Daily Devotional

It’s hard to suffer. Sometimes, it is even harder to watch loved ones to go through difficulties. The anguish of someone we love going through...or about to go through...great difficulty tears at our hearts. We cry out to God to alleviate their pain. And He does! However, not always the way we want!

Acts 21 is typical of what many of us face. The Apostle Paul’s friends were worried. They began begging him not to leave town, warning him he was going to suffer greatly (v. 12). I love Paul's answer: "What are you doing weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready...even to die...for the name of the Lord Jesus" (v. 13). Finally, his loved ones submitted their natural, protective sentiments to a higher calling, and cried out by faith: “The will of God be done” (v. 14).

And so it came to be. Paul headed down the road that led to intense suffering. And God had His way in him...and in them.

Witnessing the suffering of precious loved ones in my family and close friends, I am seeing more clearly what  Paul wrote in Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” TO ALL OF US!

May God give ALL of us His grace and power to dedicate our precious loved ones to His mission, regardless of the price they may pay to fulfill His will for their lives...and ours!