Daily Devotional For Sunday, August 30, 2026

Good morning Southside! Our devotional for today comes from Ezekiel 34:11-16:

“For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search and find my sheep. (12) I will be like a shepherd looking for his scattered flock. I will find my sheep and rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on that dark and cloudy day. (13) I will bring them back home to their own land of Israel from among the peoples and nations. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel and by the rivers and in all the places where people live. (14) Yes, I will give them good pastureland on the high hills of Israel. There they will lie down in pleasant places and feed in the lush pastures of the hills. (15) I myself will tend my sheep and give them a place to lie down in peace, says the Sovereign LORD. (16) I will search for my lost ones who strayed away, and I will bring them safely home again. I will bandage the injured and strengthen the weak. But I will destroy those who are fat and powerful. I will feed them, yes—feed them justice!” (NLT).

Maybe for you these last few weeks of devotional readings have been tough because as we make our way through the prophetic books, God is punishing His people for their sin, rebellion, stubborn hearts and idolatry. Every devotional has talked about this because I am choosing these from the suggested readings for the One Year Chronological Bible. 

I want to pick up where we left off yesterday. Today’s passage is awesome, upbeat, positive and joyful. God is promising in the future to be the Good Shepherd to His people. He has scattered all over the Assyrian Empire (722 BC), then the Babylonian Empire (606 BC, 598 BC, and 586 BC) and now the Persian Empire (539 BC). God plans to bring His children home and give them their lives and ancestry back. It has been over 70 years and all the original ones scattered are now dead. These are their grandchildren, who may have no knowledge of the Old Testament and God. Yet, God will use people like Nehemiah and Ezra to help teach them and guide them. But better than that – God Himself will do this for and with His people. 

If someone came to you and said, “I have wasted my life and now I want to live it for the glory of God and experience that abundant life Jesus promised," what would you say to them? If this is you, let me offer you some suggestions that will work for yourself and another:

1. Help them focus on the grace of God in their life in the past and in the present. A good example is one of the thieves on the cross being crucified with Jesus and another thief. While one of the thieves mocked Jesus, the other one cried out to Jesus for mercy and grace. Yes, literally on his “deathbed” he cried out to Jesus. Jesus promised him that he would be with Him in Paradise (Luke 23:40-43). Some may feel, “This is not fair.” Let me set the record straight. Justice is about fairness; grace is about faith. The Bible says, “Anyone who calls upon the Lord will be saved” (Rom. 10:31). Notice, there is no time frame or limitations put on this verse. 
2. Help them to focus on the potential in their future. We see this again with the thief on the cross. He was facing judgment and punishment for his sins and crimes against Rome, but Jesus promised him a future with Him in eternity. This thief did not really have any good works up to this point, and maybe you haven’t or the person you know hasn’t. Instead, you can from this point on living your life for the glory of Jesus Christ. For example, take your present age and then put down an age you hope you live to in life. Now do a little math and multiplication. How many years is that? Now multiple that by 365, which will give you the total number of days. Now take that number and multiply it by 24 (hours). That will give you the total number of hours you have in the remaining years you hope to live.  For example, I am 68. I hope to live to 100. That is 32 years left. That means I hope to live another 11,680 days. That means I have 280,320 hours left to worship the Lord rather than waste my life. Thank the Lord for this. The thief on the cross had about 3 hours left and he decided to maximize those remaining 3 hours to worship Jesus, rather than waste his life.
3. Focus on what you can do now for the Lord so that it helps you not focus on your past. The Apostle Paul talked about this in Philippians 3:13-14. You can’t undo what you did or didn’t do from the past, but you can decide that with the time the Lord gives you to maximize your life in the present and the future. 
4. Focus on the how, not the what. Focus on how you will now live for the glory of the Lord. What is important from this time forward is not what you do, but how you do it. What you do will be determined by the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit. What you do, where you work is not what really pleases the Lord. It is whether you live by the guiding presence of the Holy Spirit, whether you are walking by faith or by sight, whether you are now pursuing holiness, godliness and righteousness rather than your own ego. What pleases the Lord is you are now loving HIm with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and loving the people He has placed around you (Matt. 22:37-40). This is the whole point of  1 Corinthians 13.
5. Focus on surrounding yourself with godly friends and family who are aware of your sense of failure as well as your desire to live a different life. Ask them to pray with you and even join you in helping you start this new life. We are better together than alone. This is the point of Ecclesiastes 4:9-12. To the Lord, it is not so much how long we live, but how we live. 

Reflection Assignment: If there are choices you have made in life you wish you had made differently for the glory of God, what are they? If there is a part of your life you think you have wasted, take a moment to follow the 5 steps above to do something different with that reality for the glory of God. 

Scripture To Meditate On: Philippians 3:13-14, ‘No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,  (14) I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us” (NLT).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, I know I cannot go back and undo areas of my life I have wasted. So, I am asking You to help me today to live my life for Your glory. Beating myself up over this will not help. I need to focus on what Your next step for me is. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly