Use this devo as you are able, in whole or in part. Don’t feel compelled to read it all. Simply read and meditate upon whatever catches your attention. The goal is enjoying time with God through His Word and in prayer. Questions about the devotional elements?

Call to Prayer

Prayer of Confession

Jesus our Savior, you don’t give us detached morality, depersonalized dogma, or a tidy set of life principles. You won’t allow for that because you’ve made it all personal—you are the way, the truth, and the life. Help me to reorient my whole life around you; show me all the ways you are all that I need and seek. Amen. (Prayer based on the Belgic Confession, Question 26)

*Prayer borrowed from Philip Reinders’ Seeking God’s Face: Praying with the Bible through the Year

Reading Plan

This reading plan will help you to develop the habit of being in God’s Word each morning and evening. Come to this time with expectation. Expect God to reveal himself to you. Expect that he delights in you being there, even when you’ve wandered away. Growing a spiritual habit is a slow, patient process. So be kind to yourself as you grow! 

Readings are hyperlinked. Simply hover over the passage or click Morning/Evening Reading (email version).

Morning Readings:

Pray Psalm 105 | Read Galatians 5

• Praying the Psalms: Read slowly. Take note of words and phrases. Bring them before the Lord in prayer and personalize the passage as you pray.
• NT Context: “Paul’s letter to the Galatian churches helps them, and us, recover the original freedom of the gospel. It also gives direction in the nature of God’s gift of freedom—most necessary guidance, for freedom is a delicate and subtle gift, easily perverted and often squandered.” Meditate on the passage, noting a few words or a phrase that stood out. Take them to God in prayer.

Evening Readings:

Pray Psalm 106 | Read Nehemiah 10

• OT Context: “Nehemiah started out as a government worker in the employ of a foreign king. Then he became—and this is the work he tells us of in these memoirs—a building contractor, called in to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. His coworker Ezra was a scholar and teacher, working with the Scriptures. Nehemiah worked with stones and mortar. The stories of the two men are interwoven in a seamless fabric of vocational holiness. Neither job was more or less important or holy than the other. Nehemiah needed Ezra; Ezra needed Nehemiah. God’s people needed the work of both of them. We still do. Reflect on the passage. Who was the original audience, and what was their situation? How is that relevant to you today?

Sermon Devo

We are in our Spring series in Romans 8. Each day we will dig into a different aspect of this incomparable chapter and see how it alters the way we live “in Christ!”

Read: Romans 8

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons and daughters of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”

I love the Christian doctrine of adoption. It is by far the truth which reassures me the most about the genuine nature of my faith in Christ. It does that two ways:

(1) When I sin and I wonder, “How could God ever love a screw up like me?,” the Spirit reminds me that I am no longer a slave in the fearful grip of sin, I am God’s child.

(2) It reminds me that I didn’t adopt myself, or make myself worthy of being adopted. I was adopted and made a fellow heir with Christ without ever doing a single thing to earn my way back into the Father’s good graces. So I can rest easy because my elder brother, Christ Jesus, has secured my place in the kingdom of God.

And yet, despite these reassurances; despite being able to rest secure in my place in the kingdom; despite the lavish nature of God’s love for me, I am often surprised by how quickly my love for others disappears. I find it difficult to be concerned for my neighbor. I am the half-hearted person that C.S. Lewis talks about who gets caught up in lesser things (Netflix, a frothy beverage, or my general bustling around) when in reality I’ve been given the great responsibility that comes with being a child of the King. 

I half-heartedly (usually unintentionally) obey the Laws of the God’s kingdom. I get tired and stressed-out because I forget that my life is not my own and my Father has all that I really need, if I’d only ask him. What I’m getting at is that I struggle, as I suspect you do as well, with taking on the family traits and walking according to the Spirit. 

What is a child of the King of Creation to do when he or she has lost their way? What should we do when we lose our motivation and desire to take up our place and sacrificially serve others as a signpost pointing to our true homeland which is already but not yet come? 

Here are a couple of ideas:

1. Remember the inexhaustible nature of your inheritance. If you and I are truly children of God, then we are like heirs and heiresses who have come into an unfathomable and inexhaustible amount of money. We may have to wait until Christ returns to fully experience our adoption, but we can take out large drafts from our New Creation checking account right now.

   We can work in-step with the Spirit to bring some glimpses of the goodness and beauty of the New Creation world that is coming into the present by generously loving our neighbors with the sorts of acts of service that will be commonplace in the world without end. Why not get started on living out of the abundance of our inheritance right here and now?

2. Remember that suffering is part of the Christian life. Jim Elliot, a missionary pilot, wrote in his journal leading up to the day he was martyred: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” Suffering with Christ means being willing to give what you cannot keep (time, resources, you life) to gain what you cannot lose (being glorified with Christ!). Sweat, blood, and tears spent for God’s kingdom on this side of eternity are the wisest investment we could ever make!

REFLECT: As we head into a weekend where our church is seeking to give glimpses of that better country, as the author of Hebrews puts it, let’s set our minds to remembering our adoption into the family of God and all that comes with being part citizens of that heavenly country.

Evening Prayer of Examen

• Where did you move with or feel close to Jesus today?
• Where did you resist or feel far from Jesus today?
• Where is Jesus leading you tomorrow? Ask for joy as you follow him.

Benediction