the Fourth Week after Easter
Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 1 of 5
Deuteronomy 14:22-29; Deuteronomy 15:1-6
Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father, as spoken of by James (James 1:27), has two sides to it: "to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction" and "to keep himself unspotted from the world." Yesterday we considered the personal side: keeping oneself pure. The other side is before us today: the service of love towards those in affliction and need: the fatherless, the widow (v. 29), likewise the Levite, the stranger, the poor. "Give alms", said the Lord Jesus; "provide yourselves bags which wax not old . . ." (Luke 12:33). Without doubt God has need of nothing; He can "satisfy the poor with bread" (Psalms 132:15) without our help. If He asks us to share what we have, it is not because of the need to provide, rather to teach us to give. He knows that our hearts are selfish by nature, engrossed in our own needs and barely sensitive to the needs of others. And it pleases the God of love to see in His own people that first fruit of divine life, love in its many forms. Yes, His fatherly heart rejoices to notice in His children some likeness to His well-beloved Son, the One who out of love gave everything for them (2 Corinthians 8:9).
