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Written by John Ortberg, a contemporary pastor, author, and speaker. This is an excerpt from his book “The Me I Want to Be.”

Surrender is not the same thing as passivity. God’s will for your life involves exercising creativity, making choices, and taking initiative. Surrender does not mean being a doormat. It does not mean you accept circumstances fatalistically. Often it means you will have to fight to challenge the status quo. It doesn’t mean that you stop using your mind, stop asking questions, or stop thinking critically. Instead, surrender is the glad and voluntary acknowledgment that there is a God, and it is not you. His purposes are wiser and better than your desires. Jesus does not come to rearrange the outside of your life the way you want. He comes to rearrange the inside of your life the way God wants.

And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. [Psalm 90:10]

Written by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), an Indian poet, writer, educator and environmentalist.  This is an excerpt from the book “The Heart of God.”

I know that the day will come when my sight of this earth shall be lost, and life will take its leave in silence, drawing the last curtain over my eyes. Yet stars will watch at night, and morning rise as before, and hours heave like sea waves casting up pleasures and pains. When I think of this end of my moments, the barrier of the moments breaks, and I see by the light of death Your world with its careless treasures. Rare is its lowliest seat; rare is its meanest of lives. Things that I longed for in vain and things that I got – let them pass. Let me but truly possess the things that I ever spurned and overlooked.

I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. [Ecclesiastes 2:10-11]

Written by Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929), an Indian Christian missionary and sadhu. This is an excerpt from his book “At the Master’s Feet.”

In place of perfection, agnostics and critics see only defects. Fault finding critics ask, “If there is an Almighty Creator of the world why are there defects in it, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, eclipses, pain, suffering, death, and the like?” The folly of this criticism is similar to that of an unlearned man who finds fault with an unfinished building or an incomplete picture. After a time, when he sees them fully finished, he is ashamed of his folly and ends by singing their praises. Thus too, God did not in one day give to this world its present form, nor will it in one day reach perfection. The whole creation moves onward to perfection and if it were possible for the man of this world to see from afar with the eyes of God the perfect world in which no defect appears, he too would bow in praise before Him and say, “All is very good.”

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. [Genesis 1:31]

Written by the staff at The Fuller Center for Spiritual Formation.

Years ago, a mentor shared with me a time when he felt hopeless. He had experienced a deep family loss and shared this loss with a student of his. This student listened and told him he would hold onto hope for him. His student became a hope holder for his teacher when he was hopeless. Hope was not lost. Hope was held in the hands of another, in love, for the sake of someone else. My mentor shared that knowing someone else held onto hope, even when he could not, encouraged and strengthened him in this season.  Hope holds, even when we cannot hold it. It holds through friendship, through our faith communities, through neighbors, and through the centuries of saints. We hold others as we listen deeply, as we use our time for good, as we enter others’ sufferings, when we think of someone and express our availability and care. And as we hold hope for others, we are reminded that Jesus holds each one of us.

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. [Romans 15:1-2]

Today’s devotional, written by the Pray.com team, is based on Psalm 73.

Psalm 73:26 acknowledges the reality of human weakness. Our bodies grow weary, and our hearts can become discouraged. Yet even when our strength fails, God remains our source of hope and power. He is the strength of our hearts, sustaining us when we have nothing left to give. God is our portion—our inheritance and greatest treasure. Nothing on earth can satisfy or sustain us like His presence. When we feel weak or broken, He faithfully holds us up and renews our strength. He is all we need today and forever. Take a moment tonight to rest in God’s strength. Breathe out exhaustion and discouragement, and breathe in His sustaining presence. Trust that He is your strength and your portion, both now and forever.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. [Psalm 73:26]

Written by Laura Murray, a contemporary author. This is an excerpt from her work “Holding Hope.”

Hope is a gift. And it is a gift that can overflow. Even as we hold it, it flows abundantly and securely because of the promises of life today and to come. It is more than we can grasp, more than we can imagine, yet we can offer it through the power of the Spirit. 

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. [Romans 15:13]

Written by L.B. Cowman (1870-1960), an American writer and author of devotional books. This is an excerpt from her book “Streams of the Desert.”

