Category: “Listening to God” Devotional

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+053

 
Chapter 53 (ESV)

⁴ Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
⁸ By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?

 

REFLECTION:

1. Read the passage aloud slowly, knowing that this “suffering servant” passage is a prophecy about Jesus. If possible, read the whole chapter as well.
2. Read this passage. See the servant of God, so battered and disfigured he hardly seems human anymore. Live with him as he is despised and rejected by men. Watch him take up our iniquities and be pierced for our transgressions. See the blood flow as his life is crushed from him, as from a sin offering. And realize that he chose this fate, that by his wounds we might be healed.
3. Silence – Read/Listen – Meditate – Pray – Contemplate
4. Respond to God about the words that touched you most. Talk also to God about how Jesus can make you righteous.
5. Move through your day with this idea: Jesus “died without a thought for his own welfare”. If he died that way, how much more must he have lived that way? Try living that selflessly a few minutes at a time.

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

Worthy Is The Lamb – youtu.be/eMsihDoX3uM

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+052

 
Chapter 52 (ESV)

⁷ How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
who publishes salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
⁸ The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice;
together they sing for joy;
for eye to eye they see
the return of the Lord to Zion.
⁹ Break forth together into singing,
you waste places of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people;
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
¹⁰ The Lord has bared his holy arm
before the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God.

¹¹ Depart, depart, go out from there;
touch no unclean thing;
go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves,
you who bear the vessels of the Lord.
¹² For you shall not go out in haste,
and you shall not go in flight,
for the Lord will go before you,
and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

 

REFLECTION:

1. Silence – Read/Listen – Meditate – Pray – Contemplate
2. What is the word or phrase that touches you today as you read and meditate on this passage? What is your emotion as you read this word or phrase? How is that related to your current situation? What does God tell you to do?
3. This passage lively describes the joyful news of victory that Jehovah God has won over Babylon. God’s people “burst into songs of joy together,… for the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem”(v9).
4. When have you tasted real joy and peace in witnessing? How could you experience more of the “good tiding” of the gospel this week? Pray and ask God to bring a few faces of friends or family members that don’t believe in Jesus and that you can begin praying for them daily.

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

Let Your Glory Fall – youtu.be/UnnHSxW3N0w

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+051

 
Chapter 51 (ESV)

⁴ “Give attention to me, my people,
and give ear to me, my nation;
for a law will go out from me,
and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.
⁵ My righteousness draws near,
my salvation has gone out,
and my arms will judge the peoples;
the coastlands hope for me,
and for my arm they wait.
⁶ Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and look at the earth beneath;
for the heavens vanish like smoke,
the earth will wear out like a garment,
and they who dwell in it will die in like manner;
but my salvation will be forever,
and my righteousness will never be dismayed.

⁷ “Listen to me, you who know righteousness,
the people in whose heart is my law;
fear not the reproach of man,
nor be dismayed at their revilings.
⁸ For the moth will eat them up like a garment,
and the worm will eat them like wool,
but my righteousness will be forever,
and my salvation to all generations.”

⁹ Awake, awake, put on strength,
O arm of the Lord;
awake, as in days of old,
the generations of long ago.
Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces,
who pierced the dragon?
¹⁰ Was it not you who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep,
who made the depths of the sea a way
for the redeemed to pass over?
¹¹ And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

 

REFLECTION:

1. Silence – Read/Listen – Meditate – Pray – Contemplate
2. What is the word or phrase that touches you today as you read and meditate on this passage? What is your emotion as you read this word or phrase? How is that related to your current situation? What does God tell you to do?
3. If you were an exile, what would it mean to you to realize that God’s promises are more enduring than the stars or the earth around you (v6)? How might meditating upon the lesson of the stars, creation of God, give you a new perspective on the problems that you face today?
4. Speak to God about your new perspective as well as your problems.

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

You Are Faithful – youtu.be/eQ51OC1oYpQ

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+050

 
Chapter 50 (ESV)

⁴ The Lord God has given me
the tongue of those who are taught,
that I may know how to sustain with a word
him who is weary.
Morning by morning he awakens;
he awakens my ear
to hear as those who are taught.
⁵ The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious;
I turned not backward.
⁶ I gave my back to those who strike,
and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
from disgrace and spitting.

