Today's Scripture Reading (October 23, 2026): Isaiah 44
Lucy Jane Rider Meyer had
planned to work as a medical missionary in a foreign country. The man she
planned to marry was also preparing to become a doctor, and he was bound to
work alongside his bride in the same foreign country that needed their specialized
talents. But in 1875, life dealt the young couple a blow. Lucy was 26 when her
fiancé passed away, and with him, all the dreams she had for the future.
However, unforeseen circumstances could not tear Lucy away from her purpose.
She had a heart for the poor and oppressed. Instead of finding fulfillment of
that purpose in a foreign land, she found a way to fulfill her dream at home.
Her heart's desire led her into a life dedicated to social work and to serving
those experiencing poverty in the midst of the city, the ones most of us have
become used to not seeing.
Lucy saw them, and their
presence drove her to seek a solution. Ultimately, she understood that the only
real solution would have to come from God. One day in 1884, she read these
words in Isaiah 44. God promised he would come to those who needed him, and the
people she worked with desperately needed him. These urban poor were the dry
ground that desperately needed a flood.
And so Lucy Meyer, a
social worker in Chicago working with people experiencing poverty, penned these
words:
I will pour water on him
that is thirsty,
I will pour floods upon the dry ground;
Open your hearts for the gifts I am bringing;
While ye are seeking Me, I will be found.
Meyer claimed these words
for the people with whom she worked. Originally, the words were intended for
another group of people who were oppressed against their will. Israel thought
they knew God, but that was before the exile, before the temple had been torn
from its foundation. Now they were seeking him, hoping almost against hope to
one day find the God of their youth, the One their ancestors worshipped.
God then responded that
all who were willing to seek him would find him. On that day, his Spirit would
be poured out on the ones most in need. The thirsty would drink, and the desert
would receive so much water that it would overflow. The captives would be
released. Meyer recognized that the original promise for Israel was now a
promise to anyone who recognized they needed God, even the unseen ones who had
captured her heart.
Maybe one side effect of
our overconfident civilization is that we have become the ones who don't need
God. We think we are self-sufficient and can handle life all by ourselves. All
that really means is that we are the ones God will not pour himself out over,
because we believe we don't need Him.
Tomorrow's
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 45
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