PULELULU SUNE 3, 2026

SIOPE 29-31; FILIPAI 4:4-13

When darkness comes, do not spend your days grumbling to yourself or complaining to others, but rather cry out to the Lord.

‘I he taimi ‘oku to mai ai ‘a e po’uli, ‘oua te ke fakamoleki ho taimi ke ke ngulungulu pe launga ki he kakai kehee, ka ke tangi hake ki he ‘Otua.

Job provides us with powerful descriptions of the dark night of the soul, including the following:

And now my soul is poured out within me;

days of affliction have taken hold of me.

The night racks my bones,

and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.

With great force my garment is disfigured;

it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.

God has cast me into the mire,

and I have become like dust and ashes.

I cry to you for help and you do not answer me;

I stand, and you only look at me.

You have turned cruel to me;

with the might of your hand you persecute me.

You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it,

and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.

For I know that you will bring me to death

and to the house appointed for all living.

Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand,

and in his disaster cry for help? to gost

Did not I weep for him whose day was hard?

Was not my soul grieved for the needy?

But when I hoped for good, evil came,

and when I waited for light, darkness came.

My inward parts are in turmoil and never still;

days of affliction come to meet me.

I go about darkened, but not by the sun;

I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

I am a brother of jackals

and a companion of ostriches.

My skin turns black and falls from me,

and my bones burn with heat.

My lyre is turned to mourning,

and my pipe to the voice of those who weep. (Job 30:16-31)

Notice that Job here is not grumbling to himself or complaining to others. When trouble overtakes us, it is natural for complaint to be our default language. And this default language tends to silence prayer. Complaining to yourself does not change your circumstances, and it surely doesn't lift your soul or motivate you to persevere in the darkness. Grumbling to ourselves or others becomes a doxology of bitterness, replacing the language of prayer with the language of spiritual dissatisfaction.

Prayer acknowledges the harsh realities of the moment. It confesses an inability to alter what is not under our control, and it cries out to the one who is in control and has the power to intervene. Prayer builds the soul. It reminds us of God's existence and presence, the very things that darkness seems to cloud.

May God give us grace in the darkest moments of trouble to lift our cries and complaints to him, and may he use our prayers to remind us that he is near, that he hears us, and that our hope is found in him.

 TUSITE SUNE 2, 2026

SIOPE 24-28; SAAME 46:1-11

In times of trouble, it is important to protect and stimulate your awe of God.

‘I he taimi ‘o e faingataa, ‘oku mahu’inga ke tau tokanga mo hunuaki ‘etau ‘apasia ki he tu’unga naunau’ia mo lahi ‘o e ‘Otua.  

Your heart is always being captured and shaped by the awe of something. God has hardwired us for awe in order to drive us to him in worship and surrender. He placed us in an awesome world, where created glories greet us everywhere we look. Perhaps you stand in awe of a snowcapped mountain peak or a bubbling stream. Maybe you're awestruck by a huge ribeye steak. Perhaps you're amazed by the beauty and intelligence of another person, or a feat someone has accomplished. Maybe money or the pleasures of sexuality capture your wonder. All of the awesome glories and pleasures of life have been created by God. Rightfully enjoyed, they serve an essential purpose in God's wise plan for us. They are signs that point us to his presence and glory. God does not intend for his created glories to be objects of our worship. Rather, they should excite and deepen our awe of God, so that his majesty captures us and sets the agenda for the way we live.

Particularly when trouble looms large and seems inescapable, we must protect and stimulate our awe of God. If awe of God doesn't shape our lives when times are hard, then awe of something else will. When we are suffering, we must work to gaze upon the glory of the Lord; that is, we meditate on him, not on our trouble. Biblical faith never asks us to deny reality. But it does require that we meditate on the glory of God in the midst of overwhelming trouble.

This is exactly what Job does in the middle of horrible suffering and loss:

[God] stretches out the north over the void

and hangs the earth on nothing.

He binds up the waters in his thick clouds,

and the cloud is not split open under them.

He covers the face of the full moon

and spreads over it his cloud.

