Lord Jesus, I don’t deserve your love and there is nothing I can do to earn it. Forgive me when I exhaust myself in an effort to prove my worth and importance. Let me rest in your love, secure in the knowledge that, although I can never merit your love, you love me simply because I am yours. Thank you.
He is our heavenly parent and we are his children. Like all children we can be unreasonable, rebellious, and self-centered. Just as an earthly parent has to occasionally discipline the child he loves, so does our heavenly parent. God’s discipline, however, is not the same as punishment. Punishment is about making us behave by imposing a penalty, but discipline is about correcting us with love. Punishment is about the past but discipline is about the future.
Father, help me receive your discipline gratefully so that I will become the person you want me to be.
I surrender, Lord. On my own, I am powerless. But, by your power, all things are possible. Thank you for your gift of grace.
Our children don’t have to earn our love; we love them because they are ours. And so it is with God’s children; he loves us simply because we are His. Yet, unlike earthly parents, God manages to remain calm and firm, loving and patient, no matter how exasperating or rebellious His children may be. Moreover, his advice is always correct, his provision is always enough, and he never tires of comforting us. If only our parenting skills were as good!
When children in the same family don’t receive gifts of equal worth, it doesn’t mean their parents don’t love them equally. A parent can’t possibly treat each child exactly the same. Children have different maturity levels, interests, and needs, and the different gifts they receive from their parents reflect this individuality.
God doesn’t treat each of us alike, either. Using his infinite wisdom and knowing the unique interests and requirements of each one of us, He bestows different gifts to every one of his children. Just because someone else seems to have received more blessings from God doesn’t mean God loves us less; perhaps it means that they needed those gifts more!
Giver of all gifts, there is so much for which to be thankful. Give us appreciative hearts for all the blessings of the day.
Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful. [Buddha]
Devotions of the Heart 