Daily Devotions · July 24
Reading for July 24
Read the whole Bible in a year, a few chapters a day.
Isaiah 40–42 · 1 Peter 3
Isaiah 40–42 · 1 Peter 3, Berean Standard Bible
Isaiah 40
“Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God. 2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her forced labor has been completed; her iniquity has been pardoned. For she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.” 3 A voice of one calling: “Prepare the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert. 4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low; the uneven ground will become smooth, and the rugged land a plain. 5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all humanity together will see it.” For the mouth of the LORD has spoken. 6 A voice says, “Cry out!” And I asked, “What should I cry out?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field. 7 The grass withers and the flowers fall when the breath of the LORD blows on them; indeed, the people are grass. 8 The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” 9 Go up on a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news. Raise your voice loudly, O Jerusalem, herald of good news. Lift it up, do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” 10 Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and His arm establishes His rule. His reward is with Him, and His recompense accompanies Him. 11 He tends His flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart. He gently leads the nursing ewes. 12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on a scale and the hills with a balance? 13 Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or informed Him as His counselor? 14 Whom did He consult to enlighten Him, and who taught Him the paths of justice? Who imparted knowledge to Him and showed Him the way of understanding? 15 Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are considered a speck of dust on the scales; He lifts up the islands like fine dust. 16 Lebanon is not sufficient for fuel, nor its animals enough for a burnt offering. 17 All the nations are as nothing before Him; He regards them as nothingness and emptiness. 18 To whom will you liken God? To what image will you compare Him? 19 To an idol that a craftsman casts and a metalworker overlays with gold and fits with silver chains? 20 One lacking such an offering chooses wood that will not rot. He seeks a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not topple. 21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the foundation of the earth? 22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth; its dwellers are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. 23 He brings the princes to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth meaningless. 24 No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner have their stems taken root in the ground, than He blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like stubble. 25 “To whom will you liken Me, or who is My equal?” asks the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high: Who created all these? He leads forth the starry host by number; He calls each one by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. 27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and why do you assert, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my claim is ignored by my God”? 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary; His understanding is beyond searching out. 29 He gives power to the faint and increases the strength of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall. 31 But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.
Isaiah 41
“Be silent before Me, O islands, and let the peoples renew their strength. Let them come forward and testify; let us together draw near for judgment. 2 Who has aroused one from the east and called him to his feet in righteousness? He hands nations over to him and subdues kings before him. He turns them to dust with his sword, to windblown chaff with his bow. 3 He pursues them, going on safely, hardly touching the path with his feet. 4 Who has performed this and carried it out, calling forth the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD—the first and the last—I am He.” 5 The islands see and fear; the ends of the earth tremble. They approach and come forward. 6 Each one helps the other and says to his brother, “Be strong!” 7 The craftsman encourages the goldsmith, and he who wields the hammer cheers him who strikes the anvil, saying of the welding, “It is good.” He nails it down so it will not be toppled. 8 “But you, O Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham My friend— 9 I brought you from the ends of the earth and called you from its farthest corners. I said, ‘You are My servant.’ I have chosen and not rejected you. 10 Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. 11 Behold, all who rage against you will be ashamed and disgraced; those who contend with you will be reduced to nothing and will perish. 12 You will seek them but will not find them. Those who wage war against you will come to nothing. 13 For I am the LORD your God, who takes hold of your right hand and tells you: Do not fear, I will help you. 14 Do not fear, O Jacob, you worm, O few men of Israel. I will help you,” declares the LORD. “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. 15 Behold, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff. 16 You will winnow them, and a wind will carry them away; a gale will scatter them. But you will rejoice in the LORD; you will glory in the Holy One of Israel. 17 The poor and needy seek water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. I, the LORD, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. 18 I will open rivers on the barren heights, and fountains in the middle of the valleys. I will turn the desert into a pool of water, and the dry land into flowing springs. 19 I will plant cedars in the wilderness, acacias, myrtles, and olive trees. I will set cypresses in the desert, elms and boxwood together, 20 so that all may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the LORD has done this and the Holy One of Israel has created it.” 21 “Present your case,” says the LORD. “Submit your arguments,” says the King of Jacob. 22 “Let them come and tell us what will happen. Tell the former things, so that we may reflect on them and know the outcome. Or announce to us what is coming. 23 Tell us the things that are to come, so that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do something good or evil, that we may look on together in dismay. 24 Behold, you are nothing and your work is of no value. Anyone who chooses you is detestable. 25 I have raised up one from the north, and he has come—one from the east who calls on My name. He will march over rulers as if they were mortar, like a potter who treads the clay. 26 Who has declared this from the beginning, so that we may know, and from times past, so that we may say: ‘He was right’? No one announced it, no one foretold it, no one heard your words. 27 I was the first to tell Zion: ‘Look, here they are!’ And I gave to Jerusalem a herald of good news. 28 When I look, there is no one; there is no counselor among them; when I ask them, they have nothing to say. 29 See, they are all a delusion; their works amount to nothing; their images are as empty as the wind.
