Devotional

“God is righteous and just. But God is also loving and merciful. He cannot be less than Himself. Satan, in his temptation of Adam and Eve and in his plan to defeat the purpose of God, failed to take into account the very character of God. He failed to realize one very important thing — how much God loved the man and woman He had created and the depths to which His grace would go in order to bring them back to Himself. It never entered Satan’s wicked, self-centered imagination that God would commit the fullness of His eternal, divine nature to bring man back into a right relationship with Himself. It never occurred to Satan, who ever seeks his own preeminence, that the Creator of the universe would lay down His own life in atonement for man’s sin. But that’s exactly what happened. The solution to the problem of sinfulness is the cross of Jesus Christ.”

—Anne Graham Lotz in
“God’s Story”

My prayer this week: Dear Lord, I am humbled by your love for me and grateful for your grace and forgiveness. Both are so undeserved. Give me the courage to honor your sacrifice by showing that same love, forgiveness, and grace to others. Help me never withhold what you have so freely given.