Day By Day #11
Day by Day #11
MORNING/MIDDAY OFFICE
Silence and Stillness before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 45:1–3 (NASB)
Thus says the LORD to Cyrus His anointed,
Whom I have taken by the right hand,
To subdue nations before him
And to loose the loins of kings;
To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:
“I will go before you and make the rough places smooth;
I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars.
I will give you the treasures of darkness
And hidden wealth of secret places,
So that you may know that it is I,
The LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.”
Devotional
Did you know that God sometimes gives us “treasures of darkness” and reveals the “hidden wealth of secret places”? It’s an intriguing promise, isn’t it? And it is perhaps especially true when we choose to enter the dark places of the past. Abraham Lincoln’s life offers a beautiful illustration of this.
Lincoln struggled with serious depression from a very young age. In his twenties, neighbors sometimes took him into their homes for a week or two at a time to watch over him lest he take his own life. In his twenties and thirties, he had three breakdowns. As a country lawyer with only one year of formal schooling, Lincoln had a history of defeats in running for public office. When he was eventually elected president, he was considered a country bumpkin and a disgrace. In the early years of his presidency, Lincoln’s failures and setbacks were a source of vicious public ridicule.
In his book Lincoln’s Melancholy, author Joshua Wolf Shenk describes how Lincoln was able to integrate his melancholy and his failures into a larger purpose. Shenk argues that it was, in fact, Lincoln’s suffering and weaknesses that later fueled his greatness and propelled his personal transformation. Whatever Lincoln’s shadow, it is clear that his willingness to acknowledge and integrate all of himself is what enabled him to serve and lead a nation in great danger of falling apart. As a result, he is considered by many to be America’s greatest president.a
You and I may not be like Abraham Lincoln or be forced to face his challenges, but we can still follow in his footsteps by choosing to embrace the totality of who we are. We can look for treasures in our past areas of darkness. If we are willing to trust him, God can use even our weaknesses and hardships to reveal himself to us.
Question to Consider
What darkness—setback, failure, disappointment, suffering, mistake—first comes to mind when you think about your past? How might God want to reveal himself to you as you surrender to him the pain of your past?
Prayer
Father, I offer my past to you, placing my trust in the reality that you are the Lord of history, including my history. I cannot see all you see, but I ask you to help me rest in your love and power, trusting that you are working out a good plan in and through me—for my sake and for the sake of the world. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
MIDDAY/EVENING OFFICE
Silence and Stillness before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading: Job 42:1–6, 12–13, 16
Then Job replied to the LORD:
“I know that you can do all things;
no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
“You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.’
My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes.” . . .
The LORD blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. . . .
After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation.
Devotional
Job is a man of great faith and character, and one of the godliest, most respected men in his community. Yet he suffers deeply in every way—physically, socially, spiritually, and emotionally. All the forces of evil come against him. Enemies invade. Lightning strikes. A tornado unleashes its fury. The unthinkable happens—one of the world’s richest men is suddenly reduced to poverty. Then all ten of his children are killed in a terrible natural disaster. Finally, he becomes so sick he is virtually unrecognizable.
During this dark night of the soul—a season in which God feels absent—Job struggles. He doubts. He questions. He gets angry. He wants to die. But he continues to engage with God, to believe in the goodness of God, even as he tries to make sense of his suffering.
In the end, he is spiritually transformed and brought to a new place by the Lord, who “blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the [first]” (Job 42:12).
The story of Job is meant to encourage us to trust the living God with the many “deaths” we experience in our lives. Why? Because there are many rich fruits that will blossom in our lives as a result of the pain and losses of our past. We can trust Jesus, who shows us that resurrection and transformation always follow suffering and death.b
Question to Consider
How might God be transforming you through the pain and losses of your past?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, when I think about the losses of my past, I admit I don’t understand why you allowed such pain. Looking at Job helps, but I still struggle to believe that something good might come from it. Grant me the courage to feel, to pay attention, and to wait on you. May the prayer of Job be mine: “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.” In Jesus’ name, amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
a See Joshua Wolf Shenk, Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005).
b For a fuller exploration of this truth, see Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, 137–52.
From the book
