Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:18-19 

In the middle of something can be a hard place to be.

The best stories have some sort of conflict, danger or problem in the middle of the story that makes you want to keep going.  It’s dissatisfying to have to put down the book or stop the movie right in the middle. It’s even worse, when you’re living the middle of the story of your own life or watching someone that you love struggling badly. In the middle, we can’t see how things could possibly work out—there’s no happy ending in sight.

“Nothing paralyzes our lives like the attitude that things can never change,” wrote Warren Wieresbe. “Outlook determines outcome. If we see only the problems, we will be defeated; but if we see the possibilities in the problems, we can have victory.”[1]

When we’re paralyzed by hopelessness, it means that we are calculating without God.  This is when we need a reminder that God can change things! God says, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland” (Isaiah 43:18,10).

Are you stuck in the middle of a problem today that’s seems like it’s been going on forever?  Or are you watching someone else careening toward what seems like certain disaster? Sometimes, in and of ourselves, we are powerless.  But hold on to this truth: God does new things.  He makes deserts and wastelands spring to life. There are always possibilities with God.

[1] “ESV® Standard Lesson Commentary® 2017-2018.” Unit 2, Lesson 7. Standard Publishing, 2017.