Joni And Friends Daily Devotional 28 August 2022 | What You Can and Can’t Control

Joni And Friends Daily Devotional 28 August 2022 | Sunday Message

Joni And Friends Daily Devotional 28 August 2022

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TOPIC: What You Can and Can’t Control

Joni And Friends Daily Devotional 28 August 2022 MESSAGE

It’s one thing to reflect a submissive attitude toward God when we bring troubles on ourselves, but it’s a different matter when unexpected trials smash us broadside – trials not of our own making.

A drunk driver veers across the yellow line. A grim-faced doctor diagnoses some strange cancer. Reassessment slaps your property into a higher tax bracket. Some dumb linebacker breaks your high schooler’s leg in football practice. A quick-handed thief lifts your purse or wallet. An old friend drags your name through the mud.

These are circumstances, allowed by God, over which you have no control. And they’re the hardest ones to deal with.

But let’s look for a moment at the Apostle Paul. Talk about getting broadsided with problems for which he had no responsibility! Listen, Paul didn’t bring that shipwreck on himself. It wasn’t his idea to generate a death threat in Damascus and face the humiliation of leaving town in a basket lowered over the wall. It was never in his mind to orchestrate a mob scene in Lystra, leaving him smashed by stones and left for dead. Was it his choice to enlist a shrill-voiced slave girl to follow him around, causing a ruckus that gave him a bad name? And when he answered people’s questions, could he help it if they were outraged by the truth?

No, Paul may not have been responsible for his circumstances. But Paul was responsible for the way he responded to those circumstances.

And how did he respond? He didn’t groan, “Oh, for Pete’s sake, here we go again.”

Instead, he said,

For Christ’s sake, I delight in weakness…For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10

Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. 2 Timothy 2:10

Consider the incident in Philippi, described in Acts 16. The magistrates handcuffed Paul and Silas to a scourging pole and gave them a brutal whipping. Piling humiliation upon humiliation, the Philippian authorities then took the bruised and lacerated missionaries and placed them in stocks in an inner cell of the city jail. There they were, stuck in a wet, stinky dungeon tucked far away from the light of day. (Joni And Friends Daily Devotional 28 August 2022 )

Paul must have been faint. Silas must have been sick to his stomach. Every bone ached and their fresh wounds oozed.

Yet, deep in the dark dungeon, they did something incredible. At midnight, the darkest and loneliest hour, they began praying and singing praises to God. They weren’t just humming along lightly or mumbling their prayers in between moans and groans. No, Luke says that in spite of the thick walls and heavy doors, the other prisoners “were listening to them” (v. 25).

Their words won the battle against Satan in that midnight hour. A passionate faith is unstoppable.

As it says in Psalm 106:47,

Save us, Lord our God, and gather us from the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. (Emphasis mine).

To whine or grumble, fret or murmur, complain or lament would have been to invite defeat in that terrible hour. And who would have blamed Paul and Silas if they had sputtered a nasty remark or two?

But the record shows they didn’t. They didn’t succumb to defeat with thoughtless, ill-tempered words. They triumphed in a victory of praise. What a witness to the other prisoners! What a testimony to the jailer! And what an encouragement to countless generations of oppressed believers who have read that account and found fresh courage.

Words. Do we fully understand their power? Can any of us really grasp the mighty force behind the things we say? Do we stop and think before we speak, considering the potency of the phrases we utter?

No wonder the Bible gives so much attention to the phrases that pass through our lips. Little wonder the book of James gives the tongue such a vigorous once-over. How can we bless at one moment and curse at another? How can sweet water and bitter bubble up from the same spring? I shudder to think of all the times during the course of one day that I mutter a complaint or manipulate with a precisely timed phrase or two. (Joni And Friends Daily Devotional 28 August 2022 )

If you and I are looking for victory over our circumstances, we will find it in praise. No matter how much your kids bug you, no matter how often you feel stepped on by others, no matter what the circumstances at home or the office…success is possible when we hold our spiteful tongue and win the battle with words that bless our Lord.

We are responsible. Maybe we’re not accountable for some of our trials, but we are accountable for all of our responses.

If Paul and Silas could sing choruses in a dungeon, you can offer praise wherever life places you – this very moment!

The Glorious Pursuit

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. PSALM 42:11

Sometimes praise escapes from our lips spontaneously. We can’t hold it in. At other times it’s a choice, a sheer act of will. But in both situations, meaningful praise is just as precious to God. And he responds just as powerfully in both cases, not necessarily as we expect, but always to our greatest good and his greatest glory. Take a minute to pay him the highest compliment now, maybe in song, maybe in speech, or maybe in the silence of your soul.

Thank you for reading Joni And Friends Daily Devotional 28 August 2022, Sunday Message