OUR DAILY BREAD 2ND JANUARY 2025 DEVOTIONAL, THURSDAY ODB MESSAGE
Our Daily Bread 2nd January 2025 Devotional TOPIC: God’s Promise Beyond the Ruins
BIBLE IN YEAR: Genesis 4-6; Matthew 2
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KEY VERSE: Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail. Isaiah 51:6
TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
Isaiah 51:1-6
TODAY’S ODB INSIGHT
What does Isaiah 51:1 mean? “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord: Look to the rock from which you were cut.” God is challenging His exiled people to “look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth” (v. 2). The people were trying to gain righteousness by keeping the law. What they needed was the faith of their spiritual father Abraham.
The apostle Paul wrote, “It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith” (Romans 4:13).
OUR DAILY BREAD 2 JANUARY 2025 – THURSDAY ODB DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE:
As Hurricane Laura raged through the Gulf of Mexico toward the US coastline of Louisiana, the warnings were dire. One sheriff, noting the 150-mile-per-hour winds, issued this jolting message: “Please evacuate. But if you choose to stay and we can’t get to you, write your name, address, social security number, and next of kin and put it in a Ziploc bag in your pocket. Praying that it does not come to this.” Rescue crews knew that once Laura hit land, they could only watch the storm’s destructive path—helpless in its wake.
Whenever God’s people in the Old Testament faced natural or spiritual calamity, His words were far more certain and hopeful, promising His presence despite destruction. He said that He would “look with compassion on all her ruins; [and would] make her wastelands . . . like the garden of the Lord” (Isaiah 51:3). And more, God always assured His people of the rescue and healing that would certainly follow if they would only trust Him. Even though “the heavens [would] vanish like smoke,” God said, His “salvation [would] last forever” (v. 6). Whatever the damage, His ultimate goodness toward them wouldn’t be thwarted, ever.
God doesn’t safeguard us from hardship, but He does promise that His restorative healing extends far beyond the ruin.
REFLECT: Where are you facing calamity and ruin? How do you hear God’s promise to be with you, to heal and rebuild after the ruins?
PRAY: Dear God, the ruins are so devastating. I’m not sure I can believe that You have a promise big enough for this. But I choose to believe.
Our Daily Bread Ministries (ODB) is a Christian organization founded by Dr. Martin De Haan in 1938. It is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with over 600 employees. It produces several devotional publications, including Our Daily Bread. our daily bread devotional for today audio our daily bread booklet
