Grace is like manna, we need it to survive, but we only get what we need when we need it. But, don’t lose sight of this, God will give us his grace when we need it. Count on it!
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The first devotional made me cry, not out of sadness, but from a sense of connection I have never before felt to Joni. Joni knew what it was like for me because she had felt it too.
That feeling of being known and understood returned several times as I read through Songs of Suffering. Our situations are remarkably different, but Joni shares many of the same feelings I have experienced. Perhaps you too.
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Corrie Ten Boom leaned on God’s promise as she lived through harsh winters in lice-infested barracks and as she grieved the loss of her family. I like to imagine Corrie reading promises of strength out of her only possession: a hidden Bible she wore on her back. Scripture was her solace, God’s Word her strength.
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Congenital blindness is untreatable (v.32). In the opening verses of John 9, the disciples don’t question if the man born blind can be healed by Jesus because they assume a congenital defect is beyond a miracle. Instead, they use the man’s predicament as an opportunity for Jesus to clarify a debated question. “Who sinned to cause this blindness,” they ask, “the man or his parents?”
We have an innate desire to connect cause with effect. But from Jesus’ reply we learn that causation is not as important as purpose. Jesus answers that neither the parents nor the man sinned—the blindness existed so that the wondrous signs of God could be displayed.
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We need the kind of rest that renews and restores. Rest when our feet ache at the end of a long day, and rest when our heart breaks for a dear friend. Rest when we need grace for ourselves, and rest when someone needs grace from us. We need rest that heals. This is the rest Jesus offers when He said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
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I am now the keeper of a set of 100-year-old wedding rings. They are the oldest possessions in my care, and I feel the weight of their history.
The Holy Spirit reminds me that I possess a truth much older and much more valuable. I do not know the monetary value of my great-grandmother’s rings but I know the truth of the gospel is priceless. Matthew 13:46 tells me the Kingdom of Heaven is like a priceless pearl: “When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it” (NIV).
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