Isaiah 43:16-44:5.  When the Israelites remembered all the miracles God did to deliver them, they never failed to remember when he made a “way in the sea path in the mighty waters” (43:16).  He opened the Red Sea and allowed his people to pass on dry ground. It was an unprecedented miracle.  Yet now the LORD promises through Isaiah that he is going to do a new thing, a new miracle. He will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert … that they might declare my praise (20-21).  He will pour out his Spirit upon their offspring and his blessing upon their descendants (44:3).  God’s punishment will flatten them into a dry desert, and then his grace will pour the water of the Holy Spirit upon that land making it spiritually prosperous again. This is God’s new thing which he started at Pentecost.

LORD, make us part of the new thing that you are doing. We accept your Holy Spirit.