Verse from Mark

“她已经尽她所能的作了。她预先用香膏膏了我的身体，是为了我的安葬。”

马可福音 14:8

“She has done what she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial.”

Mark 14:8

When her friends say thoughtless or outrageous things on social media, Charlotte chimes in with gentle but firm dissent. She respects the dignity of everyone, and her words are unfailingly positive.

A few years ago she became Facebook friends with a man who harbored anger toward Christians. He appreciated Charlotte’s rare honesty and grace. Over time his hostility melted. Then Charlotte suffered a bad fall. Now housebound, she fretted over what she could do. About that time her Facebook friend died and then this message arrived from his sister: “[Because of your witness] I know he’s now experiencing God’s complete and abiding love for him.”

During the week in which Christ would be killed, Mary of Bethany anointed Him with expensive perfume (John 12:3; Mark 14:3). Some of those present were appalled, but Jesus applauded her. “She has done a beautiful thing to me,” He said. “She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial” (Mark 14:6–8).

“She did what she could.” Christ’s words take the pressure off. Our world is full of broken, hurting people. But we don’t have to worry about what we can’t do. Charlotte did what she could. So can we. The rest is in His capable hands.

Do thy duty, that is best; leave unto the Lord the rest. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Verse from Romans

“唯有基督在我们还作罪人的时候为我们死，神对我们的爱就在此显明了。”

罗马书 5:8

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:8

We deserve death because of our sin (Rom. 3:23). Yet, “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (5:8). We were unworthy, yet Jesus—sinless and holy—gave up His life so we could escape the penalty for our sin and one day live forever in heaven.

Eternal life is a gift from God. It’s not something we earn by working for it. We are saved by God’s grace, through faith in Christ (Eph. 2:8–9).

Grace and mercy are unearned blessings.

Verse from 2 Corinthians

“我们所顾念的，不是看得见的，而是看不见的；因为看得见的是暂时的，看不见的是永远的。”

哥林多后书 4:18

“while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

2 Corinthians 4:18

God is always close. He is powerful. He always cares. And He can use even the smallest experiences, and briefest moments, to help us remember that His presence is like an ocean of grace in the middle of our heavy moments.

What gifts of grace has God given to you in a difficult time? How might you be a blessing to others?

Jesus provides an oasis of grace in the desert of trials.

Insight

In fulfilling his calling as an apostle (Acts 9:15), Paul endured great suffering. But in the midst of great opposition, persecution, and painful suffering, Paul’s refrain is: “We do not lose heart” (2 Cor. 4:1, 16). His confidence is not rooted in himself but in God’s sovereign power, in His sustaining grace, in Christ’s resurrected life, and in the expectation of future reward and eternal glory (vv. 7–18).

Verse from Deuteronomy

“你们要走在耶和华你们的神吩咐你们走的路上，使你们可以活着，可以享福，并且使你在将要占领为业的地上，可以长久居住。””

申命记 5:33

“You shall walk in all the way which the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you will possess.”

Deuteronomy 5:33

Like the ancient Israelites who frequently failed to do what God asked them to do, we too often go our own way. Yet obedience is a desired result of our deepening relationship with God. Moses told the people, “Be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you . . . . Walk in obedience to all that He has commanded you” (Deut. 5:32–33). Long after Moses, Jesus urged His disciples to trust Him and to love one another.

This is still the kind of surrender of our hearts that leads to our well-being. As the Spirit helps us to obey, it is good to remember that He “works in [us] to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose” (Phil. 2:13).

Lord, 

thank You for second and third chances. 

Please help us to want to follow Your ways and to follow through in obedience.

The closer we walk with God, the clearer we see His guidance.

