Devotional - Monday, June 15th, 2026

Hello everyone,

I work for a large Christian nonprofit, and I'm in a leadership position where I've been asked to write a devotional from time to time to share with my colleagues. I feel like it's worthwhile to share them here. Anyway, here's the first one.

Often, we need the gift of hindsight to see clearly how God was working in the hard seasons of our lives. When we're in the middle of a storm, our senses can make it feel like everything is falling apart, or like God has forgotten us. We see the loss, the delay, the disappointment, the closed door, the wounded pride, and the unanswered prayer. We feel the pressure, the confusion, the exhaustion, and the fear. Those things may be real and painful, but they still aren't the whole story.

That's where we often make our mistakes. We judge God's work by the small part of reality we can see, feel, measure, or explain in the moment. But God isn't limited to what our senses can perceive. He sees what's happening in us, around us, ahead of us, and even through us in the lives of other people. He may be correcting something in us, preparing something ahead of us, protecting us from something we can't see, strengthening relationships around us, positioning us to bless someone else later, or doing something we haven't even considered. Some of his work we'll recognize later through hindsight, and some of it we may not understand until we meet him face to face.

I learned this lesson when I was twenty-six, during a season when I thought I was doing well, even though my confidence had started turning into pride. I was making more money than many of my friends, and instead of receiving that season with gratitude, I let it feed my ego. Then I got laid off, and although I can now see that God used that moment to humble me, I didn’t understand what he was doing at the time.

When I finally found another job six months later, the pay was half of what I had been making, and the commute wore me down. It felt like I had taken a huge step backward, and at the time, I couldn't recognize any lesson in it. I just felt angry, tired, and confused. Only later could I see that God was using that season to humble me, but my anger and frustration weren't letting me see the full picture.

God was also showing me how much of my identity had been tied to success and income, teaching me patience through work I wouldn't have chosen, and guiding me through decisions that didn't make sense to me at the time. That first job wasn't the final stop, either. Later, I took even less money to work at a children's science museum, which looked even more foolish on paper, but God used that job to spark my love of learning again. I started reading more, asking more questions, and realizing how much I didn't know.

He also used that job to bring friendships into my life that I still have today, friendships I needed more than I realized, since I had been living like a hermit. Through it all, God began teaching me that work was only one part of life. It mattered, but it wasn't meant to carry my identity. It was a means to live, serve, grow, build relationships, and make room for the things I wanted to do. What felt like inconvenience, frustration, or failure at the time was God forming me, redirecting me, preparing me, and putting people in my life I didn't know I needed.

That's one reason Joseph's story is so encouraging. Joseph was betrayed by his own brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused, and forgotten in prison. If he had judged God's faithfulness only by what he could see, he could've easily assumed that everything had gone wrong. The pit looked like rejection, slavery looked like ruin, and prison looked like abandonment, but none of those places meant God had stopped working.

God was present in parts of Joseph's story that Joseph couldn't have understood at the time. He was shaping Joseph's character, teaching him responsibility, preparing him to lead under pressure, and positioning him in Egypt before the famine ever arrived. Years later, when Joseph stood before the same brothers who had betrayed him, he could finally see more of the picture. He told them, "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is today, to save many people alive." -Genesis 50:20

That verse is important because Joseph doesn't pretend the evil wasn't evil, excuse what his brothers did, or act like betrayal was good. He recognizes that their evil intentions were not the only thing happening. They were acting from one purpose, while God was working from another. They meant harm, but God was preserving life.

Joseph's story reminds us that faith often requires trusting God before hindsight explains it. Joseph only knew the pit, the false accusation, the prison, and the waiting, but God saw the famine, the family that would need preserving, and the lives that would one day be saved.

We see the same pattern in Acts 16. Paul and his companions wanted to preach the gospel in Asia. Still, the Holy Spirit prevented them, and when they tried to enter Bithynia, the Holy Spirit wouldn't allow them. From the outside, those closed doors could've looked confusing because they were trying to do something good, yet God kept stopping them.

"When they had gone through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. When they had come opposite Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit didn't allow them. Passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. A vision appeared to Paul in the night. There was a man of Macedonia standing, begging him, and saying, 'Come over into Macedonia and help us.' When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go out to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the Good News to them." -Acts 16:6–10

Paul didn't have the full map at the beginning. He had obedience, a willingness to move, and a series of closed doors he couldn't yet fully explain. What looked like a delay was direction, and what looked like being blocked was God guiding them toward work they couldn't see from where they stood.

But even after Paul and Silas followed God's direction, things didn't get easier. In Philippi, they were seized, beaten with rods, and thrown into prison with their feet fastened in stocks. If they had judged the situation only by what their bodies felt and their eyes could see, they might have seen only pain, injustice, and failure. They had obeyed God, and obedience had led them into suffering.

"But about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly, there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were loosened. The jailer, being roused out of sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, 'Don't harm yourself, for we are all here!' He called for lights, sprang in, fell trembling before Paul and Silas, brought them out, and said, 'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?' They said, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.' They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house." -Acts 16:25–32

Paul and Silas couldn't have known all of that would happen when they were first thrown into the cell. They couldn't have seen the jailer's desperation, his questions, his household, or the way God would use their worship as a witness to everyone listening. From their point of view, the prison was pain, but from God's point of view, it was also a place where the gospel could reach someone who needed rescue.

That doesn't make the beating good, and it doesn't mean injustice stops hurting once we know God can use it. But it does mean our suffering is never the only reality God sees. That's why Romans 8:28 is such a pivotal verse: "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose." -Romans 8:28

Paul doesn't say that all things are good. Betrayal isn't good, job loss isn't good, injustice isn't good, and suffering isn't good. What he says is that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. The phrase "work together" is important because God isn't limited to using a single event for a single purpose. He can use the painful thing, the delayed thing, the humbling thing, the confusing thing, and even the thing someone else meant for harm, gathering all of it into his hands and making it serve a purpose we may not yet be able to see.

So, when your current situation feels confusing or painful, resist the urge to judge God's work too quickly. Don't assume that a closed door means God has rejected you, that a hard season means God has stopped loving you, or that because you can't see what he's doing, he isn't doing anything.

Faith often means trusting God before we can trace what he's doing. Joseph couldn't see the preservation of many lives from the pit, and Paul and Silas couldn't see the jailer's salvation when the rods struck their backs. We may not be able to see what God is doing either, but we can trust that he is present, purposeful, and working in ways bigger than we can recognize right now.