4.14.2026 - Jody Duncan

April 14, 2026

This week's devotions are written by Jody Duncan

The Power of God

Isaiah 40: 29-31

As you enter your time with God today, take a moment to quiet your mind. Breathe this prayer: “Come, Lord Jesus, come. Fill me with your Spirit. Open my heart that you might share your words of life with me today.”

We read today from Isaiah 40: 29-31. Read the passage now or at the end of this devotion. What does it teach us about the power of God to renew and restore us?

This lesson from Isaiah is presented wholly in physical rather than spiritual terms: God gives strength to the weary and power to the weak. He enables us to run and to walk, and even to soar like eagles if we trust in him. Through God’s power we are given the gifts of strength and endurance.

I recently watched a show set in 18th-century Scotland, in which a young Scot was brutally flogged by a sadistic British officer. Lash after lash after lash tore strips of flesh from the young man’s back.

It was so brutal, I turned my head away – and I thought of our Savior. Was anyone ever in more need of strength and endurance than Jesus on the cross? Sometimes, we turn our heads away from thoughts and images of Jesus’ suffering, just as I turned mine away from the flogging scene in that television show. We can’t confront it head-on because it is too horrible to contemplate.

Years ago, when I was writing for the film magazine Cinefex, the publisher and I went into Los Angeles to see an early screening of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. The scourging of Jesus in the film was horrific, and it went on and on. At some point, the publisher slammed shut the notebook in which he’d been taking notes, leaned over to me, and whispered, “We’re not covering this.”

We talked about it on the drive home, and he explained that he’d felt real revulsion at what he considered to be an unnecessarily gruesome and graphic depiction of the scourging of Jesus. I countered with the question: “But what if it was an accurate depiction? What if the point wasn’t to titillate with violence but rather to make us look at what really happened, what Jesus really endured for our sake?” He relented, and we wound up covering the highly impactful film.

I’ve been reminded of this incident many times in the years since as I’ve found myself looking away from our world’s harsh realities. I turn from evidence of evil, I turn from unpleasant truths, and, yes, sometimes, I turn from Jesus’ suffering. It is too awful. It puts me too far in his debt. How can I ever repay him?

I can’t really repay him. I can only trust in the power and glory of God, just as Jesus himself did on the cross.

Today, let us follow the lead of Jesus, and like him, trust in God’s power to give us limitless strength and endurance.