October 30, 2025 Devo

October 30th, 2025

Walking Through the Psalms
“LORD, help!” they cried in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He led them from the darkness and deepest gloom; he snapped their chains. – Psalm 107:13-14 (NLT)
“My Troubles No Longer Have Me”

I got an email a few years ago from a friend who was going through a horrible time. She has been battling with several cascading physical issues that sapped her strength. These physical issues were compounded by the mental and emotional stress of trauma that she has also experienced. All of this together felt like a suffocating, heavy blanket that left her feeling hopeless, helpless, and trapped. At times, the weight was so heavy that she didn’t want to go on. God has seemed a million miles away. The darkness of her despair seemed unshakable.
But she went on to share that her chains were broken! Listen to her words as she describes how God is renewing and restoring her: “I must live in today and plan only within this week through His direction. Yes, my health is not great, but God sustains me. Regardless of how my body is, He still sustains me. God holds my future if I am just willing to take His hand again and walk beside Him. And I am holding His hand again. I still have fear, I still have anxiety, I still have tears, but they no longer have me.”
Read that last line again. “I still have fear, I still have anxiety, I still have tears, but they no longer have me.” Reading her email brought tears to my eyes. And it’s my prayer for YOU today! I don’t know what you’ve been through, but I suspect for at least some of you, your journey hasn’t been that different from hers. I would guess that some of you can identify with her and the psalmist who were dealing with despair and doom so binding that it felt like chains.
Today, I’m asking God to do for you what He did for her. Today, I invite you to lay before God all your hurt, all your pain, all your sorrow, and all your despair. Today, I’m asking God to reach down in His grace and break the chains that are holding you. I’m praying that He will lift your heart, that He will take your hand, and that He will ease the weight that you’ve been under. Yes, you may still have fear. Yes, you may still have anxiety. Yes, you may still have tears from time to time. But my prayer is, in the Strong Name of Jesus, your troubles will no longer have you! That’s God’s Word for you today.