Devotionals for June 6, 2024
Mark your calendar for our next TNLC Family Day on June 30th! It's going to be a great day!
READ
JAMES 1:2-4
"2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”
"2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”
REFLECT
Horatio Spafford was a successful attorney and real estate investor who lost a fortune in the great Chicago fire of 1871. Around the same time, his beloved four-year-old son died of scarlet fever. Thinking a vacation would do his family some good, he sent his wife and four daughters on a ship to England, planning to join them after he finished some pressing business at home. However, while crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the ship was involved in a terrible collision and sunk. More than 200 people lost their lives, including all four of Horatio Spafford’s precious daughters. His wife, Anna, survived the tragedy. Upon arriving in England, she sent a telegram to her husband that began: “Saved alone. What shall I do?”
Horatio immediately set sail for England. At one point during his voyage, the captain of the ship, aware of the tragedy that had struck the Spafford family, summoned Horatio to tell him that they were now passing over the spot where the shipwreck had occurred. As Horatio thought about his daughters, God filled his heart and mind with words of comfort and hope and he penned the hymn “It is Well With My Soul.”
Horatio immediately set sail for England. At one point during his voyage, the captain of the ship, aware of the tragedy that had struck the Spafford family, summoned Horatio to tell him that they were now passing over the spot where the shipwreck had occurred. As Horatio thought about his daughters, God filled his heart and mind with words of comfort and hope and he penned the hymn “It is Well With My Soul.”
APPLY
Q: When trouble comes our way, why doesn’t James instruct us to consider it an opportunity to learn from our mistakes, or to find a friend who will listen to our frustrations?
Q: Notice that James doesn’t say “if” trouble comes but rather “when” it comes. Are you tempted to think that God can’t use a particular trouble in your life?
Q: Is there someone in your life who is hurting right now, faced with great trouble? Reach out to them today and remind them that God is bigger than the trouble they are facing. Offer to pray with them.
Q: Notice that James doesn’t say “if” trouble comes but rather “when” it comes. Are you tempted to think that God can’t use a particular trouble in your life?
Q: Is there someone in your life who is hurting right now, faced with great trouble? Reach out to them today and remind them that God is bigger than the trouble they are facing. Offer to pray with them.
SING
PRAY
"Forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us."
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part but the whole
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, o my soul!
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part but the whole
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, o my soul!