Daily Devotion - January 2, 2025

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Cor. 1:3-4)

Every year the calendar starts over at January 1st. But just because the calendar changes doesn’t mean our circumstances do. Maybe you’re facing the affliction of a health scare or a financial hardship. Maybe you’re in a rocky relationship or have problems at work.

Whatever affliction you’re facing right now, do not think that it or its lessons are worthless. The comfort God provides in earthly difficulty becomes more real to those God intends us to reach because we have really known it. 

My wife tells of being unable to hear the thoughts of a famous speaker, until that woman sat in a chair and unknowingly revealed a shoe with a hole in the sole. Suddenly all the women listening knew that the woman speaking of God’s comfort through deprivation really knew what she was speaking about.

None of us should want affliction – or waste it. When we know more of God’s eternal comforts through our earthly afflictions, we are best able to share the truths of eternity with those needing God. 

Prayer: Father, you know the difficulties I’m experiencing and will provide as you know best for my eternity. May confidence in this grace give me comfort in affliction that you have prepared me to share with others in need!

Daily Devotion - January 1, 2025

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. (Luke 10:27)

Love for God produces more love. That is why Jesus says love for God is the greatest commandment. When loving him is our highest priority and greatest desire, then we also love what and whom he loves. As a result, our love for God becomes the basis for living for him and caring for others.

The grace of God that stimulates such love for God will not allow us to settle into a cozy sweater of self-absorbed satisfaction that ignores a hurting world. A heart captivated by grace beats with God’s love and concern for his world.

That’s why Jesus commands us to love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and our neighbor as ourselves. If we love God deeply, we will love our neighbors too, reflecting his love for us in the way that we love others. Because we love Jesus, we love all those he loves.

Prayer: Father, I know that we live in a hurting world. Please help me to sense deeply your grace toward me, so that as my heart responds in love for you, I will love all that you love.