TODAY’S QUESTION
OpenWhat would make tonight feel a little easier?
It can be practical. It can be small. Let your answer be enough.
Making room for your day…
Making room for your day…
US · SEPTEMBER 24
No perfect words needed. Just a little room for each other.
TODAY’S QUESTION
OpenIt can be practical. It can be small. Let your answer be enough.
VERSE OF THE WEEK
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.
TODAY'S PASSAGE
I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.
Jesus doesn't soften the prognosis. 'In the world you will have trouble.' Not might, not could. Will. This is probably the most honest sentence Jesus speaks in the Gospels, and it is more comforting than it sounds at first.
The comfort is this: He said it before it happened. He looked at His disciples on the night before His own execution and told them plainly what was coming—not to frighten them, but to prepare them. The peace He offers is not built on the assumption that things will go well. It is built on something that has already happened and cannot be undone.
'I have overcome the world.' Past tense. The victory is not pending. Jesus speaks from the position of completion, even though from the disciples' perspective the next twelve hours were going to be devastating. This is the strange and particular shape of Christian hope: not that everything is fine, but that the One who overcame is present with you in the thing that isn't fine.
For a family, 'take heart' is a daily practice, not just a crisis response. You take heart in the small frustrations and the uncertain seasons and the parenting moments where you feel completely at sea. You take heart not because you've figured it out but because you know who walks with you through it.
What does 'taking heart' look like for you personally—what is the thing you come back to, the anchor, when the trouble feels heavy?
Is there a place in our current life where trouble is present that you feel like we haven't really talked about yet—something you're carrying more quietly than you need to?
How do you want me to be with you when things are hard—what kind of presence or support do you actually need from me in those moments?
Jesus, You told us plainly that trouble would come, and then You said: take heart. Help us to take heart—not as a forced performance of courage, but as a genuine turning to You. You have overcome. Nothing we face today is outside of that victory. Let that be real for us, not just true in theory. Amen.
Find one small thing to be genuinely encouraged about today—in your marriage, your family, your faith—and tell your partner what it is.
Jesus told His friends something really honest: in this world, you will have trouble. Trouble will happen. That might sound scary. But then He said: but take heart! Be brave! Because I have overcome the world. That means Jesus is bigger than any trouble that could come our way. When hard things happen to us—and sometimes they will—we can remember that Jesus has already won. He's with us, and He's stronger than whatever we're facing.
BEDTIME PRAYER
Jesus, sometimes things are hard and I get scared. Help me to take heart and remember that You are bigger than the trouble. You have already won. Help me to be brave. Amen.
A FEW RECENT MOMENTS
What was the best small thing today?
What's something you're looking forward to this week?
A conversation, at your pace. No streaks to keep.
A devotional is here whenever you’d like a quiet moment.