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Thank God it's Monday Devotional 33

by David Joynt on October 06, 2022


PSALM 23:4 | 4Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

When we are committed to accompanying and guiding others, it will bring us into confrontation with evil. There is evil around us all, and within us all. There are addictions and destructive habits. There are the lies we tell others and those we tell ourselves whenever we don’t want to try to change something wrong in our lives and characters. There is the confusion of our angry and self-righteous culture. There are moments when those we care for are treated unjustly or victimized. There are some among us who face mortality and death. The psalmist calls these moments “the valley of the shadow.” Mountains can hide the sun and bring a kind of instant night. Life’s obstacles and struggles can also. But when we are accompanied into the dark valley, it seems brighter! Our burdens shared are lightened.

Are you carrying anyone’s burdens?

Is anyone carrying yours?

Do you feel accompanied?

Tags: burdens, accompanied

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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