Monday Manna: This Is Not The End of Your Story

This Is Not the End of Your Story

1 Peter 4:12–14, 5:6–11 · John 17

My grandma gave me a cross. She found it at a yard sale — no idea whose home it lived in before, what prayers were said beneath it, whose tears fell in that room. She just saw it and thought of me. And I treasure it.

But it doesn't look like what you'd expect. It's not the beaten, suffering Jesus we're used to seeing on a crucifix. He's not slumped. He's not in agony. He is in robes, head lifted, arms *raised.* It's an ascension cross — the moment after. And every time I look at it, it preaches to me: the cross didn't get the final word. The grave didn't get the final word. And whatever you walked in carrying today — it doesn't get the final word either.

Peter doesn't open with answers. He opens with beloved. You are loved before this gets hard. He names the suffering honestly — a fiery ordeal, not a minor inconvenience — but he says don't be confused into thinking your story has gone wrong. **Your pain is not evidence that God lost the plot on your life.**

He says cast your anxiety on him. Not manage it. Not set it nearby and check on it later. *Throw it* — with intention and purpose like a fisherman casts a line.

And while you're in it? Jesus is praying for you by name. Right now. That didn't stop at the ascension. You don't get to call your story finished when the one who wrote it is still interceding over it as you cast your every worry upon Him.

Four words close it out: *restore, support, strengthen, establish.* One for every kind of wound. God himself is the subject of all four.

Prayer

Father, we come to you looking at a cross that doesn't show defeat — and we need to remember that today. Whatever we've been told is the end of our story, you have already written past it.

We throw it all down — the grief, the confusion, the shame we've carried so long it started feeling like truth. Restore what broke. Hold up what's buckling. Rebuild the faith that wore thin. Make firm the ground that still feels like it's shifting.

You raised your Son. You can handle what we're holding.

We are still *beloved.* And that is the final word.

In Jesus' name —Amen

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Dwelling in the Word

Pentecost Sunday · May 25, 2026

Next Sunday is Pentecost — The disciples were in that upper room, waiting, not fully understanding what was coming. The Spirit showed up anyway. These passages are for anyone who is still in the waiting, still learning to trust what they can't yet see.

**Set aside a regular time and place this week** to sit quietly with the Word. It doesn't need to be long — but it should be intentional. Choose a space where you can slow down and give the text your full attention.

**Read slowly** — once quietly, once aloud. Pay attention to the word, phrase, or image that stands out. Sit with it. Write it down.

Ask yourself:

- What word or phrase is drawing my attention?

- What is bubbling up in me as I sit with it?

- Why might this be standing out today?

Return to the same passage each day and notice what shifts. The goal is not to master the text — it's to let the Word dwell in *you.*

**This Week's Scriptures**

**Acts 2:1–21** — The Spirit falls. Wind, fire, and languages nobody prepared for. God shows up in ways nobody could have predicted or controlled.

**Psalm 104:24–34, 35b** — A song of wonder at the God who made everything and still sustains it — including you.

**1 Corinthians 12:3b–13** — One Spirit. Many gifts. Nobody left out, nobody left behind.

**John 20:19–23 or John 7:37–39** — Behind locked doors, Jesus breathes on them. The Spirit was always meant to get in.