Proverbs 27:17
Tuesday, April 21, 2026
This Teaching Clip made me think of you. Watch TUESDAY NIGHT PRAYERS - LECTIO 365 by 24-7 Prayer:
This Teaching Clip made me think of you. Watch TUESDAY NIGHT PRAYERS - LECTIO 365 by 24-7 Prayer:
Holiness Over Happiness
Holiness Over Happiness
Have you ever heard the phrase “do more of what makes you happy”? Though it would be easy to live our lives based on this philosophy, God calls us to a different standard. He calls us to a life that can feel like the complete opposite of doing what makes us happy: a life of holiness—of walking away from what might feel good or look enticing and, instead, walking toward the things that make us more like Christ.
In today’s verse, Peter drew a clear line between children of obedience and those who “conform to evil desires.” He was aware of the worldly temptations that wage war for our attention, but he emphasized our ability to choose holiness in spite of them. Fortunately, we’re never alone in our attempt at perfection. We can rely on Jesus, the perfecter of our faith and our source of righteousness. Although it is our responsibility to choose obedience and to make God-honoring decisions, we can rest in the finished work of the cross—the only way we will ever be made holy.
Daily, we choose between holiness and the desires of our flesh; yet when we truly grasp the hope of the gospel, the choice is simple.
“It is what it is.”
“It is what it is.”
You get up in the morning, do what needs to be done, function through the day—and yet inside it feels like you’re trapped…
You’re waiting for something to change. For a new beginning. Just for life to somehow, almost miraculously, turn for the better…
On the outside everything keeps moving, but on the inside you feel bound by worries, by God’s: “...not yet.”
It’s exactly in situations like this that the prophet Zechariah speaks about: the “prisoners of hope.”
That sounds contradictory—but it actually describes your life right now surprisingly well.
Because isn’t it hope that keeps us holding on? ❤️
We keep hoping, even though it’s exhausting. We don’t give up, even though it would be easier to just shut down inside. We don’t say, “It is what it is,” because deep down we know:
It may be this way right now—but it won’t stay this way, because my God is still sitting on the throne!
On the throne of grace.
The throne of victory.
And the throne of miracles!
You don’t hope because everything is good—you hope in spite of it all.
And that is something precious.
Your hope is not naïve. It’s a bond with something that is more real than what you currently see.
A bond with your God—to whom all things are still possible!
Yes, there is something more real than what you see right now. And within that reality, the heavenly victory already exists today.
Do you know what encouragement Zechariah gave the people who were also still in that place of waiting and hoping? It’s the same thing God wants to say to you today:
“Return to your fortress, you prisoners of home; even now I announce that I will restore you twice as much.” (Zechariah 9:12, NIV)
My paraphrase of this verse is: “You have not hoped in vain… You will receive double for all you have suffered!”
Hope doesn’t always mean the chains fall off immediately. But hope does mean that the story isn’t finished yet.
Keep hoping—because God is still writing… ✍🏻
…and His stories always end beautifully.
You are a miracle!
Déborah Rosenkranz
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