Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. – James 1:2 (NLT)

Does this verse strike you as being a little crazy? It’s telling us when troubles come our way to consider it an opportunity for joy. That seems crazy. Who gets joy out of troubles?

Today’s verse is telling us that when troubles come we have an opportunity to grow. We can learn from them and become more like Jesus.

Maybe this year has been a tough one for you. Life sometimes can be really difficult and full of storms sometimes.

The thing is in the middle of troubles we can rely on God’s Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us that one of the Holy Spirit’s jobs is to comfort us. So even when we’re pressed and faced with difficulty, we can look to the Holy Spirit for comfort.

We can get through the troubles we’re going through right now and come out stronger and more reliant on God. So today, if you’ve allowed the troubles around you to cause you to doubt God’s faithfulness, know this: God will not leave you in trouble without help.

He will walk with you, lead you and guide you through this all. You will come out of this stronger than before.

Daily Devotional and Bible Verse – John 10:4 (NLT)

After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice.

When a baby is born, it already knows the voice of it’s mother. In a similar way when you believe on Jesus as your Savior the Bible says you’re born into the kingdom of God. As a child of God, you know the voice of the Father God.

Your Father God loves you, and wants to speak to you, and for you to love hearing His voice.

The truth is, you belong to God’s flock and you know the voice of your Savior. So begin to listen for His instructions. He’s going ahead of you and showing you on which way to go. Learn to trust His voice and step out when He tells you to do something. When you do, you’ll see that He’s gone ahead of you and is making a way for you. So begin today by expecting to hear God’s voice in your life.

Today’s Truth: Begin listening to God’s instructions. He wants to show you which way to go.

So today encourage yourself. You can know the voice of God. You can follow what He is leading you to do and you can trust that He will lead you into good things for your life.

The teaching about the cross seems foolish to those who are lost. But to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18 (ERV)

When you’re talking to your friends, have you ever felt like others didn’t understand your relationship with God? Did you ever feel out of place or wondered why Jesus just doesn’t seem to make sense to others when it makes perfect sense to you?

There is a reason. Today’s Bible verse says that the “Cross” or the teaching of Jesus seems foolish to those who do not know Him yet. Why is this? It’s because the message of Jesus only makes sense when it’s mixed with faith.

When you hear about Jesus and all that He did and you mix it with faith, it begins to make sense. Christianity completely centers off of this event. The cross completely changed everything and showed all of God’s power.

Everything you need past, present, and future stems from what Jesus did through the Cross. If you’re anxious the cross handles that. If you deal with fear, the cross handles that. Whatever you face, the cross handles it.

This doesn’t mean that you don’t need to share Jesus with others, however. They may not get it, but there is a chance that they could hear the message and choose to believe it as you did. So keep sharing with others and believe that they’ll have an opportunity to be changed by the message of the cross just like you.

I say, “The LORD is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in him.” – Lamentations 3:24 (CSB)

Where you put your hope says a lot about what’s important to you. Perhaps you put your hope in popularity or in your ability to get good grades to get a scholarship to college. Maybe your hope is in your musical skills and that one day you’ll make it big.

Today’s Truth: Where you put your hope says a lot about what’s important to you

There are so many different places to put our hope in. It’s almost easy to forget about putting our hope in God. It’s easy to get so wrapped up in the concerns of life that we forget that God is where our hope should be.

Jesus should be where we are placing our hope. When life gets tough and things aren’t going the way we think they should, having hope in Jesus will help you get through. So take some time today and get real with yourself. Ask yourself where are you putting your hope? Is it in Jesus? Or have you taken your eyes off Jesus and put your hope in something else?

If you realize that you’ve begun to put your hope in something other than Jesus, choose today to put your hope back in Him. Choose to live a life fully devoted to Him.

The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives – Psalm 37:23

Many times in life we want to get God’s leading and direction for our lives. We hope that God will appear in a giant cloud or send an angel to tell us the next thing we are to do. Often, we expect that thing to be a big leap into the future. And while God can at times lead us this way, many times God leads us through smaller things.

That is what this verse is talking about. This verse tells us that our steps are directed by God. God is directing the small things in life. He shows us one small thing to do, then another, followed by another. All those steps together add up to something really great God has for us to do.

Today’s Truth: Most of the people who did big things for God took small steps.

Most of the people who did great things for God did it in small steps and stages. In the Bible, David killed the lion and the bear before defeating the giant. This shows us that it is often the small choices and the small steps me make each day that end up making a big difference in the course of our lives. So today remember to act on the small things that God is putting on your heart to do. Those small things often end up setting you up for big things later in life.

A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. – Proverbs 11:25 (NIV)

Many times we don’t think a lot about being generous. We are often thinking about how we can save enough money to buy the car, shoes or the phone we want. Lots of energy goes into making sure we have the latest and greatest. And while there’s nothing wrong with wanting nice things, we’ve got to keep it in the proper perspective.

Acquiring things can trap us in an endless cycle. You get something, but it doesn’t really satisfy you, so you try to obtain the next thing, and that doesn’t really make you happy, so you reach for something new. If you’re not careful, your whole life can turn into the pursuit of stuff.

True happiness comes when you put pursuing things to the side and begin living a life of generosity. And the great thing about generosity is that you don’t have to have tons of money to do it. It can start by buying a friend a Pepsi who is having a bad day. Or helping your neighbor carry in their trash cans. It could be baking a friend some cookies after they had surgery.

Being generous doesn’t have to take a lot of money, it’s just about getting out of yourself and the pursuit of stuff and into being a blessing to other people around us. So today ask God for ways that you can begin to be generous.