The Pillar and Cloud - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2026

I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These things I will do for them, and not forsake them.
Isaiah 42:16

The Pillar and Cloud
There are times when God’s dealings with His people are very perplexing, when the present is full of anxiety and the future is full of difficulty. Our condition is like that of blind men, groping at noontime, trying to go through a labyrinth, having lost the guiding thread!

We may be struggling with some question of duty or our employment, and our life-long destiny may depend on an immediate choice. We may fear that in deciding between rival and competing claims, some selfish, carnal, unworthy motive may mingle in our decision, and consequently we may experience a painful inability to decide what is God’s will for us.

Are you perplexed or despondent? Amid your anxious, wavering, undecided thoughts, let this be your comfort: God’s thoughts are upon you, and He will provide to all who trust Him the needed guidance or deliverance—not perhaps what we expect or would like, but what He knows will be best for us. Rely on God the pillar-cloud as Israel did. He will bring you, as He did His people Israel, through the sea on dry land and through the river on foot (Ps. 66:6).

Yes, believe what He says in the verse above and confide in no fallible, human guidance. Be like David who said, “In the LORD I put my trust” (Ps. 11:1). Then, having put your situation in His hands, leave it there! Call to mind your present blessings and remember God’s previous gracious interventions with the signal deliverances that resulted. Make these the basis for an implied trust for the future.

J. R. MacDuff