Come Follow Me Meditations

Rest tonight in a promise steadier than the mountains. A Come Follow Me sleep meditation for October 5 to 11, "He Hath Borne Our Griefs, and Carried Our Sorrows" (Isaiah 50 to 57), resting in Isaiah 54 and 55. The Lord promises that though the mountains depart, His kindness shall not depart, and that with everlasting kindness He will gather His people. He speaks to a storm-tossed city and lays its...

Noah has one wall between him and everything his grandfather hid, six armed men at his back, and a door that will not open for strength. A Come Follow Me fiction chapter for September 28 to October 4, "Comfort Ye My People" (Isaiah 40-49). This week Isaiah turns from warning to comfort, speaking to exiles in Babylon who are sure God has forgotten them. He promises a way prepared in the wilderness,...

A gentle bedtime story about the night God told His children He had written their names on His hands. A Come Follow Me bedtime story for September 28 to October 4, "Comfort Ye My People" (Isaiah 40 to 49). Tonight's story takes children to a camp of little cooking fires beside a slow river, far from home. These were God's people, living a long way from Jerusalem, and some of the children there had...

Begin today with the first word God spoke to a weary people. A Come Follow Me morning meditation for September 28 to October 4, "Comfort Ye My People" (Isaiah 40 to 49). This week Isaiah's message turns. The warnings grow quiet, and a single word opens chapter 40, spoken twice to a people too tired to hear it once. A messenger is sent up a high mountain with good tidings and given four words to ca...

Rest tonight in the moment God answered a people who thought He had stopped noticing them. A Come Follow Me sleep meditation for September 28 to October 4, "Comfort Ye My People" (Isaiah 40 to 49). These chapters were written for people living far from home, in exile, long after their city and their temple were gone. Somewhere in that waiting they began to say a quiet sentence: my way is hid from...

The lights go out on schedule, the plan works, and then halfway down a rope the thing holding Noah rips out of the ice. A Come Follow Me fiction chapter for September 21-27, "A Marvellous Work and a Wonder" (Isaiah 13-14; 22; 24-30; 35). This week Isaiah speaks to a Jerusalem that keeps propping itself up with treaties and walls and clever plans. He tells them about Eliakim, a steward fastened lik...

A gentle story about a shelter built long before anyone needed it. A Come Follow Me bedtime story for September 21 to 27, "A Marvellous Work and a Wonder" (Isaiah 13-14; 22; 24-30; 35). Isaiah paints pictures with words, and one of his warmest is a shelter. He says God is a refuge from the storm and a shadow from the heat. Tonight's story follows a girl named Adah and her little brother Eli on a h...

Begin today with the promise God made to people who felt too ordinary to be part of anything holy. A Come Follow Me morning meditation for September 21 to 27, "A Marvellous Work and a Wonder" (Isaiah 13-14; 22; 24-30; 35). This week Isaiah moves from warning to wonder. In Isaiah 29 a sealed book is handed first to a man who can read and then to a man who cannot, and neither one can open it. Into t...

Rest tonight in the promise Isaiah made to ground that had given up expecting anything. A Come Follow Me sleep meditation for September 21 to 27, "A Marvellous Work and a Wonder" (Isaiah 13-14; 22; 24-30; 35). Isaiah 35 is written to a people who had watched good things fall apart. Cities emptied, harvests thinned, a whole landscape gone dry and quiet. Into that dryness the prophet says the wilder...

Caught red-handed, Noah gives the man hunting him nothing, then hands the woman who took his mother a letter he never read. Come Follow Me fiction for September 14–20, "God Is My Salvation" (Isaiah 1–12): The Ark Conspiracy, Chapter 35. This chapter walks beside Isaiah 1–12, where the prophet warns a people who have gone badly wrong and, in the same breath, offers them a way back before they have...

A gentle bedtime story about a stain that would not wash out, and the kindest promise God ever made about it. A Come Follow Me bedtime story for September 14–20, "God Is My Salvation" (Isaiah 1–12). A girl kneels by a stream at the end of the day with a piece of cloth she cannot get clean, and her grandmother sits down beside her and tells her what the prophet Isaiah said that afternoon. God had n...

Begin the day with the sentence the prophet finally stopped explaining and simply said out loud. A Come Follow Me morning meditation for September 14–20, "God Is My Salvation" (Isaiah 1–12). Isaiah is standing in the temple in the year his king died, sure of nothing except his own smallness, when a live coal from the altar touches his lips and God calls him clean. Only then does the question come,...

Rest tonight under a promise God has already kept once — a cloud by day and a fire by night over every ordinary house. A Come Follow Me sleep meditation for September 14–20, "God Is My Salvation" (Isaiah 1–12). Isaiah describes a covering the Lord creates over every dwelling place and calls it a place of refuge, a covert from storm and from rain — the same pillar of cloud and fire that walked Isra...

