Today's Lectionary TextPsalm 28To you, O Lord, I call; Do not drag me away with the wicked, Blessed be the Lord, The Lord is the strength of his people; ![]() Today's Devotional
In the second verse of Psalm 28, the psalmist describes praying; arms lifted up and crying out for help. While we may not have physically lifted our arms in prayer and cried out to God, feeling hopeless, confused, frustrated, and alone and praying for help is something most of us have done.
Our relationship with God often brings us hope in the times we may feel hopeless. Hope isn’t the same as optimism. Optimism is the belief things will work out. Hope is the belief the future will be better, and we have some power to create that better reality. Researches who having studied hope say two of the key components of hopefulness are agency and spirituality. Agency means we have more than simply a dream or a wish for something to get better. We have a way to achieve that improvement and a motivation to see it through. Spirituality is the belief is something bigger than us. Our relationship with God brings us both spirituality and agency, for even when we may not have a plan to make the better future we are hoping for, we know God is at work in our lives in ways we may not immediately understand. The psalmist knows this, too. In the beginning the psalm is crying out to God for help, but by the end the cry for help turns into praise for God. God has heard the psalmist’s prayer and hopelessness has turned to hope. We can also find hope in our times of hopelessness by lifting our hearts to God in prayer. Prayer for ReflectionGracious God, you are my strength and my shield. You hear our prayers when we cry out in pain, bring us hope where there is hopelessness, and for this we give you thanks. Amen.
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