Live Your Blessing February 19, 2026 Devotional

ISAIAH 49:16b-17 |  ^16b your walls are continually before me. ¹⁷ Your builders outdo your destroyers, and those who laid you waste go away from you.

This little phrase, “your walls are ever before me,” is a telling one. It tells us much about God’s awareness of us and His gracious response to our self-inflicted distress.

Israel’s walls, prior to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, were a source of pride. Large, thick, imposing—they symbolized Israel’s strength and divine favor, and they fostered the illusion the nation was invulnerable. But self-confidence breeds interdependence and spiritual torpor, and eventually Israel drifted from their allegiance to Yahweh. God allowed the cities fall and the captivity of its leaders and elites. But God also saw the pain and suffering of a people whose walls were now destroyed, whose capital was no longer their own, whose leaders were living in exile. He saw the walls in terms of their sin but also their need and their trouble. After two generations, He raised up leaders to restore the walls and for those in exile there was a road home. God is more ready to forgive than we are to confess.

Do you have walls of pride separating you from God? Are any of your walls in ruins?

Gracious God,

Tear down my walls of independence, vanity, and pride. Be my strength and shield. Thank You for Your marvelous forgiveness.

Amen.