Daily Devotional For Friday, July 24, 2026
Good morning Southside! It’s Friday and the weekend is about to begin. Our daily devotional for today comes from Isaiah 44:6-11:
“This is what the LORD says—Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies: “I am the First and the Last; there is no other God. (7) Who is like me? Let him step forward and prove to you his power. Let him do as I have done since ancient times when I established a people and explained its future. (8) Do not tremble; do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim My purposes for you long ago? You are My witnesses—is there any other God? No! There is no other Rock—not one!” (9) 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. (10) Who but a fool would make his own god—an idol that cannot help him one bit? (11) All who worship idols will be disgraced along with all these craftsmen—mere humans— who claim they can make a god. They may all stand together, but they will stand in terror and shame” (NLT).
When we come to this passage God is mocking all the other supposed “gods.” This passage and the following verses in this chapter are about how revival comes to God’s people when they are intentional about forsaking all other gods and idols except Yahweh. All of these others are crafted by the hand of man. In other words, it is man crafting his god in the image he desires rather than believing that all of us are man in the image of Yahweh.
God is not trying to diminish our joy, but intensify our joy as Yahweh being our Redeemer. Though we may claim we have no other gods before Yahweh, our actions prove differently. We have other gods and idols such as worry, anger, discontentment, a desire to control, substances such as alcohol and/or drugs, materialism, our possessions, our homes, our money, our retirement accounts, our retirement, our family, our friends, our hobbies, our degrees and education, and even our positions of service in our church. All of these and more can be our joyful idols that we simply turn a blind eye to in our lives.
You may beg to differ, but just notice how you react if these are threatened or taken away. We immediately get defensive and resort to the pronouns such as “my, mine, or me, or I.” We quickly forget that everything we have is the Lord’s. Remember Psalm 24:1, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to Him” (NLT). We are simply stewards of it all. When we die it goes to someone else. We can never and will never take it with us. This is why we must surrender these gods to the GOD – Yahweh – to Jesus Christ.
Atheist Frederich Neitzsche explained why he rejected Christianity: “I never saw the members of my father’s church enjoying themselves in worship with their God.” In the Book of Isaiah, the prophet keeps coming back to idols. Why? Because idols are our problem and God gets wearisome and jealous of our lusts for them. From Genesis to the end of Revelation, the main theological principle of Scripture is we are to reject idols.
Consider this: if there is really only one God and we are not experiencing the joy of our salvation, there is a reason. An idol or some idols are interfering with our relationship to God. At the time of this writing of Isaiah, the Jews are living as exiles in Babylon. Babylon is from Bab-ilu, which means “gate of the gods.” Those living in Babylon really believed their capital was a gate to their gods. While we may question how they could believe this, are we any different? We think our gods or idols will bring us joy, contentment, satisfaction, control, and significance.
For most people, if you wonder what their idols are or which are yours, just listen to what the main topics of their conversations or your conversations are. It is typically themselves. You talk more about yourself than anything else. We worship ourselves more than anything else. This is why Isaiah condemns such idolatry. We want to make God in our image, not allow God to make us in His image. If you say, “Oh PK, I do want to resemble God’s image!” Okay, but let me ask you a couple of questions: first, are you in a discipleship group where you not only grow spiritually, but are held accountable for your spiritual growth? Second, what occupies your time and conversations the most – the Lord or yourself?
Reflection Assignment: I am not suggesting that we never talk about ourselves, but I am suggesting we need to monitor how much of our conversation is about ourselves and how much of our idols dominate and control us. If people were to judge God by your level of enjoyment and expression of that joy in worship, would they still want to choose God or would they, like Neitzsche, reject God? Take a moment to ask the Lord to reveal to you what your idols are because all of us have them.
Scripture To Meditate On: Exodus 20:3-6, “You must not have any other god but Me. (4) “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. (5) You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord Your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. (6) But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, I submit all my gods and idols to You. I acknowledge that I worship myself more than I do You. I want to seek You first and Your kingdom. I want to submit everything I have, which is by Your hand, to You. I want to know You and the power of Your resurrection. Please forgive me for worshipping other idols other than You alone. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly