Devotionals

…and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

The story that began on the road to Emmaus does not end there. The disciples who encountered the risen Christ become witnesses to the world. Those who once walked in confusion are now sent in confidence.

The same pattern continues today. Christ meets us, transforms us, and sends us. We may not know every detail of God's plan, but we know our calling: to bear witness to His grace, mercy, and hope wherever we are. This week, consider where God is sending you. Your workplace, neighborhood, family, and friendships are all places where Christ's light can shine through you. How might you bear witness to the presence of the risen Christ this week?

16 This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.”

The image of a traveler arriving at a junction is a powerful one. It reminds me of Robert Frost’s poem which says, “A path diverged in the woods… I took the one less traveled and it has made all the difference.” Life frequently brings us to these critical crossroads where multiple paths stretch out before us. God does not command us to rush blindly ahead! Instead we are invited to pause, stand, look, and ask. The "ancient paths" refer to the timeless truths of God's wisdom and righteousness that have guided faithful believers through every generation. I think if I were given the choice between an ancient path and a smooth modern highway I would be inclined to take the path which appeared the easiest. But Robert Frost and the Bible both urge us through experience to consider that maybe our gut is incorrect. When we choose to walk on God’s way, God promises that we will find rest for our souls amidst the noise and turbulence of the world. The way might be slower, more difficult, but perhaps that is the secret to happiness that we lose sight of when we make the journey about the destination and not the time spent along the way.

10 Listen, my son, accept what I say, and the years of your life will be many. 11 I guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths.

Many of the proverbs are parental in tone, and indeed we can look at passages like Proverbs 31 which are written by King Lemuel, but based on “an inspired utterance his mother taught him.” In Proverbs 4, we have that same parental voice, which addresses his child with fatherly affection and urgency. His plea echoes the call of Jeremiah to choose the right road. Wisdom is not merely an intellectual exercise, it is a relational gift passed down through God's Word. To benefit from wisdom, we must first cultivate an attentive heart. We must "listen" and "accept." In a recent leadership seminar I attended one of the points was simply, “Leaders are learners.” Leaders who are uncompromising are very attractive, because they can speak with certainty and conviction and the part of our brain that is desperate for those things begs us to follow. But uncompromising leaders are terrible leaders long term, because the very gifts that gained them a following translate horribly as the world changes around them. God promises that walking in wisdom leads to a life characterized by spiritual depth, clarity, and longevity of purpose. The very opposite of the outcomes of certainty and stagnation! When we allow God to guide our steps, we walk with confidence knowing that He directs our journey, through every up and down!

12 When you walk, your steps will not be hampered; when you run, you will not stumble.

As the father unpacks the metaphor of the path for his child, today we look at the idea of freedom and stability. When we walk in God's wisdom we are freed from the burdens of anxiety, guilt, and stress that constrain those who follow foolish paths. Being able to hold confidently to God’s wisdom provides the stability necessary to prevent us from stumbling. God’s wisdom gives us the foresight and balance needed to navigate sudden trials or opportunities without losing our footing. As you go about your daily responsibilities today, remember that leaning into God's wisdom brings both freedom in movement and security in momentum.

13 Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life.

In modern Christianity, faith is so often defined in a single moment. You become a Christian when you pray a prayer, are baptized, or receive forgiveness. These moments are certainly important, but Proverbs gives us a completely different view. Faith is only useful to us when we hold on to it, even as the world tries to shake it out of our hands. We have to guard our time, guard our priorities, guard our hope because all of these things are constantly under attack. If faith is isolated to moments which are few and far between, we will be constantly losing the battle in the day to day. Proverbs cautions us that faith is not a part of our life, it IS OUR LIFE. Paul quotes the Athenians who write, “In God we live and move and have our being.” This was not a Jewish thought, it was a Greek one, but Paul probably based his adoption of it on passages such as this one. God’s instruction and wisdom is for your life. Not just for your faith.

14 Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evildoers.

Compromise often begins with curiosity or a single step in the wrong direction. What harm can one thing do? As humans our brains constantly rationalize. Someone once told me, “Everyone calls their own excuses ‘reasons’.” We might have plenty of reasons for why we had to compromise, but at the end of the day, from all of scripture, do we believe Jesus will be fooled by them or accept them? The Bible leaves no room for lingering near spiritual danger. The command is clear - do not set foot on it. The safest way to handle temptation is decisive avoidance rather than testing our own strength.

15 Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn from it and go on your way.

Avoid, Turn, and Go. Three words we can take to heart today as we conclude this devotion. We are called to avoid things which would pull us away from the heart and kingdom of God in the world. In the Bible, the word “repent” means literally, “turn around.” To turn means to acknowledge honestly where we have erred and to turn around and go the other direction. Repentance is not an apology, it is turning. Then there is Go. What are you waiting for? Why are you sitting here? Go, get on the road. Faith is learned here, but practiced on the road as we journey. We ask God to empower us to walk the ancient, wise path of obedience. Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above! Amen. 

