The Upper Room 15th February 2024 Devotional Message
The Upper Room 15th February 2024 Devotional, Thursday Message by Brenda Williams (Washington, USA)
TOPIC: Why?
TODAY’S READING
Job 11:7-16
Job said to God, “Why then did you bring me out of the womb?” – Job 10:18 (NIV)
As I was recovering from shoulder replacement surgery, all was going well — that is, until I broke out in shingles. Anyone who has ever experienced shingles knows that the pain and general misery are a nightmare. I confess I was angry at God.
I could relate in a very small way to what Job experienced. And, like Job, my prayers began with “Why?” I was already extremely uncomfortable after surgery, and now this festering annoyance was getting worse each day! “Why, God? What am I supposed to learn from this?”
I’m happy to say that the shingles wounds have healed, and my shoulder works better than ever. But I still don’t understand what all that pain was supposed to teach me. Surely there is much in my life and in the world that just doesn’t make sense. Sometimes we are not given the answers to our “why” questions, but we can trust that God is with us. We can cry out to God with what we don’t understand and know that God loves us still.
TODAY’S PRAYER
Loving God, help us to keep trusting you when our lives seem to be overly burdened. Strengthen our spirits, and walk with us through our struggles. Amen.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
God is with me when things go right and when things go wrong.
PRAYER FOCUS
People with shingles
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.