Isaiah 43:1

As I read the devotional in "Our Daily Bread" this morning, I decided to go back and reread the verse that the devotional focused on. At first, I underlined just certain parts; but I felt that omitting certain parts of a verse would be wrong. I then thought "put parentheses around those parts you want to omit", so I did. This is what Isaiah 43:1 says, with parentheses added by me:


(But now), this is what the Lord says—
    he who created you, (Jacob),
    he who formed you, (Israel): 
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
    I have summoned you by name; you are mine. 


As you may be able to figure out, God was speaking to me. It was God who told me to put those parentheses in this verse. I know that because as soon as I started to put them in, I heard "now put your name in those parentheses". WOW! What an amazing, personalized verse this now became!


The Lord was reminding me that He created me, and He formed me. I don't need to fear because He has redeemed me and called me by name. He knows MY name! The best part of the verse: I am His! 


Somehow I just knew I needed to share this. Maybe someone reading this just needed to be reminded that God knows you. He created you. He loves you. You don't need to be afraid because you belong to Him. Maybe someone reading this doesn't know God personally, but you can be sure that He knows you! I pray you will come to know Him personally too one day because He loves you very much and He longs to have a relationship with you too.