Weekly Devotion

The immediate, “who cares” feel-good reward of pleasure overpowers any consideration of the consequences of that behavior. This includes gossip or lustful thoughts to committing violent crimes.

When I read the Bible, I must remind myself that it’s written from God’s perspective, not mine. The messages in God’s word are there for me to bear fruit to advance God’s kingdom, not my own.

We often get too religious when nothing we do, say, or think earns God’s favor. We don’t earn His love. No matter how observant and dutiful we are when, the heart of our worship isn’t centered solely on God, it’s shallow and hollow.

From our vantage point, time is either too long or too short. Time only matters to us. From God’s perspective, time is irrelevant.

Paul didn’t know it yet, but this encounter blinded him. His physical blindness was a direct message from Christ about Paul’s spiritual blindness.

Before the food arrived, I considered saying a prayer. I’ve known my friend for decades, and I didn’t think he would mind, but I still should have asked if he was OK with it.

Seeing the Godly perspective, (L) added, “I don’t love that it took something like this to draw me in at that level, but He works all things together for good, and I’m continually believing and trusting that He is doing exactly that.

Faith is learned and grows out of experience. We have faith because God first imparted it to us. He gave us the ears to hear Him, the eyes to see Him, and faith to trust Him.

Watching our son become a Christian man before our eyes was one of the most powerful things I’ve ever seen. He and a friend were sponsored to attend a faith event called “Chrysalis” by their cross-country coach. We knew, even then, that their coach was so much more than a coach.

I had no idea what I would write about this week, but “Hesed” kept popping into my head. While doing background reading for the devotional, I wondered where this thought came from. Where did I see the reference to Hesed?