The Upper Room 7 January 2024 Devotional
The Upper Room 7 January 2024 Devotional, Sunday Message by Madeline Kalu (North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany)
TOPIC: God Provides
TODAY’S READING
1 Kings 17:7-16
My God will meet your every need out of his riches in the glory that is found in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:19 (CEB)
When a great drought hit, the water pump in our house broke. My parents didn’t have the money to buy a new one. We prayed constantly for rain, but it didn’t rain.
We cannot live without water. But thankfully some neighbors who had sophisticated water pumps with sufficient water supply offered to help. They allowed my family to take as much water as we needed. So every day my parents and I carried buckets to the neighbors’ houses to fetch water until the dry season was over.
This experience was a reminder to me that God doesn’t always answer prayers the way we want or expect. It didn’t rain immediately after we prayed. But God answered our prayers according to our needs by bringing us kindhearted neighbors to provide water for us to use every day.
TODAY’S PRAYER
God our provider, help us to trust that you will answer our prayers even if the answer is not what we expect. We give thanks for the help you offer us and pray as Jesus taught us, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen” (Matt. 6:9-13, KJV).
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
God will provide for my needs in God’s way.
PRAYER FOCUS
Countries experiencing drought
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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.