Sports Spectrum Daily Devotional: Monday, June 22

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” — Hebrews 13:8

A Midnight Melody

Minor league baseball players have dreams of making the big stage. During the virus crisis, their goals are on hold. Minor league baseball players don’t have large bank accounts like major league players have. They may have one car and it’s not new. During the shutdown, they may be working part-time jobs stocking shelves in grocery stores or whatever they can find for income as they try to remain hopeful.

Imagine if a player and his wife turned off the TV and got ready for bed one night, and neither one of them could sleep because the wife had to go for a biopsy tomorrow to see if she had cancer. What would they do if he didn’t make the big leagues and she had cancer? After they talked a while, she sat down at the piano and started playing “Amazing Grace.”

In an uncertain world, we need rock-solid truth for stability. Songs engrave comforting words on our memory. When Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown in jail for preaching the Gospel, they didn’t let their pain turn into a pity party. “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose” (Acts 16:25-26).

In the midst of darkness, discouragement and despair, God gives hope. “And you will sing as on the night you celebrate a holy festival; your hearts will rejoice as when people playing pipes go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel” (Isaiah 30:29). On the stormy seas of life, Jesus is the anchor for our soul. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

— Bill Kent, Pastor of Memorial Baptist Church, Sylvania, Ga.

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