Aaron Powers

My friends Joe and Sami lead Upstream International, serving Haiti, and Joe’s been sitting with Isaiah 50:10. It describes someone who fears God and obeys him, and is still in the dark. He called it obedience without illumination. We think walking closely with God means everything gets clearer, but you can be surrendered and still uncertain. And when you can’t see the way forward, you don’t need more light. You need something strong enough to lean your full weight on.

New devotional every weekday morning.

New devotional every weekday morning, before the noise.

My friend Corey leads Love Others Warehouse, giving food and groceries to families in need, and his favorite verse says it all. We think courage is for the big scary moments, but really loving others costs you something, and often there’s no return coming. Joshua 1:9 doesn’t say be strong because you have what it takes. It says be strong because I am with you. You can be generous, because you’re not the source of it. He is, and he doesn’t run dry.

New devotional every weekday morning, before the noise.

Let God, not the feed, have the first word.

The alarm goes off and your hand is on the phone before your eyes are open, and just like that the noise gets the first word of your day. I’ll confess, I’m terrible at this and I hate it. But Jesus got up while it was still dark and got quiet with his Father first, Mark 1:35. Since God speaks in a whisper, mornings matter, because they’re quiet enough to hear one. Not a rigid quiet time. Just who gets the first word.

New devotional every weekday morning, before the noise.

Elijah went from fire falling at Carmel to sitting under a bush asking God to let him die, almost overnight. Then God passed by, and he wasn’t in the wind or the earthquake or the fire. He was in a low whisper, 1 Kings 19:12. We chase God in the spectacular and miss him in the ordinary, but the mountaintops are rare. Most of life is quiet. And that’s exactly where he meets us.

New devotional every weekday morning, before the noise.