DAILY DEVOTIONAL – December 10, 2020
“Power in Love”
Prayer: God our Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your faithfulness to Your promises. We take great comfort in the fact that because of Christ’s life, death and resurrection as the promised Savior, we can know for certain that our salvation is secure in You. In Jesus’ name – Amen.
Scripture: Isaiah 41:8-10
But you, Israel, my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
the offspring of Abraham, my friend;
9 you whom I took from the ends of the earth,
and called from its farthest corners,
saying to you, “You are my servant,
I have chosen you and not cast you off”;
10 fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Devotional – “Love in Power”
When we think about power and strength, we often think of it by way of comparison. This person is stronger than the other because they can lift more weight. This nation is more powerful than the other because it has more troops or bigger bombs. However, God is so much more powerful than that, and to demonstrate that infinite and unrivaled power, God controls and directs even the wicked who reject Him that they too would be agents of His will in preserving His promise to bring a Savior. Still today, as we witness the world continue to unravel itself with sin and disbelief, God continues prove His might by using the worst of humanity to preserve and carry out His promises to deliver all who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
This passage from Isaiah 41 falls at the beginning of a long poetic description and prophecy of the time when God would free His chosen people from Babylonian captivity. As horrible and painful as Israel’s exile into Babylonian captivity was for God’s people, and as much as they couldn’t fathom why God would allow a wicked empire like Babylon to take His people captive, they would come to realize through the prophets like Isaiah that it was only out of His love for them and His desire to bring about salvation for all of humanity that God flexed His might by using evil Babylon to discipline His people whom He loved so much and preserve the promise of salvation that He entrusted to them. Without the firm hand of their loving God and Father curtailing their wayward sin by exiling them in Babylon, the promises of salvation would have been lost forever to the idolatry and rebelliousness of Israel.
In our text for today, God reminds His exiled people that He has in fact chosen them, even from the ends of the earth, and that as they live under His righteous hand of discipline in captivity they should not be afraid, they should be still, remain calm and trust and know that as God says in verse 9 & 10:
I have chosen you and not cast you off”;
10 fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
In the midst of their trials and tribulations brought about by their own sin and the sin of this world, God remains faithful to Israel and demonstrates His enduring love for them and His power to achieve the salvation promised to them by sustaining them, caring for them and providing for them. The words of God in our text for today were given in order to assure Israel that He still is and will forever be God, that He even controls Babylon and all nations. As is often said, history is HIS-story. God has mercifully acted in and through history to preserve His great and precious promises so that 800 years after the words given through Isaiah, you and I could also receive His promise through the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:28-30:
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Paul said God works “all things together” for good, for you and I who love Him and put our faith in His Son. That means the Almighty works His countless blessings together with His discipline and correction upon us as a loving Father together with His rule over the corruption of this world, even our own sin, that brings about our own trials and sufferings. He works all of these things together for our good and for His glory, and we marvel at His awesome power and faithfulness that is displayed and magnified by the fact that our Lord allows at times unimaginable pain and difficulty in our life so that we would witness the power of His resurrection being worked out for us.
As He told the Israelites through the prophet Isaiah, so to He tells you and I, “Fear not, for I am with you. I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you and uphold you with my righteous hand.” Jesus gave Himself on the cross as the promised Savior of the world and defeated death through His resurrection because He wants to give us something more amazing than just victory over our temporary afflictions. Our Lord did not spare Himself of affliction and yet He remained perfectly faithful and so powerfully in control that He even prayed for those who beat Him beyond human recognition and nailed Him to a tree. As He suffered in ways we will thankfully never have to imagine or endure, Christ found peace and love as He wholeheartedly trusted the goodness of His Heavenly Father and gladly threw Himself to the wolves knowing that God would not abandon His soul nor let Him see decay. That my friends, is victory. That is true power. That is what our Lord wants to give and does give to us as we put out faith in Him. He gives a joy that rejoices with arms held high even as everything seems to crumbled down around us, a love that brings fullness to our heart and purpose to our lives as we love even those who bring us suffering, and a peace that quiets our soul and strengthens the confidence of our faith in Him even when our thoughts and emotions seem to be in complete chaos.
I know that we all have our times of exile in this sinful and broken world as we patiently and faithfully wait for the sure coming of our Lord’s salvation. Whether you are in the midst of that exile or are enjoying the calm before the storm, hear and know that this word of God given in Philippians 4:5-7 was given for you.
The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Thank you for joining me today in our time of devotion, and remember that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
