Daily Devotion - April 30, 2025

Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance (Rom. 2:4)

One night in high school, I stayed out well past my curfew. I was having fun, and the time had gotten away from me. I was wrong, and no excuses would have made things right. As I realized what was waiting for me at home — a set of angry parents with arms crossed and toes tapping — I lost all desire to hurry back. Why rush back to the wrath I deserved?!

When I finally did make it home, my parents hugged me instead of scolding me. Being so long overdue had worried them far more than I anticipated. Their joy at my return exceeded their anger at my absence. 

My parent’s reaction was far different than what I had anticipated. I immediately felt more chastened than if they had yelled at me. They were so happy I was safe that, even when they later corrected me, I had no doubt I was deeply loved. Their kindness sparked resolve in me not so to burden their hearts again. 

Such is God’s intention for us. His unswerving grace, even when mixed with parental discipline, is to convince us of his love so that we turn from the sin that hurts him and us. The kindness of God leads to true repentance.

Prayer: Lord, help me not to sin. And thank you that, when I do err, assurance of your kindness turns me from sin to my Savior.

Daily Devotion - April 29, 2025

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.” (2 Thess. 2:16-17)

If you only measured by the attitudes and actions of your life, would you be a sinner or a saint? If you measure by the Bible’s standard that counts even our best works as “filthy rags” before God, the answer is pretty clear. There is so much humanity in our motives and deeds that no one is going to brag of earthly performance before a holy God in heaven.

Since God’s standard for our actions and attitudes is perfect holiness, Jesus said, “that even when we have done all that we should do, we are still unworthy servants” (Lk.17:10). Because God knows our thoughts as well as our deeds, honest reflection leads us to the Bible’s conclusion: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23).

That is bad news for everyone who hopes for a heavenly future – were it not for the grace of God. The Bible says that God our Father has loved us and given us eternal comfort and hope through the grace he has provided in Jesus Christ!

If you confess that sinner more than saint is your life’s label, but you welcome Christ’s grace, then you need not despair. Eternal comfort is yours!

Such comfort is a calling. It so changes the motives of our hearts that we desire to honor God with works and words that confirm to others – and our own hearts – the reality of his transforming grace.

Prayer: Father, thank you for granting the grace that is eternal comfort to a sinner like me. May that comfort be such encouragement to my heart that I have transformed desires to please you, and may my words and deeds confirm this change!

Daily Devotion - April 28, 2025

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. (Zeph. 3:17)

A small statue at our door displays a Middle-eastern father with robe and turban, on his knees, holding a small child over his head. The child is “airplaning” over his father – arms out, feet back, and head forward, confident of his father’s grasp. 

What makes the statue so special to us is the look of rapturous joy on the face of the father and the child. The child delights in the father’s care, and the father rejoices in the gladness of his child. When we first saw the statue, we knew the verse that had to go with it – Zeph. 3:17.

In this portion of his Word, the Lord reminds us that the One who is mighty to save does not begrudge his care. The One who humbled himself to lift us to heaven, exults over us with singing. He rejoices with the gladness that he brings to our souls. 

When I must seek his grace for my sin, I come burdened by grief to my Heavenly Father. But the One who humbled himself to lift me from guilt, does not delight in prolonging my shame. He who saves me from the consequences of my sin by a mighty hand, holds me in love and delight no less strong. 

I seek him, return to him, and daily depend upon him knowing that he holds me and rejoices over me with gladness – which makes my heart glad and my life his.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for the mighty hand that saves me, lifts me from sin, and holds me forever. And thank you for the glad heart that exults over me, even me!

Daily Devotion - April 25, 2025

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (1 John 4:7-8)

We all want to experience intimacy with God. We speak to him in prayer, and we listen for his voice as we study his Word, hear sermons, and consider the counsel of fellow Christians.

But along with talking or listening to God, there’s another component to spiritual intimacy: loving others. When we express Christ’s love for the those easy to love and for those hard to love, our hearts are experiencing the nature of his affection.

By expressing Christlike love, we get familiar with it and Christ’s care becomes more meaningful and precious – moving us closer to him. 

So vital is loving others to intimacy with God, that the Apostle John says we cannot really know God at all without loving relationships. 

Sadly, we will meet those even in the church who do not realize this. They substitute doctrinal correctness and personal criticism for loving others, thinking they are honoring God when, in fact, they are distancing themselves and others from him.

If you really want to experience the love of God, love those easy to love, and those hard to love.

Prayer: Lord, help me to know you more intimately by loving those easy to love and those hard to love. Make Christ’s love dearer to me by how I love those dear to you.

