Day 7: Building Paths of Peace
Bible passage: Isaiah 59:8–11
One Week In
Today is Friday 7th of January 2022. Welcome to Day 7 of our 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting. Today completes your first week. Well done. Keep going.
Yesterday Isaiah showed us the Prince of Peace. Today, fifty chapters later, he shows us what life looks like when a people turn away from God’s ways.
A Society That Lost Its Way
An Honest Diagnosis
Isaiah does not soften it. The people do not know where to find peace or what it means to be just and good. Their roads are crooked, and nobody who walks them finds peace. They look for light and find only darkness. They feel their way along like people who cannot see (Isaiah 59:8–10).
Centuries later Paul quoted these same words to describe the whole human race apart from Christ (Romans 3:17). It reads like a description of our own day.
Why Peace Was Missing
The chapter begins by telling us the reason. God’s arm is not too weak to save, and His ear is not too deaf to hear. It was their sins that had cut them off from Him (Isaiah 59:1–2). Where righteousness is missing, peace goes missing too. The two always travel together.
God Steps In
The Rescuer Comes
The chapter does not end in the dark. God looked and saw that there was nobody to step in, so He stepped in Himself. His own arm brought salvation, and He promised that a Redeemer would come (Isaiah 59:16, 20).
That Redeemer is Jesus. He did not just point out the right road. He said that He is the way.
A Church That Makes Straight Paths
Now His people are called to live differently, so that others can find the way to peace through us. Psalm 89:14 says righteousness and justice are the foundation of God’s throne. They should mark His church as well.
Walk straight. Is there anything crooked in your own life: a half-truth, an unfair dealing, a hidden habit? Put it right today.
Stand up for someone. Who near you is being overlooked or treated unfairly? Ask God how you can stand with them.
Carry the light. “Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.” Psalm 119:105 (NLT) Stay in the Word and you will not lose the road.
Pray today for All Nations Community Church, that we would be a clear path to peace for the people of Wythenshawe.
Prayer for Today:
Lord, thank You that when we could not find the way, You came to us. Forgive me for the crooked paths I have walked. Make my life straight and true. I pray for our church: make us a people of righteousness and justice, so that our neighbours can find their way to You and know Your peace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Keep going
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