Key Verses: Isaiah 43:1, 44:3
But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name;
You are Mine…”
For I will pour water on him who is thirsty,
And floods on the dry ground;
I will pour My Spirit on your descendants,
And My blessing on your offspring;

Our Scripture reading for today begins with the fact that our God is a personal God! No doubt Isaiah’s readers will have brought to mind stories such as that of the Prophet/Priest Samuel. God called “Samuel” by name. Read 1 Samuel 3:1-10 and realize that God knows each one of us by our names. God called a man who was persecuting His people. In Acts we read of the man who became the Apostle Paul, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:1-22).

Isaiah 44 describes the efforts of men to create new gods an then represent them by images made of wood and stone. In contrast, the true, one and only God, is not a creation but is the supreme Creator! Man does not imagine Him, nor do we name Him. He names Himself! And to think that Almighty God can call us by our individual names! He expects us to respond to His call. Let us take time right now to listen for God. Is He calling us by name with that “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12). When we hear His voice, it is truly like a refreshing drink of water for the thirsty soul.

PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Lord Jesus, You said, “My sheep know My voice”! (John 10:27). I am one of Your sheep Lord, so it follows that all I have to do is quiet my spirit and listen carefully. I hear You calling me and telling me, “I know your name and I love you!” I pray that I will love You back more and more, Lord Jesus! 1 John 4:19 declares that “We love Him because He first loved us.” Amen!!!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:
I have on my laptop screen a page of icons. I can click on “Concordance” and type in a few words of a verse, and it immediately finds the reference, so that I can then open my Bible and read the verse in its context. For example, this morning I did not use the concordance app, but put the words, “Still small voice” into the Google search engine. It said that for those words there were 430,000,000 results in 0.16 seconds!!! All this boggles my mind. I may not know how this all works, but I do know with the certainty of God’s Word that God knows my name, and He calls me by my name! Through the years, when I needed a particular chapter and verse and my son-in-law, Rev. Nizar Shaheen was handy, I would give him two or three words of the Scripture I wanted to find. He would immediately tell me where it was found. I’ve never found anyone else with such a memory.

The story of Nizar’s conversion to Christ is an amazing one, and today’s first key verse is a big part of his testimony. He fell from the minaret of a mosque under construction and his brothers thought he was dead. They laid him in the back seat of a car when they saw signs of life to take him to the hospital. Lying there he heard a voice saying, “Nizar, Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine!” Click here for an interview I did with Nizar in 2003, where he tells this amazing story of our great, personal God Who knows each of our names and Who created each one of us for His purpose. I’ve just read again Isaiah 43:7-11 and committed myself again for today to be as verse 10a says,”You are My witnesses”!!!

Yours in recognition of the fact that God not only knows our names, but He knows everything about each one of us and He loves us!!!

David