Seeing the Suffering Servant: Renewing Our Broken Pickers

Devotional

Day 1: The Indescribable Gift We Didn’t Expect

Gifts promise joy, but nothing in this world can deliver the deep joy, peace, and fulfillment your soul was created for. That is why Christmas is life-altering: God’s mighty arm moves through Jesus, yet not in the flashy package we tend to notice. The humble, overlooked Servant is the true Gift, arriving quietly and powerfully. Ask God to retrain your eyes so you don’t miss Him at work in ordinary places and unexpected faces. Today, pause long enough to welcome the Gift who doesn’t demand attention but offers real life to those who receive Him [02:17]

Isaiah 53:1-3: Who can believe this story? When God revealed His power, it didn’t look like human strength. He grew like a tender shoot out of dry ground, without impressive beauty to draw us in. People turned away, dismissed Him, and counted Him as nothing.

Reflection: Where are you tempted this week to chase a “shiny” solution for peace, and how will you pause to look for Jesus’ quieter work instead?

Day 2: Renewing Your Picker: Learning New Desires

All of us have a “picker” that’s been bent by sin—we’re drawn to what looks good in the moment but often harms us later. Confession brings that bent desire into the light and opens space for healing. As you read Scripture and keep company with Jesus, you cultivate an appetite for what is truly good; He becomes an acquired taste that satisfies. Bring your resistances to Him in prayer and ask for new desires to take root. Today, surrender what comes naturally so you can learn to love what is truly life-giving [03:05]

Genesis 3:6: She saw the tree looked satisfying, promised delight, and seemed to offer wisdom. She reached out, took the fruit, and ate; she also gave some to her husband, and he ate too.

Reflection: Name one desire that looks appealing but tends to backfire; what simple confession prayer will you pray when it surfaces today?

Day 3: By His Wounds: Forgiveness, Peace, Healing

Jesus carried our pain even when people assumed God was punishing Him. On the cross He gathered up our sins and sorrows, absorbing the cost we could never pay and even praying forgiveness over His enemies. This is the great exchange: His wounds become our healing, His punishment brings our peace. You don’t have to save yourself; you’re invited to receive what He already accomplished. Let His finished work quiet your shame and settle your heart today [02:41]

Isaiah 53:4-5: He lifted our pain and shouldered our grief, yet we thought God was striking Him. In truth, He was pierced because of our rebellion and crushed for our crooked ways. The correction that secures our peace fell on Him, and His wounds became our healing.

Reflection: What specific sin or regret feels heavy right now, and how will you tangibly receive Jesus’ forgiveness—perhaps by praying aloud, journaling, or sharing with a trusted friend?

Day 4: Prone to Wander, Welcomed by Grace

We are like sheep—easily distracted, quick to wander, and slow to see danger. We drift into busyness, unhealthy relationships, or anxious spirals, and our hearts grow distant. Yet grace meets wanderers: God has laid our iniquity on Jesus, making a way home for every lost soul. You are not scolded back; you are carried back. Return today to the One who restores your soul and gives you peace [01:59]

Isaiah 53:6: All of us have strayed like sheep, each following our own path. The Lord placed on Him the weight of all our wrongs.

Reflection: Identify one “wander-path” (busyness, resentment, unhealthy relationship); what is one concrete step of return you will take in the next 24 hours?

Day 5: Pre-Decide: Walk in God’s Life-Giving Ways

Our pickers often fail in the same places, so wisdom names the pattern and pre-decides a new way. Ask God to renew your mind so your instincts slowly change and your choices align with His life-giving will. Borrow someone else’s “picker” when needed—invite wise counsel for money, relationships, work, and spiritual habits. Keep cultivating an appetite for Jesus through Scripture, prayer, and community; over time, love for His ways will feel more natural. Choose today what you will say “yes” and “no” to, and let that choice lead you into freedom [02:28]

Romans 12:2: Don’t let this age squeeze you into its mold. Instead, let God transform you by renewing your mind so you can recognize and embrace what He calls good, pleasing, and mature.

Reflection: In the area where your picker fails most, what pre-decision will you set and who will you invite to help you keep it this week?

Sermon Summary

We’re in a season full of gifts and goals, yet the core truth stands: no thing—no purchase, promotion, or perfect circumstance—can give the joy, peace, and fulfillment our souls were made for. That’s why Isaiah 53 matters so much. Isaiah promises a Servant who would carry our pain, be rejected, and by his wounds bring healing. God’s mighty arm shows up again, like in the Exodus, but it doesn’t look like fireworks. It looks like weakness, humility, a man from whom people hide their faces. Many miss it because it doesn’t fit what we naturally desire.

That’s the problem beneath so many problems: our “pickers” are broken. Like in Genesis 3, we’re drawn to what looks pleasing and promising, even when it’s deadly; and we tend to resist what actually brings life if it doesn’t shine. Isaiah says the Servant has “no beauty or majesty” to attract us, yet he’s the one we most need. So we invite God to renew our picker: confess where our desires run off the rails; cultivate an appetite for God by attending to Scripture and especially Jesus; and name the patterns where we repeatedly wander so we can pre-decide a different path. Sometimes we also need to borrow a wiser “picker” from a trusted friend or mentor. The Spirit changes us, but we participate in that change.

