You can listen to this week’s Devotional here
Author: Deborah Voss
For in God we live and move and have our being… Acts 17: 28
I have a dear friend who is going through a multitude of extreme crises right now and my heart and my prayers have gone out to her and her family for weeks now. It is so very difficult to know what to do or what to say as everything compounds for her day after day. But I know, as we all know, those of us who have lived through the complexities of life, what it means to go through difficult times. To go through times when you aren’t sure how to make it through one day into the next. Times when you question whether you can make it at all. Our experiences are different, but no less traumatic. It is often in those moments when our prayers become basic, no frills, from the gut – some version of, “O God, O God, O God,” hoping that God can read through all the confusion and fear and pain what we need because it is beyond our capacity to articulate it.
In a time of my own, I found this scripture from Acts to be my comfort – For in God we live and move and have our being . . . For if we do indeed live and move and have our being in God, then God knows without my having to get down on my knees and search for words. God knows, more than I know, and my faith that God is with me, in me, around me, and likewise with everyone else in the circumstances brings me a peace within the turmoil. A peace that on top of everything else I don’t have to worry if I’m paying enough attention to God, to my prayers. Peace in knowing that whatever happens, God has been present and working throughout, not just for me, but for everyone. Peace in knowing that God is working for the “right” outcome for everyone, whether I understand it or not. Peace in knowing that communicating with God isn’t a matter of words at all. Peace in knowing that by having my being in God, God knows. God knows, and that is more comforting than anything I could ever put into words.
Like the air I breathe, Like the blood that courses through my body, God is there, my strength, my guide, my comfort. I pray that comfort and understanding for all who are going through life’s most challenging times.