Daily Devotion - April 24, 2025

We know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:28-29 BSB)

We can throw the words of this verse around with casual ease, and not understand the richness or seriousness of its meaning.   

Laura Story’s song Blessings includes these lyrics: 

What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy? 

What if the trials of this life – the rain, the storms, the hardest nights, are Your mercies in disguise?

 When I hear these questions, I think of Joseph in Genesis, speaking to brothers who sold him into slavery: “What you meant for evil, God has used for good.” 

Joseph was explaining to them, and to us, this profound truth: God works all things together for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. God was working Joseph’s bitter circumstances for a sweet purpose that would result in the provision of Jesus for you and me.

Even though we face difficulties and tears, God will weave all – from beginning to eternity – into his tapestry of salvation for us and those our lives touch.

Prayer: Father, help me to realize that you are using everything in my life – both bitter and sweet – to conform me to the image of your Son and to help others know him.

Daily Devotion - April 23, 2025

His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isa. 9:6)

There are times when we all could use some good counsel — someone on our side who can understand our needs. In Scripture, Jesus is called Wonderful Counselor, but translators could just have easily rendered: “He will be a wonder of a counselor.”

What does a wonder of a counselor do?  We seek a counselor because we desire good advice. But that advice can only come when the counselor understands us (perhaps better that we understand ourselves) and reveals a path to help and heal. 

Our “wonder of a counselor,” fulfills these responsibilities with greater insight and care than any human counselor. He knows us through and through. He created us. He listens to us. He watches over us. He sent his Son to be like us. He knows our hearts. He knows your heart. He knows the path to help and heal each broken life. 

Because of God’s great love for you, Jesus sympathizes with you. He has endured trials so that he can understand your pain, and he rose from awful loss so that he can reveal a path to help and heal your brokenness. If you need One who can truly understand, comfort, and guide you from pain and loss, then seek the Wonderful Counselor, Jesus.

Prayer: Jesus, I’m grateful that you care for me and know me far better than I know myself. Now so reveal your will in your Word that I will marvel at your understanding, trust your care, and honor your counsel in my times of need.

Daily Devotion - April 22, 2025

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (Eph. 5:25-27)

Have you wondered how husbands are supposed to live out God’s command to sacrifice themselves for their wives? It’s a tall order, for sure. We understand more of the obligation from its goal.

The apostle Paul says, “Christ’s sacrifice was to “sanctify” his bride [the church] so that she would have “splendor” to him. 

Giving oneself for the good and glory of another seemed far from the pattern of a friend whose idea of biblical headship meant his wife had to get his approval for everything she wore, to whom she spoke, and whenever she left the house. 

So much did he use his authority to control and dominate his spouse that she was constantly fearful and depressed – and, consequently, less pleasing to him. His selfishness (driven by his own insecurities) deprived him of the splendor he wanted in her.

As Christ’s glory was enhanced by the splendor of his bride, so also is the blessing of spouses whose goal is to give themselves for the splendor of another.

Prayer: Lord, help me draw understanding from how your grace builds up and beautifies my heart to understand how I can love my spouse as Christ loves.

Daily Devotion - April 21, 2025

The disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it [a demon] out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matt. 17:19-21)

An old story tells of two widows living together in a cottage at the foot of a mountain. Soaking rains loosened the soil on the mountain’s slope, and a huge boulder threatened to roll onto their home. So, the women prayed that God would anchor the stone. But – the rain continued, the stone rolled, and crushed the house, prompting one of the women to say, “I knew prayer wouldn’t work.”

Well, of course, doubting prayer doesn’t work, but what is believing prayer. Are we supposed to imagine that our desires are God’s commands – that we are as wise as God about what should happen to shape his eternal plans? 

True faith is never rooted in our designs, but in our God – his power, wisdom, and love. Nothing is impossible for him, not even working beyond our prayers to fulfill his plans. Pray, believing that God can move mountains, anchor stones, and melt hearts of stone by earth’s blessings or trials.

Through such believing prayers, God will do even more than we can ask or imagine to accomplish his will on earth as he intends in heaven. When we pray, “Heavenly Father, I believe in your wisdom, power and love to accomplish what is absolutely best,” then we will be most blest. Trust the God of grace to be better than your prayers.

Prayer: Lord, help me to pray, and to trust you more than my prayers. Do on earth what is best for eternity.

Daily Devotion - April 18, 2025

When they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:33-34 KJV)

On Good Friday, we remember our Savior suffering and dying on our behalf. But his work did not start then. The seed of our salvation was planted at the dawn of humanity, blossomed in a manger in Bethlehem, matured in Nazareth, and lived through obscurity, poverty, persecution, and humiliation. 

