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!

Daily Devotion - May 16, 2025

You formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psm. 139:13-14)

God has applied beautiful creativity in knitting each child according to his specific design and wonderful purpose. So, the uniqueness of our children shouldn’t frustrate or bewilder us. 

God’s creativity encourages parents to tune their hearts to respond to each child in accord with the Lord’s handiwork. We shouldn’t ask our sumo wrestlers to move like ballerinas, nor fail to treasure the talents of artists and athletes, musicians and mathematicians.

Helping children discover God’s unique gifting for their lives is no easy task. That’s why a loving relationship with God is essential to parenting. 

As we discern God’s special gifting for our lives, we grow in appreciation for our uniqueness and for how it enables us to parent unique children. We discover why, out of all the parents in the world, God especially chose us for our children.  

As Christian parents our goals are both to reflect our Savior and to help our children do the same. Each time we control our anger, endure being misunderstood, take time for needed attention, absorb an insult, love patiently, discipline firmly, forgive gently, and choose which approach is best for each child and situation, we’re reflecting our personal love for Christ as it is needed for this particular child. 

We train children best when we treasure how they were made for God, and how we were made for them!

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for your beautiful creativity! Help me to celebrate the uniqueness of my children in how I reflect your special love and grace for them.

Daily Devotion - May 15, 2025

His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” (Matt. 25:23)

My wife, Kathy, ran across a news story about a woman from her childhood named Ruth. According to the article, Ruth was hesitant to talk about her sixty years of teaching Sunday school. She told the reporter repeatedly, “You can talk about me when I’m gone.” 

Ruth only agreed to the interview on the condition that the story would run after her death. Then, she insisted that everything she had done in her life of influencing generations of children was only possible through the strength and abilities graciously given by God. “The credit was his, not mine,” Ruth said.

Ruth never heard the acclaim of her community for her faithful teaching. But I have confidence, that on the day she stood before the Lord in glory, she heard this: “Well done, my good and faithful servant,” 

Sixty years of teaching little children is no small feat, but it may have been a greater feat to do it so well and acknowledge the grace of God enabled it.

By Ruth’s faithfulness, blessings will reverberate in children’s lives for eternity, and acclaim will echo in the halls of heaven for just as long. But no “well done” will ring louder that the Lord’s blessing on the one who points God’s children to his enabling grace. 

The highest honor desired of those claimed by grace is to know God takes joy from the ways we have used his resources to share his heart. 

Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me to be faithful in the duties you give by depending on the grace you offer so that I may someday hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” May your grace make your approval my joy.

Daily Devotion - May 14, 2025

“I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jer. 29:11 NIV)

We can be extremely grateful for the sacrifice of Jesus that paid for our sins, and still be extremely burdened by the guilt that required it. We are thankful that are debt was paid, but our consciences are still stricken that we accumulated the debt that required his death. 

We wonder how God can really love those who required the suffering of his Son, even if we are saved by his grace. That is why God speaks so forcefully and repeatedly of his unwavering care. 

The One who saved us did so for a purpose. He has plans for us – plans to prosper us and not to harm us. Our prosperity is not the stuff of worldly pleasures that charm us for the moment and leave us after a season. Rather, God promises hope and a future. 

Our hope is the firm confidence that our future is secured by One who loved us enough to send his Son to secure us for his eternal home. His love does not hold the past against us. So, we can let it go, too. 

Today rest in the sure hope God has graciously given you through his risen Son, Jesus Christ so that you can fulfill the plan he has for your future!

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for loving me enough to claim me by the life of your Son. Help me to find joy in the blessed hope and future you have given me by his sacrifice – and keep me from living in the guilt you have removed forever.

Daily Devotion - May 13, 2025

The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.  And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Rom 8:26-27)

Here’s an amazing promise: The God of all creation works through our prayers to do his will! That’s not because we have all that wisdom and insight to tell God how to run his universe. Instead, we are assured that, even when we do not know how to pray, the Holy Spirit takes over our humble petitions, interceding for us.

I think of the Spirit’s work, when I watch my mother decorate a cake. She glops the icing into a piping funnel and presses it through a decorator tip to create beautiful designs. 

With my limited wisdom and tainted desires, my prayers are often like the icing glopped into the funnel. The Holy Spirit is the decorator tip. So, as I offer my messy petitions, he transforms them into God’s beautiful design – a design so perfect that all things work together for good. 

Because the Holy Spirit is interceding for us, God answers our prayers better than we can ask them. So you do not need to know all answers and outcomes to pray well. Instead, humbly come to God with your needs, trusting him to deliver the answers that are best.

Prayer: Lord, I confess I don’t always know how to pray or what to pray. But I thank you for the Holy Spirit, who intercedes for me with greater fervency that I can offer and transforms my humble desires according to your perfect design.

Daily Devotion - May 12, 2025

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. (1 John 4:9)

God’s love for us is the soil in which our love for him grows. So, identifying his grace in all of Scripture is not simply a nice thing to do, nor is it a novel approach to reading the Bible. Regular exposure to grace ignites a consuming love for God, which is his greatest command.

We identify God’s grace in all Scripture not to encourage license or laziness, but to fan into flame a compelling love for our Savior. Our goal is not merely gaining a correct interpretation of what Scripture says. We are also seeking to stimulate a profound love for God that embraces him, abides in him, and bears much fruit.

When love for God is our chief delight, then glorifying him becomes the chief priority of our life! By his earthly life, we have eternal life. Because of his love we live, and because we live, we love to live for him.

Prayer: Father, as I reflect today on your amazing grace by which I have eternal life through the Son you sent, please ignite such love for him that my earthly life will glorify you every day in every way!

