Morning Devotional 110325 Productive Struggle

Liz’s Morning Devotional: Scripture selected from Upper Room

November 3, 2025 

Hebrews 12:7-13

7 Bear hardship for the sake of discipline. God is treating you like sons and daughters! What child isn’t disciplined by his or her father? 8 But if you don’t experience discipline, which happens to all children, then you are illegitimate and not real sons and daughters. 9 What’s more, we had human parents who disciplined us, and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live? 10 Our human parents disciplined us for a little while, as it seemed best to them, but God does it for our benefit so that we can share his holiness. 11 No discipline is fun while it lasts, but it seems painful at the time. Later, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who have been trained by it. 12 So strengthen your drooping hands and weak knees! 13 Make straight paths for your feet so that if any part is lame, it will be healed rather than injured more seriously.

Good Morning! Give glory to God!

We are God’s creation! Amazingly, our creator makes each of us unique with a combination of different characteristics that are ours alone. We share similarities with others, but no one is our exact match. Even identical twins have some identifying marker that singles one out. 

God blesses us with a brain to think and free will to make choices. Each choice we make comes with a consequence: good or bad. For example, we choose to stay home and study, so we pass our exam, or we decide to go out with friends and do poorly or fail it. 

Along our faith journey, we encounter opportunities and obstacles, each of which provides us with a chance to learn and grow strong. If everything is decided for us or if we choose only the easy options, we become weak and unable to think or act for ourselves. Sometimes learning a lesson can be painful or filled with heartache, but God promises to stand by us and lead us through the mess we have created. Praise be to our merciful God.

Loving Lord, you bless us abundantly! We think we want the easy choice. Thank you for challenging us so that we can grow! Thank you. We love you, Lord! In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen

Thought for the day: God allows us to grow through productive struggles.

Give thanks to God in all things! Pastor Liz