Sick of Religion? Week 3: Devotional Day 6
DAY 6 – Saturday
Daily devotional
Read
Mark 2:17; Luke 7:36-39, 44-48; Deut. 30:3
Ask
Can I recall missed opportunities to show the love of Christ?
Rflect
A few years ago, my sister was in town. We headed to the grocery store very early in the morning, too early for regular shoppers, and came across a girl. She was very pretty, with curly dark hair, and she was young. She was barely dressed, she was a mess, and it was freezing outside. She was at the customer service counter trying to get money from Western Union. My sister and I thought the same thing at the same time. She was a prostitute or she was being trafficked. She seemed very desperate. After she left the store, my sister and I processed what we had seen. We both said we regretted not talking to her and not helping her. It was all very sad. We both wish we had had the guts to speak up and show her the love and mercy of Christ.
In Luke 7 Jesus is invited to the home of a prominent Pharisee. In walks a prostitute. She comes to the party and literally cries tears on Jesus’ feet; she wipes his feet with her hair; then she pours perfume on his feet. The host let us know what he thought in he said in verse 39. Essentially, he said something like this, “if he really was a prophet, he would surely know who’s touching him. She is a sinner!” Jesus’ answer to the Pharisee sets all things straight. In Luke 7:44-48, Jesus shows great mercy to the prostitute. He sees her not as a prostitute, but as a child of God; not as she is, but who she would become.
Jesus has a heart for all of us who make big mistakes. Jesus has a heart for all the world’s “throwaways” and he is seeking them out no matter what they, you, or I have done. Jesus’ entire mission—his entire purpose—was to seek out the broken and restore them back to life! Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice, for I have not come to call the righteous; I have come to call the sinners.”
Deuteronomy 30:3-4 says: “God, your God, will restore everything you lost; he’ll have compassion on you; he’ll come back and pick up the pieces from all the places you were scattered, no matter how far away you end up, God, your God, will get you out of there.”
I wish I had spoken this verse to that girl many years ago at the store. What is God asking you to do differently today?