Our Daily Bread 27 August 2017 Devotional – Earnestly Searching

Topic: Earnestly Searching — Sunday August 27, 2017.

Read: Isaiah 62:1–12, Bible in a Year: Psalms 120–122; 1 Corinthians 9

You will be called Sought After, the City No Longer Deserted. Isaiah 62:12

Every Saturday our family lines the edges of the racecourse to cheer on my daughter as she runs with her high school cross-country team. After crossing the finish line, the athletes stream out to rejoin their teammates, coaches, and parents. Crowds engulf the finishers—often more than 300 of them—making it difficult to find one person among so many. We scan the crowd excitedly until we find her, eager to put our arms around the one athlete we came to watch: our much-loved daughter.

After seventy years of captivity in Babylon, God returned the Jews to Jerusalem and Judah. Isaiah describes the delight God has in them, and the work of preparing the highways for their pilgrimage home and the gates to receive them back. God reaffirms His calling of them as His holy people and restores their honor with a new name, “Sought After, the City No Longer Deserted” (Isa. 62:12). He sought them all from the scattered reaches of Babylon to bring them back to Himself.

God seeks His beloved children.

Like the children of Israel, we too are God’s beloved children, earnestly sought after by Him. Though our sin once caused us isolation from Him, Jesus’s sacrifice paves our way back to Him. He searches for each of us intently among all the others, waiting expectantly to fold us into a heartfelt embrace.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for seeking me while I was lost and returning me home to You through Jesus Christ.

God seeks His beloved children.

This message was written By Kirsten Holmberg [Our Daily Bread Ministries.]