God has given us an identity and a purpose as His beloved children. We are therefore called to embrace the challenge along the way, and we are given the power to become more like Jesus, who is our hope.

Living in this world can feel a lot like being on a small boat in the middle of a raging storm. When the strong winds and high waves of life hit you hard, what you need to do is hold on to something secure. In this passage, the apostle Paul calls on the Thessalonians to hold fast to the truth of God’s Word. It is the only thing secure enough to keep Christians safe in the middle of the storms of life.

In Psalm 44, as Israel finds itself suffering greatly, despite being true to God’s covenant, they leverage God’s faithfulness in prayer. In their prayer life, God’s people should also leverage God’s faithful acts, his faithful promises and His faithful character.

In Ps. 80, God’s people face an impossible situation and cry out for an impossible solution. We might not be in the same circumstances, but here we learn that in times of trial, God’s people need to seek His face—look up, look down, look around!

Living in a fallen world, lament is the language of Christians to cry out to God, to plead with Him as a child so that we would worship Him joyfully with reaffirmed faith.

Sin leaves ruins. The prayer of Psalm 90 is a primer for restoring the ruin left by sin. Moses’ wisdom offers us insight to make sense of everything and instruction to figure out what we can do about it.

Asaph recognized that God’s people needed some kind of deliverance. He agonized over it in prayer. Nothing seemed to change, like he expected it might. How do you pray when you can’t pray anymore?

David found himself in a place he didn’t want to be. He was forced out and away from where he belonged. It was a desolate place. His prayer in Psalm 61 models for us how we should pray when we find ourselves in desolate places, worlds away from where we want to be.

In times of chaos, Psalm 131 helps us experience the peace of God and learn to trust God in every season.

The effects of sin, and God’s judgement on sin, can cause what feels like waste and desolation in our lives. That’s where God’s people found themselves in Isaiah 24. But then in the hope of the New City and restoration of all things, Isaiah 26:1-6 publishes a song that will be sung in that new city. The song of the new city gives us reason to rejoice even amidst the waste around us.