December 26, 2025 Devo

Do you ever long for the “good old days?” Do you ever wish you could go back to a time before your life became so complicated or painful? Do you ever wish you could just undo it all? Do you ever wish you could rewind the tape to a time before you made some unwise decisions? Choices that are causing you to suffer from consequences you never dreamed you’d have to deal with? That’s what’s going on in this verse. The people of God are in captivity. They’re living as exiles in a foreign land. They forgot God and went their own way, even though He warned them not to. Now they’re dealing with the cost of those poor choices. They just want it to be the way it used to be. Have you ever felt like that?
Two thoughts came to mind as I was reading this. One is that sometimes we want the suffering to be over too soon. I know that sounds crazy, but there is much to be gained in our times of exile. We need time to truly feel the sting so that we fully understand the cost of ignoring God or not being wise. We need time to reflect on the causes behind the choices that led us to where we are. We forget that experience is not always the best teacher. If it were, we wouldn’t repeat that same experience over and over again! EVALUATED experience is the best teacher. Deep learning only comes from lingering in the pain long enough to understand its roots. Otherwise, we’ll be right back here again.
The second thought I had was that the Israelites wanted to go back because they had no idea how glorious the future could be. They wanted to return to their temple, their laws, their sacrifices, and their priests. They had no idea what was on the horizon beyond their exile: The coming of Jesus! They would no longer need a temple to connect with the presence of God. They would become temples themselves, and God’s presence would live in them. THAT was a future beyond their imaginations. And that is YOUR future, my friend! I don’t know how you got to where you are today, but I do know that going back is not the answer. You are not going to undo your past. Those days are gone. But God, in His Grace, can help you rebuild for a magnificent future. One you can’t even imagine.
So, stop wishing these days away. Learn from them. REALLY learn from them. Ask God to show you every drop of wisdom that you need to glean from this. But don’t ask God to take you back to the way it was. Instead, ask Him to lead you on to how it can be! No matter where you are right now, if God is still on His Throne and His Grace is still at work in this world, then the BEST days are always those days that are yet to come. Don’t look back. Look in, look up, and look forward. Jesus is on your horizon, too! That’s God’s Word for you today.