Heavenly Father, You encouraged Your people to be strong, without fear or dread, before they ventured into already-known hardship. Yes, they were entering Your promised land, but not without “many dangers, toils, and snares.” How could they head into new adventures with courage? Your promise came true, of course. As Read more…
As one who’s begged God for healing over many years of progressively worsening illness, Job feels like a chronic illness friend to me. Check out chapters 2, 7, 16, 19, 29, and 30 for gruesome details. Stories like Job’s remind me that it’s God’s healing mercy when we experience moments Read more…
Job’s friends started well. They visited to “show him sympathy and comfort him” (Job 2:11). They mourned with him; they wordlessly sat with him, “for they saw that his suffering was very great” (Job 2:13). Maybe they didn’t know what to say? Job himself was the “first to speak,” honestly sharing Read more…
Father, I come today so weary. Feeling alone and discouraged. Feeling so unrighteous as I hunger and thirst for righteousness, amid my hardship right now. You compassionately understand our deep need for You and have given us so many promises in Your Word. Thank You. You even encouraged Your people Read more…
The enemy is such a liar and accuser when we live with suffering. Especially when it’s chronic, ongoing throughout this life. Especially in a crisis that lasts. Satan can tempt us to think that suffering means we’re “weak Christians” who don’t have “enough faith.” We easily feel shamed, judged, afraid, Read more…
Father, as I approach brain surgery this week, I thank You for Your hope and comfort. It is Your gift of hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ, offered to me and my brothers and sisters who trust in Christ as their Lord and Savior, who may be reading this Read more…
Abba Father, I’m clinging to who You are today. Thank You. For You are not only the eternal, sovereign, and holy, holy, holy God of all power and might, but You are always my perfectly loving Father. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the Read more…
What were my priorities before God graciously gave me “rebirth” and the free gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 6:23; Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:5)? They all were focused on myself, my wants, me in the middle, my comfort and safety as central, all borne of the Read more…
I’ve had agonizing and tear-full times with God lately. I know not. In my limited human knowledge, I don’t understand why my first brain surgery stopped “working” and why I need to endure so much pain and challenge from another one. Or why things took a sharp turn for the Read more…
Are you facing a crossroads kind of decision today? Me too. Is it overwhelming? Are you also asking God for His wisdom, even as we try to make educated guesses based on our limited human understanding? One of my favorite little choruses sings, “God knows all, God knows best.” As Read more…
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