You will go out with joy, and be led forth with peace. – Isaiah 55:12
Recently, God brought these words to my mind and heart: “You will go out with joy, and be led forth with peace.”
The idea I received was that my part is to proceed—to go out—carrying his joy; and that his leading will be accomplished by my sensing the presence of his peace in the path where he is leading me—and by my noting the absence of his peace in a path where he is not leading me.
In other words…
- I go out with joy—that he gives me.
- He leads me forward with peace—that he gives me.
- Where his peace is not, is not where he is leading me.
I remembered a song with those words. And later, I looked up the words in Scripture. The NASB 1995 translation of Isaiah 55:12 reads, “For you will go out with joy And be led forth with peace.”
What It Looks Like
That verse in Isaiah 55 goes on to say, “The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”
Those words describe a creation celebrating the good heart of the creator, the one who desires to fill his children with his joy, and lead them forward with his peace—and who does so.
This Word from God Brings Life
As I read all of Isaiah chapter 55, I noticed the stunning “setting” around the gem that is verse 12.
Just look at verse 11! “So will My Word be which goes out of My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the purpose for which I sent it” (NASB).
When I consider that promise from Isaiah 55:11, together with 1 John 1:1 (NLT), which declares, “He is the Word of life,” I am reassured that God’s word about going out with joy and being led forth with peace isn’t some powerless platitude. God’s word is powerful and actively accomplishes real things: life, for example. Therefore, when God says, “You will go out with joy, and be led forth with peace,” he will do it, just as he says.
Words of Life
For you will go out with joy
And be led forth with peace.
Isaiah 55:12 (NASB 1995)
Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.
Psalm 119:105 (NASB)
He is the Word of life.
1 John 1:1 (NLT)
Navigating with New Instruments
I’ve never piloted a plane, but I wonder if the difference between learning to be led forth with God’s peace, rather than being guided by human reason, is something like learning to fly by instruments, rather than using visual references.
Even though, for most of my life as a Christ-follower, I’ve been familiar with the idea of “walking by faith, not by sight,” I am discovering, as I make a conscious decision to be led by God’s peace, just how much I tend to rely on natural inputs, rather than supernatural ones.
But I want to go out with joy. And I want to be led forth with peace.
I want to be part of God’s word accomplishing what he desires—and part of the celebration he describes in Isaiah 55.
That’s what I’m leaning into.
May you find life in it, too.
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All text content copyright © 2024 by AmyLu Riley. Author photo copyright © 2024 by AmyLu Riley.
Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Lockman.org. Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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