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MIDWEEK DEVOTION
Isaiah 40:21-31
21 Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in;
23 who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.
24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
25 To whom then will you compare me, or who is my equal? says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God”?
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.
30 Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted;
31 but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
DEVOTION
Maybe today, I am talking to myself. I need this devotion. I need to hear this passage, over and over and over again.
It certainly feels at times that the wind that blows withers us, and that we are carried away like stubble. It is so easy to get overwhelmed when things are just not normal; when it feels like the world is standing on its head and everything is upside down. When there is hope… and yet we worry about new strains of the virus and effectiveness of vaccines. When there is hope… and yet it seems that we cannot get appointments and vaccines are not as readily available as we think they should be… When we feel more isolated and lonely that we have in a long time…
At times like these, I do sometimes question God, and ask why God’s face is hidden from us… why God doesn’t care enough to just swing a magic wand and make it all go away… It is hard sometimes to find God and what God calls us to be and do in this time.
But then there are the words from the prophet Isaiah… Words about the greatness of God that should give us comfort and faith in God’s care for us, regardless of the difficulties we face. “Have you not heard?” God who created it all – The Creator of all things – from the supernova to the butterfly’s wing, the rings of Saturn to the spots on the leopard, is indeed the God who cares for us. The God who created the marvels of stars in the skies, by simply calling their names, is the God who knows each of us by name.
This is the same God that healed a woman who suffered for 12 long years from bleeding, but her simply touching his tunic. It is the same God who called Lazarus out of the grave, and who drove demons out; who restored Peter’s mother by a simple, gracious touch. “Have you not heard?”
Hear the song of the Psalmist in Ps 147:3-5… “God heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds. God determines the number of the stars; God gives to all of them their names” Have courage, even when things are tough. God will renew your strength, and raise you up on the wings of eagles.
Hang on to that this week… May we all hang on to that when we feel that it is all just too much. Hang on and know that the God who created it all, who called it into being, is the God who calls you by name and will give you strength.
Let’s pray
Compassionate One, Creator of all,
who called into being all this is ad exist;
Who knows us by name…
Give us the faith, to in our pain and disappointment, know that you are a God who cares for us, who will strengthen us and raise us up on the wings of eagles.
Amen. |
