Focus

In what ways do you find yourself defensive, critical, and often headstrong today? Ask yourself what the source of these defenses may have been. Now try to relax your outlook for a few minutes to enjoy this eVotion.

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Read

Psalm 25:4-7

Show me your ways, Lord,
teach me your paths.
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.
Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love,
for they are from of old.
Do not remember the sins of my youth
and my rebellious ways;
according to your love remember me,
for you, Lord, are good.

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Reflect

Show me. I am a Missourian and have been almost all my life. Our state has an unofficial motto, The Show-me State, and it is fitting. I hear the most likely origin of this term came when Missouri miners showed up in Colorado during a miner’s strike. Missouri miners worked limestone, and Colorado was granite, and the methods used to extract ore were very different. It is said the Missouri miners were always asking, ‘show me how to do it.’ Well, this is one Missourian who will defiantly say, ‘show me that evidence.’ Whatever the origin, it has come to define the stal-wart, conservative, and sometimes hard-headed nature of our state. That is something we Missourians can easily show.

However, we cannot approach God in any of these ways; we must show humility, be liberal in our listening, and soft in our hearts, or God cannot teach us his paths nor can we follow in his ways. While the world may cause us to become hardened by our experiences within it, God only works with those who softly approach his grace with mercy. We go to God in hope of something the world cannot give– his love, and his love has always been there for us since the beginning of time. God loved us first, offers mercy for all we have done, and proved it in Jesus Christ.

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Pray

O Lord, help me. Show me the paths you have set for me. Teach me how to follow in your ways. Take away my stubbornness and self-certainty and give to me, in your mercy, obedience in place of rebellion, wisdom over youthful folly, and an accepting love in place of my incredulous nature. You, O God my Savior, are good to those who come. Amen

Go with God!