Thursday Devotional – Jesus is Worthy and Values You (1/30/25)

What’s the most expensive gift you have ever purchased for someone? Have you ever spent all you had for a gift?

My Dad sold his car in order to buy an engagement ring for my Mom. It was just about all he had. He valued her that much.

Well, Jesus gave all He had, including His own life, to purchase you and me as a valuable gift for God.

Revelation 5:7-10    ⁷ He [the Lamb] went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. ⁸ And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. ⁹ And they sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll
    and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
    and with your blood you purchased for God
    persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
¹⁰ You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
    and they will reign on the earth.”

 

Knowing how valuable you, your prayers and your service are to God, what priorities and goals will you set for the rest of this year? Jesus valued me enough to give up everything, so why wouldn’t I sacrifice time and money for Him?

Thankful For Grace

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.  Romans 3:23-26

Over the years, I have given thanks to many things.  From family to friends, God to pastors, and fellow devotion writers to you, all have provided me strength, inspiration, courage, and love for my writing.  In as much as I am thankful for those things, I want to give thanks this year for one thing God gave us and certainly gave me.  Without it, we would have no relationship with Him, and with it, we have a freedom we could never imagine.  This Thanksgiving, I am most thankful for God’s greatest gift; grace.

God’s grace is indeed enough.  For me, I lived a life years ago that was unworthy of God’s love or anyone else’s for that matter. This is why God’s grace is so amazing.  I could have continued to do anything as I pleased, but without grace, I felt empty.  With grace, I felt empowered, strengthened, and able to take on the world.  When the world bore its weight on me, God lifted and carried it so that I can move forward. This is why I am grateful to this wonderful God inspired gift.  Perhaps you had that very same feeling as me.  Some of you have had struggles different from mine.  Today, you might be either dealing with sin on something very trivial or fighting something major that seems overwhelming and impossible to overcome.  Grace is the ONLY thing that can make us clean.  It frees us to serve Him, and grows us to strive to do better than we could imagine on our own. 

You are a valued gift to God.  You are wonderful, prized, and redeemed by Jesus Christ.  He did so because He saw so much in you.  He had to because He saw something in me.  It’s something that allows me to write about how wonderful it is to serve an amazing God who gives me love and hope along with so many other things.  But before I knew all that existed, He first had to give me grace.  Let us all give thanks this season for what God has given us, and let us also share this gift with others who so desperately need to know that it’s not too late.  God is still there waiting and loves them so very much.  Who do you know is in need of grace?  How can this gift heal your unforgiving pain?  My prayer is that this Thanksgiving as we say grace, we spend a moment giving thanks for the wonderful gift of grace.  Amen, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Politically Correct

Then Saul confessed, “I have sinned. Come back home, my son, and I will no longer try to harm you, for you valued my life today. I have been a fool and very, very wrong.”

“Here is your spear, O king,” David replied. “Let one of your young men come over and get it.  The Lord gives his own reward for doing good and for being loyal, and I refused to kill you even when the Lord placed you in my power, for you are the Lord’s anointed one. Now may the Lord value my life, even as I have valued yours today. May he rescue me from all my troubles.” 1 Samuel 26:21-24

There has been a great deal of political discourse in the United States this year.  If you have not paid attention, conversations have been incredibly tense and unfortunately at times violent.  It worries me that there is such passionate disagreement for I fear we have not learned as Martin Luther King once said, “I think we have got to learn to disagree without being violently disagreeable.”  It begs the greater question, “What do I do when I have such strong words or feelings toward someone I have strong disagreement toward?” How do we as Christians hold ourselves to obeying God’s word without crossing the line of being disrespectful or indifferent to others of opposing views?

God asks us to love others even as He expects us to follow Him.  I was given the words of David in my own personal dealings with political discourse.  The end of 1^st Samuel gives great insight as how one should respond to those who oppose us.  In the relationship between King Saul and David, Saul had attempted not once but twice to kill David, and was jealous of David’s growing success.  David knew this, but when given the opportunity to be rid of Saul once and for all David, in the 24^th verse, still showed humility, compassion, and love for him and obedience and honor to God.  He asked God to value his own life as he valued Saul’s. This parallels to the teaching of Jesus when speaking of the greatest commandment saying “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37b, 39b)  When faced with discourse, we must not only remember to obey what God asks of us but also love on others while doing so.  In fact, you cannot do one without the other!

Through all the rhetoric and concerns we may have in the world, we must always remember that God is always in control.  Whether we worry about how truly sane one candidate might be or question the integrity of another, our answer is to respond not with anger and disdain.  Instead like David, it is to choose one based on what God would ask of us, and then love and pray for the other.  After all as said in Romans 3:23, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”  How will you respond to those who do not agree with you even if your view is foundationally God centered?  What can you do to be more loving and prayerful of those who do not share your faith/values/political views?  My prayer is that we value others views while following God to be truly ‘politically correct.’  Amen.

Thurs Devo - Valuable Gift

What was the most valuable gift you received this year? What’s the most valuable gift you’ve ever given or received?

Nine years ago on Christmas Eve, Joe surprised me with an engagement ring! Besides being the most valuable material Christmas gift I’ve ever received, I gained Joe as a partner for life!!! The latter is priceless.

Did you know God considers you and me precious and valuable? Jesus purchased us back as a valuable gift for God.

Revelation 5:7-10     ⁷ He [the Lamb] went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. ⁸ And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. ⁹ And they sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll
    and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
    and with your blood you purchased for God
    persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
¹⁰ You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
    and they will reign on the earth.”

Knowing how valuable you, your prayers and your service are to God, what priorities and goals will you set for this New Year?

Happy New Year!
Alice