Daily Devotion - June 13, 2025

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. (Eph. 5:22)

Today, from palaces to campuses, and from churches to our own homes, the question of how a wife is supposed to love, honor, and obey her husband is debated more than ever. Pat explanations that do not consider the challenges of our times, the dignity of each person, and the authority of God will not do.

So, how is a Christian wife to live? The plain answer in Ephesians is clear: a wife is to submit. But simply repeating the word does not explain its meaning. The word submit in the Bible combines the Greek terms for “arrange” and “under.” Those who submit in this context arrange their gifts and resources under purposes that are best for another. 

Christ submitted his glory and power to the needs of salvation we had. A wife who submits biblically does not throw away her brain or her talents but arranges them in support of her husband.

Husbands are commanded to love sacrificially, as Christ loved the church! Wives are commanded to love submissively as the church honors Christ. No such honor occurs if the church dispenses with its gifts, but only as it arranges them with excellence devoted to Christ’s purposes. 

So, also wives truly honor husbands not by suppressing gifts but expressing them fully and selflessly for the good of a loved one.

Prayer: Lord, please help me to follow the instruction and the example of Jesus as I honor him and my spouse. It can be against our human reflexes to live for another, but with the power of Christ we will find the beauty of loving as he did.

Daily Devotion - June 12, 2025

We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.  We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. (2 Cor. 4:7-10)

Some years ago, a college friend, spoke of a beloved daughter born with Goldenhar Syndrome – a condition that causes some children to be born without facial bones. 

The daughter was born with no facial bones on her left side. In the early years of loving and raising his precious girl, the father said that he and his family were often buffeted by waves of worry that required them to cling to a rock with two sides.

One side of the rock was the testimony of Scripture that our God is very great. The other side of the rock was the proof of the cross that God is very good. The girl’s father said, “In our time of trial, we needed to hold firmly to both sides of that rock named Jesus.” 

In every life there come the waves that will require us to cling to the Rock with two sides. When our trials and disappointments seem more than we can bear, we must hold to the One who holds us because he is very great and he is very good. Hold to the Rock with two sides through your waves today.

Prayer: Father, this fallen world is full of pain and suffering – some afflict me and my loved ones. When the waves roar, still help me to cling to the Rock with two sides. When I am desperately in need, keep me trusting in the One who is very great and very good until his work in me is done. 

Daily Devotion - June 11, 2025

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. (Prov. 22:6)

The apostles and prophets tell us that God is our Father, encouraging us to use his divine parenting as the model for our own. 

Sadly, in light of that perfect model, Christian parents may struggle to deal with their shortcomings. We may read parenting proverbs (wise words to guide wise people) as promises (divine guarantees for perfect lives) they were never intended to be. 

Proverbs give us Fatherly wisdom for what tends to be helpful in a fallen world – and wise people take them to heart, but a proverb is not promise. Families don’t function like math equations. 

No one can bear the pressure of proverbs mistaken as promises, or meet the standard of perfection such a reading requires. As a result, the misreading of Scripture’s proverbs about rearing children creates anxious, insecure parents who either give up on God, or on their children.

God’s intention in his proverbs is to give us the counsel that our imperfect parenting requires, and also to remind us that he doesn’t give up on us because of our failures. His enduring and encouraging counsel frees us to parent our children wisely – not to give up on them or forget the grace we, too, need!

The relationship with God that he secures, gives us the security to love and discipline our children as God intends – reflecting his wisdom and remembering his grace!

Prayer: Father, thank you for parenting me with love that disciplines for my good, and does not walk away when I need more grace. Please help me to be so secure in your parental care that I can reflect it wisely with my own children.

Daily Devotion - June 10, 2025

He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” (Heb. 13:5-6)

In a primitive tradition, tribal people throw ashes at the moon, and beg their god to leave them alone. The practice may seem far distant from us, until tragedy enters our life. Then, we too may look to heaven and say to God, “If you really loved me, then you would leave me alone. You wouldn’t allow this pain, or bother me, or make such demands on me.”