⁷ But the Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like a flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
⁸ He who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together.
Who is my adversary?
Let him come near to me.
⁹ Behold, the Lord God helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.

 

REFLECTION:

1. This is another song concerning the servant who is summoned, empowered, and helped by God to do His work in the world.
2. Silence – Read/Listen – Meditate – Pray – Contemplate
3. What is the word or phrase that touches you today as you read and meditate on this passage? What is your emotion as you read this word or phrase?
4. What would it mean for you to start your day by listening to God? How would you do so? How has this pointed to your attitude of love and obedience to God?

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

God With Us – youtu.be/udJjT-LMnIs

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+049

 
Chapter 49 (ESV)

¹³ Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;
break forth, O mountains, into singing!
For the Lord has comforted his people
and will have compassion on his afflicted.

¹⁴ But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me;
my Lord has forgotten me.”

¹⁵ “Can a woman forget her nursing child,
that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you.
¹⁶ Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are continually before me.
¹⁷ Your builders make haste;
your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you.
¹⁸ Lift up your eyes around and see;
they all gather, they come to you.
As I live, declares the Lord,
you shall put them all on as an ornament;
you shall bind them on as a bride does.

 

REFLECTION:

1. Silence – Read/Listen – Meditate – Pray – Contemplate
2. What is the word or phrase that touches you today as you read and meditate on this passage? What is your emotion as you read this word or phrase?
3. Can you think of a specific moment when you were forgotten – either intentionally or unintentionally? How did that make you feel? Why?
4. What times in your life do you most desire to be remembered? Be specific. How does it feel for you to know that there is a God who will never forget you under any circumstance?
5. Thank God for always remembering you.

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

How He Loves – youtu.be/LCg-qZg_bdA

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+048

 
Chapter 48 (ESV)

¹⁷ Thus says the Lord,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you to profit,
who leads you in the way you should go.
¹⁸ Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river,
and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;
¹⁹ your offspring would have been like the sand,
and your descendants like its grains;
their name would never be cut off
or destroyed from before me.”

²⁰ Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea,
declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it,
send it out to the end of the earth;
say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
²¹ They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
he made water flow for them from the rock;
he split the rock and the water gushed out.

²² “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”

 

REFLECTION:

1. Silence – Read/Listen – Meditate – Pray – Contemplate
2. What is the word or phrase that touches you today as you read and meditate on this passage? What is your emotion as you read this word or phrase?
3. The person who fails to trust God’s word completely forfeits more than comfort. He or she forfeits peace (v18). The person who abandons confidence in the Word of God will soon abandon God’s commands as well. He will soon discover that he has no peace.
4. What is your present situation? Do you have peace? Is God calling you to repent and trust in God? Do you feel capable of releasing all of your burdens to God or do you hold back because you’re not sure if He will be there for you?

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

You Are Holy – www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsYyuK1w3q0

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+047
 
Chapter 47 (ESV)

⁸ Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures,
who sit securely,
who say in your heart,
“I am, and there is no one besides me;
I shall not sit as a widow
or know the loss of children”:
⁹ These two things shall come to you
in a moment, in one day;
the loss of children and widowhood
shall come upon you in full measure,
in spite of your many sorceries
and the great power of your enchantments.

¹⁰ You felt secure in your wickedness;
you said, “No one sees me”;
your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray,
and you said in your heart,
“I am, and there is no one besides me.”
¹¹ But evil shall come upon you,
which you will not know how to charm away;
disaster shall fall upon you,
for which you will not be able to atone;
and ruin shall come upon you suddenly,
of which you know nothing.

¹² Stand fast in your enchantments
and your many sorceries,
with which you have labored from your youth;
perhaps you may be able to succeed;
perhaps you may inspire terror.
¹³ You are wearied with your many counsels;
let them stand forth and save you,
those who divide the heavens,
who gaze at the stars,
who at the new moons make known
what shall come upon you.

¹⁴ Behold, they are like stubble;
the fire consumes them;
they cannot deliver themselves
from the power of the flame.
No coal for warming oneself is this,
no fire to sit before!
¹⁵ Such to you are those with whom you have labored,
who have done business with you from your youth;
they wander about, each in his own direction;
there is no one to save you.