He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters

at the boundary between light and darkness.

The pillars of heaven tremble

and are astounded at his rebuke.

By his power he stilled the sea;

by his understanding he shattered Rahab.

By his wind the heavens were made fair;

his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.

Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways,

and how small a whisper do we hear of him!

But the thunder of his power who can understand? (Job 26:7-14)

May God give us the grace in times of trouble, even when he seems distant, to preach to ourselves the glory of his majesty, so that trouble doesn't overwhelm us and rob us of our awe of him.

 MONITE SUNE 1, 2026

SIOPE 21-23; SAAME 88:1-18

We face spiritual danger when we think God is distant, inactive, or unreachable.

Te tau to ki ha faingata’a fakalaumalie ‘i he taimi ‘oku tau fakakaukau ai ‘oku mama’o ‘a e ‘Otua, ‘ikai ngāue, pe faingata’a ke tokanga mai. 

I have counseled many people during times of trouble and difficulty. Their problems loom so large, dominating their thoughts and clouding their hearts, that they are tempted to believe that God doesn't exist or that he has forsaken them. They think their prayers are not powerful enough to penetrate the ceiling, let alone reach God. What do you do when you're in times of intense suffering? What do you say to yourself? What happens to your spiritual life? We live in a world that is broken, and so bad things happen to us. Times of trial turn our lives dark. We face physical suffering, relational disappointment, and situational struggles. These problems seem so big that they confront us as soon as we awake, dominate our thoughts during the day, and make sleeping difficult at night. Suffering is the universal experience of people living in a world that is groaning, waiting for its final redemption. 

The book of Job invites us into the sacred space of a suffering man's struggle with God. We get to eavesdrop on the private conversations between Job and God. We get to walk down the corridors of Job's heart. As we look in and listen to Job, we realize that our struggles are not new or uncommon. We experience the same kinds of struggles that God's children have always endured. In his suffering, Job puts words to our questions and our cries:

Behold, I go forward, but he is not there,

and backward, but I do not perceive him;

on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him;

he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him. (Job 23:8-9)

As part of the travail of living in this fallen world, we all go through times when it seems as though God has left us alone in our suffering. If you have suffered deeply, if loss has changed your life forever, or if something has come into your life that you did not expect and did not want, then you can relate to Job's words.

Why has this private conversation been recorded for us? Why have we been invited into the sacred space of a man's struggle with God? The answer is that God loves us. In the tenderness of his love and mercy, and with his knowledge of the brokenness of the world we live in, God lets us know that he sees and cares about what we are going through. And, because he does, he will make everything new again. Your Lord knows-and has already set in motion-our final, glorious renewal

 SAPATE ME 31, 2026

SIOPE 17-20; SAAME 121:1-8

Amid all the questions, stresses, disappointments, and hardships of life, it is heartening to be able to say, "I know that my Redeemer lives."

‘I he uhouhonga ‘o e ngaahi fehu’i, mafasia, mamahi mo e ha’aha’a ‘o e hala fononga, ‘oku fakalotolahi ke te lava ‘o lea’aki, “Oku ou ‘ilo ‘oku mo’ui ‘a hoku Koeli.”

Everybody has it, even people who consider themselves to be completely irreligious. It gets you up in the morning and motivates you throughout the day. It comforts you when you are sad. It gives you hope when your dreams have been dashed. It causes you to endure when suffering enters your door. You use it to encourage others. What am I talking about? Faith. Everyone looks to someone or something for security. Everyone has some kind of rock of hope. Everyone hooks his life to something he thinks is secure and will always be there. Everyone has faith in something. What makes Christians different is not that we live by faith. No, what makes us different is the object of our faith.

