Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Luke 22 before reading the devotional below.
I write down many of my prayers. Sometimes God writes back. Sometimes I think God writes back but it’s just me. How can I tell the difference? I line it up with Scripture.
Not too long ago I wrote down these words, feeling prompted by the Holy Spirit in response to a prayer I had written: “What you fear is bad news is sometimes the best news of all. The painful road is the most rewarding.” And I have no trouble believing that the Spirit spoke that to me because it is a summary of the life of Jesus and especially Luke 22.
When one of your closest friends gets inhabited by a demon, you are about to get arrested and killed, you’re sweating blood from over-praying, and another one of your closest friends is about to deny he ever knew you, it’s a pretty bad-news day. Just awful. Jesus somehow kept his head on straight to walk into the worst of situations in order to save us. He looked at bad news differently than we often do. He saw it as the gateway to the victory that would fulfill his mission.
Here’s your freedom for today: your circumstances do not reflect the progress of your spiritual battle. Sometimes bad news is the best news. When God is up to something, Satan is ready to disrupt it. But he cannot win if we keep our focus on our mission. What is your mission today? What is one way you can look past your circumstance to see that God is making progress as he fights the battle for you?
Write down a prayer today and see if God writes back. If you think he says something, write down the verse or verses in the Bible that support the words you wrote.