Welcome to today's encouragement from the Our Daily Bread Devotional.

I'm Kirsten Holmberg and I titled our reading, Trapped in Chocolate.

Two workers at a Mars candy factory in Pennsylvania fell into a large vat of chocolate.

This might sound like the beginning of a joke, and perhaps a lovely predicament to chocolate lovers.

But the men, though unhurt, were waist-deep in the confection and couldn't get out on their own.

Firefighters ultimately had to cut a hole in the side of the bat to deliver them to safety.

When the prophet Jeremiah found himself at the bottom of a mud-filled cistern in Jeremiah 38. The story was anything but sweet.

As a messenger to God's people in Jerusalem, he'd proclaimed the urgency for them to leave the city

because it would soon be given into the hands of the army of the King of Babylon.

Some of King Zatakaia's officials demanded Jeremiah be put to death

because they claimed his words were discouraging the soldiers.

The king consented, and they lowered Jeremiah by ropes into the cistern where he sank down into

the mud. When another of the king's officials, a foreigner no less, advocated for Jeremiah's

well-being, saying the others had acted wickedly, Zedekiah realized he'd made a mistake

and ordered Ebed Malek to lift Jeremiah out of the cistern.

Even when we're doing the right thing, as Jeremiah was,

we might sometimes feel like we're stuck in the mud.

Let's ask God to lift our spirits as we wait for his help in the troubles we face.

Today's Our Daily Red Devotional Scripture reading is from Jeremiah chapter 38 verses 1 through 10.

Shefataya, son of Matan, Gedaliah, son of Peshore, Jehukal son of Shalemaiah,

and Pashur, son of Malkhijah, heard what Jeremiah was telling all the people when he said, this is what the

Lord says. Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague. But whoever goes over to the

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