Jesus’ journey eventually led him into the jaws of prophecy, as the King of Glory took the hill of Calvary, dying there for you and me. On Calvary, our Savior descended to a hell of affliction, dishonor, and torment to save us from the hell we deserved. 

Jesus did all of this not only for disciples who should have understood, but for those who heaped pain upon him. For them, too, he prayed, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.”

That prayer would have been pitiably futile were Calvary the end of Jesus. But Good Friday is not the end of his story! Jesus now reigns as our Risen Lord, having rescued those who believe he suffered to pay for their sins and rose to save them from the pains of hell forever.

If you think such grace could not possibly apply to you, remember the prayer he made for his tormenters: “Father, forgive them.” He not only made the prayer; he gives the pardon for those who sin is as great – or greater – than yours. Believe the pardon is for you, and it is!

Prayer: Lord, thank you for dying the death that I deserve to provide the grace I could not earn. When I doubt the sufficiency of your grace, remind me of your prayer for pardon and the heart that makes it available by my faith in you. 

Daily Devotion - April 17, 2025

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8)

Immediately after Adam and Eve sinned, God said to the one who tempted them, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head; and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen 3:15).

Bible scholars call this Genesis verse the “first gospel” because it is God’s first promise to redeem a fallen world and people from the catastrophes of Adam’s sin by an eventual child of Eve. 

God refused to give up on those who sinned against him. Instead, he promised the divine provision of One who would come through the line of humans who had just betrayed him to redeem them. That’s a profound grace, but it was not the end of grace. 

God’s plan will continue to unfold until all the works of the devil are destroyed. No human conflict or natural disaster or family failure or personal sin has ever derailed God’s plan – nor will it.  

The Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil, even while experiencing an awful attack from him. Satan bruised Jesus – wounding him on the cross – but our risen Savior more seriously bruised Satan, eternally crushing his influence.

We should take daily comfort from knowing God’s grace is greater than all the evils of the world, including the failures of our hearts. Grace of that magnitude puts our problems in proper proportion.

 When our God is so great, no difficulty is beyond his power. When his grace is so sure, no sin is beyond his pardon. God’s grace triumphs!

Prayer: Lord, thank you for proclaiming the triumph of Jesus from the beginning of your Word. Strengthen my heart to stand for you by remembering the greatness of your grace.

Daily Devotion - April 16, 2025

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. (Luke 4:18)

We see grace emerge on the pages of Scripture whenever God provides for those who cannot provide for themselves. Most often these reflections are not the full story of God’s work of salvation but highlight aspects of his character and care that become fully revealed in Christ Jesus. 

We hear early strains of the music of grace throughout the Old Testament as God provides food for the hungry, strength for the weary, freedom for slaves, a family for the fatherless, faithfulness to the faithless, and forgiveness for the undeserving. 

The music rises to a crescendo in accounts of Jesus’ ministry to the poor, blind and oppressed, then climaxes in his death and resurrection, and continues reverberating through the ministry of the church that carries the music of grace to the world by his Spirit. 

The difference this concert of grace makes comes on the days our sin or circumstances have made God seem silent. Then the bass drums, cymbals, and trumpets of Scripture announce Jesus afresh in a symphony of praise to stir weary or wandering hearts to beat in rhythm with the assurance of his grace and to live in harmony with his glory.

Prayer: Father, as Scripture’s message of grace culminates in the ministry of your Son may my heart harmonize with his joy and beat for his glory.

Daily Devotion - April 15, 2025

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. (1 Pet. 2:2-3)

A minister friend from a tradition that only considered the Bible a human invention, wandered from the faith. Still, when offered a free trip to the Holy Land, he jumped at the opportunity, only to discover that the tour was loaded with ministers. 

He laid low, not participating in any of the worship duties until the final day of the trip. Then, he was asked to do his part by conducting a communion service at one of the sites commemorating Jesus’ resurrection. As he mouthed the familiar words about eating and drinking Christ’s provision “until he comes again,” the wayward minister discovered real faith. He believed the truth of God’s Word. 

The rest of the ministers continued to walk the historical site, but my friend immediately returned to the bus. He could not wait to return to his hotel to read a Bible there. “For the first time in my life,” he said, “I was thirsty for the Word.”

Too many people read God’s Word as a religious ritual to bribe God to be nice to them. When we understand instead that it the bread of life, providing nourishment for our souls, then we long for it. 

Like newborn infants longing for a mother’s milk, those who have been born again by the Spirit of God thirst for the spiritual nourishment of Scripture. That’s not a chore; it’s the joy that strengthens.

