Looking Beyond The Storm
Tuesday, October 19
Looking Beyond The Storm
Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon. The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring. Isaiah 58:10-11
When we go through storms, our world often begins to revolve around ourselves. We quickly become very focused on our own problems. Sometimes that’s a survival mechanism–we need to focus on caring for ourselves to make it through our problems. But other times, that instinct to look inward actually hurts us. You may feel that you are in the middle of a storm. It might feel as though you will never escape it – that all your energy has gone. Our gut tells us to watch out for ourselves because no one else will, and, in our moments of weakness, it’s easy to believe that lie. But Isaiah 58:10-11 paints a different picture. It tells us that if we focus on serving the hungry and helping those in trouble, God will satisfy our needs.
Isaiah 58 is a beautiful passage which shows us that our love and care for others, even when we are going through it ourselves, is a beautiful display of God’s love. And it shows us the beauty of looking past our own lives and blessing others instead.
Despite what you may be facing, I dare you to reach out to someone else. With a passion as if you were praying for your own situation, pray for someone else. Other people need our love most when they are suffering. And when we go through trials of our own, we are especially able to understand the sufferings of others. Even if their trials aren’t the same as ours, we can understand–even if in a small way–the pain they are going through.
By keeping our eyes on God and focusing on the needs of others instead of our own, we gain a new perspective. We trade the pain and weakness of our own problems for the joy and victories of helping others. And we grow closer to God in the process.
Prayer for today: Dear God, I pray for clear eyes to see those around me who need help. Help me to not drown in my own sorrow but to seek Your face for my brothers and sisters in Christ. Show me what You would have me do in the midst of my trials to help those in similar situations. Thank you for giving me the ability to experience the blessing of serving others even when my own life is difficult. Amen.