Bonus Devotion: This week our devotional concludes with words from the Hymn “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” which was written 1757 by Robert Robinson. Robinson was an orphan, and grew up in a street gang. One day, he and his friends were heckling a pastor giving a revival sermon, but the words stuck with him. He converted to Christianity, and immediately became a passionate and self-taught pastor. He wrote the words to Come Thou Fount to accompany a pentecost sermon, but he struggled with the church and his own personal doubts. Eventually, he left the church and ministry entirely, until one day he was riding in a stagecoach decades later and a young woman began humming “Come Thou Fount.” His comment upon hearing it is recorded as being, “Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.” Her response to him was to quote his own words back to him, “The streams of mercy are still flowing,” she said. This chance encounter, years after he had left faith behind, began him on the course back to God. The courses of life are long, sometimes we feel far from God, other times very close, but God never leaves us to walk that journey alone!

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. 21They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said tom, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22Philip went and told Andrew, then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.

I wonder what Philip and Andrew thought about these Greeks who wanted to see Jesus, perhaps judging them based on appearances? Was Jesus a curiosity to them? Had they heard about his ministry? Remember, this passage comes immediately after Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem when many were celebrating the festival and Jesus’ arrival. It is likely that these Greeks were Gentiles, though scripture does not tell us, but they came to worship. In a similar way, it’s easy for us to forget that there were people, not of Jewish descent, who worshiped the living God during the time of Jesus’ ministry. This was an interesting situation developing: here was a group of non-Jews wanting to speak with Jesus at a Jewish Feast. It’s also not entirely clear why they wanted to speak with Jesus, but based upon Jesus’ answer  in the next verse, I think it’s safe to say that they wanted to chat with Him about spiritual matters. I would hope that we, as followers of Jesus, would be open to anyone and everyone who wanted to talk about Jesus – even if their point of view is radically different than our own.

Jesus answered the, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”

What an odd response. Remember, up to this point, Jesus had consistently told people that “his hour had not yet come.” But here, he says that “his hour has come.” As readers, we should understand this as a reference to the time of his atoning death on the cross that Jesus knew was quickly approaching. And it is interesting the way in which Jesus speaks about the “hour” of his approaching death on the cross. He connects the hour of his death to being glorified. His humiliation in death is immediately followed by his glorious exaltation. Jesus is glorified in and through his death. If you’ve grown up around the church, you probably don’t think twice about associating Jesus’ death on the cross with him being glorified, but aren’t those things contradictory? Where else in life do we associate death as being a good thing? Normally, we think of sadness, despair, grief, and heartache as being associated with death. But that’s not the case with Jesus. Have you ever considered the true nature of these two seemingly opposing things and what it truly means for us as believers?

“Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit.”

Now, in a very Jesus way, He used an analogy that the disciples could understand. After all, they were an agrarian society and very familiar with plants giving off seeds so new plants could grow. This illustration that Jesus used was fairly straightforward. He’s referring to the fact that his death is atonement for the sins of his people; His death is what gives the Christian eternal life. And notice that Jesus used present, active language. He’s not hopeful his death will produce fruit by saving the lost - He knows it will! How should this knowledge impact your life and your actions?

“Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in the world will keep it for eternal life. 26Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

While at first glance this statement may seem difficult to fully grasp, I believe Jesus is asking you and me a simple question: What do we value most? If you love and value yourself, your possessions, friends, and family more than your love for God in Christ, you might miss eternity with Jesus. That’s what Jesus is referring to when he talks about loving your life. Frankly, what Jesus is saying is countercultural because we’re constantly being encouraged to think about ourselves. There are whole industries dedicated to self-help, self-love, and self-care. Individualism is one of the great guiding principles of our American society. But that’s not what Jesus calls his followers to. He calls his followers to serve their Lord above themselves and in doing so, honor God. Where are you in the spectrum of loving yourself versus loving God? What might need to change to get this relationship in the right order?

“Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it.”

This passage comes towards the end of the Sermon on the Mount. As Jesus is speaking to the crowd and his disciples, he knew what it meant to choose God over the world and thus used this analogy about wide and narrow gates. Jesus says that there are many on the path to destruction, i.e., the wide gate, but few find the path to life, i.e., the narrow gate. What this means is that the right way to walk will often contradict what most of the world is pursuing. And frankly, we want to be like our neighbors and our culture because it is easier. But this passage is similar to John’s passage about what type of choices you make in your life. The path of following Jesus is a hard, difficult road. Jesus himself says that we will have trouble in this world (John 16:33) and that we will be opposed and persecuted by the world because the world hated Jesus first (John 15:18-25). Paul writes that anyone who seeks to live a godly life will be persecuted (II Timothy 3:12-13). If you’re on the Path to Life, your life will sometimes be really hard, really painful. But in those moments of pain, the grace of God will sustain us and remind us of our destination.

“For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Think about all that Jesus taught us in these passages this week and then think about your choices in life. Choices have consequences so choose wisely.