To the Anxious Hearts

Daily Reading: Isaiah 34-35

Scripture Focus: They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” (Isaiah 35.2-4)

Devotional Thought: Things looked pretty bleak in the spring of 2020.  The coronavirus had circled the globe and many people lost health and hope, lives and livelihood.  God has something to say to our anxious hearts, just as he spoke to the anxious hearts in Isaiah's day.

Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.  How are we to do that when bad news seems to be getting worse?  Look to the glory and majesty of your God!  I remember a season in my life when I could see nothing but the problems.  I was jobless and little seemed to be happening.  As long as I focused on what was wrong, I could not see what was right.  But, in my despair, I looked up to God.  I found the strength to believe, to go on, to get through the problem.

Be strong and fear not.  Faith in God brings strength beyond yourself.  The Bible says that perfect love casts out fear.  Think about God's love, "the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God!" (Cory Asbury).  What is stronger than love, especially God's love?

God will come and save you.  Whether we are sick or sad, weak or worried, abandoned or broke, God sees.  And when God sees, God responds.  He comes to save his children.

Do you have an anxious heart?  Read Isaiah 35 again and again.  See the glory of God.  He will come and save you.

Prayer: Lord, when I am in the midst of my problems, help me to remember that you will come into the midst of them right along with me, that you will come and save me, and that I have no need to worry.  I cast all my cares upon you, O Lord.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 64.1-10

1 Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint; preserve my life from dread of the enemy.

2 Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the throng of evildoers,

3 who whet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows,

4 shooting from ambush at the blameless, shooting at him suddenly and without fear.

5 They hold fast to their evil purpose; they talk of laying snares secretly, thinking, "Who can see them?"

6 They search out injustice, saying, "We have accomplished a diligent search." For the inward mind and heart of a man are deep!

7 But God shoots his arrow at them; they are wounded suddenly.

8 They are brought to ruin, with their own tongues turned against them; all who see them will wag their heads.

9 Then all mankind fears; they tell what God has brought about and ponder what he has done.

10 Let the righteous one rejoice in the LORD and take refuge in him! Let all the upright in heart exult!