Isaiah 55:10-13 (NRSV)
Read Isaiah 55:10-13 on biblegateway.com
Verse 10For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, Verse 11so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. Verse 12For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Verse 13Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
Devotion
God's Word accomplishes what it says it will do. The writer of Second Isaiah uses the analogy of snow and rain to make this important point. Snow and rain fall from "the heavens" and there is nothing we can do to make them happen. Likewise, there is nothing we can do to stop them, though many wish that were not the case during this unusually wet period in much of the United States. Water falls in the form of precipitation and then returns to the skies from where it came.
So it is with God's Word. God speaks and his purposes are accomplished. This is reassuring to preachers who strive to faithfully share God's Word each Sunday morning. Yet, we often fail. And that is when I take great comfort in the truth that God's Word will not return empty but will accomplish that for which God sends it.
Prayer
Gracious Lord, you entrust Your Word to fallible preachers. We humbly pray that Your Word would work in us, and through us, and even in spite of us, so that your purposes for your creation are fulfilled. Amen.