Our Daily Bread: Hope and Strength for Times of IllnessSample

What Moves You? Countless icebergs float in the frigid waters around Greenland. Some are tiny; others tower skyward. At times the small ones move in one direction while their gigantic counterparts go in another. The small ones are subject to surface winds, but the huge ice masses are carried along by deep ocean currents. Our lives are subject to two similar forces. The winds represent everything changeable, unpredictable, distressing. But simultaneous with these adverse gusts or gales is another force more powerful than anything on the surface. It’s the sure movement of God’s purposes and the deep flow of His unchanging love. It’s in that unseen current that we must rest the destiny of our souls. When the psalmist was buffeted by distressing thoughts of the prosperity of the wicked, he went into the sanctuary to get alone with God. Only then did he regain perspective (PSALM 73:17). Job faced his calamities by affirming, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (JOB 13:15). And Paul, realizing that he had been “crucified with Christ,” could say, “We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed” (2 CORINTHIANS 4:8). As we keep trusting the Lord, the surface winds won’t move us. Rather, we’ll be carried along with the deep current of God’s love and power. —Dennis De Haan Better the storm with Christ than smooth waters without Him.