Topic: Where Is My Happily Ever After? – Daily Devotional by Proverbs 31 Ministries 13 May 2021

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Where Is My Happily Ever After?

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:33-34 (NIV)

I feel the most unsettled when I’m uncertain about the future.

Many of you are also probably facing circumstances that have left you feeling caught off guard and unsure about what tomorrow holds. So many times I find myself bracing for impact when I check my daily news feed. If there’s one word that seems most certain to describe the times we are living in, it’s “uncertain.”

Maybe you’re in a job where you feel unsettled, and you think God is leading you somewhere else, but He hasn’t yet revealed what’s next. So, for now, you walk into an office every day giving it your all, but your heart feels disconnected and your real calling unfulfilled.

Or maybe you’ve been watching everyone else in your life find love, walk down the aisle and start the life you’ve dreamed of. Then a few months ago, you met someone who was everything you’ve been hoping for. You told your friends this might be the one. But this week you felt that person pulling back. It’s hard to understand. You feel panicked. Yet the more you press in, the more distance you feel between the two of you.

There are thousands of scenarios that evoke these feelings of uncertainty, fear and exhaustion from life not being like you thought it would be.

Whatever your situation, you probably feel like you can’t change it, but you still have to live through the realities of what’s happening right now. Sometimes you just have to walk in your “I don’t know.” The Lord makes it clear in His Word that things will not always go as we wish they would in this life. Here are the quotes we so often hear:

“In this world you will have trouble.” (John 16:33b, NIV)

“Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34b, NIV)

All this trouble is exhausting. Walking in the “I don’t know” is scary. And sometimes we can be desperate to make things easier than they really are.

We keep thinking if we can just get through this circumstance, life will settle down and finally the words “happily ever after” will scroll across the glorious scene of us skipping into the sunset. But what if life settling down and all your disappointments going away would be the worst thing that could happen to you? What if your “I don’t know” is helping you, not hurting you? Remember those verses we just read about troubles? Here they are again in the context of the full passages:

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

“Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:33-34)

The crucial detail for us to have peace in the middle of everything we face is to stay close to the Lord. We think we want comfort in the “I don’t know” times of life. But comfort isn’t a solution to seek; rather, it’s a byproduct we’ll reap when we stay close to the Lord.

I wish I could promise you that everything’s going to turn out like you’re hoping it will. I can’t, of course. But what I can promise you is this: God is close to us even in our “I don’t knows.” God has lessons for us that are crucially important for our future, and we’re learning them in the middle of our “I don’t knows.” God has a strength He must prepare us with, and the training ground is here in the “I don’t know.”

This time isn’t a waste, and it’s definitely not pointless when we are walking with God. Let’s cry out to God, declaring that this hard time will be a holy time, a close-to-God time. And let’s choose to believe there is good happening, even in these places. We can rest in the knowledge that wherever God is, good is being worked.

Father God, more than I need You to fix anything in my life, I just need You. I am declaring this hard time as a holy time. Help me live in such a way that marks this season by closeness with You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

TRUTH FOR TODAY

Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (NIV)