To get the most out of this devotion, set aside time to read the scriptures referenced throughout.
Have you ever considered that fingerprints are an amazing example of how much God cares for us? Each of us is born with a certain arrangement of arches, loops, and whorls on our hands, and they don’t change as we grow or age. They are also exclusive. Think about that for a moment: Out of roughly eight billion people on earth, no two of us have the same fingerprint.
We’ve each been uniquely created by God. What’s more, He has a singular plan for every life (Jeremiah 1:5; Proverbs 16:3-4; Proverbs 16:9). There is no such thing as a non-valuable person in God’s eyes—He loves every single one of us equally and is personally involved in seeing His plans for our lives come to fulfillment. In fact, it brings Him joy to do so! So instead of comparing yourself to others or feeling inconsequential, look at the intricacy of your fingertips and remember: You are one of a kind and well-loved by the Creator God who brought you into being.
Think about it
• Have you recently spent time considering what God has planned for your life? Sit down with Him in prayer and ask for guidance and clarification to get on the right track.
The apostle Paul had a mindset that Christians are wise to emulate (1 Corinthians 11:1). It included:
• Humility. Pride can’t exist in the heart of a believer who truly grasps God’s mercy. Paul spread the gospel because he believed in the sufficiency of God’s grace to save sinners like himself—and you and me.
• A sense of obligation. Paul understood how far God’s grace had brought him. He frequently reminded others of his role in persecuting the church (1 Timothy 1:13-15) and allowed his past to fuel his gratitude for salvation.
• A sense of dependence. Here is how the apostle described the source of his strength: “By the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Corinthians 15:10). He knew what it was to work at being religious by depending on his own efforts—and he wanted no part of it. Paul desired more of Jesus and none of himself (Philippians 3:4-8).
• A spirit of absolute confidence. Even at the end of Paul’s life, he remained confident in the Lord and looked forward to his eternal reward (2 Timothy 4:6-8).
Do you see these attitudes in yourself? Praise the Lord for all that He’s done, and let it motivate you to work for His kingdom. May the grace He showers on you never be in vain (1 Corinthians 15:10).
Jesus’ assertion that He was the Son of God incited fury in the religious leaders of His day. Yet His explanation to them so many centuries ago helps us understand how to act like God’s children today:
• He spoke His Father’s words to the world (John 8:26). And we were given the same assignment: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15).
• Christ did nothing on His own initiative (John 8:28). Sonship requires surrender to the Father’s authority.
•The Son spoke as the Father taught Him (John 8:28). We should rely on the truth of God’s Word, not our own wisdom.
• Jesus did what pleased the Father (John 8:29). God’s children no longer live for their own pleasures but seek the joy of obeying their heavenly Father.
• Christ pursued the Father’s glory, not His own (John 8:49-50; John 8:54). In the same way, we’re to humble ourselves and exalt the Lord in our thoughts and behavior.
• He knew His Father (John 8:55). Like Christ, believers have the same privilege of intimacy with God.
We are God’s children only because of the faithful obedience of His Son. Christ opened the door for our adoption, showered us with blessings, and demonstrated how we are to walk in faith. Now we are to follow His example.
We’ll often try to justify an angry, unforgiving heart by thinking, Well, the Lord knows what that person did to me. So He gets why I feel this way. Certainly Jesus—who was fully God and fully man—knows human emotions inside and out. In fact, He Himself experienced betrayal and abandonment, so it’s true that He understands our pain. Nevertheless, He does not approve of an unforgiving attitude.
Through the Savior, we see how God views forgiveness, even when it comes to the vilest offenses. And consider this: We are the ones who continually betray Him. How? We’ve denied Him His rightful place in our life, doubted His Word, and ignored His instruction. There are times we kick Him out of our daily activities and decisions so we can pursue things more to our own liking. What’s more, we have sinned against both Him and other people.
And what is Jesus’ disposition towards us? “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Now, do you really believe He will justify our unforgiveness? No, He wants us to instead look at the cross. There we will discover the price that was paid for our own forgiveness. Just as we have been forgiven, so we must now become forgivers (Col. 3:13).
One of the most difficult truths of Christianity is that there’s but one way to heaven: Jesus Christ. People would rather believe that all paths lead to God—and that no religion can exclude someone. But in John 14:6, Jesus claimed to be “the way” and explicitly said, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
That raises an important question: How do we come to God through Jesus? It’s not by means of religious rituals, good works, or self-effort—because even “our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” before God (Isaiah 64:6). Scripture provides the answer: We are saved by God’s grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8). And that means we must ...
• Hear the message of the gospel. It includes both the bad news of our sinful condition and the good news that God offers forgiveness through faith in His Son (Ephesians 1:7).
• Acknowledge our need of a Savior. This involves repentance and faith. We turn from our sins and believe that Jesus died to pay the penalty for our wrongdoing and then rose from the dead. Trusting in the Savior allows us to stop living for ourselves and to start living for Him instead (Romans 6:10-11).
Truly, the way to salvation is narrow, but it’s the only path that leads away from condemnation and into the eternal glory of heaven.
