We’ve got your daily encouragement, written by Nate Hemphill.
Bible Reading:
Habakkuk 3:17-19
17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19 God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.
Word:
Have you ever had a fair-weathered friend? You know the kind of person who only hangs around when things are going great…when it’s time to party! It’s easy to really enjoy a fair-weathered friend so long as the good times are rolling.
But what happens when you find yourself in crisis? Who do you call on when the cards are down; when you are really suffering? Who is calling on you when you have a failed relationship, a lost job, a devastating injury or illness? Consider for a moment your relationship with God? Do you find it really easy to acknowledge and thank him when things are going great?
It can be pretty easy on our part to fall into a habit of complacency with our relationship with God when life is smooth sailing. But is your praise and worship to God contingent upon your circumstances? What happens when your ends aren’t meeting – when your job feels like a trap, you are unappreciated at home, when you fail? Will you still praise God for his goodness?
Today’s scripture passage should be a challenge to us all! C.S. Lewis wrote in The Problem of Pain, “We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Times of suffering and hardship can be transformed into our deepest connection with God if we’ll keep an attitude of praise in the midst of it.
Prayer:
This day, Jesus, don’t let me walk in any confidence but the confidence of you in my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
Skillwork:
This week try one time a day, hitting your knees and asking God to inform your next step. Don’t move out of anything but what he speaks or gives you peace about there. That strength can walk through fire and in and out of Lions mouths.
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