When Abraham learns the fate of the cities, he begins to question God’s decision (Genesis 18:16–33). “What if there are fifty righteous people left?” he queries. “Forty-five?” You know the story; Abraham makes it all the way down to ten people, and God assures him that if there were ten righteous people left, He would not destroy the cities. But there are not. The citizens of those cities have passed a point of no return, and to allow them to continue would mean that God was giving license to hopeless pain and suffering–the kind that has no hope in the future but more pain and suffering. At some point, when there is no hope of redemption, God would become the author of suffering if He permitted it to continue.

What do we have in this story? A foreshadowing of the investigative judgment, where the books of heaven are opened, first for the angelic host (Daniel 7:9, 10) and then for redeemed humanity (Revelation 20:11–15). Before God makes a move, He allows His creatures to examine His decisions, forever removing all doubt that He did the right thing. 

Sometimes we get impatient and try to put timetables on Christian growth and victory and overcoming. But we’d better not! That’s God’s business; that’s the Holy Spirit’s work. The disciples were transformed gradually, first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. And so long as the relationship with Christ continues, that relationship of love has its own built-in safeguard against license. The deeper the relationship with Jesus, the further we go from license, or playing cheap and loose with God’s grace. I’m thankful today for the way Jesus treated known sinners. It brings hope and comfort to the struggling, growing Christian.

And if it is true that we are transformed through the continued relationship with Christ, then that gives us a major clue as to the how-to of obedience. We are transformed by grace, through the continuing relationship with Christ–not through our own struggles and resolutions and efforts in fighting sin and the devil. 

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Devoted ends 6/30/25, but don't worry, there are lots of great alternatives. Here's one from Amazing Facts.

The so-called Christian world is to be the theater of great and decisive actions. Men in authority will enact laws controlling the conscience, after the example of the papacy. Babylon will make all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Every nation will be involved.

“These have one mind.” There will be a universal bond of union, one great harmony, a confederacy of Satan’s forces. “And shall give their power and strength unto the beast.” Thus is manifested the same arbitrary, oppressive power against religious liberty, freedom to worship God according to the dictates of conscience, as was manifested by the papacy, when in the past it persecuted those who dared to refuse to conform with the religious rites and ceremonies of Romanism.

When the leading churches of the United States, uniting upon such points of doctrine as are held by them in common, shall influence the state to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions, then Protestant America will have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy, and the infliction of civil penalties upon dissenters will inevitably result. 

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In today's recommendation for alternatives to the Devoted Daily Devotional email, which will end June 30, consider Bible study courses from Voice of Prophecy. There are a few to choose from, including one for kids!

Jesus saw that religion in His day had become increasingly rigid and self-serving. Defense of tradition and institutions was obscuring the values of God’s kingdom. Human perspective was distancing itself from God’s. His audience needed what they couldn’t see yet. Their spiritual route needed recalculating; the templates they had built to understand God and religion were either faulty, imprecise, or ineffective.

Their point of view needed to change; thus, Jesus led them to higher ground. There He sat down and spoke to them about the kingdom of heaven, what it meant to belong to that kingdom. Their perceptions needed retuning. Their frame of reference had to change before they could understand the kingdom.

How can we be assured that we have the right perspective in life and in our spiritual experience? (Proverbs 23:26; Isaiah 48:18; Romans 12:1, 2) 

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Many have borne so few burdens, their hearts have known so little real anguish, they have felt so little perplexity and distress in behalf of others, that they cannot understand the work of the true burden bearer. No more capable are they of appreciating his burdens than is the child of understanding the care and toil of his burdened father. The child may wonder at his father’s fears and perplexities. These appear needless to him. But when years of experience shall have been added to his life, when he himself comes to bear its burdens, he will look back upon his father’s life and understand that which was once so incomprehensible. Bitter experience has given him knowledge.

The work of many a burden bearer is not understood, his labors are not appreciated, until death lays him low. When others take up the burdens he has laid down, and meet the difficulties he encountered, they can understand how his faith and courage were tested. Often then the mistakes they were so quick to censure are lost sight of. Experience teaches them sympathy. God permits men to be placed in positions of responsibility. When they err, He has power to correct or to remove them. We should be careful not to take into our hands the work of judging that belongs to God.

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Dear Devoted Readers,

Please note that we have decided to sunset the Devoted Daily Devotional email as of June 30, 2025. In the coming days, we will feature links to other excellent daily devotional emails that you may find inspiring and uplifting. We thank you sincerely for your faithful readership!

Every association of life calls for the exercise of self-control, forbearance, and sympathy. We differ so widely in disposition, habits, education, that our ways of looking at things vary. We judge differently. Our understanding of truth, our ideas in regard to the conduct of life, are not in all respects the same. There are no two whose experience is alike in every particular. The trials of one are not the trials of another. The duties that one finds light are to another most difficult and perplexing.

So frail, so ignorant, so liable to misconception is human nature, that each should be careful in the estimate he places upon another. We little know the bearing of our acts upon the experience of others. What we do or say may seem to us of little moment, when, could our eyes be opened, we should see that upon it depended the most important results for good or for evil. 

