The Connection Corner
A daily source of encouragement and inspiration to connect your heart to hope and faith.
Daily Devotional
The Hot Water TestSeptember 16, 2026 - 7:00 am
Don’t Rehearse The RegretSeptember 15, 2026 - 7:00 am
Look Up, It’s Not OverSeptember 14, 2026 - 7:00 am
Come As You AreSeptember 13, 2026 - 7:00 am
Leave Hope Wherever You GoSeptember 12, 2026 - 7:00 am
United We Still StandSeptember 11, 2026 - 7:00 am
Jesus Cares About That TooSeptember 10, 2026 - 7:00 am
Don’t Judge the Book by its CoverSeptember 9, 2026 - 7:00 am
A Refreshing Plot TwistSeptember 8, 2026 - 7:00 am
Can You Sit with MeSeptember 7, 2026 - 7:00 am
HEART OF THE ARTIST
The Secret to Being BlessedSeptember 6, 2026 - 7:00 am
The Hardest HallelujahAugust 30, 2026 - 7:00 am
Meet Me in the ValleyAugust 9, 2026 - 7:00 am
Holding on Through HeartbreakJuly 5, 2026 - 7:00 am
Faith That Falls ForwardJune 18, 2026 - 7:00 am
STORIES ABOUT SONGS
- Come As You AreSeptember 13, 2026 - 7:00 am
- The Hardest HallelujahAugust 30, 2026 - 7:00 am
The Fight Nobody SeesAugust 23, 2026 - 7:00 am
One Way Through the ChaosJuly 26, 2026 - 7:00 am
The Gospel Still Changes EverythingJuly 12, 2026 - 7:00 am
Stories About Songs
- Come As You AreSeptember 13, 2026 - 7:00 am
- The Hardest HallelujahAugust 30, 2026 - 7:00 am
- The Fight Nobody SeesAugust 23, 2026 - 7:00 am
- One Way Through the ChaosJuly 26, 2026 - 7:00 am
- The Gospel Still Changes EverythingJuly 12, 2026 - 7:00 am
When Joy Fills Rooms
Daily Devotional, Heart of the Artist, Stories About SongsThe room is loud before the first note even lands.
Lights rise, hands follow, voices spill forward like they’ve been waiting all week for this. From the stage, Darren Mulligan, the lead singer of We Are Messengers, saw what most people couldn’t.
A girl near the front is singing, but her mascara is running. Off to the side, a man stands still as stone. His eyes are shut tight, like if he opens them everything might fall apart.
And still… they’re singing.
There was a time Darren would’ve called the feeling in a room like this “happiness.” Everyone’s singing. This is it.
But life has a way of telling the truth after the music fades. Because happiness is loud. It rises fast. It disappears just as quickly.
Joy, though… joy is stubborn.
These aren’t people who showed up because they were happy. They came because they were looking for Jesus.
And in that stubborn reaching toward God, something was happening. You could almost feel it rising in the room. Like a current running underneath every voice. A gladness that doesn’t wait for life to make sense. It wasn’t shallow or forced. Together, the crowd was declaring, “God is still good. He’s still worth it. He’s still here.”
There on the stage, Darren was struck by this thought.
“Those who go looking for Him somehow find gladness. Real joy meets people in their hunger and desperation for Jesus. And the ones who’ve tasted even a little of His rescue can’t help but say it over and over again: ‘To God be the glory.’”
Maybe that’s what these songs are for. Not to help you escape—but to help you find God. To trade the fragile kind of happiness for something stronger. And over time, almost without noticing, your own song will start to rise…one that sounds like this.
