Click here for the DRB Daily Sign Up form! Click HERE to give! TODAY'S SCRIPTURE Sunday, October 25th, 2026
Job 16 (NLT)
Acts 21–23 (NLT)
Read all of today's Scripture on Bible Gateway
These readings match the Life Journal reading plan for October 25th.
TODAY'S EPISODE: Finding Hope When Life Doesn't Make Sense In today's readings, we encounter two men who know what it's like to be misunderstood, falsely accused, and surrounded by circumstances beyond their control.
In Job 16, Job responds to his friends, who continue offering explanations for his suffering. Rather than bringing comfort, their words only deepen his pain. Job calls them miserable comforters. Yet even in his anguish, he expresses a longing for someone who will stand on his behalf, someone who truly understands his suffering.
In Acts 21–23, Paul faces accusations, violence, and imprisonment as he continues his mission of proclaiming Jesus. His circumstances are uncertain, and his future remains unclear. Yet in Acts 23, the Lord stands beside Paul and encourages him to take courage.
Together, these passages remind us that God's presence is not measured by the absence of suffering. Even when life feels overwhelming, even when we're misunderstood, and even when we cannot see the road ahead, Christ remains near.
TODAY'S DEVOTION: The One Who Stands Beside Us There's something about today's reading in Job that I think many of us can relate to.
Job is hurting.
He's lost so much. His world has been turned upside down. And the people who should be offering him comfort seem determined to explain away his suffering.
They have answers. They have explanations. They have their theology all worked out.
But what they don't seem to have is compassion.
And Job knows it.
He calls them miserable comforters.
I wonder how many of us have experienced something similar.
We've walked through a season of grief or suffering, and someone has offered us an explanation when what we really needed was someone willing to sit with us in our pain.
Someone to listen.
Someone to understand.
Someone to simply be present.
I think sometimes we imagine that the most important thing we can offer someone who is suffering is an answer.
But perhaps what they need most isn't an answer at all.
Perhaps what they need is presence.
And that brings us to something beautiful in today's reading from Acts.
Paul is in Jerusalem. He's been attacked, arrested, and accused. His future is uncertain.
And then, in Acts 23, we're told that the Lord stood near Paul.
I love that.
The Lord stood near him.
Jesus doesn't begin by explaining everything that's happened. He doesn't offer Paul an elaborate theological explanation for his circumstances.
He comes near.
And he speaks courage into Paul's fear.
Now, I don't think this means that every difficult circumstance is suddenly going to resolve itself.
Paul is still a prisoner.
Job is still suffering.
But there is something profoundly important being revealed to us here.
The presence of God is not the reward we receive after our suffering ends. It is the gift of love that meets us in the very midst of it.
And when we look at Jesus, we discover that this is who God has always been.
The God who comes near.
The God who enters into our humanity.
The God who shares our suffering and carries our grief.
The God who refuses to abandon us.
Sometimes we can become so preoccupied with trying to understand why something has happened that we miss the deeper invitation to discover who is with us in the midst of it.
And perhaps that's the invitation for us today.
To loosen our grip on the need to understand everything.
To stop imagining that we have to make sense of every painful chapter before we can trust that God is good.
And to begin recognizing the One who stands beside us.
Maybe you're walking through something today that you never imagined would become part of your story.
Maybe you're grieving a loss. Maybe you're navigating a relationship that has become painful. Maybe you're carrying questions about your future that seem to have no clear answers.
I want you to hear this.
You are not abandoned.
You are not forgotten.
You are not alone.
The risen Christ is present with you.
Not because you've managed to believe strongly enough.
Not because you've earned his attention.
But because this is who God is.
The God revealed in Jesus Christ is the God who comes near, who stands beside us, and who holds us in love.
And that's a prayer I have for my own soul.
That's a prayer I have for my family, for my wife, my daughters, and for you.
May you discover today that you don't have to face your suffering alone.
May you find courage in the presence of Christ, comfort in his love, and hope in the promise that...
