Click here for the DRB Daily Sign Up form! TODAY'S SCRIPTURE: Job 1–2; Acts 6–7 Click HERE to give! One Year Bible Podcast: Join Hunter and Heather Barnes on the Daily Radio Bible, a daily Bible‑in‑a‑year podcast with 20‑minute Scripture readings, Christ‑centered devotion, and guided prayer.This daily Bible reading and devotional invites you to live as a citizen of Jesus’ kingdom, reconciled, renewed, and deeply loved.
TODAY'S EPISODE Today, October 17th, our journey through Scripture takes us into Job 1–2 and Acts 6–7. These passages bring us face to face with suffering, injustice, loss, and the enduring faithfulness of God.
Job's life is turned upside down. He loses his possessions, his children, and eventually his health. His story raises some of life's most difficult questions about suffering and the presence of God. In Acts, we meet Stephen, a man full of grace and the Holy Spirit, whose courageous witness to Jesus leads to his death. Yet even as violence surrounds him, Stephen sees Jesus and responds with extraordinary forgiveness.
Together, these stories invite us to look beyond easy answers and discover something far more important: the God revealed in Jesus Christ is not distant from human suffering. He is the God who enters into it, who bears it with us, and whose love remains even when our world seems to be falling apart.
TODAY'S DEVOTION The God Who Suffers With Us There's something deeply unsettling about the beginning of Job's story. In a matter of moments, everything that has given shape to his life is taken away. His children, his livelihood, his security, even his health. And Job is left sitting in the ashes, trying to make sense of a world that no longer makes sense.
I think most of us know something about those ashes. Maybe not in the way Job experienced them, but we know what it is to lose something precious. We know grief. We know disappointment. We know those moments when the life we imagined gives way to a life we never would have chosen.
And when those moments come, we often find ourselves looking for explanations. Why did this happen? What did I do wrong? Where is God in all of this?
But here's what I want us to see today. The deepest answer to our suffering isn't an explanation. It's a person. It's Jesus.
When we turn to Acts 7, we find Stephen surrounded by people who are determined to kill him. Yet in the middle of that terrible moment, Stephen looks toward heaven and sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And then, astonishingly, Stephen prays for those who are taking his life.
He's reflecting the very heart of Jesus, the one who, while hanging on the cross, prayed for the forgiveness of those who crucified him.
That's the heart of our God. He's not standing at a safe distance, observing our suffering. In Jesus, he has entered into it. He knows betrayal. He knows rejection. He knows pain, grief, and death. And he has overcome them, not through greater violence, but through the power of self-giving love.
Friends, I don't know what you may be carrying today. I don't know what losses you are grieving or what questions remain unanswered. But I want to remind you of something. You are not alone in the ashes. You are not forgotten in your pain. The risen Jesus is with you, and his love is holding you even now.
We may not always understand the story we're living, but we can come to know the One who is with us in it. And that makes all the difference.
That's the prayer that I have for my own soul. And that's the prayer that I have for my family, for my wife and my daughters. And that's the prayer that I have for you.
May you come to see that the God revealed in Jesus is not the author of your destruction but the One who meets you in the midst of it, who carries you through it, and who will never let you go.
And remember, friends, you are loved.
TODAY'S PRAYERS:
Lord God Almighty and everlasting father you have brought us in safety to this new day preserve us with your Mighty power that we might not fall into sin or be overcome by adversity. And in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen.
Oh God you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth and sent your blessed son to preach peace to those who are far and those who are near. Grant that people everywhere may seek after you, and find you. Bring the nations into your fold, pour out your Spirit on all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
And now Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. And where there is sadness, Joy. Oh Lord grant that I might not seek to be consoled as to console. To be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in the...
