A Road Not Traveled - All Our Daily Bread Daily Devotionals for 2026

Bible in a Year: Jeremiah 18-19, 2 Timothy 3

I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them.
Isaiah 42:16

Today's Scripture & Insight: Isaiah 42:10-17

People ask me if I have a five-year plan. How can I plan five years "down the road" on a road I've never traveled?

I think back to the 1960s when I was a minister to students at Stanford University. I'd been a physical education major in college and had a lot of fun, but I left no record of being a scholar. I felt wholly inadequate in my new position. Most days I wandered around the campus, a blind man groping in the darkness, asking God to show me what to do. One day a student "out of the blue" asked me to lead a Bible study in his fraternity. It was a beginning.

God doesn't stand at a juncture and point the way: He's a guide, not a signpost. He walks with us, leading us down paths we never envisioned. All we have to do is walk alongside Him.

The path won't be easy; there'll be "rough places" along the way. But God has promised that He will "turn the darkness into light" and "will not forsake" us (Isaiah 42:16). He'll be with us all the way.

Paul said that God is "able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20). We can scheme and envision, but our Lord's imagination far transcends our plans. We must hold them loosely and see what God has in mind.

By: David H. Roper

Reflect & Pray

In what ways has God turned your darkness into light? What have you found to be your greatest joy as you walk with Him?

Jesus, I thank You that You have plans for me far beyond my imagination. Help me follow Your lead.