5-Day Devotional To A Life Of Unwavering HopeSample

 Choosing joy can feel like pushing a massive boulder up a steep hill, impossible without the help of others. But if we were not meant to walk in and know joy intimately, why would God have commanded that we do so? We are prodded, invited, and instructed to have joy even in the face of loss, suffering, and pain. In many ways, it’s a call to live in the realm of the miraculous. Of course, following this call, along with every other move toward the life God wants for us, means we will be opposed.

And behind all opposition, there is one who opposes. Behind all thieveries, there is a thief. Remember what Jesus said in John 10:10: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” Satan comes to rob us of our joy, our peace, and our connection to and faith in God. He whispers lies to us when we are vulnerable and does his best to warp our perception of our lives with his depressing and evil spin. His endless attacks can wear a person down if they aren’t aware that the perceptions being suggested are coming straight from hell. . . .

We were born into a world at war. It manifests itself in a variety of ways, but all of them come against our union with God. All of them steal our joy. We are not to live in fear of the war, but we are to be armed and shielded in the power of God, living with wisdom and awareness in it.

Our hearts need to be grounded in the unchanging truth of the love of God so that the manifold thieves that come our way do not have their way. In order to press on to the life Jesus has won for us and calls us to, we need to be aware of the enemy’s schemes. We need to remember—even when we are weighed down by the worries, demands, and pressures of life, even when we feel that we are failing in them—that the Father invites us to rest in His arms and find reassurance in His heart toward us. His heart is only and always a safe place for ours.