You Can Have Peace Amid Suffering

Breathe Deep and Know: Suffering is part of life, but we can have courage and peace to walk through that suffering as we trust in the One who has already given us ultimate victory.

Sometimes we get this idea that if only we had more faith or if we just prayed enough or in the right way, all our suffering would go away, our sickness would be healed, and we wouldn’t struggle anymore. But God never promised this.

In fact, Jesus said that we will have suffering; we will have trouble. What He promises isn’t freedom from suffering but His presence and peace in the midst of it. We can have ultimate peace because He has already ultimately conquered the world.

The reality is that we may not experience full healing this side of eternity, but we can still have peace that comes only from putting our full trust in Him, knowing that He is writing a good story that is bigger than our current struggles, that He has woven His breath through every moment of our lives, that He is with us and loves us no matter what worries or anxieties may fill our minds.

He is a good, good Father.

He is with us in our ache, and He wraps our worries in His abiding love.

I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world. — John 16:33

• Inhale: I have peace in You;
• Exhale: You have conquered the world!

You Can Trust God In SufferIng

Breathe Deep and Know: You can trust God, even in your suffering.

Are you suffering in some way today? Is there a pain, hurt, or illness you want God to heal? We pray for healing because God is the great Healer, and we pray for miracles because God is the God of miracles—and it is good to pray for these things.

But sometimes the hurt doesn’t heal on this side of eternity. Sometimes pain endures and the suffering is long and the struggle lingers. Those who live with chronic pain or mental health conditions know this well. But that doesn’t mean God didn’t hear our prayers or that we don’t have enough faith.

The truth is, God doesn’t always remove the cup of suffering. He didn’t take it away from even His own perfect and beloved Son.

And although we may not fully understand His ways or His will, we can always trust His heart and rest in His wisdom.

When we pray for God’s will to be done, as Tim Keller writes, “It is to say, ‘Here’s what I need — but You know best.’ It is to leave all our needs and desires in His hands in a way that is possible only through prayer. That transaction brings a comfort and rest that nothing else can bring.”1

Father, if You are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want Your will to be done, not mine. — Luke 22:42

• Inhale: Father, if You are willing
• Exhale: Take this suffering from me.
• Inhale: Yet not my will
• Exhale: But Yours be done.

1. Timothy Keller, Prayer (New York: Penguin, 2016), 101.

Excerpted with permission from Breath as Prayer by Jennifer Tucker, copyright Jennifer Tucker.

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Your Turn

God is with you in your suffering. He has woven His breath through every moment of our lives, even the most painful and frightening. He may not remove the pain, but we can still trust Him. Let's pray today for His will to be done in everything. ~ Devotionals Daily