan SEPARATE YOU from them! You must distinguish between what the Lord says to you and what Satan says to you.
“Also the sons [or daughters] of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants—everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and holds fast My covenant—even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer” (vss. 6, 7). You are fighting “the good fight of faith,” struggling to hold on to your confidence in the Lord when Satan is trying to break your hold, using worldly-minded “lukewarm” church members or schoolmates to freeze you out of their fellowship; your Savior has promised solemnly and faithfully to make you “joyful” in His “house.” You are His servant, even if you have to “sit alone” (Jeremiah says he “sat alone”: “I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers, ... I sat alone because of your hand,” 15:17).
Don’t be ashamed of Jesus when you have to “sit alone.” Ask for His grace to keep you sweet and true and Christlike-loving. He will!
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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