<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">Peggy, thank you for sharing this devotional with us. Where did you get it from? It is so beautiful.<br id="lineBreakAtBeginningOfSignature"><div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPhone</div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On Dec 4, 2024, at 5:54 AM, Peggy Fleischer via NFBF-L <nfbf-l@nfbnet.org> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-touch-callout: none; font-family: "Untitled Serif", Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 21.333334px; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 22px;"><strong style="-webkit-touch-callout: none; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 1.8em;">Psalm 137</strong></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-touch-callout: none; font-family: "Untitled Serif", Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 21.333334px; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 22px;"><strong style="-webkit-touch-callout: none; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 1.8em;"><br></strong></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-touch-callout: none; font-family: "Untitled Serif", Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 21.333334px; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 22px;"><strong style="-webkit-touch-callout: none; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 1.8em;">Hope When Things Go Wrong in the World</strong></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-touch-callout: none; font-family: "Untitled Serif", Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 21.333334px; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 22px;">Yesterday, we said <strong style="-webkit-touch-callout: none; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 1.8em;">hope is the wholehearted, evidence-based conviction that God is making the future better than the past or present.</strong></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-touch-callout: none; font-family: "Untitled Serif", Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 21.333334px; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 22px;">But what about when all the evidence this Christmas tells you the future might only bring more pain? When forces outside of your control, like war, the economy, and sickness, cause chaos all over the world.</p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-touch-callout: none; font-family: "Untitled Serif", Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 21.333334px; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 22px;">If you’re asking this question, you’re not alone. Around 500 years before Jesus, the people of God were invaded, captured, and forcibly deported to a faraway nation. They were separated from their families, homes, and, for many, their hope.</p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-touch-callout: none; font-family: "Untitled Serif", Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 21.333334px; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 22px;">Their forced migration is called the exile, and its trauma influenced countless Scriptures.</p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-touch-callout: none; font-family: "Untitled Serif", Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 21.333334px; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 22px;">Today, you’ll read a lament (a pain-filled song of praise) by a few of these people. These exiles were musicians, but after their capture, they were taken as servants or slaves to work at a farm in a nation called Babylon. Their captors asked them to play the music of their people, and they responded with despair, saying something like, “How could we sing songs of hope and praise to God when we’ve experienced so much pain?”</p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-touch-callout: none; font-family: "Untitled Serif", Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 21.333334px; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 22px;">Global events outside their control made hope feel impossible. Can you relate?</p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-touch-callout: none; font-family: "Untitled Serif", Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 21.333334px; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 22px;">When things go wrong in the world, it feels like evidence that God is against us, ignoring us, or He’s left us behind. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. Throughout their time in Babylon, the people of God not only survived, but learned to thrive. They discovered God was present in their pain, and God still had a plan for their future.</p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-touch-callout: none; font-family: "Untitled Serif", Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 21.333334px; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 22px;">In fact, one of the most famous Bible verses (Jeremiah 29:11) is about God’s plan for His people in exile. In that verse, He promises to give them hope and a future. And God delivered on His promise.</p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-touch-callout: none; font-family: "Untitled Serif", Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 21.333334px; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 22px;">Your pain isn’t evidence God doesn’t care or is far off. It’s evidence that God is still working on His plan to make all things new.</p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-touch-callout: none; font-family: "Untitled Serif", Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 21.333334px; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 22px;">True hope doesn’t ignore the pain of life. Instead, it trusts God’s plan despite the worst life has to offer.</p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-touch-callout: none; font-family: "Untitled Serif", Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 21.333334px; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 22px;">Yes, it’s a slow process. And it’s normal to get frustrated with God’s timing. But when we look at the experience of the exile, we see the evidence of God’s faithfulness in the middle of pain and in the fulfillment of His promises.</p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-touch-callout: none; font-family: "Untitled Serif", Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 21.333334px; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 22px;"><strong style="-webkit-touch-callout: none; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 1.8em;">Pause and Pray:</strong></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-touch-callout: none; font-family: "Untitled Serif", Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 21.333334px; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 22px;"><em style="-webkit-touch-callout: none; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 1.8em;">Lord, thank You that even in the darkest of times, You are working for good. Help me to have hope even when things are hard in my life. Help me to share the hope I have in You with those around me. Thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus. Amen.</em></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-touch-callout: none; font-family: "Untitled Serif", Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 21.333334px; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 22px;"><strong style="-webkit-touch-callout: none; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 1.8em;">Reflect or Discuss:</strong></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-touch-callout: none; font-family: "Untitled Serif", Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 21.333334px; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 22px;">What is one thing in the world that makes things feel dark? How do you hope God will work good through that thing?</p><div dir="ltr">Peggy Fleischer<div>Second vice president national Federation of the blind of Florida</div></div><span>_______________________________________________</span><br><span>NFBF-L mailing list</span><br><span>NFBF-L@nfbnet.org</span><br><span>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbf-l_nfbnet.org</span><br><span>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for NFBF-L:</span><br><span>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbf-l_nfbnet.org/broanna49%40gmail.com</span><br></div></blockquote></body></html>