Asking God to keep his distance is understandable when we are hurting, but we still need to consider what such prayer requests. We are asking God to act against his nature – which he cannot do. 

God has promised never to leave or forsake us, and God cannot break his own word. He will not leave – but neither will he forsake. Nothing that we experience is a result of his absence or abandonment. 

The commands he gives are an expression of his character and care for us. His discipline intends only to turn us from greater harms and into his arms. No failure is final, and no tragedy is his ultimate truth.

A hymn writer who knew much of this world pain, sang through his tears, “Behind a frowning providence, God hides a smiling face.” 

When God says he will not leave us alone, he may intend a holy confrontation, but never does he confront without care. He cannot and does not.  

Prayer: Father, thank you for always being with me, and never forsaking me. Help me to understand that a holy confrontation signals no lack of your love, but rather divine dedication to my soul’s security.

Daily Devotion - June 9, 2025

The love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all … and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. (2 Cor. 5:14-15)

Why do sins tempt us? Because we love them. Consider this: if a sin did not attract you, then it would have absolutely no power in your life. Our sins control us by our love for them. 

What can displace such controlling love for sin? The answer: a greater love. 

When our love for Christ is the top priority in our lives, it drives out our love for sin and encourages our devotion to him. Scottish preacher Thomas Chalmers once described this process as the “expulsive power of new affection.” He understood that our behaviors change as our affections change. We will most do as we most love.

We conquer sinful passions, when our greatest desire is to please the One who died and was raised for us. This doesn’t mean that battling sin will never require intense spiritual warfare, but victory lies in intense affection for our Lord.

 That is why Paul wrote to believers, “The love of Christ controls us.” We no longer live for our sinful desires when Christ is our greatest desire. He fuels that desire by filling us with love for him through the grace he provides for our sin.  

Prayer: Heavenly Father, work in my heart – convicting of sin and convincing of grace – so the love of Christ controls me. Help me so to treasure his sacrificial love that my greatest desire is to honor him.

Daily Devotion - June 6, 2025

One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. (Psalm 27:4)

I’ll never forget my first “date” with my wife. I was on an outing with her family. As the new, single minister of their little country church, I had been invited to her family’s picnic, which was held in the restored Victorian village of Elsah, Illinois.  

When the beautiful blonde with the lovely green eyes asked me if I wanted to “take a walk” with her. My immediate response was: “You Bet!” Her beauty made me delight to walk with her – as I have now for more than four decades.

In a similar fashion, Jesus reveals the beauty of his love to us throughout Scripture, more and more demonstrating the wonder of his grace. So, when Jesus calls us to walk with him, our heart’s response to the beauty of the Savior is to do just that. 

The Christian life is not dreaded drudgery. We delight to walk with Jesus, because we are drawn to the beauty of the One who’s grace has shown him to be altogether lovely.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for the beauty and glory of the grace you have revealed throughout Scripture. Help me so to delight in your heart that my heart will desire to walk with you this day and all my days. 

Daily Devotion - June 5, 2025

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. (Isa. 43:2) 

Is it really true that the trials of this world will not overwhelm God’s children? The answer requires us to face a real world and acknowledge that God does not promise that troubled waters are not in our path, that rivers will not rise, nor that flames will not threaten. 

God promises that the waters shall not overwhelm, and the flames shall not consume. These are not assurances that no believer ever drowns, nor that no saint ever died at the stake. 

But God has lost no soul. No trial has triumphed over his purposes. No tragedy has the final word. The truest you, the soul that has leaned on Jesus for repose will never, no never be deserted to his foes. 

As children of God, believers are assured of fatherly help when we face any difficulty, rather than the absence of all difficulties. God’s care is never lacking. Earthly trials lead to the advance of God’s purposes and our maturity until our earthly path is done. Then, we are securely in God’s hands for eternity, safe forever. 