The things that most people have faith in ultimately will fail them. Only one source provides unshakable security and hope in this fallen world. If you want sturdy peace of heart and mind, quit looking horizontally and lift up the eyes of your heart. God is the only reliable, unfailing, never-changing, and always-faithful rock of security and hope. You can put your hope in him-not just because he has awesome power and makes wonderful promises, but because he rules over every situation and relationship you will ever have in your life. This is where Job's heart goes in the middle of horrible suffering and loss, the faulty counsel of friends, and confusion about what God is doing. The words he speaks in the midst of his hardships have given strength and courage to generation after generation of believers. Job might not know and understand much at

this point in his life, but one transformative thing he knows for sure:

I know that my Redeemer lives,

and at the last he will stand upon the earth.

And after my skin has been thus destroyed,

yet in my flesh I shall see God. (Job 19:25-26)

Speaking as a prophet, uttering words that have meaning beyond his understanding, Job reminds himself where unshakable hope and help can be found. What gives Job hope? God is alive and will never go away. After everything else has passed away, God will still stand. But there is more. Job knows that even though he is suffering, even though God has confused him, and even though God seems distant, God has not forsaken him and there will be a day when Job will see God.

Even if you're not facing hardship now, you will someday. In your tears and loss, may you look up with confidence and hope and say, "I am unsure of many things right now, but this I know for certain: I know that my Redeemer lives!"

 TOKONAKI ME 30, 2026

SIOPE 14-16; PALOVEPI 3:5-6

It is spiritually healthy to always remember that God, in his infinite wisdom, has set limits for us.

‘Oku kau lelei ki he’etau mo’ui fakalaumalie, ke tau manatu’i, ko e ‘Otuaa, ‘i he taumama’o ‘o ‘ene poto, ‘oku ne fokotu’u ha ngaahi fakangatangata ki he tangataa.

Working beyond God-ordained limits is always spiritually debilitating and destructive. We will never be able to go two weeks without sleep. We will never be able to work eighty hours a week and not see a negative impact on our family. We will never have so much wisdom that we will be free of God's. We will never be so righteous that we will no longer need God's grace. We will never grow so strong that we will no longer require God's power. We will never have so much control that we will no longer need to rest in God's sovereignty. If you deny the limits God has set for you, you then begin to live with a self-sufficiency and independence that never go anywhere good.

Job in his suffering-over which he has no voice or control-is powerfully confronted with his limits. Note Job's words:

Since his days are determined,

and the number of his months is with you,

and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass... (Job 14:5)

Job is faced with the reality that not only does he have limits and not only do those limits set boundaries for him that he cannot pass, but those limits have been preordained and predetermined by God. If you think back to Genesis 1 and 2, you realize that the only being in the entire creation account that is without limits is God himself.

The limits God has set for us are not unloving or unkind. He does not intend them to handicap or incapacitate us. God's boundaries are not meant to stifle us, to make life hard and frustrating. No, the wise God who made us knew what was best for us. He specially designed us, knowing exactly what we needed. In his wisdom, he did not create us to be limitless, self-sufficient, independent beings. The limits he set for us drive us, in humility, to surrender to and depend on him and to find in him our wisdom, strength, righteousness, and power. We push against our limits when we forget the meaning and purpose for which we were created: to know God and to rest in and enjoy him forever.

Nothing confronts us with our limits more than the cross of Jesus Christ. We cannot bridge the gap between ourselves and God on our own. Because of our limits, we needed the Redeemer, Jesus, to come as our substitute, to do what we could never do, and by grace to unite us to God forever. The limitless one took on limits, so that we would someday know the glory of a limitless eternity with God. Accept your limits and rest in the wisdom and grace of the one who put those boundaries in place for his glory and your eternal good.

 FALAITE ME 29, 2026

SIOPE 11-13; SAAME 73:1-28

What do you do when it seems as though the bad guys are prospering and the good guys are suffering?

Ko e ha ho’o me’a ‘e fai ‘i he taimi ‘oku ke vakai ai ‘oku tu’umalie ‘a e kau fai kovi, kae mo’ui faingata’a’ia ‘a e kau fai lelei?

