One of my favorite pictures of forgiveness is of Jesus and His disciples eating their last supper. When Jesus announced, “One of you will betray Me,” no one could guess who was guilty. Nothing in His demeanor, not even a look of reproach, said to the disciples, “Judas is the man.” Jesus forgave and had mercy on all who had part in His murder. “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:10).

Sandy’s pastor husband was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. For ten months Sandy fasted every Wednesday and for a while his condition improved. But then the symptoms returned, and Sandy felt overwhelmed by the pressures of his illness. One day she cried to God, “I can’t do this any more. I can’t go through two more years like the last two.”

When Hannah Whital Smith was visiting a home for the handicapped she saw the children going through exercises. They had strength but no skill to use their strength. Their deficiencies were very apparent as they made all sorts of awkward movements. Now and then, by a happy chance they would make a movement in harmony with the music and the teacher’s directions, but for the most part all was out of harmony.

Linda became a Christian after she was an adult. She found out that the man she had thought was her father was not her father, and she sought to learn who her real father was. When she did, it was not a pretty picture, and Linda was emotionally torn apart.

A dad came home from a trip and, unlike other times, he had forgotten to buy gifts for his children. When they greeted him, he said, “Guess what I brought you!” His son and daughter couldn’t wait for him to open his suitcase.

When Dwight L. Moody visited London, a minister invited him to preach for him the next morning and night. Mr. Moody said, “When the time came I began to speak to them it seemed the hardest talking I ever did.” He wished he had not promised to speak again at night.

I received the following email from a friend whose husband has been out of work for months. “I have trusted God all my life, but God has been stretching and challenging me this past week to trust Him when it looks like He might not do anything to change our situation. He is challenging me to trust Him when I see nothing and have nothing except Him.

One of the reasons we fail to regularly read God’s Word is that we don’t plan to. We get up day after day, and we haven’t decided where to read. Pressing duties soon sidetrack us, and another day passes without significant time with an open Bible. If we want renewal in our devotional lives badly enough, we will make sufficient plans.