God passionately protects the ultimate welfare of his children and promises what the centuries-old hymn teaches: “When through the deep waters I call you to go, the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow; for I will be with you, your troubles to bless, and sanctify to you your deepest distress.”

Prayer: Lord, give me the grace I need to endure the difficulties I face today with the confidence that you are with me and no trial will overwhelm your purposes or my security.

Daily Devotion - June 4, 2025

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

The independent spirit of a friend’s daughter resulted in a car accident. Because she had no means of paying for the damage or the ticket, her parents agreed to loan her needed money. 

They hoped the arrangement would teach lessons she needed to mature, but the daughter struggled with the required diligence and discipline of paying her parents back. 

A reminder of her responsibility resulted in an angry, “Mom and Dad, this is my problem. I just wish you would leave me alone, so that I can figure out a way to fix this.”

Said her father, “Sweetie, what we really want you to know is that, without us, you can’t fix it.”  

Our independent spirit sometimes leads us to try to solve life’s challenges and our sin our own way. Yet, God teaches we can do nothing apart from him that truly satisfies our hearts or solves our problems.

We need his grace to mop our messes and fix our problems. Amazingly he delights to do so to bring us to spiritual maturity. He provides his grace to turn us from our own resources, receive his forgiveness, and live the future of his heart’s design.

Prayer: Jesus, I naturally turn to my own resources, devices, and amends to address my problems and sins. Please help me to turn to you and to abide in Jesus by realizing I can do nothing to satisfy you or repair my soul apart from him. 

Daily Devotion - June 3, 2025

Being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. (Phil. 2:8-11)

In 1987, Northwest Airlines flight 255 crashed just after take-off. One hundred fifty-six people died while only one survived — a four-year-old named Cecilia. At first, rescuers did not believe she had been on the plane but in a car onto which the plane crashed. 

But as investigators pieced together details, they confirmed Cecilia’s presence on the plane and discerned her mother’s heroic care.

Cecilia survived because, as the plane was falling from the sky, her mother got down on her knees in front of her child’s seat, covered the little girl, and refused to let go. Nothing could separate the girl from her mother’s love – not height or depth, nor life or death. Such is the love of our Savior for us.

Jesus left his place in heaven, lowered himself to us, and saved us by the covering sacrifice of his own body. Jesus would not let go of us no matter how great the danger to him. Our assurance of Jesus’ sacrificial, inseparable, and undying love inspires our love for him, and stirs our hearts to honor him.  

Prayer: Lord, help me today to experience the assurance of knowing that the One who came from heaven to cover me with his love, will never let me go!

Daily Devotion - June 2, 2025

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isa. 53:3)

When we face the pressures of finances, when illnesses ravage our families, when trusted friends and colleagues become our sharpest critics, when governments act unfairly, and when those we count on turn their faces away, there is still cause for joy. 

Whether we suffer under the weight of circumstances or because of the wrong of others, our suffering teaches us more of what Christ endured for us. Through our suffering which cannot match our Savior’s pain, we come to know a measure of his care at a depth mere contemplation could never achieve.

The Bible says Jesus became like us to sympathize with our condition, but the reverse is true as well. When we become like him in our suffering, we understand his heart better. 

His suffering included poverty, humiliation, betrayal, pain, and death – all of which show us how tender and tenacious is God’s grace for us. We don’t fully understand such grace until we have experienced some measure of the suffering that it cost. 

By our pain we gain understanding of the dimensions of Christ’s grace that is needed to outweigh our suffering. 

Prayer: Jesus, thank you for suffering for me. May I grasp more fully the depth and breadth of your grace by earthly afflictions that I realize are spare measure of its cost!

Daily Devotion - May 30, 2025

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20).

An old car commercial boasts, “You are what you drive.” I don’t know how others reacted to the ad’s character analysis, but I found it insulting. 

