Oct. 31, 2026: The Power of God for Those Who Trust Him

BIG IDEA:  A SENT LIFE is driven by the POWER and the COMPASSION of our LOVING GOD.  

VERSE OF THE WEEK Isaiah 30:15   “This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength”

2 Kings 19:14-19
“Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD and spread it before the LORD. And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said: “O LORD, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made the heavens and the earth. Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. So now, O LORD our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O LORD, are God alone.””

2 Kings 19:35-37
“And that night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at Nineveh. And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.”

Isaiah 31:4-5
“For thus the LORD said to me, “As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey, and when a band of shepherds is called out against him he is not terrified by their shouting or daunted at their noise, so the LORD of hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill. Like birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it; he will spare and rescue it.””

When Hezekiah finally exhausted every other option, he did what he should have done from the beginning: he brought the crisis before God.

He took the threatening letter from Assyria and spread it out before the Lord. He acknowledged who God was. He acknowledged the reality of the threat. And he asked God to act.

That night, 185,000 Assyrian soldiers were struck down. The king of Assyria returned home and was eventually assassinated by his own sons. The threat that seemed unstoppable was nothing before the power of Almighty God.

This is the God we serve.

He is not a distant observer. He is not weak. He is not indifferent. He is the Holy One of Israel, the everlasting Rock, the One who has all power and all compassion.

A sent life is not driven by our own strength, strategy, resources, or ability to control outcomes. A sent life is driven by the power and compassion of our loving God. We do what He calls us to do, but we do not carry what only He can carry. We trust. We obey. We pray. We place our full weight on Him.

Not God plus Egypt.
Not God plus control.
Not God plus our backup plan.
God alone.

Reflection Question:
Looking back over this devotional, what has God been showing you about where your trust has been misplaced, and what would it look like to place your full weight on Him going forward?

Practical Application:
Write a prayer modeled after Hezekiah’s in 2 Kings 19. Name the specific threat or burden you are facing. Acknowledge who God is. State the reality of your situation honestly. Ask God to act. Then commit to trusting His answer, whether it looks the way you expect or not.

Song of the Day:  
Egypt - Bethel Music, Cory Asbury