The Connection Corner

When God Speaks You Can Stand

Daily Devotional, David Hall, Uncategorized

Isaiah 55:11 – “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

The storm rolled in just before dawn. The kind that makes the sky turn black and where the wind slaps you sideways. The kind that makes you wonder if this is how it ends.

Peter had known storms. He had fished these waters his whole life. But this one? This one had teeth. The boat groaned with every wave, and the air tightened with fear.

Then someone saw it. Out on the water—a figure. Walking. Coming closer. It was Jesus.

At first, no one dared to speak. They just stared. Somewhere behind him, someone whispered, “It’s a ghost,” but Peter leaned forward. He needed to be sure. He had to know.

Then a voice cut through the fear: “Take heart. It is I.”

Peter locked onto it. That voice… it sounded like hope.

His heart jumped. “Lord, if it is You,” he called, “command me to come.” Because deep down, he knew. If Jesus said the word, he would have something to stand on. The wind did not have to stop. The waves did not have to calm. If Jesus commanded it, the water would hold.

Then came the answer. One word.

“Come.”

And somehow, that word was heavier than the storm. Peter stepped out of the boat, and impossibly, the waves beneath him felt like solid ground.

It was not courage that held Peter up. It was not even faith in himself. It was obedience to the voice of the One who called him. That voice has authority. It does not need a life raft or a better forecast. It just needs to speak.

Some of us spend our whole lives waiting for the storm to pass before we take a step. But peace is not the absence of trouble. It is the presence of His word in the middle of it.

So open the Bible. Sit with it. Wait for His voice. Let His word come first. Not your will, nor your timing. And when you find a promise that speaks straight into your chaos, plant your feet. You can hold onto it like it is solid ground.

Because it is.

June 26, 2025/by David Hall

See It Like God Sees It

Daily Devotional, Lauren Kitchens-Steward

Romans 8:37 – “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”

Kristie’s favorite compliment was, “You’re a big person.” She would smile every time because she knew exactly what they meant.

She was five-foot-nothing, maybe a hundred pounds soaking wet. But big? Oh yes. She had a heart like a freight train, stubborn as the sunrise, and she never once let anyone tell her she couldn’t do something.

At seventeen, she laced up her boots and stepped into a calling. She wanted to protect and serve, no matter the cost. She never imagined the cost of military service could come so high.

A helicopter crash in Afghanistan shattered her world. She was pulled from the wreckage, bleeding and broken. Face. Spine. Shoulder. Leg. It took doctors three years to piece her back together, and even then, they had to take her left leg.

Still, what hurt more than the surgeries or scars was losing the one thing she had built her whole identity around: her mission to protect others.

But if you think that’s where the story ends, you don’t know Kirstie. It dawned on her that she gets to choose how something slows her down. She can look at this latest journey as a problem or as possibility.

With a prosthetic leg and a fire in her soul, she learned to walk again. Then she learned to climb, to snowboard, and to take on challenges most people wouldn’t even dream about. She did it to raise money for nonprofits that help veterans, children with disabilities, and trauma survivors. She did it because, deep down, she still believed people were worth protecting.

Since then, she has scaled six of the seven continental summits, and somewhere along the way, she stopped seeing herself as broken.

…And that changed everything.

Dear One, you are a big person too! It’s not your size that determines your strength. It’s your sight. How you see your wounds, your detours, and your delays, that makes all the difference. God is not asking you to pretend it didn’t hurt. He is inviting you to see from higher up, and to catch a glimpse of what He sees.

So go ahead. Take that next step. Climb hard if you must because what looks like a dead end from here will look entirely different from the mountaintop.

June 25, 2025/by Lauren Kitchens-Steward

Thriving Through Life’s Trials

Daily Devotional, Heart of the Artist, Stories About Songs

Psalms 42:11 — “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.”

The night I discovered I had cancer, I sat down at the piano. That’s how songwriters bleed. We bleed songs. I started writing out my feelings, and a song called “O My Soul” began to emerge.

It captured my inner turmoil—a battle with myself—reminiscent of some of King David’s verses in the book of Psalms.

I felt like I was walking through fog. Everything was loud, disorienting, and out of control. But somewhere beneath all that fear and shock, something inside me held firm. And I don’t say that to sound spiritual or strong. I didn’t feel either of those things.

But what I did feel, buried beneath the panic, was something steady. Something rooted. It was Jesus. He was the same God I had spent years getting to know in the quiet.

Long before the diagnosis, I had sensed God calling me—and our band—to something deeper. Not just to sing about faith, but to live like it was anchored in something that couldn’t be shaken.

That became the heartbeat of our ministry: Thrive.

That’s also the origin of a special line in the song I wrote that night: “There’s a place where fear has to face the God you know.”

I can’t explain it, but those words reminded me that the storm didn’t get to define my story. Fear would have to bow to something greater.

I didn’t thrive that night because I was brave or strong or ready. I thrived because what I knew about God was already rooted deep in my bones.

And now, I want to ask you what I had to ask myself: What are you building your life on?

Friend, if life feels calm right now, this is the best time to get to know Him. Because the storms are coming for all of us. If you’re planted in Him, really planted, you won’t be moved.

Not because you’re strong.

But because He is.

— Mark Hall

Oh My Soul

Oh my soul, oh how you worry
Oh how you’re weary from fearing you lost control
This was the one thing you didn’t see coming
And no one would blame you though
If you cried in private
If you tried to hide it away
So no one knows
No one will see if you stop believing

Oh my soul
You are not alone
There’s a place where fear
Has to face the God you know
One more day
He will make a way
Let Him show you how
You can lay this down

‘Cause you’re not alone

Here and now, you can be honest
I won’t try to promise
That someday it all works out
‘Cause this is the valley
And even now He is breathing on
Your dry bones
And there will be dancing
There will be beauty where beauty was
Ash and stone
This much I know

Oh my soul
You are not alone
There’s a place where fear
Has to face the God you know
One more day
He will make a way
Let Him show you how
You can lay this down

I’m not strong enough
I can’t take anymore
(You can lay it down
You can lay it down)
And my shipwrecked faith
Will never get me to shore
(You can lay it down
You can lay it down)
Can He find me here?
Can He keep me from going under?

Oh my soul
You are not alone
There’s a place where fear
Has to face the God you know
One more day
He will make a way
Let Him show you how
You can lay this down

‘Cause you’re not alone

Oh my soul, you’re not alone

Written by: Mark Hall, Bernie Herms

June 24, 2025/by David Hall