Perhaps the reason I was so concerned was that, at the time, I was driving a dented Ford Pinto that had over 100,000 miles on it, and needed new tires and a paint job.

Of course, I really shouldn’t have been upset. The good news that our Savior makes possible is that our identity before God is not based on what we drive but in whom we trust. 

The Apostle Paul reminds us that our past faults and failures – the dents in our lives that we would love to paint over – are dead to us and to God. The sins that once identified us were nailed to the cross of Christ, crucified with him when we trusted that he died for us. Our sinful identify died with Jesus.

But Jesus did not die forever on that cross. He lives! And by the Holy Spirit’s work that same Jesus lives in us by faith. So, if your sinful identity is dead, and Jesus is alive in you, whose identity do you have now? His!

Jesus bore your sins by dying on the cross and shares his identity by living in you through the Holy Spirit. That means when you unite your heart to his by faith, you have the status of a child of God – which is what you really are! 

God loves you, as much as he loves Jesus, because you are united to him by faith.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me to realize that my worth is not determined by my faults and failures, but by my union with Christ. Because I trust that Jesus loved me and gave himself for me, I am your child no matter what others think of me. Thank you for loving me as you do Jesus.  

Daily Devotion - May 29, 2025

Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. (Psalm 119:97-99)

The power to obey the Lord requires that we know what honors him. This knowledge of God’s law is power. After all, we cannot do God’s will, if we don’t know what He wants. 

So, we need to study God’s Word and learn what pleases him. Then, we are able to display God’s character in such a way that we and others understand how his care touches every area of our lives.

The psalmist wrote: “Oh, how I love your law!” So, he meditated on its application for the situations of the whole day. The motivation of such meditation was not an attempt to make God love the Psalmist. 

Rather the psalmist’s delight came from understanding that God’s law was already a sweet indication of God’s care for his people. The law provided a spiritually good and safe path for God’s children. If he did not already love them, he would not have provided such care for them. 

The law was not the culmination of that care – Jesus was – but the law was confirmation of God’s care! Knowing the heart that laid the path the Psalmist delighted to walk it, relishing the vistas that would ultimately reveal the need and heart of Jesus.

Prayer: Lord, may I be like the Psalmist and delight in your Word — from Genesis to Revelation. Help me to see clearly your provision for my safekeeping and understanding so that I will always trust the love that designed it – and that culminates in Christ.

Daily Devotion - May 28, 2025

When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy. (Titus 3:4-5)

Raising his family in the rural South, my father taught all his sons how to use a cross-cut saw. One brisk, fall morning, we began sawing through a log that we didn’t know was rotten inside. 

The log unexpectedly split, fell off the frame, and hit the ground hard. A piece that broke off looked to my childhood imagination like a horse’s head.  

Later, I used that rotten piece of horse-head-looking wood to construct a rickety tie-rack for my father’s birthday. He carefully removed my clumsy gift wrapping, examined the gift, and tactfully said, “That’s wonderful. What is it?” 

After I explained, he graciously used it as his tie-rack for years. Yet, as I matured, I recognized more and more my “work of art,” was not nearly as well crafted as I once believed. My father used the work not because of its goodness but because of his.  

In a similar way, our heavenly Father receives our works, not because they deserve his love, but because he is love. His goodness causes us to delight offering him our works, even if we know they still need his understanding mercy.

Prayer: Father, I present myself and the work I do today as a gift to you. Thank you for lovingly accepting it more out of your goodness than mine – which makes me even more desirous of serving you with my best rather than my boasting.

Daily Devotion - May 27, 2025

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. (Eccl. 4:9-10)

There are no shortcuts to spiritual victory, but thankfully there is no mystery either. Seeking prayerful associations and accountability with others is one key. As we support one another in such healthy Christian relationships we grow in understanding others, ourselves, and our Savior. 