Daily Devotion - May 9, 2025

He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog; and he set my feet upon a rock making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD. (Psm. 40:1-2)

One of the men that I respect most in this world is my father-in-law, Bob. He is a real craftsman. The house in which my wife grew up, Bob built with his own hands from foundation to roof. Seeing the fruit of his diligent labors stimulates great regard in my heart for the man. 

But Bob’s work was not always easy. The stairs of the house turned twice with tricky angles to reach the second story. After numerous efforts to get the stairs right, there came a moment when Bob walked out of the house into the yard, hung his head and cried. He felt defeated and in a pit of despair, fearing he would never get things right.

But what if, in that moment, Bob could have known our regard for him these many years later? What if he had known that the difficulty of the task, and even the temporary failure, would not diminish our respect for him in the least? In fact, his endurance through the difficulty only increases our regard. 

 If Bob had known the end from the beginning, he would have been strengthened for his task despite temporary failure. For just such a reason, God assures us now of his regard forever, setting our feet on the rock that is Jesus, so that we have a song in our hearts to finish his work.

Prayer: Father, thank you for lifting me from my pits of despair by reminding me of the solid rock on which I stand. That rock is Jesus. Help me always remember his grace so I have certainty of your love and a song of praise in my heart.  

Daily Devotion - May 8, 2025

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us. (Eph. 1:7-8)

God forgives us for our trespasses by the blood of his Son. This great provision is a very precious truth to remember when we sense the magnitude of our sin. But we may miss some of the beauty of the concept by missing all the aspects of grace implicit in the Apostle Paul’s terms. 

In modern speech, we trespass when cross into forbidden territory or onto someone else’s property. That meaning is certainly included in the apostle’s thought. But the biblical language means something more specific – the notion of going outside a safe boundary. 

This makes sense when we understand that God’s law marks the boundaries that God’s heart has marked for our safekeeping. His forgiveness of our trespasses focuses on extending mercy to those who have wandered outside God’s loving protection.

Grace is on both sides of the fence of God’s law. Grace lays the fence for us to stay within God’s safekeeping, and grace extends beyond the fence for those who go outside God’s boundaries.  

Jesus’ blood does not only pay for our transgression of God’s law, but also for our trespassing of his love. This means God’s mercy is available not only for those who break his law, but for those who break his heart. 

His grace is good enough for those who stay inside the fence of his care and great enough for those who have gone beyond it.

Prayer: Lord, help me to trust the caring heart that provided the safety of your law. Please forgive my trespass when my willful heart wanders outside your will, and may that kindness lead me to repent and return to your care.

Daily Devotion - May 7, 2025

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (1 Pet. 5:5)

How can humility be a conduit of grace for us – and others? That depends on how you define humility. Humility is often not prized in our culture because it is confused with shyness or backing down, making it hard to understand as a powerful force for God.

Humility is a combination of two things: confessing our need of God and prioritizing the purposes of God. When people are willing to put the Lord’s interests above their own and confess that they will need God’s help to do that, then honoring God has become their focus. 

God has no greater priority than his own glory – so that his will would be done and his goodness would be shared. So, when true humility is present, so is God. His attention, power, and grace flow through the conduit for his glory that our humility supplies.

Remember Jesus’ greatest achievement was not done with pomp and circumstance, but with the humble offering of his life for us. His perfect humility was the greatest conduit for God’s glory and grace the world has ever known.

Others have said that there is no limit to what God can do, if it doesn’t matter which of us gets the credit. There is no limit to the glory Christ can receive, when we confess the grace we require to do his will and to receive his mercy when we don’t.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for demonstrating what it means to be humble through your servant life and sacrificial death. Help me today to put your interests above my own so that I may be a conduit of your glory flowing into this world.

Daily Devotion - May 6, 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)

The most powerful Christian testimonies don’t usually come from “easy street” but are instead brought about by serious heartache. One such story came after the tragic passing of a young woman of faith. After she died, her aged father felt that there was little left in life for him.

But, then, this faithful woman’s recent words of hope in a heavenly future with a reunion of loved ones began to fill his mind. Simple, unplanned conversations with his daughter about her understanding of God’s promises would replay in the father’s mind. 

Though she was with the Lord, her ministry to him was still alive, echoing in the hope that her father began to share. He discovered profound comfort in the assurances of heaven’s promises. Faith in these truths that God had so graciously planted in his heart through those past conversations with his daughter restored hope and meaningful life for the father – and for those his life now touches. 

The beauty of our testimonies of grace can never be fully assessed until we are with the Lord. There we will see how the Lord uses us beyond all our expectations and, perhaps, beyond our lives to replace ashes of tragedy with new life and eternal hope. 

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you that there is hope beyond the grave – restoration of our bodies, our hearts, and our relationships! May my life be a testimony to others of heaven’s promises so that they can share in this eternal hope.

Daily Devotion - May 5, 2025

Lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. (Heb. 12:12-13)

God’s discipline is an incredibly gracious display of the presence of God. Of course, no one wants to be disciplined, but when God acts in our lives to “put out of joint” the legs, knees, and ankles of our souls that are walking us into sin, we cannot deny he is here, he is real, and he really cares about my walk.

Discipline is evidence of God entering our world to rescue us from spiritual dangers we cannot handle or would not avoid without his intervention. 

So, God’s discipline is not contrary to his grace but is, in fact, grace, itself. Just as we discipline our own children for their safety and maturity, God disciplines us to turn us from harm and to help us conform to the image of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Yes, God sometimes allows difficult and painful paths, but his intention is always to lead us to the spiritual fruit of righteousness and peace. As we partake of this fruit, we are healed from this world’s trials and strengthened for our journeys by our Father’s loving care. That is why his discipline not only confirms that he is here, but also that we are his. 

Prayer: Father, when your discipline is painful, help me to trust your gracious plan for healing and strengthening me so that I treasure this confirmation of your presence and care.