Suffering comes for us all. We don’t get to choose our trials, but we do get to choose how we walk through them—with bitterness or joy. This five-day devotional will help you navigate suffering with hope, not because the pain disappears, but because Christ is walking with you in it. As you go through these readings, may you be reminded that God is nearer than you know and loves you more than you can imagine.
B&H Publishing
Day 1
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:7
Beauty in the Broken
Kintsugi reminds us there is beauty in the broken. It is a Japanese art that repairs broken pottery with gold, rendering a new piece that is more exquisite than it was before the break. Kintsugi literally means to join with gold.
Rather than trying to hide the damage, Kintsugi highlights the repair. The imperfections are what make it beautiful and valuable. A broken piece that is put back together has more of a story, seems more authentic and real, and is stronger and more resilient than something that has stayed pristine. The breaking of what once was, the layered and time-consuming process of putting it back together, the mending it with gold, all contribute to its value. And surprisingly, it becomes more resilient after it has been mended by Kintsugi, even stronger than it was before.
God is the restorer, the Kintsugi Master who skillfully and tenderly puts the broken pieces of our lives back together. It takes time, but there is no broken piece God leaves untouched. I think of the gold resin as the work and power of God, who redeems what is broken in our lives.
After reading about this art, I decided to make my own Kintsugi vase since the authentic ones were very expensive. Besides, I wouldn’t mind breaking a dish for the cause. I found some do-it-yourself instructions on how to make faux Kintsugi online, particularly how to break it cleanly, and laughed as one man observed that deliberately breaking pottery just to put it back together defeated the real meaning behind Kintsugi. He wasn’t wrong but I forged ahead.
A friend came over and helped me with the process. Ironically, I wanted my bowl to look perfect and wasted hours trying to make it look clean and authentic. Kintsugi is about embracing and honoring flaws, but apparently, I like curated imperfections.
As I stared at the piece on my shelf, I mourned what was broken in my life. I was once an artist, expressing myself through graphic art, and now I needed help even with this relatively simple project because of the limits my body held.
Then I saw it. The way God was blessing my increasingly broken body. My writing came from a desire to express myself, which could no longer be through graphic art. I realized that God, the Master Artist, was putting my life back together with the gold of His presence and grace to show that the extraordinary power belongs to Him and not to me. He is doing a work in my life and yours that is beyond our understanding.
Our lives are in God’s hands, and He is using our brokenness to create something beautiful.
REFLECT: Where has your life been broken? How have you seen the Master Artist bless you and others through those gold-lined, once-broken places?
Day 2
Responding to Suffering
When I’m struggling, my thoughts are all over the place. I can seamlessly go from anger to despair to doubt, and before I know it, I’m in the pit. I keep spiraling downward until I stop and refocus, turning to God, remembering and rehearsing the truths I need to hold onto. Passages like this one in James 4 help me reorient my heart.
Verse 7 begins with “therefore,” connecting this call to what comes before it: a reminder of God’s favor towards the humble, to those who have chosen friendship with God rather than with the world. When I approach God humbly, He draws near, pulling me even closer to Himself and farther away from the prideful ways of the world.
The posture I bring is important. When I submit to God, I’m acknowledging that He is sovereign over my life. I need His Spirit who lives in me, cultivating the humility we’re called to have, and offering His grace to make it through suffering. Submitting in suffering reorients my mind to God and to my utter dependence on Him. It is trusting Him with the outcome, knowing He will give me what is best.
Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Before I can resist the devil, I need to be aware of his schemes. Throughout Scripture, we see that Satan wants us to believe that God isn’t for us, that God doesn’t care, and that God isn’t good. Satan wants us to be self-reliant, to assume we don’t need God or His wisdom, and to believe instead that we are better off without God. Satan, the accuser, wants us to feel accused, guilty, desperate, and hopeless. So when those thoughts start creeping in, I need to recognize they may be the work of the devil.
The best way I know to resist the devil is to repeat Scripture, just as Jesus did. And if I have verses at my fingertips, committed to memory, I can draw them out when the devil prowls around. I can call on Jesus and ask Him for help and deliverance from all my fears.
Then I deliberately draw near to God. I turn towards Him. It’s not that He meets me halfway; I just turn around and He does the rest. He is always waiting, always with me, always willing. But as I turn around to face Him, I know that He is there.
We all need to fight for faith when we’re suffering. And if you don’t recognize the battle, you will go in unarmed. You may succumb to your fears, framing and reframing your circumstances in light of your feelings rather than the truths you know about God. In our despair, we need words to cry out instinctively, words that shape our minds and our responses.
MEMORIZE: Write today’s verses on an index card. Put it where you’ll see it regularly so you can memorize it.
Day 3
Scripture: Romans 8:32
Does God Feel Cruel?
Not too long ago, I overheard my daughter Kristi say on the phone, “Sometimes I think God is low-key savage. It seems like he wants to take away the things that we don’t even realize we rely on.”
I was taken aback. God? Low-key savage? Kristi had to explain the meaning to me: subtly ruthless with a touch of irony.
Then I realized many of us suspect that, but we phrase it differently. A friend shared at Bible study, “I have lots of fears, particularly about my family’s safety. I’m afraid to ask God to help me get over them because I don’t know what He’ll do.” We laughed because we could all relate.
Yet I know that God isn’t cruel or unkind, despite how it looks. Everything that He brings into our life, including trials, is out of love, to do us good in the end.
When I was two, I couldn’t walk but was so happy to be carried around on people’s shoulders. So, when I woke up with my legs in a cast after my first surgery, I wondered why I was in so much pain and why I couldn’t move my legs. I was furious at my mother, and then broke down in tears, promising not to be naughty if she would take away the horrible white pajamas.
