YouVersion Logo
Search Icon

Our Daily Bread 15-Day EditionSample

Our Daily Bread 15-Day Edition

DAY 15 OF 15

The Cure

For futility, I once heard interviews with survivors from World War II. The soldiers recalled how they spent a particular day. One sat in a foxhole; once or twice, a German tank drove by and he shot at it. Others played cards and frittered away the time. A few got involved in furious firefights. Mostly, the day passed like any other. Later, they learned they had just participated in one of the largest, most decisive engagements of the war, the Battle of the Bulge. It didn’t feel decisive at the time because none had the big picture.

Great victories are won when ordinary people execute their assigned tasks. When followers of Ignatius (1491– 1556) endured periods of futility, he always prescribed the same cure: “In times of desolation we must never make a change, but stand firm and constant in the resolutions and determination in which we were the day before the desolations.” Spiritual battles must be fought with the very weapons hardest to wield at the time: prayer, meditation, self-examination, and repentance.

Perhaps you sense you’re in a spiritual rut. Stay at your assigned task! Obedience to God—and only obedience— offers the way out of our futility. — Philip Yancey

When comforts are declining,
He grants the soul again
A season of clear shining,
To cheer it after rain. — Cowper

If you sense your faith is unraveling, go back to where you dropped the thread of obedience.

Scripture

Day 14

About this Plan

Our Daily Bread 15-Day Edition

We want to encourage you into a thoughtful, daily, heart-to-heart relationship with God. Millions of readers around the world have turned to the daily devotional, Our Daily Bread for moments of quiet reflection. In just a few minutes each day, the inspiring, life-changing stories point you toward your heavenly Father and the wisdom and promises of His unchanging Word.

More