
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8
One thing we all have in common is trouble. Every person is a bundle of trouble. Put a few of those bundles together and trouble grows.
Our troubles usually send us into emotional wheelspinning on the worry road. This never helps. It offends God and hurts us, but it never solves the problem.
God's way is best. Instead of giving way to fear, worry, and anxiety, we are to assert an action of faith. The first step is to get God into our problem. Here is the way: Quietly, confidently, ask God to help you bear the trouble and live with it until you have learned the intended lesson and He Himself takes it away. Thus prayer becomes the place where burdens change shoulders.
We confidently go to God because we know His love for us in Christ Jesus. We know that He will help us in our troubles, through our troubles, out of our troubles. In this way they become steppingstones instead of stumbling blocks. Instead of getting us down, our troubles lift us up, for whatever drives us to God in trust and surrender always brings victory.
PRAYER: Holy Spirit, help us convert every care that comes to us into a prayer that goes to God. Let the troubles of life lift us up to Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
(Taken from"Words of Promise," copyright 1996 (out of print), Concordia Publishing House. For information on other devotional materials, call 1-800-325-3040.)
Today's Bible Readings: Ezekiel 18-19 2 Timothy 3
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