Category: Today’s Devotional

“The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces… “ –Isaiah 25:8

There are times when I undergo a crisis in faith and I wonder whether all I believe in is true. Such times prod me to ask myself, “What is real life anyways?” Is it that kind of life which includes God, the angels, heaven, and a hope of a new and better life after this one?

On the other hand, could real life be what many people often talk about and aspire for? Is it that one made up of our jobs, of finding a partner in life, of thinking about retirement and of the next entertaining thing to do?

It is so tempting to go back to what many people call as ‘real life’.  It is so tempting to simplify everything and not think about the things we don’t often see with our eyes.  Real life as often portrayed in the movies seems so glamorous and exciting and… tangible.  It also seem so much easier.

However, when I do try to go back to this seemingly normal and real life, I couldn’t make sense of it for long.  After the initial excitement and thrill, and after tasting what delights the senses, I soon see the ‘other things’ that make up this real life.

I soon see hopes shattered and thrown away.  I see broken hearts.  I see betrayal.  I see sickness and old age and death.  This is real life, too.  That part of real life which many people often choose to forget as though it never existed at all.  Forgetting doesn’t make all these things go away, however.  It just makes us more afraid and lost later on.

It is then that I am able to reconcile what real life truly is.  Real life consists of all these things, of the happy and the sad, of our hopes and of our desperation.  Real life consists of both the visible and the invisible things, of those that are here, and those that are yet to come.  Real life includes even my faith and of all the things I believe in, even if many people won’t  allow them to be a part of their own lives.

As for me, I pray for a stronger faith, because only my faith gives me comfort to accept what real life is, with all its fleeting happiness, it’s greatest joys and it’s deepest darkest griefs.  With my faith, I can continue to hope, that even when real life includes hurts and diseases and death, all these things are not yet the end.  My hope allows me to hold on firmly to my belief that God has a real remedy for all the sufferings that I now see, creating joy out of our sorrows and love out of our greatest fears.

“If God does not exist, then life is futile. If God of the Bible does exist, then life is meaningful. Only the second of these two alternatives enables us to live happily and consistently. Therefore, it seems to me that even if the evidence for these two options were absolutely equal, a rational person ought to choose biblical Christianity. It seems to me positively irrational to prefer death, futility, and destruction to life, meaningfulness, and happiness.” -William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith

“Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.” – Isaiah 49:23

Hope is when we see something that is not yet truly there. It is taking hold of tomorrow’s victory even when what we have today is sorrow and difficulty.

There are many times in my life when I have hoped only to have that hope crushed, when I have dreamed, only to have that dream taken away. Times like that I’ve asked myself, where is hope then? Why hope when you will be disappointed anyway?

Later on I’ve realized that my hope has failed me because I have hoped in people and things that cannot really guarantee the fulfillment of my hope.

No person is perfect no matter how strong or how good he may be. And no matter how they may wish to satisfy us and keep their promises, a time will come when even their strength won’t be enough. That’s when our hope fails us. That’s when we realize how fragile that hope really is.

On the other hand, we can come to know that there is One who has never failed us yet. God, who gave up even His own life and comfort, has always been there for us, keeping His promises, even in times when we fail again and again to fulfill ours. When we hope in God, we know that our hope is not in vain.

“We can put our hope in the best of things and in the best of people and they shall fail one by one. Only God suffices. Only God.”

“Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress… “– Psalm 4:1, KJV

Troubles make us think as though God is so far away from us. When I experience problems in life like strained relationships or money problems, I easily fall into thinking that God has abandoned me and does not care for me at all.

It is only much later that I realize the good things that those difficult times have brought me. I realize that they brought me strength, greater patience, and most of all, a deeper understanding of the suffering of other people.

Without undergoing suffering myself, I can easily judge others or say words that offend without me even knowing it. Suffering softens the heart and increases our wisdom. It enables us to be of more help to other people.

God has enlarged me indeed in times when I think I was being reduced to worthlessness.

Lord, help me to be more patient today even when I don’t know what good these bad times are actually accomplishing for my soul.

God speaks to us in many ways.  He speaks to us through our various circumstances, through the people we meet, and through the Bible.  But it isn’t the words He speaks to us that causes our difficulty.  It is His silence that is often unbearable.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  (Matthew 27:46, NIV)  Didn’t we cry out the same thing when we failed to hear God’s words just when it’s darkest in our lives?

We wanted to hear Him speak to us, to encourage us, to tell us something that would put a little light where we are, and yet sometimes, all we could hear is His silence.

What I’ve realized however is that God continues to speak to us EVEN IN HIS SILENCE.  It may not be easy to understand, but after the trial, we’d discover how valuable that silence is.  Without that silence, we may not be able to hear His most important lessons for us.

What are some of the things God could be saying in His silence?  Here are just some of the things He could be telling you today:

-It is not yet time.

-I want you to rest for now.

-I want you to trust me more.

-I am watching you now as you grow.

-I have a plan.

-Give me time to accomplish what you cannot do on your own.

“God also speaks by his silence.” – Pope Benedict XVI

Have you ever experienced days when nothing seems to work out in your favor? Days like that make you see the world through a dark glass. You see everything through eyes that make things darker and gloomier than it really is.

Sometimes, it even gets so dark that you totally couldn’t see the things that could have made you smile. Some people call this pessimism, but I sometimes call it JOY BLINDNESS.

Many people today suffer from JOY BLINDNESS, a disability to see the things that can really make them HAPPY. They have gifts but they can’t see and appreciate them. They have blessings, but they can’t enjoy them fully. It’s as though the glass is always half empty. It’s as though all they could look for is what’s missing in their lives.

If only we could SEE. If only we could put away that dark glass through which we have often seen the world. Maybe then we could finally see how blessed we really are. Maybe then we could finally see not only with our naked eyes, but with our hearts.

Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them. – Nehemiah 8:11-13, NIV