 

REFLECTION:

1. Silence – Read/Listen – Meditate – Pray – Contemplate
2. What is the word or phrase that touches you today as you read and meditate on this passage? What is your emotion as you read this word or phrase?
3. In our sophisticated and cynical age, why do you think most major newspapers faithfully carry astrological information day after day? Have you ever been drawn to astrology or any other occult practices? Do you think it is appropriate for Christians to be involved in these things? Why or why not?
4. What does this passage relate to your current situation? What does God tell you to do?

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

Way Maker – youtu.be/EXQGTInPpZU

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+046
 
Chapter 46 (ESV)

¹ Bel bows down; Nebo stoops;
their idols are on beasts and livestock;
these things you carry are borne
as burdens on weary beasts.
² They stoop; they bow down together;
they cannot save the burden,
but themselves go into captivity.

³ “Listen to me, O house of Jacob,
all the remnant of the house of Israel,
who have been borne by me from before your birth,
carried from the womb;
⁴ even to your old age I am he,
and to gray hairs I will carry you.
I have made, and I will bear;
I will carry and will save.

⁵ “To whom will you liken me and make me equal,
and compare me, that we may be alike?
⁶ Those who lavish gold from the purse,
and weigh out silver in the scales,
hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god;
then they fall down and worship!
⁷ They lift it to their shoulders, they carry it,
they set it in its place, and it stands there;
it cannot move from its place.
If one cries to it, it does not answer
or save him from his trouble.

⁸ “Remember this and stand firm,
recall it to mind, you transgressors,
⁹ remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,

 

REFLECTION:

1. Silence – Read/Listen – Meditate – Pray – Contemplate
2. What is the word or phrase that touches you today as you read and meditate on this passage?
3. Bel & Nebo were the names of two principal gods in Babylon. Do you notice the contrast between the idol’s burdens (verses 1-2) and the Lord (verses 3-4)?
4. What is your emotion as you read this passage, comparing the burdens of the idols and God as your father carrying you when you were weak? Or as a strong man sustaining you when you were tired? Or as a warrior rescuing you when you were trapped?
5. How is that related to your current situation? What does God tell you to do?

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

You Are My All In All – youtu.be/zC617kE1maU

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+045

 
Chapter 45 (ESV)

⁵ I am the Lord, and there is no other,
besides me there is no God;
I equip you, though you do not know me,
⁶ that people may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is none besides me;
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
⁷ I form light and create darkness;
I make well-being and create calamity;
I am the Lord, who does all these things.

⁸ “Shower, O heavens, from above,
and let the clouds rain down righteousness;
let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit;
let the earth cause them both to sprout;
I the Lord have created it.

⁹ “Woe to him who strives with him who formed him,
a pot among earthen pots!
Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’
or ‘Your work has no handles’?
¹⁰ Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’
or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’”

¹¹ Thus says the Lord,
the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him:
“Ask me of things to come;
will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands?
¹² I made the earth
and created man on it;
it was my hands that stretched out the heavens,
and I commanded all their host.
¹³ I have stirred him up in righteousness,
and I will make all his ways level;
he shall build my city
and set my exiles free,
not for price or reward,”
says the Lord of hosts.

 

REFLECTION:

1. Silence – Read/Listen – Meditate – Pray – Contemplate
2. What is the word or phrase that touches you today as you read and meditate on this passage?
3. How do you feel as you read Israel’s complaint, and then God’s reply? Do you feel free to complain to God or do you feel like it isn’t something you should or are allowed to do?
4. When have you complained to God? How did God reply? What are you complaining to God at present? What does God tell you to do?

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

Is He Worthy? – youtu.be/-c6pl6CaiD0

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+044
 
Chapter 44 (ESV)

¹⁴ He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. ¹⁵ Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. ¹⁶ Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!” ¹⁷ And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”

¹⁸ They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. ¹⁹ No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?” ²⁰ He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”

 

REFLECTION:

1. Silence – Read/Listen – Meditate – Pray – Contemplate
2. What is the word or phrase that touches you today as you read and meditate on this passage? What is your emotion as you read this word or phrase?
3. What is an idol? “An idol is anything less than God that you expect to save you.” It is anything that takes the place of God on the throne of your life. If you have anything in your life that you say “if only this could happen…then everything would be perfect.” That thing, person, event, ideal, is your idol. With which idols are you struggling? How have you experienced that following these idols is nothing but “feeding on ashes” (v20)?
4. What does God tell you to do?

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

Give Us Clean Hands – youtu.be/Rv55qS7v2-c