The Upper Room 16th January 2024 Devotional
The Upper Room 16th January 2024 Devotional, Tuesday Message by Hadassah Treu (Pazardzhik, Bulgaria)
TOPIC: God’s Comfort
TODAY’S READING
Isaiah 66:7-13
The Lord said, “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you.” – Isaiah 66:13 (NIV)
One dark, frosty morning my mother called and asked me to come help her and my father because she was experiencing dizziness and vomiting. When I heard her feeble voice, my stomach turned into a knot, my hands started sweating, and I felt my heartbeat in my throat. I had lost my husband the year before and had experienced multiple difficult life changes, so I was already feeling vulnerable and distressed. I thought, God, my life is hard enough without having to handle one more crisis. I felt as if God had abandoned me.
When I came home after an exhausting day with my parents, I opened my Bible. God spoke to me through Isaiah 66:13. In this chapter, the Lord spoke to the Israelites, ensuring them that God had not abandoned them and offering them comfort and hope for the restoration of Jerusalem.
God longs to comfort us. In our most difficult moments, God whispers words of peace, love, comfort, and encouragement to our souls. When I was deeply distressed, God brought comfort to my heart, heard my prayers, and gave me strength to help my parents. Our good God desires our well-being and is ready to extend comfort and peace anytime.
TODAY’S PRAYER
Dear Lord, we come to you asking for your comfort and peace. Comfort us as a mother comforts her child. Ease our pain and fill our hearts with encouragement. Amen.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
I will ask for and receive God’s comfort today.
PRAYER FOCUS
To feel God’s comfort
The Upper Room is a daily devotional magazine published in more than 30 languages and 100 countries around the world. The daily meditations are written by readers of the magazine and others interested in sharing their faith experiences through writing—both laity and clergy, published authors and new writers. The meditations are stories of real people working to live faithfully with the Bible as their touchstone. Every day, readers of The Upper Room around the world read the same story in many different languages and pray the same prayer together.