April 23

Judges 1:1-2:9

Luke 21:29-22:13

Psalm 90:1-91:16

Proverbs 13:24,25

Psalm 90:15 (NLT)

"Give us gladness in proportion to our former misery! Replace the evil years with good."

Have you ever been in a difficult situation and you had no idea how you were going to get out of it? Have you ever felt miserable or in pain and it seemed like things would never get better? Have you ever had a problem and no matter how hard you tried to fix it, nothing works? Why am I even asking these questions? Of course all of us have felt this way. Some of us are even feeling this way right now. I know for me, it's hard to see outside of a situation when everything seems dark and miserable and scary and painful and broken. It's easy to believe the lie that nothing will ever get better.

One guaranteed way to help you through these situations is to hold on to God's promises. As I was reading Psalm 90:15, I was struck by how awesome this promise is. For all the misery and evil you encounter in your life, God will give you the same portion (actually it will probably be more!) of gladness and goodness. Think about that of a minute. For all the times you've been in pain, sad, in despair, afraid, in darkness... God will bless you with relief, gladness, joy, goodness, and light. In fact, these blessings will be so great that we will not even remember the misery we encountered before. One of my favorite verses is Romans 8:18: "Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later." This is a pretty amazing promise that will help give you strength in times of need. We may not know when or how He will deliver on this promise, but we can confidently know that He will, because He always keeps His promises.