Today's Reading:

There is no reading today, but you can use this time to catch up on any days that you may have missed this week. 

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Today's Reading:

There is no reading today, but you can use this time to catch up on any days that you may have missed this week. 

Click here to access prior days.
 

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
Isaiah 43:18-19

“I am doing a new thing,” declared God. Let it go. Are you holding onto the past disappointments and failures? Stop looking at the past. Look forward because God is doing something new. Jesus took that sin, hurt, and pain for you. Do not let His death be in vain. He is always working for you. Even right now, there is a path for you through the dark, through the wilderness, just for you. Right where you are today, when you are low, at your worst, feeling forgotten or stuck, left behind, and you feel the impossible in front of you, do not look back. Let it go. He is your focus. Surrender to Him!

In 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, King Hezekiah became extremely ill. Isaiah the prophet warned him to prepare to die. Hezekiah instead went to the Lord in prayer and was mercifully healed. God gave him 15 more years to live, with a sign in the form of the sundial shadow going backward. Hezekiah later made the mistake of showing off his wealth to the Babylonians. This prompted Isaiah to warn that, because of his trust in human wealth and power over God, he would one day lose it all to Babylon, even some of his descendants.

The psalms covered “be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46), a cry out for God to turn back to Israel, His struggling vine (Psalm 80), and a praise to God as the one true God who is better than any idol.

This week we stayed mostly in the Book of Isaiah. The chapters followed Hezekiah’s story with his illness, prayer, healing, and song of thanks (Isaiah 38). The book shifted to how God is not comparable to the other gods and idols. He will bring the exiles home from Babylon and care for them (like a new exodus). The “Servant” verses described a humble figure who will bring justice and suffer for everyone’s sins, pointing to the ultimate Lord and Savior, Jesus. God promises to continue to love, forgive, and bring a future to Israel despite their current situation.

Today's discussion question: 

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