It8217;s easy to look across the room and thank God we8217;re not like *that* person—the failure, the compromiser, the obvious sinner. In Luke 18, Jesus tells a parable to confront such self-righteousness in us.
Comfort, institutional preservation, and tribal identity can crowd out obedience to God8217;s call in our lives. Do we hear His call to reach those in need of His Grace and to live in the 8220;risky repentance8221; that involves?
Most of us know our own dirt isn8217;t the curated kind—and suspect it may be too much to clean up. In Matthew 9, Jesus walks past everyone with the polished-for-consumption sob story and stops at a tax collector8217;s booth, a man whose sin was public knowledge, and says simply, 8220;Follow me.8221;
Please join us in devotional journey as we look at some gifts far more incredible than a partridge in a pear tree. These are the gifts from our God as Paul describes them in the Letter to the Romans. This devotional has twelve readings exploring the ways Jesus coming into the world is for us.
Most people instinctively know the difference between ordering at a restaurant and eating at a friend8217;s table—yet that same distinction somehow disappears in how they approach God. Proverbs 3:9 calls believers to honor the Lord with their wealth and the first fruits of all their produce, not as a business transaction or a path to guaranteed earthly blessing, but as an act of worship that reshapes what winning actually means.
A folding map only works if you already know where you are. Enough wrong turns, and you're stuck staring at it with no idea how to find yourself—let alone get back on course. Psalm 89 asks what God's promises do for those of us who aren't the Hannahs and Davids, who look at the map and go the wrong way.