May 18, 2026 Devo

May 18th, 2026

Powerful Words from the Prophets
“Yet even now, be free from your captivity! Leave Babylon and the Babylonians. Sing out this message! Shout it to the ends of the earth! The LORD has redeemed his servants, the people of Israel.” – Isaiah 48:20 (NLT)
“Yet Even Now”

Take a deep breath and let it out. Today is a New Day. It is a Clean Slate. You can’t do anything about yesterday, and tomorrow is not here yet. But today is YOURS. And it is a GIFT. How will you use it? What story will you write? How will you use it to become the person you know God wants you to be?
These were the thoughts that flooded my mind when I read our verse today. Take another look at those first three words. “Yet even now…” Do you understand the power behind them? God is telling His People that He has not given up on them. He’s letting them know that their failures and their sins of the past do not have to be the final chapter of their story. He’s letting them know that He is still FOR them and not AGAINST them. He’s reassuring them of His constant presence, His relentless grace, and His everlasting love. There is still time to embrace His forgiveness and open themselves to all He has for them. Today is a New Day. And God’s mercy is the ink with which we can begin to write a New Story.
Don’t live in the failures of yesterday. Don’t let the shame of where you’ve been rob you of where God wants to take you. You don’t have to be who you’ve been. You don’t have to do what you’ve done. Yes, you’ve made mistakes. Yes, you’ve let yourself and others down. Yes, you can look back and realize what you could’ve done, should’ve done, and wish you’d done. But none of that will do anything but make you miserable. Holding onto the past only keeps you from seizing the present.
Take a moment to let yourself bathe in the grace and mercy of God. Let Him remind you that He has redeemed you and believes you to be of infinite worth. Lay all of your yesterdays at His Holy Feet and watch as He throws them into His Sea of Forgetfulness. Now open your hands and your heart to the treasure of today and commit yourself to treating it as the most precious gift you can be given. “Yet even now,” means that God has not given up on you. Don’t you dare give up on Him. Now go write your story! That’s God’s Word for you today.