Ours is not a magic religion full of mysterious incantations, secret handshakes, and arcane codes. Instead, we gain strength and understanding from the encouragement, counsel, correction, and worship of fellow Christians. As we participate in loving practices and patterns with others, they help us and we help them to persevere and grow as God intends. 

No Christian flourishes as an island. So, come alongside someone today, because two are better than one …  For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. And do not worry, or object, that God has designed you to thrive spiritually when others come alongside you, too. 

Prayer: Lord, just as you come alongside of me to comfort and strengthen by the help of the Holy Spirit, help me to support another today – and not object to the help I, too, have been designed to receive.

Daily Devotion - May 26, 2025

Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. (John 6:32-33)

In the Old Testament, we see God providing manna for food, water from a rock, and hope in a promised Messiah. In the New Testament, we see Jesus heal the sick, give strength to the weak, provide victory to the defeated, food for the hungry, and rest for the weary.  And throughout the Scriptures, we read about the Holy Spirit interceding for our prayers, guiding our steps, and sealing our future in heaven.

By these accounts – and many more like them – God is explaining the essential nature of his grace. Grace is God providing for his people what they cannot provide for themselves. 

The message in the manna is the nature of the Messiah. As God sent bread from heaven to provide for his people’s physical needs, he also sent Jesus to provide for our spiritual needs. In both cases, the provision was beyond the capability of the people.

 By coming to the rescue like this over and over in Scripture, God demonstrates his salvation is not man-made but God-made. His solution to our sin was to send Jesus Christ to suffer and die in our place, exchanging his righteousness for our sin. 

God provided the solution to sin that we could not. Jesus came to our rescue. That’s grace we could never ourselves provide, but can believe and receive. Believe and receive this bread from heaven today. 

Prayer: Father, you provided the Bread of Heaven for me. I could not earn it, make it, or bake it, but you provided Him. Nourish my heart by this Bread so that I might live for the One who came to rescue me from my sin.

Daily Devotion - May 23, 2025

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. (Psalm 19:7-8)

Why do people, even Christian people, think that God’s grace is a license to sin or to ignore the needs of others? 

Nowhere does the Bible say, if we love God, we can abuse his grace, trample on Christ’s blood, disregard his Word, and neglect those who are poor, hurting, or disadvantaged. To the contrary, Jesus tells us, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” 

Our obedience does not qualify us for his mercy, and our disobedience does not disqualify us from it. So, why is God concerned for our behavior?

The answer is the heart that dispenses God’s grace is the same that designed God’s law. God does not save his children from sin’s disease, then encourage them to play in its traffic. His standards revive the soul, make wise the simple, and bring joy to hearts by the relationships they protect.  

Those who have been trapped in legalistic observance of God’s law – thinking that they are earning his love by their behavior – sometimes swing the pendulum of obedience into license when coming into an understanding of grace. They assume that because grace grants freedom from legalism, Christ has no standards at all. 

The reality is that God has established his commands in order to care for those his grace secures. Out of love for us, he calls us to walk in paths that are perfect for experiencing his love.

Prayer: Father, as I seek your will in your Word, give me the grateful heart to walk the paths perfectly designed by your gracious heart.

Daily Devotion - May 22, 2025

We do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. (2 Cor. 4:16-17)

The uncontrollable grunts and grimaces of Tourette’s Syndrome can be hard on families, even when doing routine things like eating out.  It was during one such outing that Justin’s mother had to rush her symptomatic young son and his sisters out the restaurant door. 

As the family escaped the harsh whispers and stares from people around the room, Justin’s sister asked, “Mommy, will Justin always be this way?” The mother, too stressed to give an answer at the time, sadly recounted the question later to her husband.

He asked, “How did you answer?” The mom sighed, “I didn’t have any answers.” 

Then, Justin’s father lovingly reminded his family, “The answer is no. Justin will not always be this way. When we are with Jesus, all will be made right, and our afflictions will be far outweighed by his glory. Justin will not always be this way!”

