Settled Before The Storm
Storm on the edge of sunrise, the settled heart walks with Jesus through what comes.
Devotional Credit: Open Windows, T. Austin-Sparks, from Suffering and Glory, with Matthew 26:39 NLT as the day’s text.
Photo Credit: Unsplash
Some days I keep waiting for life to get easier, then I remember what our older brother in the faith, T. Austin-Sparks, is saying. We share a cup with Jesus. It is the cup of salvation, and it is also the cup of fellowship in His sufferings. Not because the Father is against us, but because we belong to Jesus, and His life in us meets a resisting world. Thank you, Brother Sparks, for naming what many of us quietly live and for pointing us to the joy hidden inside it.
He invites us to settle something in our hearts. We are not waiting for a version of discipleship that never costs us anything. We are not postponing peace until adversity disappears. We are learning to rest in the Son while the winds still blow. When I accept that suffering accompanies fellowship with Jesus, I stop being surprised by trouble, and I stop reading it as rejection. My heart steadies.
This does not make pain pleasant. It makes pain purposeful. In Jesus, pressure does not prove abandonment. It proves participation. The Spirit forms the likeness of the Son in real time, right in the places that ache. This is not stoicism. This is union. Christ in you, and you in Him, walking through what comes with a lifted chin and a quiet trust.
So we settle it. We belong to Jesus, and the path with Jesus includes opposition, misunderstanding, and days that stretch longer than our strength. Yet we are not left to ourselves. The Holy Spirit indwells us. The Father calls us beloved. The Son shares His victory, not only at the finish line, but mile by mile. That is enough to keep going today.
Journal Entry – Voice of the Holy Spirit Through Scripture
I am with you, and I am in you. Do not measure My care by the temperature of your circumstances. Look at the Son who yielded His will to the Father in a garden at night, then lift your eyes to the morning that followed. I set you in Him, and I pour His life through you.
You share His cup, not as a sentence, but as fellowship. When you are pressed, you are not crushed. When you are perplexed, you are not driven to despair. You carry the life of Jesus in your mortal body, so that His life appears in ordinary hours. I console you, then I make you a conduit of consolation. I steady your feet, then I send you to steady the trembling.
Call the trial by its name, but do not let it name you. Your name is beloved, not forsaken. Your story is union, not isolation. I work perseverance, character, and hope, and I do not disappoint. The glory that will be revealed outweighs the weight you feel now, and even now I turn this moment into seed for Christlikeness.
Settle this with Me. All who live godly in Jesus will meet resistance. You are not an exception, and you are not alone. In every fiery hour, I make room for the image of the Son to shine. Yield to Me, and you will find that joy and peace are not the absence of storms, they are the presence of Jesus within you. I strengthen the weak knees. I quiet the accusing voices. I teach your heart to say, even here, the Lord is my portion.
Real-Life Analogy
Think of a simple mug of tea. The bag rests in hot water, and without strain it releases what was already inside. The heat does not create the flavor, it draws it out. In the same way, the Holy Spirit within you brings out the life of Jesus through the heat of hard days. The pressure is not your producer, Jesus is. The pressure simply becomes the setting where His patience, courage, and kindness become evident.
Try this today. When an email stings, or a plan unravels, pause your reaction and turn inward to the Lord who dwells in you. Say, Lord, I yield this moment to You, express Your patience and clean honesty through me in this reply. Then write with clarity and kindness. No gritting of teeth. No performance. Just Jesus expressing His life in your words.
Prayer of Confidence
Father, I thank You that in Jesus I am not alone in suffering. You have set me in Your Son, and You have placed Your Spirit within me. I thank You that trials do not signal Your absence, they become places where the life of Jesus is seen. I thank You that You work perseverance, character, and hope in me, and that Your love has been poured into my heart by the Holy Spirit. I receive this day as fellowship with Your Son, confident that You turn even the sharp places into ground for joy. I rest in what You have already provided in Christ, and I walk forward with thanksgiving.
Scripture References for the Voice of the Holy Spirit Through Scripture Section
Matthew 26:39, Philippians 3:10, 2 Corinthians 4:7-12, Romans 8:17-18, 1 Peter 4:12-13, John 16:33, Hebrews 12:2-3, 2 Corinthians 1:3-5, James 1:2-4, 1 Peter 1:6-7, Romans 5:3-5, Galatians 2:20, Romans 6:3-11, Colossians 1:24, 2 Timothy 3:12, Acts 14:22, 1 Thessalonians 3:3, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10