Finishing the Month Trusting God
January 31
Week Five – Trust Lived Out in Real Life
Isaiah 39:6–8
“The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon…
Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ‘The word of the Lord you have spoken is good.’ For he thought, ‘There will be peace and security in my lifetime.’”
1 Corinthians 10:12
“So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall.”
Context & Meaning
This is where the trust section ends.
From chapter 7 all the way through chapter 39, Isaiah has been pressing one question again and again:
Who are you going to trust?
We’ve seen it play out through kings, threats, fear, alliances, prayer, surrender, deliverance, and miraculous rescue. We’ve watched God prove Himself faithful, patient, powerful, and utterly trustworthy.
And now, right at the end, Isaiah slows us down. The Assyrian threat is gone. The letter has been answered. The Assyrian army has been defeated. Jerusalem stands. And Hezekiah is alive.
Not just alive, he is healed. Given fifteen more years of life by God’s mercy.
Hezekiah has stared death in the face. He has wrestled with his mortality, written a poem reflecting on how fleeting life is, on how he is not immortal, invincible, and definitely not the Messiah.
This is a king who knows his limits. And then… visitors arrive.
Envoys from Babylon come to see him. They come because of his amazing health recovery. Because of the miracle, word has travelled and admiration follows his deliverance.
Hezekiah welcomes them. He shows them everything. The silver, the gold, the armory, the storehouses, and all the treasures of the kingdom. Nothing is held back.
The Quiet Shift
This is not rebellion or mockery. And this is not rejection of God. It’s something far more familiar.
It’s the subtle shift from: “Everything is on the altar before God” to: “Look at what we have.”
And Isaiah names it, not to shame Hezekiah, but to expose the human heart.
The very things Hezekiah displays in confidence will one day be carried away. The trust that once rested fully on God has quietly leaned toward security, success, and recognition.
But Isaiah is not saying Hezekiah is faithless, he is saying trust must be guarded, even after God has been faithful.
Reflection
This is where the story reaches us. Many of us know what it is to trust God when life is hard. When fear presses in and we have no answers. Everything is laid bare before Him.
And God meets us there. He carries us. He provides. He rescues. And He restores. But what happens after?
After the breakthrough, the healing, the resolution. After the prayers are answered.
That’s often where pride slips in. And it’s so subtle, quietly we can allow it unintentionally.
We accept the praise and we enjoy admiration that belongs to God. We begin to tell the story with ourselves a little closer to the centre. Not because we are evil, but because we let a little bit of our humanity to take the lead.
This is the challenge Isaiah leaves us with at the end of the trust journey.
A Familiar Weakness
This is not new. Scripture is honest about the human condition. Pride is not just a flaw, it’s a vulnerability. A place where we are easily drawn off course.
That’s why we are warned to stay alert. We are called to daily surrender. We are told to put on the full armour of God. Not because we are strong, but because we are not.
This is not a battle against flesh and blood. And it is not one we fight in our own strength.
Which is why Paul’s words land so well. If you think you are standing firm, be careful. Not afraid. But aware.
Circling Back to the Beginning
And here is where Isaiah brings us full circle. Back to chapter 6 and back to the moment where Isaiah stands before a holy God and says, “Woe is me… I am undone.”
Not because he is rejected, but because he finally sees clearly. And then comes the coal.
The cleansing and the grace. Not to leave him broken, but to send him forward.
That is where trust begins. And that is where it must keep returning.
Practice
Today, pause and reflect honestly:
• Where has God been faithful to me?
• Where might pride quietly slipped in?
• Where do I need to return the glory to God?
Bring it before Him, gently, honestly and without fear.
Prayer
Father God, You have been so faithful, again and again. You have carried me through what I could not carry myself.
Guard my heart when life is calm. Keep me humble when things go well. Teach me to trust You not only in crisis, but in comfort.
Cleanse me again Lord. Lead me forward again. Let my life reflect Your glory, not my own.
In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Closing Invitation
Trust is not something we finish. It is something we return to, daily.
As this month of focus on trust ends, may we finish it the same way we began. Aware of who we are. Grateful for who God is. And trusting Him. And ready to keep walking forward in grace.
A Final Word as This Section Closes
There is one more detail worth remembering as we leave this section of Isaiah.
Hezekiah knew he was not the Messiah.
His illness forced him to face his mortality. His healing reminded him his life had limits. His fifteen extra years were a gift, not the solution.
And as the story closes in chapter 39, something becomes clear. If Hezekiah is not the Messiah, then the hope of Israel still lies ahead in the future.
That is how Isaiah intentionally leaves us.
The first 39 chapters close with the same unresolved longing that closes the 39 books of the Old Testament itself. Kings rise and fall. God remains faithful. But the question lingers:
Where is the one who will truly save? Who is the king who will not fail?
And then… silence.
Four hundred years of waiting. Four hundred years of longing. Four hundred years of unanswered hope.
Until grace comes.
Until the promise is fulfilled. Until the Messiah is revealed, not as another Hezekiah, but as the one Hezekiah was never meant to be.
This is not the end of the story. It is the moment that teaches us to wait and trust Him for the outcome.