Trials come in many forms, but they all will come to an end for God’s people. Then, the glory we experience in Christ’s kingdom will include perfect health, healed relationships, and eternal joys that far outweigh the passing trials of this earth. You can endure this earth by trusting in that eternity.

Prayer: Father, help me each day to remember the coming day when you will make everything right. Help me now to “look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Cor. 4:18)

Daily Devotion - May 21, 2025

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. (2 Cor. 4:8-10)

I was graduating later that day and met our graduation speaker Rev. Ian Tait coming down a set of stairs. He asked about my plans, then gave a brief word of advice that I have needed many times.

“Just remember, Bryan,” he said, “There will always be blessings and battles – never all one or the other.” 

I have recited Tait’s words many times amid blessings and battles. In times of blessing, I remember that I am being bolstered for work to come. In times of battle, I remember that they are not necessarily punishment for wrong or signs of mistakes.

Until the Lord returns, there will be battles for his servants to fight in a fallen world of sinners like us. There will also be blessings to prepare and strengthen us for the battles. 

If we know there are always blessings and battles, we won’t be distracted by one or destroyed by the other. Blessings don’t mean we deserve nothing else, and battles don’t mean we failed. We aren’t necessarily more righteous because we have blessings, nor ever abandoned because we face battles. 

Sunshine and rain are needed for the harvest that God intends to reap from our lives. Knowing that weather forecast prepares us to face every day’s events and people with confidence in God’s grace.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for showing others Jesus through me. Equip me for the blessings and battles I need to face for that purpose without being distracted or destroyed by either.

Daily Devotion - May 20, 2025

His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Eph. 3:10-11)

Most people have heard the story of Joseph’s multicolored coat, but don’t know the story receives special attention as the Apostle Paul describes God’s purpose for his church. 

The word ancient translators used to describe Joseph’s multicolored coat is the same term used to describe God’s “manifold wisdom,” as he builds his church from every nation, tribe, people, and language. 

The gospel of grace is not a one-colored story. It’s a multicolored mission that embraces diverse personalities, ethnicities, and generations. So that all the world would be reached with the grace of Christ, he calls different kinds of people from throughout the nations into his church to reach all nations. 

Sometimes we think it is very “nice” of us to welcome those unlike us into our fellowship. The Bible actually says that it is necessary for us to do so in order to fulfill Christ’s mission for our churches. 

When Jesus changes us so that we receive others despite differences, antipathies, and prejudices, even spiritual powers in the heavenly realms are awed by the wisdom and might of God’s transforming grace. Even the angels marvel and say, “What a God!”

Prayer: Father, thank you for the multicolored story of your redeeming love in Christ that claimed me when I was not of your original chosen people. Help me now to welcome all into your mission of spreading the good news of grace to all.

Daily Devotion - May 19, 2025

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. (Eph. 3:17-18 NIV)

Mom on strike. Those words appeared on a sign planted in the front yard of a home near us. A young mother, who had tired of her children’s whining and back-talk, moved high into the family’s backyard treehouse and declared herself on strike.

A local television station interviewed her husband. The dad, frantic to get his wife to come down from the tree, urged his kids to quit whining, promise obedience, and make amends. 

We understand the mom, but it’s important to know that our God is different. He doesn’t go on strike because we haven’t made amends or cleaned up our act. Because we could never do enough to climb to God in his heavenly house, he came to us in the person of his Son. 

Because we could never make amends for our sins, Jesus made atonement for us. He paid the price for our sins before our good behavior lasted long enough, or we grieved for our sins deeply enough, or we opened our arms wide enough to him. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:9). 

Our relationship with God never depends on the sufficiency of our goodness, but on grace we cannot earn and do not deserve. He is never on strike but always available to those who call out in faith to the One who made amends for us. 

Prayer: Lord, I’m grateful that you never go on strike because of my sins, or wait until I’ve made sufficient amends to help me. Thank you for extending your grace to me in Christ before I ever earned it or could deserve it!