The Lord hears

Sarah Habben

Joseph Scriven was born in Ireland in 1819. He grew up, earned a degree, and fell in love. The night before his wedding, his fiancée drowned. Soon after, the 25-year-old Scriven emigrated to Canada.

There Scriven taught and did farm labor. On lunch breaks he read his Bible aloud to the railway workers. At 36 he fell in love again. Shortly before his wedding, his second fiancée caught pneumonia . . . and died.

What tragedies in your life make you wonder if God is really in control . . . if he hears your midnight prayers . . . if he’s still worth following?

If Scriven had those doubts, they only made him dig deeper into God’s Word. Inspired, he wrote a collection of Christian verses, including a poem for his dying mother. Some know it today as a hymn called “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”

Scriven dedicated the rest of his life to serving others. He worked without pay for the disabled and destitute. He died in poverty at age 66. It sounds like a sad ending, until you read one of his verses:

“But oh, our sweetest hope

Is that the Lord will come,

And death in life be swallowed up,

When we shall all go home.”

Don’t just wonder if God cares. Open your Bible and find Jesus, your dear Friend and Savior. Pour out your prayers. And hear the promise, for now and forever: “The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles” (Psalm 34:17).

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org