A WORD FOR TODAY, June 27, 2025
Peggy Hoppes
We pray you have been blessed by this daily devotion. If you received it from a friend, you can see other devotions and studies by visiting our website at www.awordfortoday.org.
Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, June 27, 2025
“Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness. My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope. It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. ‘Yahweh is my portion,’ says my soul. ‘Therefore I will hope in him.’ Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him. Let him put his mouth in the dust, if it is so that there may be hope. Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him. Let him be filled full of reproach. For the Lord will not cast off forever. For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses. For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.” Lamentations 3:19-33, WEB
Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, and Bruno Kirby starred in a movie called “City Slickers” which was about some city folk who decided to visit a dude ranch. This particular dude ranch included very hard work; the guests were helping move the herd from one place to another, which they later discovered was for slaughter. It was not easy, and they were not physically or emotionally prepared for the work, but it was also a time for them to learn more about themselves. Billy Crystal’s character Mitch was struggling with his life. He was going through a mid-life crisis, and he didn’t really want to go, but his wife sent him to “find his smile.” He did find it and in the end was a better and stronger man because of it.
There was a scene during which the characters were talking about the best and worst days of their lives. Mitch told his friends about a time when his wife found a lump in her breast. He said for the whole day they were worried and wondered if it was cancer. In the end they found out it was nothing. Mitch said, “That was my worst day.” Bruno Kirby - Ed - said, “But that was a good day, it was nothing.” Mitch answered, “Until we knew, it was a horrible day.” Ed said, “But it ended well.” Back and forth they went arguing about whether it was good because the end was good or if it was bad because the whole day was filled with worry. Ed said, “You are really a glass is half-empty kind of guy” meaning that Mitch always saw the negative and missed the positive.
We are amazed when we look at faithful/faith-filled people who are suffering from some ailment. They are paralyzed and still go to the food bank every week to work. They are sick with cancer and visit the children’s ward to comfort the children. They are financially strapped but manage to find enough to take a homeless man to dinner. They see the good in the midst of their affliction and do not wallow in pity for their own circumstances knowing that others need more than they do.
One of the most difficult things for a non-Christian to understand is the idea of goodness in suffering. They want to know, “If God is so good, why do people suffer?” The thing is, they aren’t able to see the wonderful things that come out of suffering. They can’t see the hope we have in tomorrow, even if tomorrow never comes. We don’t understand suffering as good or bad, but as something through which God takes us to make us better. They want to blame God, call Him an evil being because He allows struggle. Or they simply refuse to believe any sort of loving God exists because a loving God would not allow suffering in His world.
In Christ, however, we view things differently. We see the glass as half-full; we see the light at the end of the tunnel. We know there is a silver lining in every cloud and rainbows that follow the storm. We know that even if our suffering today ends in death, we will not die because we have eternal life in Christ. We know that God does not plan for us to suffer, but that He will be with us through the suffering that comes from living in this fallen and imperfect world. We know that God makes good things happen out of bad for those who love Him and have hope in His promises.
I think there are times in every man’s life when he feels like Mitch. Every woman experiences times of self-pity or of questioning why God would allow the suffering we face. I certainly have had my moments, especially in the last few years as I have experienced the effects of age. Yet, in Christ we are called to view the world differently, to look at all our experiences through God’s eyes and remember that He is faithful to the end. We know to whom we belong and what He has promised to those who have faith.
In hope we can get through our suffering knowing that something incredible is waiting for us in the end: eternal life with our Father in Heaven. We know that God will be with us through all the trials we face, not willingly afflicting us but using the circumstances of our lives to bring us closer to His heart. He is truly a compassionate and merciful God. Knowing this we can rejoice in our suffering and walk in faith into the glass is half-empty world with hope and peace.
A WORD FOR TODAY is posted five days a week – Monday through Friday. The devotional on Wednesday takes a look at the scripture from the Revised Common Lectionary for the upcoming Sunday. A WORD FOR TODAY is posted on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Word-for-Today-Devotional/339428839418276. Like the page to receive the devotion through Facebook. For information and to access our archives, visit http://www.awordfortoday.org