Daily Devotional For Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Good morning Southside! Thank you for taking the time to spend some time with the Lord and to hear from Him. Our daily devotional for today comes from Isaiah 62:1-3a:
“This is what the Lord says: ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Could you build Me a temple as good as that? Could you build Me such a resting place? (2) My hands have made both heaven and earth; they and everything in them are mine. I, the Lord, have spoken! I will bless those who have humble and contrite hearts, who tremble at My word. (3) But those who choose their own ways—delighting in their detestable sins—will not have their offerings accepted” (NLT).
On November 1, 1755 at 9:40, Lisbon, Portugal was struck by a horrific earthquake. It was All Saints Day and all the churches were packed for this Christian holiday. Sadly, 30 churches were destroyed and within 6 months 15,000 people had died. Those who survived, fearing more after shocks, ran down to the harbor to board boats and ships to escape. There would be no escape for them because Lisbon was hit by three tsunami waves. Thousands more died. Candles, and fires were quickly extinguished and caused fires to start and spread throughout the city. Another 15,000 died bringing the death toll to 30,000.
Philosopher Voltaire witnessed all of this from France and began to ask deep probably theological questions such as, “If God is good and if God is all powerful, how could a good all-powerful God allow this to happen?” When others tried to answer his question with comments such as, “Our world is fallen due to sin and this includes nature. This is the best of all possible worlds,” Voltaire would not have any of it. He is reported to have said, “If this is the best of all possible worlds, what can the rest be?” (Source: John Stott, The Cross of Christ, pp. 311-312, quoting Voltaire’s Candide).
You do not have to be here long to see this world is fallen and is sinful. In some way, God would agree with Voltaire because “what the best can be” is to come. God has been for the last 2,000 years attempting to restore what was destroyed by the Fall and sin through Jesus Christ. God created this world to be perfect, but we messed it up. And through Jesus Christ, God has been attempting to make us to be “perfect” (maturing) so that this world is less of a mess. There is coming a day when God is going to create a new heaven and a new earth (Rev. 21:1).
Isaiah 66 is about God saying to us, “It’s your fault but My responsibility to fix it because you can’t and never will.” We know we cannot save ourselves. We have tried every kind of system to do it and they all have failed: political, religious, medical, educational, and judicial. We know we need a Savior that is why we created these systems to save us. God knew we never could or would and so He came personally in the person of Jesus Christ. We know we keep coming up short as Scripture says (Rom. 3:23).
As we read the first few verses of Isaiah 66 and the rest of the chapter, Isaiah is not saying it was wrong for Solomon to build the Temple nor was it wrong for the Jewish exiles returning from Babylon and Persia to rebuild it. What he is saying is that all of us are vulnerable to the temptation to think we can put God in a box or wall Him into what we want. For example, there is not one verse in the whole Bible where God shows any kind of care for church buildings. Now let that sink in for a moment. Nowhere in Scripture does it say that God blesses building, liturgies, a certain style of music or programs or ministries. What the Bible does say here in Isaiah and other places is what God blesses: a trembling and humble heart. We see this in Stephen’s sermon in Acts 7:44-53.
We should never think of our worship as simply our singing or the sermon. Genuine worship is listening to God’s word with a longing to hear, a desire to believe and an intention to obey. The one to whom God blesses is not the high church dressed fellow or the Hawaiian clothed dressed fellow, but the fellow who is humble and trembles before God almighty.
God uses preachers to bring His word to His people. All of them are imperfect and they all should attempt to bring God’s word to His people with the least complications as possible and it is the congregation’s responsibility to listen to God’s Word while at the same time not getting stuck on any mistakes he may make. Paul compliments the church at Thessalonica for doing this in 1 Thessalonians 2:13.
The humble and trembling hearts are hungry for God’s Word. They thirst for it so they can hear it, believe and obey it. They desire that their hunger and thirst are satisfied by the Word of God, not the one preaching it or the one leading the singing or the one running the audio/visual or the comfort of the seats, the temperature in the sanctuary or genre of music or the length of the service or the layout of the building. All of this is our attempt to put God in a box that we feel meets our requirements.
They are humble and tremble because they know they are a sinner who can only have their hunger and thirst quenched by the Word of God. Isaiah, Stephen and Paul say that the humble and trembling person is the only one God blesses who hears, believes and then does what the Word of God says (James 1:22-25).
Reflection Assignment: When you go to worship, do you go with an attitude of humility and trembling to hear, believe and obey the word of God OR are you sitting back being judgmental over environmental concerns or genre of music or length of service? Why or why not? It doesn’t take us long to see that our world has fallen, but that is not the real issue but another box. The real issue is do we acknowledge humbly we ourselves are fallen and need God’s word to help us. Does this describe you? Why or why not?
Scripture To Meditate On: Psalm 51:17, “The sacrifice that God wants is a humble spirit. God, You will not turn away someone who comes with a humble heart and is willing to obey You” (ERV)
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, please forgive me for my pride and my attempts to put You in my box. I want to long to hear, a desire to believe and an intention to obey Your Word. I love Your Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly