THE UPPER ROOM DEVOTIONAL 21ST NOVEMBER 2024, WEDNESDAY MESSAGE
Read The Upper Room Devotional 21st November 2024 written by María Isabel Rodríguez Carrillo (Pinar del Río, Cuba)
TOPIC: Our Advocate
Today’s Reading
Psalm 34:17-22
The Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. – Romans 8:26 (NRSVUE)
Today’s Message
When I was a child, my home environment was filled with violence. I felt completely insignificant. When I was only seven or eight years old, I was depressed and harbored dark thoughts bordering on suicide.
As I grew into a teenager, my childhood continued to haunt me, and I experienced lingering thoughts that I did not deserve to live. Then I learned about Jesus, a man who experienced great suffering at the hands of his peers and was crucified. I marveled at the great injustice he had suffered. I prayed earnestly, asking Jesus to take away my problems. But Jesus Christ taught me instead to forgive my aggressors. Eventually, I came to understand that they treated me the way they did because they could not give me what they did not have.
Even though my parents abandoned me, the Lord welcomed me lovingly with open arms. I learned that I cannot change people, but the Holy Spirit can. My advocate, the Holy Spirit, awakened in me the desire to commit to a new future and the belief that I could choose a new life in Christ. Thanks be to God!
Today’s Prayer
Even before we cry out to you, great God of mercy, you already know our needs. Help us to accept ourselves as beloved children created in your image. Amen.
Thought for the Day
“The Lord . . . saves the crushed in spirit” (Ps. 34:18).
Prayer Focus
Young people in crisis
The Upper Room Devotional 21st November 2024, 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. Read More