Each evening, the Your Nightly Prayer devotional and podcast invites us to pause, breathe, and end the day in God’s presence — bringing our worries, hopes, and hearts before Him in prayer.
This space is a quiet place to reflect on the nightly devotional, share how God is calming your heart, and encourage others to rest in His truth and peace.
Need a little help getting started?
What part of tonight’s prayer or Scripture spoke to you?
How did the message help you surrender today’s worries to God?
Is there a short prayer, verse, or word of encouragement you’d like to share tonight?
This space is for reflection and rest, not debate. Please keep your posts prayerful, peaceful, and focused on God’s goodness. A few sincere words can bring someone else comfort before they sleep.
This is my first comment on a Crosswalk post. It hit me because, even in retirement after 25 years in private industry and then 25 years in high school teaching, I think I rush through life faster than before retirement. I need to use my retirement to “stop and smell the roses”. I have five potted rose bushes on my back deck and pray that Christ will stop me when I show impatience or any trait not in line with him. My favorite verses are Proverbs chapter 3 verses 5 and 6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. Lead me Lord.
I appreciated this discussion on new mercies. I lost my son suddenly several years ago and the holiday season is always hard. He died just before Thanksgiving and his birthday is on December 19th. Sometimes I feel like the last couple of months of the year should just fall off the calendar. I struggle with a deep sadness that I can’t seem to overcome. I need God’s new mercies and being able to focus on them helps me to move out of my funk. Thank you for these words.
The prayer’s devotional reminded me of the death of my loved ones. Three in fact and two of them 4 months apart. But they were some time ago and time does heal. It’s not the same with them gone but the pain of grief has healed. It is God’s mercy that we don’t have to stay in the same place indefinitely and that’s what I’m thankful for. I’ll see them again so its not a goodbye, but a ‘see ya later’. I can say that now. It took years, but now I can say it.
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first…Therefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thess 4:16,18
Acts1:8- But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
In my moment of shock and grief God answered me when I asked “why?” He said “I’m making room” I was so stunned! I replied “You’re here! You’re really here!” Then I grabbed my phone to find a verse of comfort, opened my bible app and the verse of the day was Psalm:34:10 “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted; He saves the contrite in spirit.”
I’ve had my doubts in the beginning, but He just kept answering like that. I have a journal filled with testimony of how God has answered prayers, even with a NO, and how He has moved in my life. the changes in my heart is another list that is growing.
And I have found joy in the midst of grief, in despair, in deep deep depression because of Him. I know it can sound like empty words, especially when you’re deeply hurting and grief is a very deep hurt. Time does actually heal wounds, but we have to participate in that healing. If, for example, we’re recovering from a serious accident that nearly took our life, then we do what the doctor says. Physiotherapy, medication, lots of doctor’s appointments, change our diet, our lifestyle choices, eat properly, get proper rest..etc etc. We participate in our own healing. God offers the same thing, only so much better. All we have to do is read the bible, talk about what we read, encourage each other, pray together, pray for others, be obedient to God and His will (tricky sometimes lol), pay attention to the lesson we are learning, share testimony, share the Gospel, and share your burdens.
“Gam zu l’tovah” (גם זו לטובה) – “This too is for the good.”
A classic teaching attributed to Rabbi Akiva. It’s meant to encourage faith even in suffering, but Jewish commentaries acknowledge that faith doesn’t erase grief, it simply calls for trust that there may be meaning beyond immediate perception.
The psalmist affirms deliverance, yet also does not pretend suffering isn’t real. Jewish readers often use this to validate grief while holding onto hope that God sees and redeems the pain.
Talmud, Berakhot 5a:
“When a person is in distress, their prayers may feel silent, but they are heard in heaven.”
This acknowledges the gap between our words and our experience, grief can make words feel empty, yet they are not meaningless.
Rabbinic acknowledgment of the human heart:
The Mishnah in Avot 4:1 says: “Who is wise? One who learns from every person.”
By extension, Jewish thought often emphasizes honest emotional processing: wisdom and faith are tested in real pain, not in abstract comfort.
So Jewish tradition does not deny the weight of grief. It often pairs encouragement with a realistic acknowledgment that belief can feel impossibly hard, and that faith is lived in the tension between the words of Scripture and the raw experience of life.
Should you wish, I can give you Jewish prayers on this.
J.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all. - KJV ↩︎
I feel unloved by my partner and my sons sometimes, but then I remember that only the love of God is unfailing and the truest love I can have.
As I need to hear an “I love you” from humans, I think of My Lord Jesus who carried my sins in the Cross and gave His life for me, then I count my blessings
Share your evening reflection or prayer below!
