I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in Him. Isaiah 8:17
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
The salvation story of Jesus Christ reaches around the world. So that the readers of our Daily Devotion may see the power of the Savior on a global scale, we have asked the volunteers of our International Ministry Centers to write our Friday devotions. We pray that the Spirit may touch your day through their words.
In Christ, I remain, His servant and yours,
Kenneth R. Klaus
Speaker of The Lutheran Hour
Waiting for anything in life can test our nerves and affect our attitude. Patience, sad to say, is not something that comes easy to most people. As a result, waiting for something longer than we are accustomed to -- or willing to -- often sours our thinking.
On the other hand, when things fall in line, occur when they're supposed to and, generally, work out well for us -- we feel pretty good about things. After all, we're not asking for much -- just for things to go our way and in sync with our timetable.
But there are those times, aren't there, when nothing goes the way it's supposed to? What about those times? As Christians - imitators of Christ - we should meet circumstances that try our patience and test our resolve with a joyful and hope-filled faith. This is the attitude Christ had when He bore the weight of our murderous sins upon the cross at Calvary. He committed Himself completely to the will of God and placed His hope in Him.
Our trust and patience in God's purposes is best shown when we follow Jesus' humble example. When things are unclear, when life is full of difficulties and hardships, then it is our place to hope. When God seems far away, He's not. He has not left us, but we are the ones who have turned away. Let us pray that the good Lord, through His Holy Spirit, will empower and strengthen us to love Him and come back to Him during the darkest times of our lives.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord God, we thank You for the gift of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Please strengthen and empower us with Your Holy Spirit so that whenever You might seem far away, we are drawn closer to You and learn how to hope. Amen.
Biography of Author:
Isaac Adaam is programs coordinator for Lutheran Media Ministry - Ghana. Through Bible Correspondence Courses (BCC), Equipping the Saints (ETS), and The Harps - a music ministry team -- LHM-Ghana reaches people with the Gospel in this West African nation of 22 million people.
To learn more about our International Ministries, click here or visit www.lhmint.org.
Today's Bible Readings: Genesis 49-50 Matthew 23:23-29
To Download Devotion MP3 to your computer, right click here and select "Save Link As" or "Save Target As" or "Download Linked File As"