New Normal – The Presidential Prayer Team

Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and will not be afraid. – Isaiah 12:2

Are you tired of hearing about the “new normal”? The phrase gets a lot of air-time and is wearing thin for many. Yet the reality of what it is—a different form of daily life—is likely displayed plainly on your calendar.

The Old Testament in the Bible recounts the history of the Hebrew people. Over a thousand years after the time of Abraham, his descendants were living as slaves in Egypt. Even today it is not completely understood how the great pyramids and palaces of that once magnificent culture were built. But it is likely the subculture of Hebrew forced labor facilitated the scale of Egyptian glory years.

After leaving slavery and finding life in the desert challenging, those very same people said “would it not have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness?” (Exodus 14:12) Those ancient wanderers did not have a big enough perspective to answer their own question. Their new desert normal could not be qualified based on their past experiences. And the same might be true today. While life may seem strange and inconvenient, who knows how God will use these shifts in culture to further His gospel, possibly reaching a new segment of society with Hope.

Intercede for America today as its citizens inch forward into the future. Ask that the focus of a “new normal” will include a greater trust in God’s Word for those working in the halls of government, education, healthcare, and law enforcement.

Today’s Verse: Isaiah 12:2

“Behold, God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the Lord God is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation.”

All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Recommended for further reading: Psalm 9

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
²I will be glad and exult in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

³When my enemies turn back,
they stumble and perish before your presence.
⁴For you have maintained my just cause;
you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment.

⁵You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish;
    you have blotted out their name forever and ever.
⁶The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins;
    their cities you rooted out;
    the very memory of them has perished.

⁷But the Lord sits enthroned forever;
he has established his throne for justice,
⁸and he judges the world with righteousness;
he judges the peoples with uprightness.

⁹The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
¹⁰And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

¹¹Sing praises to the Lord, who sits enthroned in Zion!
Tell among the peoples his deeds!
¹²For he who avenges blood is mindful of them;
he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.

¹³Be gracious to me, O Lord!
    See my affliction from those who hate me,
    O you who lift me up from the gates of death,
¹⁴that I may recount all your praises,
    that in the gates of the daughter of Zion
    I may rejoice in your salvation.

¹⁵The nations have sunk in the pit that they made;
in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught.
¹⁶The Lord has made himself known; he has executed judgment;
the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Higgaion. Selah

¹⁷The wicked shall return to Sheol,
all the nations that forget God.

¹⁸For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.

¹⁹Arise, O Lord! Let not man prevail;
let the nations be judged before you!
²⁰Put them in fear, O Lord!
Let the nations know that they are but men! Selah