Prayer: Father, as I read your Word today, may you give me the nourishment I need to grow in Christ. Help me not to read to bribe you but to feast on the bread of life you offer.

Daily Devotion - April 14, 2025

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Col. 3:1-4)

To be “raised with Christ” (which is resurrection language) requires that we first die. But how could the Apostle Paul write these words to believers still alive? 

Their death was signaled by their baptism, when they identified with Jesus for a new life. We rarely think of baptism as a death certificate, but it certifies that the values and priorities of a previous life are past. 

Those coming into the Christian faith from other religions know this is so. Their own families may say to them, “If you claim Jesus instead of our God, or our way of life, then you are dead to us.” 

But that is not end of their story. Their baptism (and ours) also signals a new life spiritually united to Christ. Since he is raised, we are. Since he is privileged to sit at God’s right hand, we are. Since the wrath of God for sin was exhausted in him, we are hidden from it. Because he will come in glory, we shall. 

We do not yet fully experience all of these blessings, but by the grace of God we can already taste them. The Holy Spirit is the foretaste of these “things that are above” as he confirms them in our hearts. Trials and temptations are still here, but they no longer determine your future or create your identity. As Paul proclaims, “Christ … is your life!”

Prayer: Father, thank you for raising me from a dead way of life, and for uniting me to my Savior. Now when trials or temptations come, when failures or doubt oppress me, help me remember they are not my ultimate identity. Christ is my life!

Daily Devotion - April 11, 2025

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. (1 Pet. 1:3-4)

A while back, I was invited to a very fancy party. I was feeling out of place amid the high-society crowd in their tuxedos and black ties when a young man in tattered jeans, flannel shirt, and hiking boots strolled over to me and struck up a conversation.

I enjoyed the opportunity to converse with someone who seemed more like me in social and economic status. Despite his apparent poverty and casual attire, he exuded a relaxed ease and personal confidence. Only later did I understand why. 

Another friend asked me, “Do you know who you were talking to?” I had no idea. My friend said, “That is the heir to one of the largest chemical company fortunes in the world.” 

The man’s father had insisted he live without the benefits of wealth for a time to learn the “real” world. But the young man was still confident of his inheritance. He was not bothered by his current challenges because his future status was sure.

In a similar way, we can face real, current challenges without crippling anxiety, because our relationship with Jesus assures us of an eternal inheritance that nothing in this world can deny.

Prayer: Father, thank you for the inheritance that awaits me in heaven because of your gift of eternal life in Christ! Help me so to lay hold of your assurance that I am an heir of your kingdom that I am not overwhelmed by any deprivation or discouragement that current circumstance may bring. 

Daily Devotion - April 10, 2025

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. (1 Thess. 4:13-14)

God’s resurrection promises of loved ones’ security in heaven until our eternal reunion can provide profound comfort. My wife, Kathy, and I witnessed this vividly when visiting a grieving friend. 

Days before our visit, our friend’s daughter had been killed in a farming accident. The sweetness of the girl made the seeming senselessness of the tragedy all the more acute.

Still, with a deep faith in God’s ultimate care, the girl’s mother told us how she trusted God had already rescued her young daughter from the trials and temptations of an adult world. 

After the funeral, the family gathered for a meal. A neglected TV in the room aired a public service ad graphically warning of drug-infested streets. The ad caught the mother’s attention. She shook her finger at the screen, declaring, “But you can’t touch my baby. She’s with Jesus.” 

Despite her heartache over being separated from her daughter for a time, the mother was comforted that her child was safe in Jesus’ arms. She claimed the victory of grace that would reunite her with her child forever – a reunion that death itself could not deny.

Prayer: Father, thank you for the confidence I will be reunited with loved ones who are “asleep” in Christ and that we will be together for eternity with him.

Daily Devotion - April 9, 2025

Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Rom. 5:1-2)

Somewhere in my attic I have a World War II era newspaper given to me by my mother. She saved the paper because the headline declared in six-inch tall letters, “PEACE,” when the war ended. 

My mother reported that when that news of peace spread through her small Tennessee town, people poured out of their homes and businesses to dance in the street! When peace came after so much suffering and dying, spontaneous joy overflowed and could not be stopped!

The Apostle Paul writes from the context of another war, a spiritual war, which can only be won through the gracious provision of God’s Son. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice to save us from the consequences of our sins, we can now have peace with God. 

When you consider that the war with sin has been won for you by Jesus’ victorious resurrection and your peace with God is secure forever, then you will know why you should rejoice in hope of the glory of God. His glory is revealed in the eternal peace that Jesus won. So even if you don’t dance – REJOICE! 