Isaiah 42
“Here is My Servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen One, in whom My soul delights. I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will bring justice to the nations. 2 He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the streets. 3 A bruised reed He will not break and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice. 4 He will not grow weak or discouraged before He has established justice on the earth. In His law the islands will put their hope.” 5 This is what God the LORD says—He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who walk in it: 6 “I, the LORD, have called you for a righteous purpose, and I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations, 7 to open the eyes of the blind, to bring prisoners out of the dungeon and those sitting in darkness out from the prison house. 8 I am the LORD; that is My name! I will not yield My glory to another or My praise to idols. 9 Behold, the former things have happened, and now I declare new things. Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.” 10 Sing to the LORD a new song—His praise from the ends of the earth—you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and all who dwell in them. 11 Let the desert and its cities raise their voices; let the villages of Kedar cry aloud. Let the people of Sela sing for joy; let them cry out from the mountaintops. 12 Let them give glory to the LORD and declare His praise in the islands. 13 The LORD goes forth like a mighty one; He stirs up His zeal like a warrior. He shouts; yes, He roars in triumph over His enemies: 14 “I have kept silent from ages past; I have remained quiet and restrained. But now I will groan like a woman in labor; I will at once gasp and pant. 15 I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation. I will turn the rivers into dry land and drain the marshes. 16 I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; I will guide them on unfamiliar paths. I will turn darkness into light before them and rough places into level ground. These things I will do for them, and I will not forsake them. 17 But those who trust in idols and say to molten images, ‘You are our gods!’ will be turned back in utter shame. 18 Listen, you deaf ones; look, you blind ones, that you may see! 19 Who is blind but My servant, or deaf like the messenger I am sending? Who is blind like My covenant partner, or blind like the servant of the LORD? 20 Though seeing many things, you do not keep watch. Though your ears are open, you do not hear.” 21 The LORD was pleased, for the sake of His righteousness, to magnify His law and make it glorious. 22 But this is a people plundered and looted, all trapped in caves or imprisoned in dungeons. They have become plunder with no one to rescue them, and loot with no one to say, “Send them back!” 23 Who among you will pay attention to this? Who will listen and obey hereafter? 24 Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned? They were unwilling to walk in His ways, and they would not obey His law. 25 So He poured out on them His furious anger and the fierceness of battle. It enveloped them in flames, but they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.
1 Peter 3
Wives, in the same way, submit yourselves to your husbands, so that even if they refuse to believe the word, they will be won over without words by the behavior of their wives 2 when they see your pure and reverent demeanor. 3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair or gold jewelry or fine clothes, 4 but from the inner disposition of your heart, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in God’s sight. 5 For this is how the holy women of the past adorned themselves. They put their hope in God and were submissive to their husbands, 6 just as Sarah obeyed Abraham and called him lord. And you are her children if you do what is right and refuse to give way to fear. 7 Husbands, in the same way, treat your wives with consideration as a delicate vessel, and with honor as fellow heirs of the gracious gift of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered. 8 Finally, all of you, be like-minded and sympathetic, love as brothers, be tenderhearted and humble. 9 Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. 10 For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. 11 He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. 12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are inclined to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” 13 Who can harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear what they fear; do not be shaken.” 15 But in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you. But respond with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who slander you may be put to shame by your good behavior in Christ. 17 For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. 18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit, 19 in whom He also went and preached to the spirits in prison 20 who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In the ark a few people, only eight souls, were saved through water. 21 And this water symbolizes the baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to Him.
Scripture from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), dedicated to the public domain.
How to SOAP
Grab a journal and a pen. Read the chapters above and watch for the verse that stops you. Then take it through four steps.
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Scripture
Write out the verse that stood out to you.
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Observation
What is it saying? Who is speaking, and to whom?
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Application
What does it mean for your life today? Be specific.
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Prayer
Talk to God about it. Ask Him to help you live it.
Your SOAP journal
Write your SOAP here. Tap any verse in the reading to add it to Scripture. Your journal saves on this device only, so no one else sees it.
Added to your journal. Go to journal
Why daily devotions?
Devotions are time set aside each day to read God's Word and let Him speak. The point isn't checking off chapters. It's meeting with Him.
Ten or fifteen minutes is enough to start. Pick a time and a place and keep the appointment. Mornings work well for a lot of us, before the phone and the day start talking.
Missed a day? Don't start over. Read today's chapters and keep going.