- For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 – In the midst of their chaos and confusion, God sent Jesus to change things. Church, in this new season of our world we are in, we must remember Jesus has already come. He’s already brought peace. He’s already brought joy. He’s already brought salvation. These things we long for aren’t in the stage of eventually-they’ll-come. They are here because Jesus is here. So much has been taken away from us lately; our ability to gather as a large group, our normalcy, even our toilet paper. Yet Jesus remains. You’ll never find Him sold out of at Walmart, He’s not isolated to a church building that you can’t go to right now, and He even is safe still to embrace because He can’t get sick! All humor aside though, Jesus isn’t going anywhere and He’s right here to help you have what you need. We’ve been blessed with a Savior in our story, let Him save you from fear, confusion, and worry. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1210
- …For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. Isaiah 9:12b, 17b, 21b – When we find a phrase or verse repeated within a passage, it’s good to take note. Here this phrase is repeated three times in chapter 9 and once in chapter 10 verse 4. Within our chapter we get a glimpse at the stubbornness of the people of northern Israel. Their posture was one of pride, thinking they could withstand any sort of wrath of God that might come their way. That if God tears down, we’ll just rebuild with better stuff anyway. So God puts that pride to the test, and allows His anger and hand to be outstretched towards them. We see that despite His wrath, they continued in sin, causing God’s hand to be outstretched still bringing His wrath. Let us then remember in our own lives when we are experiencing the hand of God on our sinfulness, that His hand is on us not to destroy, but to guide us out of this sin. Sin is what destroys, and God’s heart is that none perish in their sin. He will use the might of His hand to open our eyes to the destructive nature of sin, and to provoke us to move away from sin and in a direction towards Him. If though, like this people in our passage, we remain in our pride and sinfulness, God’s hand, that is full of blessings, will be a hand of powerful judgment. While it’s not God’s desire, if we do not turn from our sin, He will allow us to be condemned by it. Let’s celebrate though that as a result of the events of Easter, we have a means in Jesus Christ to be free from the condemnation of sin. We can find freedom, life, and salvation from our sin all because of Jesus. Turn from your sin and begin a life of following Jesus. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2676
Daily DEVO 