Prayer: Father, as I focus today on the peace your grace has won through the sacrifice of Jesus and the victory of his resurrection, may I be filled with rejoicing! May the joy of the Lord be my strength.

Daily Devotion - April 8, 2025

Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (2 Cor. 5:14-15)

What is the most powerful human motivation? Love! We shouldn’t let that truth merely be a sentimental or romantic affirmation. 

What drives a mother back into a burning building? More powerful than fear, or pain, or personal preservation is love. 

Why does the Bible focus so much upon our need to love God – identifying such love as the greatest commandment (Matt. 22:36-38)? The answer is that there is no more powerful human motivation for God’s purposes. When we love God above all things, even our own lives, then living for his highest priorities is our greatest compulsion. 

What creates such love in us? The Bible is clear about that, too: We love because God first loved us (1 Jn. 4:19). When we are convinced that Christ died for us, then we desire to live for him. His love makes us want to do his work, and his resurrection power in us makes that possible. 

We may still get nervous when we try to tell others about Jesus, or stand for him against opposition or temptation, but the love of God compels us – as it did the Apostle Paul – when we remember his grace. 

Prayer: Lord, I confess my hesitation to live and speak for you. May the love you have shown me now compel me to show and tell others about the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Daily Devotion - April 7, 2025

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (Rom. 3:23-24)

If all we do is teach people to be good, they’ll inevitably think that their relationship with God is a consequence of their behavior. But it’s not. Our eternal relationship with God is a result of trusting in Jesus’ death and resurrection — plus nothing else! There is nothing we can do to justify ourselves before God or to add to the perfect work already completed by Jesus Christ!

As important as our conduct can be for fully enjoying and honoring our relationship with God, neither our best behavior nor our finest expressions establish or sustain his love. 

You do not become or remain God’s child because of how good you are or how articulate is your religiosity. You are his child because of humble faith in the grace God extended to you through the loving sacrifice of his one and only Son.

When we grasp nothing but the empty cross as the basis of our standing before God, then those empty hands of faith are filled with nothing but the grace we require to love, and live for, him. 

Prayer: Lord, thank you for redeeming me from empty attempts to justify myself to you with claims of good behavior or eloquent religion. Please keep my hands empty of any claim upon your love except faith in my risen Lord. Fill my heart with the grace I need to love, and live for, you.

Daily Devotion - April 4, 2025

We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:18 CSB)

If we’re honest, we’re all painfully aware of our faults and frailties. So, how is it possible for us to meet God’s requirement for holiness? One answer is depicted in a children’s version of John Bunyan’s classic tale, The Pilgrim’s Progress.

On his journey, pilgrim discovers a wonderful mirror. There’s nothing unusual about the front of the glass. It reveals the features, flaws, and blemishes of whomever holds it. 

However, the back of mirror displays the face of Jesus. Whoever looks at the person from the back of the mirror only sees Jesus. 

So also, when we honestly reflect on our lives, we see the flaws and blemishes that accompany all of our features. But, in his mercy, God chooses to look at us from the direction that reveals only his Son. We see our sin; God chooses to see his Son. 

The pilgrim’s wonderful mirror reveals how you can be holy in this life – not by your own merits but by the mercy of God that substitutes the goodness and glory of Jesus’ image for yours, even as you are being transformed more into his likeness.

Prayer: Father, thank you for looking at me through the image of your Son. Now continue to transform me into that same image, so that the glory you have provided for me will become more and more reflected in me.

Daily Devotion - April 3, 2025

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. (Rom. 13:1)

Let’s face it, some of God’s rules are easier to follow than others. When God says, “You shall not murder,” most of us rest easy, knowing we’re probably not in danger of violating that one! But submitting to some of God’s other rules can challenge us.

Consider how you feel about: “Pay to all what is owed,” or “put away all anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth,” or “let every person be subject to the governing authorities.”

Does the Bible really say, “prayers, petitions and thanksgivings [should] be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority?” Yes. The Bible says that. Advocating for a political cause does not excuse us from doing so God’s way. 

In our polarized culture, honoring temporal authorities who bring order to society so that the gospel can spread isn’t always easy – or even approved by other Christians. But we need to remember our ultimate citizenship is in heaven and our ultimate ruler is the Lord. We never abandon his standards in advocating his purposes. 

Our aim is to bring glory to him in how we conduct ourselves, even in opposing wrong. We do not approve of evil nor do it to oppose it.  God will use righteous words and conduct toward those in authority for our witness to his greater glory.

Prayer: Lord, I know you have appointed officials for the good of society. Help me rightly to honor their authority out of submission to you, as I trust you to accomplish your purposes through your people in your timing.