Hope For Today
Daily Encouragement for a Healing Heart from the Word of God
Deep pain and brokenness have a way of making Bible study difficult. To help bridge the gap and re-ignite our hunger for the Word of God, we’ve put together a daily devotional designed to help us all lean into God as we heal. May we seek Him daily!
Let the morning bring me word of Your unfailing love for I have put my trust in You. Show me the way I should go, for to You I entrust my life. Psalms 143:8 (NIV)
- Hope For Today
September 19 - Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.
A simple verse that many of us have memorized, no doubt. But actually doing what it says isn't so easy is it? Let's break it down and see if we can't come up with some practical steps to practice obedience today. First step - Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Trust isn't easy, especially when we have been betrayed by the people we believed to be honorable! But God is not like those people. He is completely trustworthy. He has never failed us, even if it sometimes doesn't seem like that's true. We have to choose to believe it anyway knowing that time will reveal the truth and we will one day understand. Let's spend some time today reflecting on the many ways God has been faithful to us going back as far as we can remember. Make a list, journal about it, share your stories with a trusted friend. Let's do something to make those memories more tangible. As we begin to recognize how constant, how steadfast His work has been, I guarantee, our trust will build. In fact, it may be beneficial to some of us, those of us who find trust particularly difficult to make this a part of every day. We serve a God who passionately pursues us. Look for Him. Look for His work. You will find it, and it will change you! Second step - Do not depend on your own understanding. In Isaiah 55: 8-9, God tells us that His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. Why? Because He is God and we are not. He is far above us, just as the heavens are far above the earth. His ways and His thoughts are so much higher than ours. We cannot depend on our own abilities to understand what God is doing all the time. Some things will just seem odd. Some things will seem mean. Some things won't make any sense. Let's go back to that list we made documenting God's faithfulness throughout our lives. Find at least three examples of situations that would have looked different if you had been the one calling the shots. Ponder the great blessings you would have missed. Let's thank God that He is the one in control and not us! Third step - Seek His will in all you do. How? His Word, prayer, and godly council. What decision lurks out there in front of us today? What fork can we foresee in the path ahead of us? We have already determined that God is trustworthy, and that we are not equipped to handle decisions without Him. So let's get on our knees and commit our situations to Him. Let's ask Him to lead us, to show us the way. Let's dive into His word and look for the answers. Let's find others who are also passionately seeking God and ask for council. (Council that can be backed by the Word, of course.) Let's ask God to open and close doors according to His will and to give us peace and clarity in the answers He promises to give. Final step - He will show you which path to take – take it! Friends, the path God places before us is often a very difficult one! The Bible tells us that in this world we will have trouble, but that we don't have to fear, because our God has overcome this world! That doesn't make it easy to follow Him. If we can remember, though, that we are His dearly loved daughters and sons, and He is not going to take us anywhere that will not be for our ultimate good, it will become a little more easy. Let's trust Him, let's let go of our own ideas, let's seek Him, and let's follow! We will never regret it!
- Verse of the Day
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