One night. One minute. And a compass needle that is not supposed to move. A Come Follow Me fiction chapter for September 7–13, "He Shall Direct Thy Paths" (Proverbs 1–4; 15–16; 22; 31; Ecclesiastes 1–3; 11–12). This week the Come, Follow Me reading turns to Proverbs and Ecclesiastes — Solomon's collected wisdom, written down so someone coming after him would not have to learn it the hard way. Prov...

A gentle bedtime story about King Solomon and the little words that make homes peaceful. A Come Follow Me bedtime story for September 7–13, "He Shall Direct Thy Paths" — Proverbs 1–4; 15–16; 22; 31, for children and families. When Solomon became king he could have asked God for anything, and he asked for a wise and understanding heart. He wrote what God gave him into little sayings called proverbs...

Begin your morning trusting the One who sees the whole road. A Come Follow Me morning meditation for September 7–13, "He Shall Direct Thy Paths" — Proverbs 1–4; 15–16; 22; 31 and Ecclesiastes 1–3; 11–12. Solomon's counsel opens with a father speaking to his son in the cool of the early morning. A traveler stands at the head of a path that bends out of sight and hears the invitation to trust in the...

Rest tonight in the God who holds every season of your life. A Come Follow Me sleep meditation for September 7–13, "He Shall Direct Thy Paths" — Proverbs 1–4; 15–16; 22; 31 and Ecclesiastes 1–3; 11–12. The Preacher of Ecclesiastes watches the lamps of the city go out from a rooftop and writes that to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. He has seen fields plante...

He has carried his grandfather's watch across a continent, and the answer has been inside it the whole time. Chapter 33 of The Ark Conspiracy, a Come Follow Me faith-fiction series for August 31–September 6, "Let Every Thing That Hath Breath Praise the Lord" (Psalms 102–103; 110; 116–119; 127–128; 135–139; 146–150). THE STORY SO FAR: Noah Reyes crossed a continent with his two best friends to reac...

A gentle bedtime story about a little girl who discovers the whole world singing thank you to God — a Come Follow Me bedtime story for August 31–September 6, "Let Every Thing That Hath Breath Praise the Lord" (Psalms 146–150). This week the book of Psalms ends in one long hallelujah. Little Miriam walks with her grandfather past the temple singers — trumpet, harp, timbrel, and cymbals — and learns...

Begin your morning with light for the road ahead — a Come Follow Me morning meditation for August 31–September 6, "Let Every Thing That Hath Breath Praise the Lord" (Psalms 102–103; 110; 116–119; 127–128; 135–139; 146–150). This week the book of Psalms closes in praise. We walk with a traveler whose small lamp lights just the next step — "thy word is a lamp unto my feet" (Psalm 119) — climb with t...

Rest tonight inside the psalm for anyone who has wondered if they are truly seen — a Come Follow Me sleep meditation for August 31–September 6, "Let Every Thing That Hath Breath Praise the Lord" (Psalms 102–103; 110; 116–119; 127–128; 135–139; 146–150, Psalm 139). This week we rest in the closing songs of the book of Psalms. Under the night sky, the psalmist of Psalm 139 discovers he is fully sear...

He is standing directly on top of the one machine that can save everyone — and there is no door. Chapter 32 of The Ark Conspiracy, a Come Follow Me faith-fiction series for August 24–30, "I Will Declare What He Hath Done for My Soul" (Psalms 49–51; 61–66; 69–72; 77–78; 85–86). THE STORY SO FAR: Noah Reyes crossed a continent with his two best friends to reach a research station buried in the ice,...

A gentle bedtime story about a king who made a wrong choice, and the quiet prayer that made him new. A Come Follow Me bedtime story for August 24–30, "I Will Declare What He Hath Done for My Soul" (Psalms 49–51; 61–66; 69–72; 77–78; 85–86, David). Long ago, in a palace late at night, a king named David sat alone with one small oil lamp burning. He had once been a shepherd boy who made up songs abo...

Start today by remembering one rescue you never explained to anyone. A Come Follow Me morning meditation for August 24–30, "I Will Declare What He Hath Done for My Soul" (Psalms 49–51; 61–66; 69–72; 77–78; 85–86). This week's psalms are songs of testimony. In Psalm 66 a man stops an ordinary morning to say "Come and hear, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul" — not what God did for the...

Rest tonight in a psalm written by someone who could not sleep either. A Come Follow Me sleep meditation for August 24–30, "I Will Declare What He Hath Done for My Soul" (Psalms 49–51; 61–66; 69–72; 77–78; 85–86, Asaph and David). Psalm 77 is a night song. Asaph lies awake with his hand stretched out in the dark, his soul refusing to be comforted, too troubled to speak — and he asks the questions...