Isaiah 40:27-31 (NRSV)
Read Isaiah 40:27-31 on biblegateway.com
Verse 27Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God"? Verse 28Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. Verse 29He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Verse 30Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; Verse 31but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Devotion
December 7 is a day living "in infamy." And now we have September 11. A year later we continue to ask: Where was God when the towers fell? Once God sent Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem. Was God, then, with the terrorists aboard the airliners? Are they enjoying paradise for committing suicide? We recoil from such a possibility but, encouraged by clerics, such was their belief. Does our foreign policy and our arrogance encourage such attacks? Let us humbly listen to the prophet's heaven-sent word to people who had lost their whole nation.
Prayer
Lord, draw us together in compassion for those who mourn and suffer because of terrorism. Build us up again with liberty and justice. Amen.