Press the arrow to listen to Jesus Culture sing “You Won’t Relent.” Let the lyrics cultivate your heart before reading today’s entry.

Scripture
We no longer see your miraculous signs.
All the prophets are gone,
and no one can tell us when it will end. Psalm 74:9

Ask me and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things to come. Jeremiah 33:3

Observation
There are odd times when much is happening but God seems silent. Life can seem to move at the speed of air hockey, and your life is the puck. God’s people experienced the same feeling when King Nebuchadnezzar was surrounding their city. Siege ramps brought soldiers to the top of Jerusalem’s walls. Battering rams made splinters of the city gates. Sharp axes chopped through the carved paneling of the Temple to extract gold inlay. In the roar of battle it was tough to have devotions and to hear God speak.

Two sentences were written during those days that define their experience. Psalm 74:9 sums up how it felt from a human point of view. Their world was in the shredder and God wasn’t talking. Jeremiah 33:3, however, shows the same days from God’s point of view. Before God could bring things together, first he had to take things apart. The world they knew would be dismantled and reassembled into a better place.

Application
During times of violent change we should not expect God to say the same thing he said before. We should tune our ears to hear something new. Perhaps I cannot hear God in those times because I expect the same message I heard before. That is why I am instructed to ask God rather than to make sense of it myself. Radical alterations cannot be anticipated by what has been. God is a God of new things. He has secrets to share if I will ask him.

Prayer
Father, when the wrecking ball is swinging, help me not to imagine how you will rebuild the old and instead ask what new things you are making. Help me not to chain myself to the old thing to stop the demolition crews. Instead, I let you do what you need to do and I anticipate fresh things where the old once stood. Amen.

Press the arrow to listen to “Still” from Hillsong Church while reading today’s devotion.

Scripture
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word. 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

Observation
When a long road gets longer we don’t easily ask for help. We are more likely to plod forward on our own and rely on our own capacities. But we are encouraged to take another way. Call for the comforting presence of the Lord.

The word for “comfort” is a choice one. It means to “call along side”. As we call, the Holy Spirit slips into the empty seat beside us and takes the journey with us. He speaks words of hope that we cannot conjure up on our own. He speaks from words of hope that know no beginning and no end.

Application
This means that the smallest comfort we feel is a sign that Jesus Christ himself and God our Father are personally concerned about us. Too often we take road conditions as an indication of God’s heart toward us. If the way is tough we assume we are out of his favour. If the way is easy we think he loves us. But we are not to look at the road but rather to the sources of comfort. These are the indicators of our need ever kept in God’s view.

Prayer
Father, today I call out for your come alongside comfort. Worldly comforts call me to drop the journey, but your comfort compels me forward on the journey. I receive your comfort today so that I can exert your power today. The best of all is that you are with us. Amen.

Press the arrow to listen to Chris Tomlin sing “I Will Rise” as you read a devotion about bad news.

Scripture
He will have no fear of bad news;
his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD. Psalm 112:7

Observation
Truly great people thrive off of bad news. They do not relish in it, but they don’t recoil from it either. There is something about setback that refocuses their outlook on the things that really matter. Their vision of God, the clarity of his promises, and a sense of what ought to be done is improved. There is no fear of bad news.

Where does this resilience come from? It only comes to those who have invested over time into three things:

a kind heart

good gifts

hard calls.

The choice to keep tender toward the need of others softens God’s heart toward us. Generosity toward those in need opens God’s hand toward us. The choice to do the thing that really pleases the Lord causes us to be remembered.

Application
I have lived through many cold water moments. How will I survive even more of them? By keeping steadfast, trusting in the Lord. Bad news only has power if I fear it. If, however, I ponder difficulties with a curiosity to see what the Lord will do next through them and if I chose to hold onto what I cannot see, then there are many glad and happy surprises ahead.

Prayer
Father, today I hear bad news. I know it is true, but I know that you are also real. I hear the report, but I trust in you. I anticipate your deliverance. Amen.

Press the arrow to listen to Third Day sing “Run to You” while reading today’s devotion about disappointment. The lyrics tell Jacob’s story.

Scripture
When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?” Genesis 29:25

Observation
Jacob was a fine one to ask why someone had deceived him. After all, his name meant “swindler” and he had just cheated his brother out of a lifetime of happiness.

But Jacob didn’t see that dark side of his life yet. That insight would come later, after more crippling injustice. At that early point in his life, Jacob saw himself as the centre of things. In his mind, he was special and any inconvenience was unfair treatment for one who deserved better things.

Jacob could argue that he had prayed at the start of his journey for God to be with him. And if he prayed, shouldn’t that mean that all would go well for him? The answer was an obvious, “No!” We are often victims of our ideals when we pray. It is not just that we experience injustice and disappointment but that we had expected better treatment.

In his message yesterday, Pastor Brady asked us, “Can God answer our prayers with disappointment in order to lead us to greater things?” The answer of course is yes. Prayer is all about leading us out of our perspective and into God’s point of view through the doorway of disappointment. Jacob’s scheming and conniving would be confronted until we last see him as an old limping man crossing his arms to bless his grandsons. Prayer, disappointment and blessing changed him for the better.

Application
Like Jacob, I’m often surprised when God answers my prayers with disappointment. I too am proud like Jacob and expect preferential treatment. But the hope is that this disappointment will lead to greater things. Through the doorway of disillusionment, I can find an outlook on God’s view. Life is ever so much better from that vantage point. I must brave disappointment when it comes and with a game face press through to better things on the other side. For surely better things are there. I have only to limp on. It is only when I get over the sense of specialness and welcome disappointment that I can receive the undeserved kindnesses of God.

Prayer
Father, there is ever so much in my life that I need to have reinterpreted by you to me. Make doorways of my disappointments and show me better things that are yet to be. Help me not to be surprised by injustice. Let my faith in you be strong enough to see that you may offend me to bless me. I receive that. Amen.