LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, September 30, 2025

God is doing new things.

That’s scary to most of us. We don’t like new things. We want the comfort of the familiar.

Years ago God taught me some valuable lessons about new things. Our staff Worship Director at the time was leaving for another completely different ministry opportunity. God was doing something new in her life as she moved by faith into an area of ministry she was totally unfamiliar with. She would be stretched. She would grow. She would be a blessing because she joined with God to be where He was.

Meanwhile, we had to figure out how to organize our worship ministry over the summer and decide what we would do for leadership in the future. For three months we had been advertising for a worship director but had received only one response. Three major Midwest Christian college placement services had produced no options.

Dead end, right?

Wrong!

The temptation was to try and find a solution in our own strength. But we prayed, calling on the name of the Lord for wisdom and direction. Not just an obligatory prayer, but a heart-felt one: sincere and humble as we confessed our need of Him. We called upon Him.

There are various responses we can make when God starts to do something new around us or in us:

• We can reject it. Maybe it’s too hard. Maybe it’s too uncomfortable. Maybe we don’t think we are ready.
• We can embrace it, but for the wrong reason. We take advantage of the benefits of the change for personal gratification only. We rarely give thanks because selfishness convinces us that we deserved it.
• We embrace it for the right reasons. We see the glory of God being revealed. We see the growth of our character through it so we become more like Jesus. We respond with gratitude to the One who would bless us so greatly with His goodness and grace. We come before Him and worship.

Every member of our worship ministry that attended the meeting we had stepped up to serve God in a fresh way. I was so blessed and encouraged. It was going to look different. Would it enrich our spirit of worship? That’s up to those who worship. They can embrace it as a new thing God is doing, or they can sit sad-faced and long for the good old days.

One of the most tragic statements in all of Scripture is the Word of the Lord from Isaiah 43:22. God has revealed new things to His people. He gave them a clear course to walk through the deserts of their lives and provided fresh streams of refreshment for them in the wastelands of their experiences. God fully expected that His people would give Him praise (verse 21). But they didn’t. “Yet you have not called upon me…” They didn’t call on the God who gave it all to them. They gave God no thanks for the new things. They did what we do…they complained, and their complaining was seen by God as sin, and it wearied Him (verse 24).

Embrace the new things God is doing. Be patient to see how His glory is revealed and how your growth is reinvigorated. Let’s reserve our preliminary judgments and complaints until we see the great things God does through new things. Our pride in our way of doing it must be eliminated.  It must be replaced with praise that God has blessed us with a fresh anointing of His presence and power to accomplish His purpose.

So call on Him, and the join with Him.

Pastor John