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Day 5 - Thursday | Daily Devotions | Connect the Testaments | Morning and Evening: Daily Reading | My UtMost for His Highest | Thoughts for the Quiet Hour |

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  May 28: Through Despair 1 Chronicles 23:1–23:32; 2 Timothy 3:1–9 ; Psalm 88 Sometimes we go through dark periods in our lives where the misery feels never-ending. Trial hits, pain hits, and just when we think life might get “back to normal,” we are hit by yet another difficulty. At times like these, we may feel forgotten by God. In Psalm 88, we find one of the most utter prolonged cries of despair: “O Yahweh, God of my salvation, I cry out by day and through the night before you,” the psalmist begins (Psa 88:1). This psalm never climaxes or hints of hope, and it ends even more desperately than it begins. The psalmist, feeling abandoned by God, has his loved ones taken from him. He is left to navigate the darkness alone (Psa 88:18). How do we deal with our own misery when confronted by a tragic psalm like this? How should we respond to God? We can start with what the psalmist, despite his prolonged suffering, acknowledges about God. Although his troubles are still present, he...
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Day 4 - Wednesday | Daily Devotions | Connect the Testaments | Morning and Evening: Daily Reading | My UtMost for His Highest | Thoughts for the Quiet Hour |

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  May 27: Math: Maybe Not a Mystic Language After All 1 Chronicles 21:1–22:19 ; 2 Timothy 2:14–26; Psalm 86:1–87:7 In a world of metrics, it’s easy to become obsessed with statistics and start to quantify every aspect of our lives. Stats can even become a type of scorekeeping between churches or pastors: “We have more members than you do.” We may never say those words out loud, but we think them; more than one person has made the mistake of measuring a ministry based on attendance. But God has His own method for measuring success. Prompted by an adversary (“Satan” is often better translated as “adversary” or “accuser” in the Old Testament), David decides to seek metrics—to count the people of Israel. This account illustrates the harm of seeking gratification or understanding in numbers. In 1 Chronicles 21, major problems emerge, including placing an adversary’s will above God’s and predicting God’s will rather than seeking it regularly. Rather than counting our successes, we sh...
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Day 3 - Tuesday | Daily Devotions | Connect the Testaments | Morning and Evening: Daily Reading | My UtMost for His Highest | Thoughts for the Quiet Hour |

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  May 26: A Long-suffering God 1 Chronicles 18:1–20:8; 2 Timothy 2:1–13 ; Psalm 85 God is long-suffering, but sometimes we take this for granted. How often have we given in to temptation, expecting to be obedient at a later date? Psalm 85 gives a testimony of God’s faithfulness in the past: “O Yahweh, you favored your land. You restored the fortunes of Jacob. You took away the guilt of your people; you covered all their sin. You withdrew all your wrath; you turned from your burning anger” (Psa 85:1–3). As he experiences that judgment, the psalmist remembers God’s past restoration. He hopes for it once more: “I will hear what God, Yahweh, will speak, because he will speak peace to his people, even his faithful ones”; he also sets a condition: “but let them not return to folly” (Psa 85:8). Do we wait until bad times before we realize God’s amazing grace? God’s faithfulness is also expressed in surprising moments in the New Testament, like Paul’s exhortation to Timothy. Paul tel...
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Day 2 - Monday | Daily Devotions | Connect the Testaments | Morning and Evening: Daily Reading | My UtMost for His Highest | Thoughts for the Quiet Hour |

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  May 25: Longing and Being 1 Chronicles 16:1–17:27 ; 2 Timothy 1:3–18; Psalm 84:1–12 The general sense of what worship “is” is widely known, but the specifics of what it means are a little vague. Aside from obedience (i.e., avoiding sin and following what God asks of us), there are specific ways to show God admiration. In 1 Chronicles, during David’s many great acts, we get a glimpse into ancient worship practices that are still applicable today. We know that the biblical “editors” favored these practices because they would later ascribe countless psalms to David. His way of worship was deemed “the way to worship.” After David and his comrades journey to Obed-Edom to bring back the ark of the covenant—the symbol of Yahweh’s provision and advocacy for His people—David appoints “some of the Levites as ministers before the ark of Yahweh” (1 Chr 16:4). The Levites, the tribe designated as religious teachers, are first to “invoke” Yahweh (call upon Him). They are then to do what sho...
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