“Is my hand shortened that it cannot redeem or have I no power to deliver?”
– Isaiah 50:2
God is speaking to his people here about His power to save, His power to redeem. No matter how far people are gone in sin, God’s hand is not too short to save. He has power to deliver, there is not a person on the planet who is beyond the power of God to save.
If that’s true, I’m guess in each of our lives there are people who we think of, maybe people in our family, friends at work, or just people in the world, that we think, “Man, that person seems so far from God.” And maybe we’ve even prayed for years for that person’s salvation and nothing’s happened and we’re tempted to begin to think, maybe God doesn’t have power to save them.
Isaiah 50:2 Reminds Us of God’s Saving Power
And this verse is a reminder that God absolutely has power to save them. So we press in and I want to lead us to praise specifically for those people. So I’ve got people in my mind right now who seem very far from God, who I’ve tried to share the gospel, but they’ve not in any way expressed interest in the gospel, no receptivity even to the gospel. I’ve got in my mind people groups that are deliberately apposed to the gospel, who don’t want the gospel to come to where they live and so that’s the kind of person or people that I want to you to have in your mind right now.
No matter how far people are gone in sin, no one is beyond the power of God to save.
Let’s pray specifically for them with faith that God’s hand is not too short to save. God we pray for specific people right now in our families, friends of ours, coworkers of ours, thinking of specific people. We pray knowing that they seem very far from you right now. God we pray that you would show your power in saving them.
This Verse Stresses the Need for God’s Power
Please oh God, show your power to save in their life. Show that your arm is indeed not to short to save. God we pray for some of the hardest to reach people groups in the world right now. I pray for nations where there’s so much opposition to the gospel getting to them. I pray for people groups that are working to keep the gospel from getting to them, keeping Christians out. God we pray. Show Your power to save, show that Your arm is longer to save than anybody’s sin and resistance toward You. God by Your grace, for Your glory, with Your power, we pray for individuals in our lives, people groups, show Your power to save. We pray. In Jesus name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