We look around, and it doesn't seem that justice and righteousness are prevailing. Often it looks as though the bad guys are winning and the good guys are losing. Evil seems to be on the rise and good seems to be waning. Those who stand for biblical morality are characterized as hateful and unloving, while those who pridefully blow through all of God's boundaries are looked upon with respect and esteem. In our discouragement, we can wonder what God is doing or whether he is in control. Why do the righteous suffer? Why do the unrighteous prosper? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do bad people seem to be blessed? You can't live between the "already" and the "not yet" of this broken world without being haunted by these questions at some point. Job, a righteous man, feels the weight of these questions deeply:

I am a laughingstock to my friends;

I, who called to God and he answered me,

a just and blameless man, am a laughingstock.

In the thought of one who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune;

it is ready for those whose feet slip.

The tents of robbers are at peace,

and those who provoke God are secure,

who bring their god in their hand. (Job 12:4-6)

Job is saying, "I have trusted God, yet look at my life. I have lived a blameless life, but my suffering has turned me into a laughingstock. Robbers are better off than I am. Those who provoke God seem to be more secure than I am. Idolaters have more peace than I have." It is the age-old dilemma: Why does the world seem upside down? Why do the bad guys seem to have it so easy? 

Now, if there were no God and the world were on a mechanical moral scale, where right living would balance you toward a good life and bad living would balance you toward a bad life, these questions would make sense. But we do not live in a mechanical world. We live in a world ruled by one who is holy in every way, wise beyond our knowing, and faithful to every covenant promise he has ever made. He is ruling not for our comfort and ease, but for his glory and our eternal good. The one who rules over our suffering gave us his Son who, in his life, death, and resurrection, eternally connected us to God and assured an end to all suffering and to the questions that haunt us. God has not lost control. In those moments when it looks as though evil is winning, God is working his wise redemptive plan. Even in your confusion, you can still trust him, for he is worthy of your trust. And he gives you the grace to do so.

 TU’APULELULU ME 28, 2026

JOB 8-10; Isaiah 55:6-9

Few things are more spiritually dangerous than allowing yourself to think you're smarter than God, even for a moment.

‘Oku si’isi’i ke ‘i ai ha me’a ‘e fakatu’utamaki ange ka ko ho’o fakangofua ho’o fakakaukau ke ke pehee ‘oku ke poto ange ‘i he ‘Otua, neongo ko ha ki’i fo’i kemo pe.

It might be hard for you to admit, but sometimes you are tempted to think you are smarter than God. Anytime you step over God's moral boundaries, you are acting as though you're smarter than God. Anytime you question his revealed wisdom, you are telling yourself you're smarter than God. Anytime you get mad at him for what he has brought into your life, you are acting as though you know more and know better. Anytime you try to take your life into your own hands and do what pleases yourself rather than what he says is best, you are acting as though you have greater wisdom than he. It is important to always remember that God, in his infinite glory, is the ultimate source of everything that is wise, good, and true. He may confuse you, he may confound you, and he may disturb you, but he is never in error, and what he says and does is never wrong. God knows everything. It is the height of spiritual delusion to think that we could ever mount wise arguments against him and what he has done.

Job, dealing with the confounding nature of his suffering, understands these truths about God.

Truly I know that it is so:

But how can a man be in the right before God?

If one wished to contend with him, 

one could not answer him once in a thousand times.

He is wise in heart and mighty in strength

-who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?-

he who removes mountains, and they know it not,

when he overturns them in his anger,

who shakes the earth out of its place,

and its pillars tremble;

who commands the sun, and it does not rise;

who seals up the stars;

who alone stretched out the heavens

and trampled the waves of the sea;

who made the Bear and Orion,

the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;

who does great things beyond searching out,

and marvelous things beyond number.

Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not;

he moves on, but I do not perceive him.

Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back?

Who will say to him, "What are you doing?" (Job 9:2-12)

As Job stands before the glorious glory of the wisdom and power of God, he is deeply aware that, although his suffering is confusing and confounding, he cannot call God into question. Like Job, we all must rest in God's wisdom, goodness, and power, even though we can't always understand what God is doing or why he is doing it. It is wonderful that he is a God of wisdom and power as well as grace. When your understanding fails, cry out for grace not just to endure but to rest in God's rule, knowing that he is wise in ways you and I never will be.