LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Don’t be fooled by the title of this devotional. Christ has no competition. But we elevate the inferior to equality with Him when we trust others to provide our needs.

Isaiah’s admonition from yesterday at the end of chapter two was to stop trusting people when we should be trusting God alone. As chapter three begins he carries over that thought and describes for us the types of people we tend to trust. God has made us relational people, and we need to be in relationships with them. However, our faith, trust, and hope are not to be placed in people, but in God alone. People may bring us happiness, but God alone is the source of our joy.

Unfortunately, many of us turn to our horizontal relationships with others as our best option when we get in trouble, when we need help, or when we need our ego stroked and our sense of value enhanced. We turn to our friends for comfort and support, rather than trusting Jesus.  Our relationships with people are actually dysfunctional if they are used as a substitute for our relationship with Jesus. It’s sad but true – we tend to depend on people more than our Lord.

According to Isaiah, Jesus Christ will fight to maintain the priority position of our lives. When anyone or anything moves into competition with Him, He will move to eliminate it.

Isaiah 3:1-3  “See now, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, is about to take from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support: all supplies of food and all supplies of water, the hero and warrior, the judge and prophet, the soothsayer and elder, the captain of fifty and man of rank, the counselor, skilled craftsman and clever enchanter.”

In this word from the Lord there is a list of ten types of people and things that compete with God for our trust and relationships. Over the next two days we will look at each of them. As we do, open your heart to the work of the Holy Spirit who is eliminating the competition to trusting God alone.

• Provisions and Possessions – The Lord is about to take away all the supply from His people. Remember what Jesus said? Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all the things you need will be supplied for you. (Matt. 6:33)
• Military Power – The hero and the warrior – the security we find in our freedoms will be attacked, because we are to find our peace in our relationship with Jesus Christ. He is our one and only Hero.
• Judges – Some of us trust in our justice system. We love going to court to get retribution or restitution. Justice is to be found only in the coming King, and we are to wait patiently for it.
• Prophets – So many people are following feel-good preachers today. They smile and squint and say anything that makes you feel good about who you are, while avoiding the issue of sin and its consequences. They fill you with false hope and temporary emotional comfort, but when the real trials of life come up they choke you. You must depend on the truth of God’s Word alone.
• Soothsayer – These are fortune tellers and psychics. The practice of such things is condemned throughout the Bible. It is our attempt to see more than what God wants to reveal, because we don’t really trust Him. It is not just a harmless pastime – it is an attempt to gratify some self-centered need for knowledge, security, or affirmation. It is contrary to dependence on God.

Isaiah has laid it out clearly – “Don’t trust in man or man’s things.” Now it’s up to you to decide how much of this connects with you and keeps you from connecting completely with Christ.

Pastor John