Do you remember, as a child, having done something you knew was wrong, against your parent’s rules, and were caught. Then feeling so terrible and repentant that you came, possibly crying, to your parents expecting severe punishment. However, your parents seeing how sorry you were for your mistake, and how seriously you were punishing yourself emotionally, they let you go, un-punished.

If you are like me, you may have experienced this situation from both the child and parent’s perspective.

This situation is modeled for us by God.

In Joel 2:12-13, God tells Joel, the prophet, to tell the people, “That is why the Lord says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me all your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, mourning. Let your remorse tear at your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful. He is not easily angered; he is full of kindness and anxious not to punish you.”

God loves us and wishes for us to correct our ways on our own, without the need for His punishment and discipline.

This is ultimately demonstrated by Jesus Christ coming to take the punishment for us. John 3:16-17 says, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”

Dear Lord, we can get a very small understanding of the love you have for us by witnessing the love we see between parents and children. Help us remember that you love us, and come to you in humble repentance, thankful for your grace and mercy. And Lord, if this is not type of love we received from our parents, let us be the new creation and show this type of gracious love to our children. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

There is an author named Gary Chapman who wrote a book entitled, “The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts.” He contends that people tend to feel loved in different ways. He says there are 5 “Love Languages” by which people communicate their love; and the receiver is partial to one or two of these languages. They are; Gifts, Words of Affirmation, Quality of Time, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch. His key point is that people feel your expression of love most when it is delivered in their “Love Language.”

How is this relevant? You may ask.

In Deuteronomy 11:22, Moses tells the people what God wants, saying, “Be careful to obey all these commands I am giving you. Show love to the Lord your God by walking in his ways and holding tightly to him.”

And in John 14:15, Jesus says, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” And Jesus told us in Matthew 22:37-39 that the greatest commandments are “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. ”

Following the author, Gary Chapman’s, concepts, God’s love language is obedience. God recognizes that we love him when we do his will.

Dear Lord, we do love you. Help us show our love to you by doing your will. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Have you ever thought you knew someone, and found out later that you were completely wrong? Maybe it was someone who had a very hard and contentious personality, but they turn out to be very caring and considerate, or you see someone who you thought was nice and friendly acting completely differently.

We don’t have the ability to read what truly makes up the character of people without spending time engaging with them, and even with time we may not truly know them. God, however, knows what is inside all of us.

In the Old Testament, God tells Samuel, a prophet, to go to Bethlehem to find one of Jesse’s sons who will be the next King of Israel. Jesse had eight sons, the youngest and least impressive from outward appearance was David.

God told Samuel after Samuel assumed the most impressive looking son, Eliab, would be God’s chosen, in 1 Samuel 16:7, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Dear Lord, You see deep inside all people and know them better than they know themselves. Give us your wisdom to see others the way you do, and not make our judgments solely on appearance. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

In Matthew 18:4-6 Jesus says, “So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me. But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.”

In verse 10 Jesus says, “Beware that you don’t look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels are always in the presence of my heavenly Father.”

“Their angels” He says. As one of the Bible verses supporting the belief that people have guardian angels, this verse gives an awesome and comforting vision that there are angels standing in God’s presence responsible for helping individual believers.

Dear Lord, Thank you for the assurance provided in this passage that you care for us, and assign your angels to look out for us. Help this give us the comfort and confidence. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Paul says in Romans 15:13, “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”

I think this verse supports a view I have which is that hope helps strengthen our faith and our faith is demonstrated through expectation.

Think of a time where things felt hopeless. At that point it was very difficult to have faith in a positive outcome, and without faith it is much more likely we expect a negative result.

In contrast, when we have hope we can build our faith on that hope, and expect a positive result.

This is very true about hope, faith, and expectation of salvation, but I believe it is also true in the practical parts of our lives. When we can truly feel hopeful that a difficult issue will be resolved, our faith in God’s work in our lives grows and we expect a positive result. As Paul writes, God is that source of hope that sparks our faith which we demonstrate with the “confident hope” and expectation.

Dear Lord, thank you for being the source of hope so that we can live our lives with joy and peace trusting in you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.