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Stress Test Devotional April 19

by David Joynt on April 19, 2024


MATTHEW 7:25 | 25 The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on rock.

Worry is often the result of the false belief that we can engineer our own lives to avoid suffering and sorrow. But storms come to everyone. Jesus did not promise life free from winds, rain, and floods. This world is an ongoing battle on a terrain broken by injustice, disease, and death. Faith does not remove us from these trials but it can turn them into soul-growing moments when we feel the sustaining power of God. God’s own Son, the incarnate Lord, lived a beautiful life, but it was marked by all manner of suffering.

 

Do you know anyone that thinks faith guarantees immunity from suffering?

 

 

Gracious God,

Sustain me and my faith in the hard moments. Use those times to grow my life and character.

Amen.

 

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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