If needed, a brief explanation and instructions for this devotion can be found on Wednesday’s IMMERSION for this week.
Read the bible verse that follows and record your immediate reaction in terms of emotions and thought. What is it making you feel? What is it making you think?
Isaiah 40:31
Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
They will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
~ The prophet Isaiah
Now meditate on the above bible verse for 2-10 minutes and then record your reflective response (consider taking a short walk to enhance your reflection time):
Read through the surrounding verses of Isaiah 40:21-31. Record any further thoughts or emotions that arose as a result of your reading.
Isaiah 40:21-31
21 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
23 He brings princes to naught
and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
24 No sooner are they planted,
no sooner are they sown,
no sooner do they take root in the ground,
than he blows on them and they wither,
and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
25 “To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.
27 Why do you complain, Jacob?
Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Formulate a prayer based on the start of this new year about:
• Finding strength in God (verse 31)
• The experience of “soaring” with God (verse 31)
• What and how you are hearing about God (verses 21, 28)