Daily Devotions
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
The salvation story of Jesus Christ reaches around the world. So that the readers of our Daily Devotion may see the power of the Savior on a global scale, we have asked the volunteers of our International Ministry Centers to write our Friday devotions. We pray that the Spirit may touch your day through their words.
In Christ, I remain, His servant and yours,
Kenneth R. Klaus
Speaker of The Lutheran Hour
It’s what’s inside our hearts that truly shows who we are and what we’re made of. The heart is like a moneybox where we store thoughts both good and bad. It is here that hope, love and aspiration live alongside hatred, envy and ill will. It is from this storehouse of the heart that we make withdrawals throughout the day.
Reading God’s Word is one way to ensure that what we have available for use in our daily lives is worthwhile and God-pleasing. If, on the other hand, what is in our hearts is evil and of our corrupt human nature, we can only pull out evil. Jesus spoke to this directly when He said, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander” (Matthew 15:19).
Knowing the evil in our hearts, God calls to His children, saying: “My son, give Me your heart.” God has a great task to accomplish inside each of us. He wants nothing less than our complete surrender to His authority. He wants to clean our hearts so we can draw good things from them.
God is waiting for us to seek Him just as David did: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). When we yield our hearts to God in faith through the power of the Holy Spirit, God will work wonders there, strengthening us against the cunning wiles of the enemy and increasing our desire to know and love Him more.
And all this God does through His Son, Jesus Christ, who took our sins to the cross, paid for them completely with His death and then was raised to victory three days later by God Himself. What a joy to know that God understands the true condition of our hearts and has given us His own Son to heal us and make us well.
THE PRAYER: Dear Heavenly Father, take my heart and make it new. Scatter the darkness within me and fill me with Your eternal light, Your righteous wisdom and Your selfless love. Teach me to lay down my evil thoughts and seek the truth only found in Your Word. In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen.
Biography of Author: This devotion was submitted from a volunteer with Lutheran Hour Ministries-Madagascar. Known in that country as the Voice of the Gospel, LHM established an office in Antananarivo in 1996. Using topical booklets, Bible Correspondence Courses (BCC), and Equipping the Saints (ETS) workshops in French and Malagasy, the Gospel is shared with islanders, many of whom are among the country’s 50 percent living below poverty level.
To learn more about our International Ministries, click here or visit www.lhmint.org.