Daily Devotionals

Dead End Desperation Week 6: Tuesday

"All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all." Isaiah 53:6

We have all experienced losing things valuable to us, but have you ever yourself experienced being lost? As someone with a terrible sense of direction, I have found myself lost quite a few times in my life. To me, being lost feels even more terrible than losing something. If I am not careful, I can quickly panic when I am lost and need help knowing how to get where I am going. While many of us have found ourselves temporarily lost at times, Scripture teaches that so many people are spiritually lost every day and in need of the hope of Jesus. The good news is that God will always search after lost people. 

The Bible makes it clear that we all are prone to wander. The prophet Isaiah wrote about it this way in Isaiah 53, “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own” (verse 6). Sin created in us this tendency to wander. Sin causes us to decide that we know better than God and want to do whatever we want, even when it goes against what God wants. When we take a different path than God has called us to take, we have wandered away. We are like sheep in this way, except, unlike sheep, we know what we are doing when we wander. Sheep do not know what they are doing, but we do. We know we are going in the wrong direction and living contradictory to God’s word when we sin.

 Just like straying away from their shepherd is dangerous, even deadly, for sheep, wandering from God is dangerous. Romans 6:23 tells us that sin leads to death. This is why Jesus’ description of Himself in Scripture as the “Good Shepherd” is so significant. He did everything He could to bring us back to Him, even when that meant laying down His life.

Moving toward action

Think of someone who you know who is far from Christ. Invite them to church this weekend. Your invitation lets them know that they are not forgotten, that you care about them, and, more importantly, that God cares for them.

Going Deeper

Isaiah 53:1-12 (NLT)

"Who has believed our message?
To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm?
2 My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot,
like a root in dry ground.
There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,
nothing to attract us to him.
3 He was despised and rejected—
a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
He was despised, and we did not care.

4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
5 But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
the sins of us all.

7 He was oppressed and treated harshly,
yet he never said a word.
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.
And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
8 Unjustly condemned,
he was led away.
No one cared that he died without descendants,
that his life was cut short in midstream.
But he was struck down
for the rebellion of my people.
9 He had done no wrong
and had never deceived anyone.
But he was buried like a criminal;
he was put in a rich man’s grave.

10 But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him
and cause him grief.
Yet when his life is made an offering for sin,
he will have many descendants.
He will enjoy a long life,
and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands.
11 When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish,
he will be satisfied.
And because of his experience,
my righteous servant will make it possible
for many to be counted righteous,
for he will bear all their sins.
12 I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier,
because he exposed himself to death.
He was counted among the rebels.
He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.