Unless the LORD had helped me, I would soon have settled in the silence of the grave. I cried out, “I am slipping!” but your unfailing love, O LORD, supported me. When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.

Psalm 94:17-19

Dear God, when doubts fill my mind, your comfort gives me renewed hope and cheer. Thank you.

I suppose each of us haas a different threshold for what we perceive as suffering. For someone who has had not experienced very little suffering at the hands of others or through life circumstances, I think I still have a pretty high threshold. For example, I have a friend whose son is a movie director and he just made a documentary about a worship leader who flew in the face of the government during the first few months of Covid and insisted that the church could not be “persecuted” by being told we temporarily could not meet corporately for worship. The friend directly asked me to attend a special screening of the movie and I was trying to passively get out of it, but after he pressed on I had to be more frank and tell him that I don’t like the viewpoint that the government was persecuting the church in that moment. They were applying a standard across the board to everyone. It was awkward, but I just don’t see it that way.

That being said, there have certainly been times when I called on you because I felt I was falling. Employment struggles. Struggles in my marriage. Struggles with my children. Concerns for my community or for friends.

Father, Holy Spirit, thank you for being my God, my comforter, my counselor, my provider, and my hope beyond the seen world. Help me to continue to walk with you and worship you. Help me to bring your hope and comfort to others.

I pray this through the power of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection,

Amen