Daily Bible Reading Plans to help you read and understand God’s Word

Scripture Reading: Matthew 27:32-50, Galatians 2:19-20, Luke 24:36-49, 1 Corinthians 15:12-22

I tend to find myself on the far end of a pendulum, but which side I’m on is ever-changing. There are seasons when I spring out of bed, work out, conquer my task list, and sign up for more. Then, there are those seasons when I wake up wiped out from my toddler’s wake-ups (my smartwatch just told me there were nine last night), the house is a mess from yesterday, and the one singular task I have (such as, let’s say, writing a devotional for She Reads Truth) feels as impossible as climbing Mount Everest. 

I think we all know what it’s like to swing back and forth on the pendulum of wide-eyed to weary. 

As I read today’s passages, I think about the tendency I have in my faith to zoom in on either mourning or dancing, as if there’s only room for one at a time. But it doesn’t take much living to learn that our lives are regularly full of both. New babies and recent deaths. New successes and recent failures. New hopes and recent despair. 

For the Christian, mourning and dancing go together, side-by-side at the same time. I think we forget this truth, even though the reality of it goes much deeper than our circumstances. We are born into mourning, and we live each day in its aftermath. On one side of our constant war is our sin—the very sin that Jesus bore for us when He suffered and died on a cross. On the other is the joy and hope that Christ’s resurrection secures for us. We are sinners who sinned as recently as five minutes ago (or five seconds ago), but we who have surrendered our lives to Christ have been “made alive” (1Corinthians 15:22). Somehow, that life is vibrant and purposeful and beautiful even here, even now, in the land of suffering. 

So what do we do with that tension? How do we hold both mourning and dancing? How do we look upon the reality of Jesus’s death and also regard the glory of His resurrection? I think one answer is that we keep God’s Word on our minds and lips, lest we swing into despair or naivety. 

Resist the pendulums today. Resist crumbling in despair over that stupid thing you said to your spouse or that selfish decision you made. Resist obsession over the fluffy and light things in this world that promise comfort and joy but cannot deliver. 

Instead, read these truths from Scripture and remember: Christ has died and Christ is risen. You’re forgiven! You can dance! Because of Jesus, our way is not to wallow in the reality of sin and death or to pretend that our joy somehow cancels out our heartbreak and loss. The world will hold both until Christ comes back, and so must our hearts.

Written by Scarlet Hiltibidal