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Bible Reading Plan

This year, we’re encouraging our whole church to read God’s Word every day. For convenience, we’re including suggested passages at the top of each devotional Monday through Friday to prepare your heart and mind for each weekend’s teaching. This plan connects your daily Bible reading directly to what you’ll hear on Sunday, creating deeper understanding and life application. Enjoy!

Today’s Passage: Psalm 1

Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
² but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.
³ That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.

⁴ Not so the wicked!
    They are like chaff
    that the wind blows away.
⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

⁶ For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

•••

Daily Devotional: Tender Comfort

The daily devotional is written by Willow staff and volunteers to help you reflect on God’s word in a different way. It’s based on the weekend teaching, but isn’t aligned with the Bible reading plan.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 
Matthew 5:4

When I was an atheist, I would find myself humming, of all songs, Amazing Grace. The melody lingered in my mind. It was not a part of my Catholic upbringing—but my father had watched black and white films of Billy Graham’s evangelistic crusades on occasion, and so as a kid, I heard it in the background. I was facing an internal struggle—a mourning within me. I had what you might call a Christian sense of right and wrong due to my Catholic upbringing, but the passion to erase it from my soul was a deep frustration, a mourning over not being able to disconnect from inbred Christian values and my conscience. At least that’s what I told myself. In hindsight, Amazing Grace was a tender comfort from God over both His and my mourning over our separation. It was spiritual water wooing me back to quench my parched soul. 

Have you felt God’s tender comfort during times of mourning? During public crises caused by wars, political corruption, or neighborhood riots, we mourn out of fear or shame. Is this the type of mourning Jesus referred to when he said, “Blessed are those who mourn” (Matthew 5:4)? 

Those of us aware of our own sin and its effects also mourn. Is this also what Jesus referred to? Personal loss or death of loved ones, debilitating illnesses, destruction of homes, and theft of property give us grief and reason to mourn. We all mourn at times. And so, when Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn,” He means all of us. What then is the blessing?

Jesus adds, “for they will be comforted.” We comfort each other, perhaps out of empathy or overwhelming compassion. But, there is some mourning that is isolated within oneself. No one knows. Perhaps it is a chronic, unexpressed, hidden mourning. But some types of mourning are neither comforted by others nor by ourselves. When you grieve over a friend who refuses to accept Christ or one who seemingly has no possibility of breaking an addiction, there may be a spiritual, hollow feeling possessing your soul.  How does He comfort you? For me, it’s generally not through people, but by intimacy with God when circumstances or events trigger an awareness of His comforting presence—a feeling of sharing deep ache with Him over the brokenness and pain of the situation.  

There are times the tender comfort from God happens when we are unaware. For me, it’s music that has open-vowel chants, laments in any language, especially Hebrew. I know some who are comforted by God’s nature. Perhaps watching backyard birds eagerly pecking seeds from the birdfeeder on cold mornings, or bicyclists in rhythm with the pavement, or marathon runners in sync with an internal cadence, or a mother gazing at her newborn. If these examples bring a smile or joy to your soul, they may be one way God comforts you. He gives it tenderly to you.

Next Steps

Prayerfully reflect on your past or today’s periods of mourning. How were you comforted? By others? Yourself? A special tender moment from God? Thank God for these.