It's time for some encouragement from your friends at Our Daily Bread.

The devotional for today titled Cries of Distress was written by Matt Lucas.

Trapped under two floors of collapsed rubble caused by an earthquake, five-year-old

Genan, a Syrian girl, called out to rescuers as she shielded her little brother from the

debris surrounding them. Get me out of here. I'll do anything for you, she called heartbreakingly.

I'll be your servant.

Cries of distress are found throughout the Psalms. When hard-pressed, I cried to the Lord,

declares the psalmist. While we may never experience the crushing weight of earthquake-collapsed

buildings, we all recognize the

suffocating fears from a challenging medical diagnosis, economic hardship, uncertainty about the

future, or relational loss. In those moments, we may offer bargains to God for deliverance,

but God doesn't need to be persuaded to help.

He promises to answer. And while it may not be relief from our situation, he'll be with us and on our side. Nor do we need to fear any other peril, including death. We can say with the psalmist,

the Lord is with me. He is my helper. I look in triumph on my enemies. We are not promised

as dramatic a rescue as Janon and her brother experienced, but we can trust our faithful God, who brought the psalmist into a

spacious place. He knows our situation, and he'll never abandon us, even in death.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading comes from the book of Psalms,

Chapter 1118, verses 1 through 9.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever. Let Israel say, His love endures forever. Let the House of Aaron say,

His love endures forever. Let those who fear the Lord say, His love endures forever.

When hard-pressed, I cried to the Lord. He brought me into a spacious place. The Lord is with me. I will not be

afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? The Lord is with me. He is my helper. I look in triumph on my

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