Huge Hope: Major Power in the Minor ProphetsSample

If there’s one thing God loves more than anything else, it’s demonstrating His redemption. Okay, God loves lots of things, but you get the idea. He absolutely loves to showcase His mercy and grace—especially to people who’ve done nothing to earn it (i.e. all of us).

In today’s passage, we see God being God in this way. It starts off as a bummer, with desolate cities and deceitful rulers. But then, God works.

“You shall fear disaster no more,” the prophet says.

“[God] will rejoice over you with gladness; he will renew you in His love,” the prophet says.

“I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth,” the prophet says, relaying God’s words to those who need to hear them.

This is who God is. God is a God who calms our fears, who renews us in His love, who gathers and encourages and eradicates shame.

Whatever you’re feeling, wherever you’re inadequate, however you got here—know that this is who God is. God is the one who restores.