Daily Christian Devotional

28 December, 2025

Isaiah 63.7-9, Psalm 148*, Hebrews 2.10-end, Matthew 2.13-end

Isaiah recalls the steadfast love of the Lord, not as an abstract idea but as a lived history. God is praised for acts of mercy and compassion, for sharing in the distress of his people. “In all their affliction, he was afflicted.” This is a God who does not stand apart from suffering, but enters it, bearing and redeeming it from within.

Psalm 148 lifts our gaze from pain to praise. All creation is summoned to rejoice—from angels and stars to kings and children. Praise is not denial of hardship, but a confession that God’s glory holds all things, even those not yet healed.

The letter to the Hebrews brings these strands together in Christ. Jesus is made perfect through suffering, sharing fully in our humanity so that he might free us from fear and bring many children to glory. Salvation comes not by avoidance of suffering, but by God’s willingness to walk through it with us.

Matthew’s account of the flight into Egypt is sobering. The child who comes to save the world begins life as a refugee, escaping violence and loss. God’s redemption unfolds amid danger and displacement.

As Christians, we hold together praise and realism, glory and grief. We worship the God who enters our affliction, who saves through love, and who leads us, even through darkness, into life and hope.