June 13, 2026 Devo

Do you remember Monty Hall and “Let’s Make a Deal!”? It was such a cool show. You could come and bring whatever useless thing you brought with you to the show, and if Monty called you out of the audience, you could trade that piece of junk for something you knew would be better. It was a blind trade, so you didn’t know what you were getting, but you knew it had to be better than what you had in your hand. After that, it got a little trickier. Monty would try to persuade you to trade something nice for the possibility of something amazing. But sometimes what you got behind the curtain wasn’t so amazing. It was something much less than what you had already won.
It hit me today that Monty Hall was like both God and the Devil. God gives you up trades. You can give God your junk, and He will give you something wonderful and amazing. The Devil tries to get you to trade the things you have that are beautiful for something that he tells you is going to be amazing. But the Devil is a liar. And your beautiful thing gets traded for something ugly and horrible.
I like God’s version of “Let’s Make a Deal” much better! Isaiah gives us a glimpse of that in our passage today. The people knew that God was going to restore their city and restore their temple. What they didn’t know was God’s ability to restore their very lives as well! And God’s deal is extended to US as well!
God will restore our broken hearts that are covered with the ashes of grief. He will renew them with the beauty of His Hope and Comfort. God will take our discouragement and failures and lift us, encourage us, and bless us with His power and presence. God will breathe life into us and restore our weary and downtrodden souls. And God will remove our sin with His grace and wrap us in His robes of righteousness. Monty Hall couldn’t give you ANYTHING like that! But God can. Go ahead and take the deal! That’s God’s Word for you today.