Verse from 1 Thessalonians

“你们效法了我们，也效法了主，在大患难中，带着圣灵的喜乐接受了真道。”

帖撒罗尼迦前书 1:6

“You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit,”

1 Thessalonians 1:6

“Today we’re going to play a game called Imitation,” the children’s minister told the kids gathered around him for the children’s sermon. “I’ll name something and you act out what it does. Ready? Chicken!” The kids flapped their arms, cackled, and crowed. Next it was elephant, then football player, and then ballerina. The last one was Jesus. While many of the children hesitated, one six-year-old with a big smile on his face immediately threw his arms wide open in welcome. The congregation applauded.

How easily we forget that our calling is to be like Jesus in the everyday situations of life. “Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph. 5:1–2).

The apostle Paul commended the followers of Jesus in Thessalonica for the outward demonstration of their faith in difficult circumstances. “You became imitators of us and of the Lord,” Paul wrote. “And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia” (1 Thess. 1:6–7).

It is the life of Jesus in us that encourages and enables us to walk through this world as He did—with the good news of God’s love and with arms open wide in welcome to all.

Lord Jesus, 

may Your words of invitation and welcome, “Come to Me,” be lived out through our lives.

Jesus’s arms of welcome are always open.

Verses from Psalms

“我虽然处身在患难之中，你仍使我存活；我仇敌的怒气，你必伸手抵挡；你的右手必拯救我。耶和华必成全关乎我的事；耶和华啊！你的慈爱永远长存，求你不要离弃你手所造的。”

诗篇 138:7-8

“Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch forth Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, And Your right hand will save me. The LORD will accomplish what concerns me; Your lovingkindness, O LORD, is everlasting; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.”

Psalms 138:7-8

Bourne, who died in 2002, was a master wood carver whose carvings are almost exact replicas of real objects. “Carving a duck is simple,” he said. “You just look at a piece of wood, get in your head what a duck looks like, and then cut off everything that doesn’t look like it.”

So it is with God. He looks at you and me—blocks of rough wood—envisions the Christlike woman or man hidden beneath the bark, knots, and twigs and then begins to carve away everything that does not fit that image. We would be amazed if we could see how beautiful we are as finished “ducks.”

But first we must accept that we are a block of wood and allow the Artist to cut, shape, and sand us where He will. This means viewing our circumstances—pleasant or unpleasant—as God’s tools that shape us. He forms us, one part at a time, into the beautiful creature He envisioned in our ungainly lump of wood.

Sometimes the process is wonderful; sometimes it is painful. But in the end, all of God’s tools conform us “to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29).

Do you long for that likeness? Put yourself in the Master Carver’s hands.

Father, 

You are the craftsman who shapes me. You are the one who knows what shape my life should take. 

Thank You for carving me into the image You have planned. 

Help me to trust that the pieces and parts that You shave from me are the right ones.

Growing in Christ comes from a deepening relationship with Him.

Verse from Philippians

“应当毫无忧虑，只要凡事借着祷告祈求，带着感恩的心，把你们所要的告诉神。”

腓立比书 4:6

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

Philippians 4:6

What do you do with your worries? Do you turn them inward, or turn them upward?

When the brutal Assyrian King Sennacherib was preparing to destroy Jerusalem, he sent a message to King Hezekiah saying that Judah would be no different from all the other nations he had conquered. Hezekiah took this message to the temple in Jerusalem, and “spread it out before the Lord” (Isa. 37:14). He then prayed and asked for help from Almighty God.

Soon afterward Isaiah the prophet delivered this message to Hezekiah from the Lord: “Because you prayed about King Sennacherib of Assyria, the Lord has spoken” (Isa. 37:21–22 nlt). Scripture tells us that Hezekiah’s prayer was answered that very night. God intervened miraculously, conquering the enemy forces outside the city gates. The Assyrian army didn’t even “shoot an arrow” (v. 33). Sennacherib would leave Jerusalem, never to return. 

Three words in God’s message to Hezekiah—“Because you prayed”—show us the best place to go with our worries. Because Hezekiah turned to God, He rescued him and his people. When we turn our worries into prayer, we discover that God is faithful in unexpected ways!

Father, 

please help me to turn my worries into prayer. 

My problems are better in Your hands than in my own.