Isaiah pulls back the curtain on what God is actually doing: “He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Sin blocks our access to the God who is joy and peace, so of course our world is restless. Jesus, the true Servant, gathers up our pain and wrongdoing—misunderstood by many as cursed—and makes a once-for-all sacrifice so we can come home to God. We’re sheep, prone to wander into pretty disasters: busy fog, unhealthy people, anxious loops, secret compromises. The gift of Christmas is that the Shepherd has come, not because we’re impressive but because we’re loved. The arm of the Lord is revealed in a manger and a cross. May our pickers be renewed enough to see him and receive the forgiveness, peace, and healing he offers.

Key Takeaways

1. decide your next faithful step Our failures often repeat in the same lanes. Name your pattern, borrow wise counsel, and choose in advance what obedience looks like when the moment comes. Pre-decisions beat willpower in the fog. Small, clear yeses—repeated—reshape a life.

Bible Study Guide

Bible reading
- Isaiah 53:1-6 (read aloud together)

Observation questions (3–4)

What specific phrases does Isaiah use to describe the Servant’s appearance and how people react to him (verses 1–3)? Which details stand out most?
Where does Isaiah connect the Servant’s suffering with the people’s sin and misunderstanding (verses 4–5)? What words show that people got the situation wrong?
What does Isaiah say was “laid on him” (verse 6)? How does the chapter move from describing the Servant’s condition to explaining why it happened?
The chapter opens by asking, “Who has believed our message?” (v. 1). In the passage, who believes and who doesn’t—what clues in the text tell you that?

Interpretation questions (3–4) — (answer in third person, objectively)

What is the significance of Isaiah portraying God’s saving power as coming through someone “without beauty or majesty”? How does that reshape expectations about how God works?
How should the phrase “by his wounds we are healed” be understood: strictly as spiritual forgiveness, strictly as physical healing, or both? What in the passage supports that interpretation?
What does Isaiah mean when he says “we considered him punished by God”? How does that illustrate common human misreading of suffering?
What is the theological weight of “the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all”? How does that phrase point to substitutionary, corporate, or personal aspects of salvation?

Application questions (5–7)

Where in your life are you most often drawn to what looks attractive but harms you (relationships, work, comfort, money, reputation)? Name one recurring “pretty disaster” you’ve chosen before.
Choose one honest confession: what desire or recurring choice do you need to bring before God this week? How will you confess it specifically (words to pray, person to tell, journal entry)?
Pick one practical “pre-decision” for the next time you face that temptation (for example: “If I feel tempted to scroll and compare, I will turn my phone off and call a friend,” or “If I’m considering dating someone and notice red flags X, Y, Z, I will pause and talk with my mentor”). What is the exact yes/no decision you will make ahead of time?
What is one concrete step you will take this week to “cultivate an appetite for God”? (Examples: read one chapter of the Gospel of Mark five mornings this week; listen to 10 minutes of the Psalms before bed; attend a Bible study; meet with a mentor.)
Who could you ask to “borrow their picker” — a trusted friend or mentor who can help you see more clearly? Identify someone and a specific way they can help (accountability text, monthly check-in, review a decision with you).
Isaiah 53 says the Servant bore our sin so we can have peace and healing. What is one place you need to stop carrying what Jesus already carried (guilt, shame, fear)? How will you respond to that need this week (confession, receive forgiveness, forgive someone, seek counseling)?
Memorize or meditate on Isaiah 53:5 this week. What time each day will you set aside to say or reflect on this verse for the next seven days?

Closing suggestion for the group
- Spend the last 10 minutes of your time sharing one takeaway and praying aloud one specific confession or pre-decision so you leave with a tangible next step.

Sermon Quotes

No thing, no amount of money, no bucket-list experience, no accomplishment or goal or promotion, or some difficult situation getting better can give you the joy, peace, and fulfillment you were created for

If you can get your heart and mind around this core spiritual truth you’ll be on a completely different path than most of the rest of the world that is joy-less, peace-less, and rest-less

Part of why so many people miss the joy, peace, and fulfillment available to us in Jesus is it doesn’t come in the package we’re expecting

There are things that we are innately and intuitively drawn to that aren’t good for us. There are things that would be good for us that we’re not innately and intuitively drawn to

Sin disrupts our connection with God and orientation around God, so we don’t know or only partially know what’s true, right, and good

If you take Jesus seriously, he’s saying that we’re all sinners in desperate need of a rescuer because there’s nothing we can do to save ourselves from separation from God forever

There’s this thing in us that most naturally desires control, applause, approval, reputation, money, or to be left alone. We reach for those things—and that's the mistake Adam and Eve made with the forbidden fruit

May you and I have pickers that are renewed enough, redeemed enough, healed enough to SEE HIM—the Lord has shown his mighty arm!

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