To God be the glory.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
When the ground beneath my feet
Is shaking like a leaf
God, You’re still good to me
When my hope is all but gone
And I’m barely hanging on
God, You’re still good to me
When my heart can’t find the beat
When it’s dark and I can’t see
I will put my hope in You
I’ll trade ashes for beauty
I’ll trade joy for my mourning
I’ll trade, to God be the glory
To God be the glory
I’ll trade strength for my weakness
I’ll trade pain for my healing
I’ll trade, let this be my story
To God be thе glory, oh
You love mе at my best
You love me in my mess
God, You’re so good to me
There’s one thing I am sure
Your promises endure
You make a way for me
When my heart can’t find the beat
When it’s dark, and I can’t see
I will put my hope in You
I’ll trade ashes for beauty
I’ll trade joy for my mourning
I’ll trade, to God be the glory
To God be the glory
I’ll trade strength for my weakness
I’ll trade pain for my healing
I’ll trade, let this be my story
To God be the glory
to God be the glory
(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)
And whatever comes my way
I will always praise Your name
I will put my hope in You
When I run into Your courts
I will fall into Your arms
I will sing a song of praise
I’ll trade ashes for beauty
I’ll trade joy for my mourning
I’ll trade, to God be the glory (forever and ever)
To God be the glory
I’ll trade strength for my weakness
I’ll trade pain for my healing
I’ll trade, let this be my story (forever and ever)
To God be the glory
I’ll trade ashes for beauty
I’ll trade (I’ll trade), joy for my mourning
I’ll trade, to God be the glory
To God be the glory
I’ll trade strength for my weakness
I’ll trade pain for my healing
I’ll trade, let this be my story
To God be the glory
Songwriters: Ran Jackson / Darren Mulligan / Taylor Hill / Andrew Lee Bergthold
The Dinner Table Discovery
Daily Devotional, Kirstie FordThe best God-conversations happen at our dinner table. I’m going to let you in on one of them.
It was after dinner, and we were still sitting around the table when my five-year-old eagerly exclaimed, “Guess what, Mama? Guess what, Daddy? I talked to God in my dream today at naptime!”
If I wasn’t all ears before, I was now. I probably had the same look on my face as a child during story time. So, I asked what anyone would ask, “What did God look like? What was He saying to you?”
To my surprise, she turned to me and said so clearly, “He looked familiar.”
“What does familiar mean?” My husband asked.
She answered, “You know—like my friend at school. I know her. She is familiar to me.”
“That’s right,” I added. “You know your friend, so she’s familiar. And the same is true for God.”
I continued, “God knew you before you were even born. Before a single day of your life had passed, He already loved you and had His hand on your life. So maybe it makes sense that He felt familiar to you.”
That night, my momma heart felt like it grew three sizes bigger. I was reminded of something simple but powerful in that moment—children don’t strive to know God the way we often do. They simply trust that He’s near.
To them, God isn’t distant or complicated… He’s familiar.
Maybe that’s the invitation for all of us—to come back to that kind of faith.
Because when we make space for Him, even around something as ordinary as a dinner table, we may just find that God is closer—and more familiar—than we ever realized.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Love That Didn’t Look Away
Bri Dunn, Daily DevotionalYou’ll never regret being kind, even to a stranger.
Kelly is halfway through her coffee at the little diner when she notices them—two women at the counter, moving in opposite directions. One is paying her bill, ready to leave. The other has just sat down, phone pressed to her ear, but she isn’t really talking. She’s crying and barely holding it together.
She hasn’t ordered any food. She’s just…sitting there.
The older woman pauses on her way out. Kelly could almost see the questions cross her face— Should I say something? Should I not?
But she steps in anyway.
“Do you need a hug?” She says simply.
That’s all it takes. The younger woman breaks, and they hold each other right there in the middle of the diner.
“I don’t know what you’ve got going on,” she says, “but it doesn’t matter. You seem like you need a little encouragement.”
Then she calls the waitress over. “Order her whatever she wants. I’ll pay for it.”
And they sit there together quietly for a moment.
Kelly keeps thinking about what she witnessed. She knows that feeling—knowing you could encourage someone and feeling prompted in your heart to do it. That feeling is so easy to ignore. So easy to second-guess and stay seated.
But what if those moments carry more weight than we realize? What if every act of kindness toward someone hurting is also an act of love toward Jesus Himself? What if noticing people matters more than we think it does?
That morning didn’t look like much.
Just a hug. A meal. A woman who didn’t look away.
And maybe that’s what today can look like for you too. Because simple obedience, offered in love, can change everything for someone in need.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT