Romans 15:13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
As I was compiling Worthy News today, we reported that the hostages taken by Hamas have now been in captivity for 500 days. One released hostage shared how, while thousands in Israel were advocating for them, their captors fed them lies, saying, “Nobody cares about you, and no one is coming for you.”
This reminded me of a story about a man who was imprisoned during Napoleon’s reign. While sulking in his dungeon one day, he etched on the wall the words “Nobody Cares.”
A few weeks later, through a crack in the dungeon floor, a little green shoot sprang forth, reaching toward the tiny ray of sunlight that came from his small prison cell window. The prisoner began giving a portion of his daily water to the little shoot and it began to grow. One morning the man awoke to a beautiful flower. A tear rolling down his face, he crossed out the words, “Nobody Cares” and replaced them with “God Cares.”
The story goes on to tell that His devotion to the flower was reported to the Empress Josephine. She was so very moved that she convinced Napoleon to set the man free.
How many times do we feel like “Nobody Cares”? God has planted little shoots of hope in each and every one of our difficult circumstances — do you know that? Perhaps we’re stepping on them, not even noticing they exist. Perhaps we’re pulling the shoots before they spring forth into beautiful flowers.
But if we take a moment to look around, we may find that God has already planted seeds of hope in our lives, waiting to bloom. Even in the darkest of dungeons, even when the enemy whispers, “Nobody cares,” God is always present, nurturing life where despair once reigned.
So today, choose to see the small signs of His love, the tiny green shoots breaking through the cracks of your struggles. Water them with faith, nurture them with prayer, and watch as God transforms your sorrow into beauty. No matter how bleak things seem, remember this—God cares, He sees, and He has never stopped working for your freedom.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy Devotions. This devotional was originally published on Worthy Devotions and was reproduced with permission.
How to display the above article within the Worthy Suite WordPress Plugin.
[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Psalms 34:1 I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. In Budapest, a man goes to the rabbi and complains, "Life is unbearable. There are nine of us living in one room. ...
A survey asked mothers to keep track of how many times they made both negative and positive comments to their children. The surveyed mothers admitted that they criticized at least ten times for every one time they said something favorable. Another survey taken in one city's schools found that the teachers were negative seventy five per cent of the time. This study concluded that it takes four positive statements to a child from a parent or teacher to offset the effects of one negative statement. Wow, when I think about how many times I've said negative things to people in my lifetime, I have some positive paying back to do!
In today's society fast food is making billions. It's slogans are "have it your way" and "have it hot and and have it now". How easy it is for us to fall into this "fast food mentality". It has almost become who we are. But in God's kingdom there's no fast food. We can't always have it our way and now. When we are caught up in this fast food mentality, we lose the true meaning of patience. True patience is the ability to wait on the Lord through trials without complaining and worrying; it is to be tested and persevere through trial.
Have you ever noticed that most of our phone conversations go something like this? You call, say a word or two, they'll say a short thing or two in reply and then something like "Ok, in the middle of something, gotta run, talk to you later"! That's a good example of most of our telephone conversations with people when we were living in the United States.
Yesterday, there was a fascinating article in Bloomberg about how the prices of some paintings are falling rapidly. As I read the article I wondered just how much paintings actually go for.
During World War 2, a staggering 75 million died during those years. In those fateful years, the world fought against the greatest evil it had ever seen, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime.
This is an interesting passage of Scripture which details how Josiah, a young and Godly king, went forth to cleanse the land, and in doing so, finds that he was fulfilling a prophecy given years before. Josiah went forth doing what was right — and in doing so, was walking out the works that God preordained for him — he was fulfilling the calling that God had set into motion years before!