A gentleman, writing about the breaking up of old ships, recently said that it is not the age alone which improves the quality of the fiber in the wood of an old vessel, but the straining and wrenching of the vessel by the sea, the chemical action of the bilge water, and of many kinds of cargoes. Some planks and veneers made from an oak beam which had been part of a ship eighty years old were exhibited a few years ago at a fashionable furniture store on Broadway, New York, and attracted general notice for the exquisite coloring and beautiful grain. Equally striking were some beams of mahogany taken from a bark which sailed the seas sixty years ago. The years and the traffic had contracted the pores and deepened the color, until it looked as superb in its chromatic intensity as an antique Chinese vase. It was made into a cabinet, and has today a place of honor in the drawing-room of a wealthy New York family. So there is a vast difference between the quality of old people who have lived flabby, self-indulgent, useless lives, and the fiber of those who have sailed all seas and carried all cargoes as the servants of God and the helpers of their fellow men.

You will come to your grave in a full age, As stacks of grain are harvested in their season. [Job 5:26]

Written by Thomas Tarrants, a contemporary minister and author.

When we speak of knowing God, it is important to understand that we are not talking about abstract or speculative thought concerning God or mystical experiences, but about coming alive to God through Jesus Christ and surrendering ourselves to Him in grateful love…We must also understand that knowing God is not an optional part of the Christian life; it is the Christian life. The English word know is a translation of the Greek word ginosko, which, in this context, means an experiential knowing, not simply an intellectual understanding of facts about God or Jesus or the Bible. In other words, it refers to an “I-Thou” relationship. This relationship begins when we come alive to God — that is, when, by grace, we are awakened from the state of spiritual death into which everyone is born, and receive the eternal life Jesus offers to those who trust in Him for salvation. The first part, recognizing and turning from our sins, is repentance; the second part, trusting in Jesus and His atoning death on the cross to forgive our sins, is faith. Coming alive to God requires both. Jesus described this as being born from above or born of the Holy Spirit. It means birth into God’s family and entrance into His kingdom. Without rebirth by the Holy Spirit, a person cannot see, perceive, understand, or know God or His kingdom.

Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. [John 17:3]

This is an excerpt from “The Bible in a Year: A 52-Week Journey Through God’s Word,” written by the Spiral Bible team.

Contentment is the learned ability to be satisfied in God regardless of external circumstances. It demonstrates trust in God’s provision and frees us from the endless pursuit of temporary satisfaction… Contentment is not a natural state but a learned response to life’s varying situations. Like a skilled musician who can play beautifully on any instrument, Paul had learned to live well in any circumstance. His secret wasn’t stoic resignation but dynamic dependence on Christ’s strength, finding sufficiency not in changing conditions but in an unchanging Savior… [Paul] challenges our culture’s endless pursuit of more. The combination of godly character and grateful satisfaction produces a wealth that material abundance can never match. It frees us from the exhausting cycle of constant craving, allowing us to appreciate and steward what God has provided…True contentment flows from relationship rather than resources. Our security isn’t in what we possess but in who possesses us. God’s constant presence provides a foundation for contentment that circumstances cannot shake…Either extreme—too much or too little—can challenge our trust in God. 

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all this through him who gives me strength. [Philippians 4:11-13]

Written by Jared Jeter, a contemporary pastor, editor, and professor.

The language of fellowship is popular in Christian circles because it is biblical language. The Greek word behind it, koinōnia, involves more than small talk or friendship. It refers to a close association with others that involves active participation in something larger than the individuals who share in it…Many people seek to be part of something larger than themselves by joining a club or association, whether that be for advancing a cause, enjoying a hobby, or participating in an activity. But the association Christ has built for His people transcends all these things. The members of this association participate in Christ Himself, the One who has redeemed us and set us apart for Himself. It is the fellowship of Christ. As Christians, we in one Spirit were “baptized into one body. That body is the body of Christ, the church, and each individual Christian is a member of it. One of the practices the Lord gave us, the Lord’s Supper (or Communion), sets visibly before us not only our union with Christ but also our union with one another. It is “a participation (koinōnia) in the blood of Christ” and “in the body of Christ.”  In partaking of it, “we who are many are one body.”  In 1938, after the Gestapo shut down the underground seminary where Dietrich Bonhoeffer taught, he wrote Life Together, a brief but profound meditation on the joy and strength of Christian fellowship at a time when such fellowship was costly and precious. He wrote that we enter into this fellowship “not as demanders but as thankful recipients.”  We did not work to be in this fellowship. Rather, God established it and firmly planted in it all who are united to Christ. Therefore, we can give thanks to God for providing us with a fellowship that transcends not only any earthly cause, hobby, or activity, but every barrier and border that would normally be impassible by human efforts.

So, then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are  fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. [Ephesians 2:19-20]