Walking by a Blessing

Hey everyone, thanks for joining us for today's Word of Encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Today's reading titled Walking By a Blessing was written by James Banks. In 1799, 12-year-old Conrad Reed found a large glittering rock in the stream that ran through his family's small farm in North Carolina. He carried it home to show his father, a poor immigrant farmer. His father didn't understand the rock's potential value and used it as a doorstop. The family walked by it for years. Eventually, Conrad's rock, actually a 17-pound gold nugget, caught the eye of a local jeweler.

Soon the Reed family became wealthy, and their property became the site of the first major gold strike in the United States. Sometimes we walk past a blessing intent on our own plans and ways. After Israel was exiled to Babylon for disobeying God, he proclaimed freedom for them once again, but he also reminded them of what they'd missed. I am the Lord your God, he told them, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.

If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea. God then encouraged them to follow him away from the old ways into a new life. Leave Babylon, announce this with shouts of joy. Leaving Babylon, perhaps now as much as then, means leaving sinful ways and coming home to a God who longs to do us good, if only we'll obey and follow him.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Isaiah, chapter 48, verses 12 through 20. Listen to me, Jacob, Israel whom I have called. I am he, I am the first, and I am the last. My own hand laid the foundations of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens. When I summon them, they all stand up together.

Come together, all of you, and listen. Which of the idols has foretold these things? The Lord's chosen ally will carry out his purpose against Babylon.

His arm will be against the Babylonians. I, even I, have spoken. Yes, I have called him. I will bring him, and he will succeed in his mission. Come near me and listen to this. From the first announcement, I have not spoken in secret.

At the time it happens, I am there. And now the sovereign Lord has sent me, endowed with his Spirit. This is what the Lord says, Your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea. Your descendants would have been like the sand, your children like its numberless grains.

Their name would never be blotted out, nor destroyed from before me. Leave Babylon. Flee from the Babylonians. Announce this with shouts of joy, and proclaim it.

Send it out to the ends of the earth. Say, The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob. Now let's pray. Loving God, there is no one like you. Help us leave behind our personal Babylonians and walk in the abundant life you provide. Thank you, Lord Jesus. It's in your name that we pray. Amen.