Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

Exodus 19:4
[The Lord said:] “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. You know how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.”
The eagle is a huge bird with a wingspan of more than two metres. It was an impressive sight for the Israelites as they walked through the desert. It is easy to understand how it was often seen as a symbol of God’s loving provision. In Moses’ final speech before the people entered the Promised Land, he described God in this beautifully tender way: “He found them in a desert land, in an empty, howling wasteland. He surrounded them and watched over them; he guarded them as he would guard his own eyes. Like an eagle that rouses her chicks and hovers over her young, so he spread his wings to take them up and carried them safely on his pinions” (Deuteronomy 32:10-11). God perfectly understood and provided for the needs of His people.
We all know times when we are totally out of our depth. We can’t cope and we need God’s peace and strength. When an eaglet is learning to fly, the mother eagle flies under them with her wings spread out to catch them. She doesn’t actually carry them because they would then never learn to fly, but she gives them total security by being there underneath them. Isn’t that a wonderful picture of how God cares for us? He wants us to grow in strength and to be able to serve Him effectively, but He also knows that we need the security of His continual presence.
I wonder what challenges you are facing at the moment. God wants you to give Him the best of your intellect, determination, gifts and strength but, as you do so, you need to keep reminding yourself that you are not alone. His wings will always be beneath you, able to catch you when you fall, giving you continual security.
Question
In what way does the security that God gives you affect your daily life?
Prayer
Loving Father, thank You for the complete security that You give me as I live for You today. Amen

Isaiah 53:5-6
He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all.
Isaiah was ministering among a people in exile. They were living in Babylon (modern Iraq) far from home and everything seemed hopeless. They longed to be allowed to return to Jerusalem, but as the years passed, that seemed increasingly unlikely. In this bleak situation, Isaiah boldly proclaims that God has not forgotten them and that He will send a servant who will bring them salvation. As we read these words, we see them as a staggeringly powerful prophecy about Jesus, the Messiah.
We need to continually gasp with amazement that God was willing to send His own son into our broken world. No other person could have done what Jesus did. He alone could take upon himself the sins of the world. Only because He was the perfect Son of God could He bear the full weight of the brokenness and rebellion of humankind and bring salvation.
The miracle of Easter is that it is through the appalling suffering and death of Jesus that we are made whole. God never wanted humankind’s life to be spoilt by sin, but that was our choice. God’s intention was always that we should enjoy our lives to the full and live in close partnership with Him, but sin entered the world. Whatever sin touches, it damages and disfigures, and only by facing up to its full, awful reality could we ever be set free. That is precisely what Jesus did when He died on the cross. He took the full weight of your sin and mine and opened up a new way into the presence of God. As we reflect on Jesus’ death on the cross, let’s do so with a new sense of amazement, gratitude and worship.
Question
How do you respond to the fact that Jesus was willing to be killed to make you whole?
Prayer
Loving Father, thank You that You sent Jesus into the world and that He was willing to die the most terrible death out of love for me. Amen

Isaiah 46:4
I will be your God throughout your lifetime—until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you.
I have huge respect for many people, but at the top of my list come carers. I am constantly amazed by the way in which so many people pour out their lives to support others. They give up their own convenience and opportunities in order to give people their love. It is impossible to know the exact number of carers, but in many countries it will be about ten per cent of the population – so I am absolutely sure that this describes many of you.
Today’s verse focuses attention on the supreme carer – God Himself. He is the pre-eminent carer because He never sleeps and there is no limit to His wisdom and strength. Amazingly, He is the carer for all of us. Whatever our needs, He is able to reach out to us and give us support, from the time when we are born to the time when we have white hair. The latter is now a fitting description of me, so I find this particularly powerful and encouraging.
There may be times in our lives when we are unaware that God is our carer, perhaps because we are overwhelmed with our busy lives and don’t have time to think about Him. God’s people living in exile in Babylon were often totally unaware of Him. They frequently felt that they had been forgotten about and that life was hopeless. Through it all, however, God was nearer to them than their breath. He stood beside them, offering to care for them in every moment.
Whether you are feeling happy and confident today or that the bottom has recently fallen out of your world, you need to remember that God cares for you and will not leave your side.
Question
In what way do you need God to be your supreme carer today?
Prayer
Thank You Lord that You are constantly nourishing and supporting me, even when I forget about You. Amen

Isaiah 44:8-9
You are my witnesses—is there any other God? No! There is no other Rock—not one! How foolish are those who manufacture idols. These prized objects are really worthless. The people who worship idols don’t know this, so they are all put to shame.
Isaiah has a great deal to say about idols. He laughs at the sheer stupidity of those who spent their time carving idols out of blocks of wood. Some of the wood would be used for burning in order to keep everyone warm and to bake bread or cook a meal, and another part of the wood was then carefully shaped into an idol to be worshipped. Could anything be more foolish? Isaiah reminds his hearers that they have one true God who is a Rock and who alone is worthy of worship. Worshipping anyone or anything else is a complete waste of time.
Our society is full of idols. They are not often carved out of wood, but they are just as real because an idol is anything that is put in the place that is rightfully God’s. A car, house, career, family, sport, hobby or anything at all can be an idol if it becomes the focus of our attention and if we give it priority in our lives. None of these things is bad in themselves, but when they force God out of His number one spot, they become idolatrous and destructive.
What matters above anything else is that we give God the first place in our lives and encourage others to do the same. We are witnesses to a God of love who longs to fill everyone with His life, so we need to warn other people that anyone or anything else will be a complete waste of their time.
Question
What seem to be the most attractive idols to the people that you know?
Prayer
God, You are my Rock. I worship You because You are worthy of my praise. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit as I put You first in my life and encourage others to do the same. Amen

Isaiah 43:19
I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.
In recent years, I have talked to lots of churches about their vision. It’s really important for any organisation to be inspired by a clear and captivating vision for the future. It keeps us going when life is dull and hard work, and it keeps us heading together in a definite direction. However, time and again I have sensed that churches’ visions are for getting back to how things used to be. A church I once worked with had memories of the time when all 1,200 seats would be filled for the evening service. By the time I met them, they had shrunk to a small community of about 50 people at the Sunday services and they longed to put the clock back to the good old days. In many ways this is very understandable, but Isaiah tells us that God doesn’t want to take us backwards. His vision is for us to head on a new journey to a new place.
In this chapter, Isaiah speaks about the Exodus. This was a turning point in the life of the people of Israel. After 400 years in Egypt, during which they had lived as slaves, God had set them free by bringing them miraculously through the Red Sea on dry ground. They’d had a supreme experience of God’s salvation. In this passage, however, Isaiah tells them to forget about it. He doesn’t want them to dwell on the past. Wonderful as the Exodus was, God had no intention of doing a repeat performance. He wanted to lead them on an exciting new journey.
None of us can be certain what our future will look like – that is in God’s secure hands – but the one thing we can be absolutely sure about is that our future won’t be a repeat of the past.
Question
In what ways can you see God doing something new in your life?
Prayer
Loving God, help me to keep my eyes fixed on the new things that You are wanting to do in my life. Amen