I thought I was being punished. And even after my mother tried to explain it to me, I didn’t understand. How could I grasp that this surgery could one day help me walk? I couldn’t. In my two-year-old mind, I just wanted to go back to the way things were. My mother bravely watched me suffer, knowing that I blamed her for it. She hated seeing me in pain, and if there was another way to help me walk, she would have done it.
In the same way, God does not enjoy seeing us suffer. He loves us more than an earthly parent ever could.
When I asked Kristi about her conversation, she said, “I know God isn’t savage. But I told my friend sometimes it feels like that because He knows what motivates us and takes away the things we rely on. But I learned that when God takes things away, it makes us rely on Him more, which in the end is so much better.”
She’s right. It can feel like God is being cruel. Maybe you feel that way today because God has taken away something or someone precious to you. Despite how it feels, know that God loves you and everything you experience comes from that love. He who didn’t spare His son because He loves us that much, wants to give you everything good. You can trust Him.
REFLECT: Where, in your own life, have you suspected God of being “low-key savage”? How have you learned to rely more on God through the losses you’ve endured?
Day 4
Scripture: Psalms 119:91
God Is in All Things
Recently I was hurt by a friend’s insensitive comment. My first response was irritation, and then I began mentally cataloging a list of grievances — remembering all the other times I’d been hurt by her.
It might have ended there, but when I came across these words from A.W. Tozer, I started thinking differently about the situation: “If we understand that everything happening to us is to make us more Christlike, it will solve a great deal of anxiety in our lives.”
Everything that is happening to me is to make me more Christlike. Nothing is excluded. Joy and pain. Suffering and ease. People who love me and people who hurt me.
I stopped focusing on my friend’s comment and wondered why God might have brought this situation into my life. It was a simple question, but the answers revealed more about my heart than hers. My friend’s actions were an avenue for God to reveal a layer of sin in my life that I otherwise would have glossed over.As I saw the sin in my response, I was able to confess it to God and repent.
Whenever I feel annoyed or frustrated or angry, perhaps God is inviting me to examine my own heart instead of focusing my attention outward. Perhaps my irritation is an invitation from the Lord to go deeper with Him. God may be doing something far more important and more lasting in me than what is happening to me.
No experience is ever wasted. My difficult circumstances can cultivate a dependence on Christ and teach me to pray more fervently. And my successes can lead me to praise God and give him glory. And perhaps teach me humility by taking the low seat even in the limelight. Everything can be a steppingstone to holiness.
Madame Guyon had a difficult life, marked by illness, neglect, and humiliation. At age 16, her father tricked her into marrying a man who was 22 years older and afflicted with gout. Guyon became his nurse and cared for him tirelessly, living in her mother-in-law’s home, even after she spread vicious lies about her.
Guyon deeply trusted God’s character and saw that her father’s deceit and mother-in-law’s lies were both blessings because they enabled her to humbly turn to God and see His great love for her. Rather than growing bitter at the pain she’d endured, she chose to see God’s loving hand in it — that God had brought all her circumstances to draw her closer to Him.
Everything that is difficult in our lives is a divine invitation to turn to God. Our annoyances can reveal our sins. People who hurt us give us opportunities to forgive. Our physical ailments teach us to depend on God.
Everything that happens to us can make us more like Christ.
PRAY: Heavenly Father, turn my eyes from what is outside of me to what is inside of me. Meet me in that place. Reveal what is in my heart and make me more like You.
Day 5
Scripture: Psalms 139:1
The Gift of Psalm 139
I memorized Scripture for years because people said that’s what Christians do. I began memorizing lengthy passages in college, proud that I knew them, but never connecting them to my everyday life. In fact I didn’t use them for anything. Since I could easily find verses in my Bible, I wondered why people were so hung up on committing long passages to memory.
That is until I walked into Maria’s psych ward. She felt broken and wondered if she’d ever think clearly again. And she wondered where God was in all of this. I had seen her spiral downward for days but didn’t know what was happening until she told me she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
She was thankful to see me, admitting everything was still so overwhelming to her and she couldn’t understand herself or her actions.
I wasn’t sure what to say or pray. Since I’d memorized Psalm 139, it came to me as I sat with her and I started putting her name into the verses. I began “Lord, you have searched Maria, and you know her. You know when Maria sits and when she rises. You perceive Maria’s thoughts from afar. You know when Maria goes out and when she is lying down; you are familiar with all her ways. Even before a word is on Maria’s tongue, you know it completely. …” (Psalm 139:1-4, NIV)
Maria was gripped by these words. This was hope to hold onto. When I finished the Psalm, Maria and I were both emotional. God knew what had happened and knew Maria better than she knew herself. He knew every thought and every word she’d uttered. And He was with her in her confusion.
Maria later told me that hearing Psalm 139 with her name in it was game-changing. It altered how she viewed her situation. God was in the psych ward with her, even though she felt alone. God was there when her brain was going in a million directions. And God would always be there for her, no matter where she was. She saw that she was fearfully and wonderfully made by Him; God had not made a mistake in her design.
I realized then how much more powerful God’s words were than mine to comfort others. When we memorize Scripture, we offer the comfort of God—words that speak directly and individually to each person. The Scripture I’ve memorized has given me comfort and encouragement, words to pray, and promises to cling to, for myself and for others when we need Gospel hope.
If memorizing Scripture feels boring to you, perhaps you can begin by asking God what to memorize — what passages to hide in your heart so they will be there when you need them.
PRACTICE: Open your Bible to Psalm 139 and read it aloud, personalizing every verse.
Thank you for reading!