• Journal
  • Here are some tools to help you with the devotionals:
    • A Guide to Journaling & Prayer
    • A Guide to Self-Reflection
    • A chart to help articulate feelings

• Read & Reflect

  Isaiah 40:1-11

  ¹ Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

  ² Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

    and cry to her

  that her warfare is ended,

    that her iniquity is pardoned,

  that she has received from the Lord’s hand

    double for all her sins.

  ³ A voice cries:

  “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;

    make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

  ⁴ Every valley shall be lifted up,

    and every mountain and hill be made low;

  the uneven ground shall become level,

    and the rough places a plain.

  ⁵ And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,

    and all flesh shall see it together,

    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

  ⁶ A voice says, “Cry!”

    And I said, “What shall I cry?”

  All flesh is grass,

    and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.

  ⁷ The grass withers, the flower fades

    when the breath of the Lord blows on it;

    surely the people are grass.

  ⁸ The grass withers, the flower fades,

    but the word of our God will stand forever.

  ⁹ Go on up to a high mountain,

    O Zion, herald of good news;

  lift up your voice with strength,

    O Jerusalem, herald of good news;

    lift it up, fear not;

  say to the cities of Judah,

   “Behold your God!”

  ¹⁰ Behold, the Lord God comes with might,

    and his arm rules for him;

  behold, his reward is with him,

    and his recompense before him.

  ¹¹ He will tend his flock like a shepherd;

    he will gather the lambs in his arms;

  he will carry them in his bosom,

    and gently lead those that are with young.

  “Those who heard Isaiah’s prophecy associated with it the return of the exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem. We can see another fulfillment, however, because of the New Testament. Isaiah’s words anticipated John the Baptist and the good news announcing the coming Messiah.” [1] 

  Isaiah 40:3-5

  • What preparations were being called for in anticipation of the glory of the Lord to be revealed through the coming of Jesus?
  • How might this apply to me today?

  Isaiah 40:6-8

  • What two seemingly contradictory descriptions of God are given in vv. 10-11?  Why is this “good news”?

   

• Gratitude Journal & Prayer of Thanksgiving
• Write down three things that you are thankful for.

[1]  The Quest Study Bible, (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Zondervan Publishing House, 1994), 992.