Scripture in Action

Aneel Aranha is an author, preacher, and evangelist who has spoken to hundreds of thousands of people around the world. You can find a huge selection of his reflections, articles, sermons, songs and other resources on his app.

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Scripture in Action

Day 173

August 28, 2025 • Aneel Aranha • Season 3 • Episode 173

0:00 | 13:40

Explore God's call to trust Him over worldly solutions through Isaiah 30-32 and 1 Corinthians 5, learning to pursue holiness and maintain accountability in faith communities.

Day 173 – Tell Us Pleasant Things

Isaiah 30–32
1 Corinthians 5

Most of us know the difference between asking for advice and asking for agreement. Isaiah 30 records what a nation says when it has stopped wanting the truth. Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Judah had already made its plans, an alliance with Egypt formed without consulting God, and the prophet is simply being asked to bless a decision that's already made. Into that, God speaks the sentence that could have changed everything. In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength. Then come six of the saddest words in the Bible. But you would have none of it. And still, almost in the same breath, comes this. Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you. Chapter 31 says it plainly. The Egyptians are mere mortals and not God. Their horses are flesh and not spirit. Chapter 32 shows the alternative, a kingdom where the Spirit is poured on us from on high. Paul faces the same avoidance in 1 Corinthians 5, writing to a church with serious sin sitting in plain sight, somehow feeling proud of itself. A little yeast, he says, leavens the whole batch of dough. Held together, today's passages call us to stop pretending.

One thread ties all of this together. Sin that's quietly protected never stays where we put it. And the voice behind us saying this is the way, walk in it, is always calling us back to honest repentance instead of comfortable illusions.

So where does this leave us today?

First, ask God to name the one thing you've been steering around for months. Then say it out loud in a single plain sentence. Vague things are easy to ignore. Named things aren't.

Second, take ten minutes today with nothing playing, nothing scrolling, and nothing to produce. That's the quietness and trust Isaiah says is our strength. Ten minutes is enough to start.

Third, ask one trusted friend to check in with you about the thing you just named. Give them permission to ask you again next week. Accountability you invited is different from accountability you fear.

Wherever today takes you, hold onto this. What you protect quietly doesn't stay small. But the Lord longs to be gracious to you, and He's waiting on the other side of your honesty, not your performance.

Thank you for joining me today. May God give you courage to face what you've avoided, quiet to hear His voice, and grace that meets you the moment you turn. Until tomorrow, stay rooted in His Word and steady in His love.