Author: Dwight Clough

Now bands from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. — 2 Kings 5:2I have a question for you. Was it God’s will for this young girl to be taken captive?In few words, the writer of this passage sweeps over an enormous personal tragedy. A village was burned. Men were cut down. Women were violated. Children were scattered. Human beings were uprooted from all that was good and sure and secure, and turned into property.How could this be the will of God?Most of us know the story. The writer…

… those who walk in pride He is able to humble. — Daniel 4:37 NIV Now, here is reason to rejoice! Not for the other guy, but for ourselves. You and I can bring our pride to God. We don’t need to hide it from the Lord any more. God knows what to do with it. Do you think that God is eager to humiliate you? He is not. Is God unkind? Of course not! We may rush to Him with all our sins and all our temptations. He not only forgives our sins, but He also cleanses us from…

… without faith it is impossible to please God … — Hebrews 11:6What about doubt? What about those little voices that tell us that God won’t come through for us, that God isn’t really kind, that God is going to leave us hanging, that God as we know Him doesn’t really even exist?The disciples knew those voices of doubt. "Lord," they said, "increase our faith."Jesus didn’t seem to be troubled by their request. Instead, He said, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can …" Every doubt is an opportunity for God to show up in…

Jesus wept. — John 11:35We can never understand human suffering without taking into account the suffering of God.Why did Jesus weep? Why didn’t He smile? He was the only one present who knew that the grief of Mary and Martha would soon give way to delirious, dancing joy. He was the only one present with the power to reverse the tragedy, and He fully intended to use that power.Yet He wept. God is not aloof. Even moments before our deliverance, His heart feels every bit of our pain. Be encouraged!Dwight Discoveries Devotional – Inspiration in Your Inbox is provided daily…

Then [Elijah] cried out to the LORD, "O LORD my God, have You brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?" — 1 Kings 17:20I want to focus in on one word in this verse: the word "also."God’s judgment had fallen upon a nation. For three successive years, famine left people starving and in desperate need. Dying of hunger or of disease was a commonplace fact of life. I’m sure the survivors looked at each other and asked, "Where will it end?" and "Are we all going to die?"A widow’s son gets…

A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all. — Psalm 34:19When trouble comes, our mis-perceptions rush to the surface…. I’m trapped. God has forgotten about me. It will only get worse. God doesn’t like me any more. God is just punishing me for something I must have done wrong. God likes to see me squirm.Then God gives us an opportunity to replace doubt with faith. This is Divine work — we cannot do it on our own. We can only bring our deepest fears to Jesus and see what He wants to do…

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. — John 1:14The way of love is to enter the world of the person you wish to love. In the summer of 2002 I interviewed Tamara White who has a ministry to gangs, street people and "throw-aways" in Denver, Colorado. I have enormous respect for Tamara, because, at great risk to herself, she goes where the people are, where the need is, and there she makes her dwelling. She has been stalked. She has been shot at with Uzi submachine guns. Tamara has done things that, frankly, I would be…

And many more believed by His own word and said unto the woman, "Now we believe, not because of thy speech; for we have heard Him ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world." — John 4:41-42 adapted from The Jubilee BibleThere comes a moment when we all need to make a transition. Eternal life never rides on coat tails. God seeks you out because He wants a relationship with you. Somebody else’s faith, someone else’s word may help us to come to Christ, but it is Christ’s own word to us that keeps…

The LORD said to Moses, "Send some men to explore the land of Canaan … " — Numbers 13:1-2Even though I never put it on my resume, I always wanted to be an explorer. The idea of trekking across Greenland with just a dog, a sled and a .38 caliber pistol to find the Magnetic North Pole, or working my way through steaming jungles to find the headwaters of the Nile, or hiking through the Andes in search of lost treasure — these things always appealed to me.Of course, exploring is risky business. There are polar bears and army ants,…

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! — 2 Corinthians 5:17I was born again in a little yellow house in Carolina Beach, North Carolina when I was about ten years old. At that moment, the Spirit of God transformed me, and I became a new person. When I was placed in Christ, an indestructible Dwight was born, and the old dead Dwight ceased to be. I was created, as the Bible says elsewhere, for good works.This is the work of God.We all know the works of the flesh…