Standing Firm by Faith

Thanks for joining us for another daily encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

I'm Tom Felton and I titled our reading, Standing Firm by Faith. Nokia became the world's best-selling mobile phone company in 1998 and saw profits rise to nearly $4 billion in 1999. But by 2011, sales were diminishing and soon the failing phone brand was acquired by Microsoft. One factor in Nokia's mobile division failure was a fear-based work culture that led to disastrous decisions.

Managers were reluctant to tell the truth about the Nokia phone's inferior operating system and other design problems for fear of being fired. In the book of Isaiah, King Ahaz of Judah and his people were fearful, shaken as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind. They knew that the kings of Israel and Aram, or Syria, had allied and their combined armies were marching to Judah to take it over. Although God used Isaiah to encourage Ahaz by telling him his enemies' hostile plans would not happen, the foolish leader fearfully chose to ally with Assyria and submit to the superpower's king. He didn't trust in God, who declared, If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all. The writer of Hebrews helps us consider what it looks like to stand firm in faith today. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

May we press on and not shrink back as the Holy Spirit empowers us to trust in Jesus. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Isaiah chapter 7, verses 1 to 9. When Ahaz, son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezan of Aram and Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Israel, marched up to fight against Jerusalem, but they could not overpower it. Now the house of David was told, Aram has allied itself with Ephraim. So the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind. Then the Lord said to Isaiah, Go out, you and your son, Shear, Jashub, to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the launderer's field.

Say to him, Be careful, keep calm, and don't be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood, because of the fierce anger of Rezan and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. Aram, Ephraim, and Remaliah's son have plotted your ruin, saying, Let us invade Judah, let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it. Yet this is what the sovereign Lord says, It will not take place, it will not happen, for the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is only Rezan. Within sixty-five years, Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people.

The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah's son. If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all. Let's pray. Father, help us stand firm as you provide the faith we need. Thank you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.