February 20, 2026 Devo

February 20th, 2026

Powerful Words from the Prophets
“There he will remove the cloud of gloom, the shadow of death that hangs over the earth. He will swallow up death forever! The Sovereign LORD will wipe away all tears.” – Isaiah 25:7-8 (NLT)
“Do It Again TODAY, O Lord!”

As I was reading some commentary background on our verses for today, there were two interpretations that popped up. Both are beautiful expressions and fulfillments of the promises and grace of God. I’m going to take today and tomorrow to unpack each one.
The first interpretation is that the removal of “the cloud of gloom and shadow of death” is that is God removing the spiritual blindness that we get enveloped in here on earth. Scripture frequently speaks about blindness as a metaphor of our lost state without God.
When we’re spiritually blind, we can’t see God for who He is. We can’t see the ways that He’s reaching out to us or all the rich blessings of life that He has given to us. When God doesn’t exist to us, or we believe if He does exist, it is as a God who is distant, angry, or apathetic, we are certainly living in that “cloud of gloom.” Life is dark. Joy is silent. And hope is gone. We are living in “the shadow of death.” But thank God that He can touch our spiritual eyes, lift that cloud of gloom, and bring us out of death and into LIFE!
I watched an incredibly moving video today of a guy named Stephen McWhirter singing that old hymn, “Blessed Assurance.” The whole song was beautiful, but the last verse brought me to tears. “Perfect submission, all is at rest. I, in my Savior, am happy and blest. Watching and waiting, looking above, filled with His Goodness, lost in His love. This is my story, this is my song…” What made me cry wasn’t just the music or the words. It was Stephen’s story. He had an abusive father who was a pastor. The abuse drove him away from God and into a life of drug addiction. He was a meth addict and alcoholic who could have easily died as another statistic of substance abuse. But Jesus radically and dramatically lifted him out of his cloud of gloom and brought him back from a slow death of drugs to a New Life in Christ.
Let this surround you with hope today. Whatever your cloud of gloom, God can lift you out! Whatever your path of death, God can save you! As long as God remains on His Throne, there is always hope for us or those we love. Cry out to the Lord as Stephen did and ask God to lift the cloud of blindness that keeps you or someone you love from seeing Him. Ask God to stretch out His life-giving hands of grace and hope. Jesus still touches the eyes of those who are blind and raises those who are dead to life. “Do it again TODAY, O Lord!” That’s God’s Word for you today.