Crescent Beach, Saint Augustine, FL  Photograph by Donna Harris

My prayer today is for laughter to fill our hearts and to believe that God is good and his plans for us are good. I pray to remain confident of God’s goodness, even if I don’t get the things I have my heart set on. By God’s grace, he is freeing me from a limited and small understanding of what is good so I can experience the huge and satisfying good that he has planned for us. It is tempting to associate the good life with something physical, yet when the physical breaks, it’s hard to see the good in that.

In Matthew 6, Jesus is instructing his disciples how to pray, telling them that the heavenly Father knows what they need before they pray. There’s not a moment Jesus is not praying for us, singing over us, and living in us. I’m called to trust that God sees what I see. In fact, he sees beyond what I see. Paul Miller writes in A Praying Life, “God sees the whole story and is completely trustworthy to be at work on a grand scale, in the minutia, and even in my own life.”

You are in God’s care, no matter what.
He is in control, not us.
He knows what being afraid feels like and tells us not to fear.
He has promised you will know His care and comfort.
He will not abandon you in your time of need.
He will let you rest. ―Emily Gibson

This is God’s goodness to us today … he filled our hearts with laughter. He replaced our tears with smiles and refreshed our countenance with joy. By faith and hope, I believe that we shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! (Psalm 27:13) We will laugh at the days to come.

One of my greatest joys in this world is to sing with all my heart songs of our faith, of the Mighty Work and Victory of Jesus Christ for broken people. I especially like to do so in the face of all the suffering, pain, death, diagnoses, weakness, confusion, darkness and so, through faith, to lift up my heart to Him-who-is-my-Hope and laugh at the days to come. ―Jason Dorsey, Lead Pastor, Redeemer Presbyterian Church (Redeemer Redmond), Redmond, WA

“Laughter!” A collage by Donna Harris. Made from old watercolor paintings and magazine clippings.