He is planting you in the good soil of His love. Let your roots run deep in Him, in His Word, with faith in His Son. Give Him your ashes, mourning and despair, right now and receive the beauty, joy, and garment of praise. Cry out to Him and allow Him to fill you with His Holy Spirit. He is waiting to make everything new. He has a good future in store ahead of you. All of those impossibilities looming in the natural can be wiped away with one touch of His favor. His Word promises that He will reverse our darkest hours. Hold tight to these promises. Remind Him of His Word. He is unchanging and is not a man that He should lie. Show up at the throne of grace in faith, with the confidence of a child of God, and pray bold prayers today. Move mountains with your faith in Him. Jesus Himself says we have the power to do so. Obliterate the darkness and fill it with His light.
Lord, thank you that You receive our ashes, our mourning, our despair. We give all of it to You. Thank you that in return You give us good things. Our praise for You will forever be on our lips. Thank you for helping us in our desperate need. Thank you for Your spirit of peace while we watch as You make our crooked places straight.
In Jesus’ precious name,
Amen
Day 22
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
—Psalm 46: 1-3 (NIV)
God’s Word assures us that He is an ever-present help in trouble. That lets us know that not only does He not abandon us in this state, but He is providing supernatural assistance. Even if the trouble we’re in is not turning around as quickly as we would like, we can rest assured that He is right there with us, offering mercy, grace, and favor. He has already provided a way out for us, and when that appointed time arrives, He will walk us through that as well. But in the midst of the mess, the darkness that chaos brings, He is shining His light on us. We need to look to Jesus as an example. In His darkest moments, He went away to pray. He asked His friends to pray with Him. He didn’t try to fix the problem on His own. He went to spend time with His Father and discuss it with Him.
It’s impossible to know how long we’ll be in the situation we’re in but it’s a comfort to know we’re not alone, that the One who breathed life into us hasn’t rejected us but is determined to help us. I think this is a prime moment to show the Lord how much we trust and love him—even if all you’re able to do is verbally tell him I trust and love You. He loves you, too.
Lord, I know You love us. We trust You with our whole hearts. In the midst of our trials and tribulations, we are so thankful that You are with us and we are never truly alone. Give us the wisdom to glean everything from this experience possible so that our spiritual growth might be catapulted to new levels like never before. Lord, thank you for accepting our repentance. Thank you for creating in us an obedient heart to follow You aggressively from here on out. Thank you that Jesus is not only an example to us in how we should act in our time of trials, but that He is closer than a brother. Jesus, You alone are our vindicator. Thank you for interceding on our behalf in all realms in all things.
In Your mighty name we pray,
Amen
Day 23
The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.
—Proverbs 4:18 (NIV)
What a glorious image the above verse provokes. Have you ever been up just before dawn and experienced the eerie calm of a new day about to birth? It’s a thing of beauty that I’ve only experienced on a few occasions (night owl raising her hand!). The world around you seems to slowly slip from darkness, as if the universe itself were rousing from a deep, comfortable sleep. The transition is unstoppable and invigorating as the sky changes its hues ever so subtly. Eventually, a spray of light spears over the horizon. A new day has dawned as the sun rises to bless us with a fantastic light show until it reaches its full light of day.
It’s an awe-inspiring visual that the Lord chooses to depict our walk with Him. Once we get to know Jesus as our Savior, we are sons and daughters of righteousness, our sins forever forgiven, the compass of our hearts eager to press toward Him at all times. Here He is promising to make each new day in our lives a little bit brighter until the full light of day—the day we land in Jesus’ ever-bright, ever-brilliant arms. Even though we all go through dark moments, the path gets bumpy. Whether we brought the storm on ourselves or not, He is promising that our paths will still get ever brighter. All the good things in your life that you can think of will only multiply in goodness. All your days will only grow to be sweeter and sweeter. Your spiritual walk with the Lord will only magnify in beauty as time goes by. The path of the righteous is beautiful indeed.
Thank you, Lord, that You care so much about us that not only do You have a desire to help us, save us, pour mercy, grace, and favor upon us, but that You promise our path will only grow brighter and brighter until we are blinded by Your Son’s radiant glory and land