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Dear Devoted Readers,

Please note that we have decided to sunset the Devoted Daily Devotional email as of June 30, 2025. In the coming days, we will feature links to other excellent daily devotional emails that you may find inspiring and uplifting. We thank you sincerely for your faithful readership!

Now the Saviour’s eye penetrates the future; He beholds the broader fields in which, after His death, the disciples are to be witnesses for Him. His prophetic glance takes in the experience of His servants through all the ages till He shall come the second time. He shows His followers the conflicts they must meet; He reveals the character and plan of the battle. He lays open before them the perils they must encounter, the self-denial that will be required. He desires them to count the cost, that they may not be taken unawares by the enemy. Their warfare is not to be waged against flesh and blood, but “against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12, R. V. They are to contend with supernatural forces, but they are assured of supernatural help. All the intelligences of heaven are in this army. And more than angels are in the ranks. The Holy Spirit, the representative of the Captain of the Lord’s host, comes down to direct the battle. Our infirmities may be many, our sins and mistakes grievous; but the grace of God is for all who seek it with contrition. The power of Omnipotence is enlisted in behalf of those who trust in God.–The Desire of Ages, p. 352.

What we have in the destruction of such wicked societies as Sodom and Gomorrah, or the inhabitants of Canaan, is a type of what will eventually take place across the earth when Jesus returns to restore this planet and claim His kingdom. Psalm 46 offers us an important clue as to why God eventually wipes the slate clean:

Come, behold the works of the Lord,

Who has made desolations in the earth.

He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;

He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two;

He burns the chariot in the fire (Psalm 46:8, 9).

Why does God finally put a stop to it? To stop us. It is our wickedness, not His, that leads to this moment. We have marred His creation with our sin, to the point where our generation is capable of wiping out the entire planet in a matter of minutes–several times over. Wealthy nations send food aid to desperate people, but corrupt power brokers ensure that the resources never reach those who need them. We step over those who sleep on the sidewalk, or we cross the street to avoid them. We hide behind false identities on social media so that we can join the brutal feeding frenzies meant to humiliate and destroy someone for the slightest of social faux-pas. We feed on violence, entertaining ourselves with brutality, reassuring ourselves that we are different from the ancient Roman circuses, because it is all playacted on the silver screen.

A pandemic does not eradicate the promises of God. COVID-19 has not erased the assurance of God’s eternal Word. The coronavirus need not cause a crisis of confidence in God’s ability to solve our problems and provide for our needs. It can lead us to deeper faith, greater trust, and more secure confidence in God. Amid our greatest challenges, God’s promises are still there.

The very essence of the Christian life is trust. It is trusting God with our finances, our health, our time, and our very lives. It is faith that the living Christ who has provided us salvation through His grace and power through His Holy Spirit will fulfill His promise to supply our needs. It is trusting, even during a global pandemic that may touch our lives and the lives of those we love.

When we trust God in trying times, it gives God the opportunity to do for us “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). It opens the door of our hearts to receive His abundant blessings. Faith enables the riches of heaven to flow into our lives from His abundant storehouse of grace. God is still in control in every crisis. A terribly devastating pandemic does not wipe out His promises. Living lives of trust, we are secure in His love today, tomorrow, and forever. 

So many of us have failed to fully appreciate the treasure of free will. Like sleepy, fat dogs, we live by impulse, feeling, and momentary comfort. But while we sleep, the consequences multiply like ï¬?eas, and we pay a dear price in lost opportunities and wasted talents. I often ask people, “How is this working for you?” The answer almost never varies from “Terrible.” What we sow, we reap. As I see it, we pay sooner or later for our choices; we might as well pay up front by putting up with a little self-denial. “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts” (Hebrews 3:15). This could be translated as, “Don’t make your wills stubborn.” You’ve heard His voice. Don’t harden your heart; don’t make your will stubborn. Come to know Him. Give Him your will. Learn by doing. Enjoy the better life God has for you.

The ways of the omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent God are past finding out. He takes care of all His children in each of their different circumstances. I thank God for enhancing the other senses of the physically blind, making a way to help them function effectively and live productively. I feel blessed to be able to see, and I give thanks and praise to God.

As I do, however, I also think of how desperate it would be to have physical sight but be spiritually blind. To have spiritual sight is to be in Christ Jesus, the One who knew us from our mother’s womb. He is the One who guides and watches over us always. We lack nothing when we are in Christ because He makes us whole and supplies all our needs.

I am therefore encouraged today, knowing that I have spiritual eyesight because I am in Christ Jesus. He is the One who “gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous” (Psalm 146:8, NIV).

Just as we cannot live without sunshine, we cannot live without God’s Son. He was the One who called it into existence. The Son created the sun for the benefit of all His creatures. He lives in heaven but is a very present Friend through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He said of Himself, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” ( John 8:12, KJV).

The Son can penetrate down to our very bones and marrow. Even the smallest, seemingly innocuous pebble in my heart He points out as sin. If left unchecked, it will grow, multiply, and before long, consume me.

The Son helps us to expunge these character traits through the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit. Through His power, we can become new creatures in Christ Jesus. Old things are passed away, and everything is become new (see 2 Corinthians 5:17).

As we bask in the warmth and light of the sun, may the Lord help us to appreciate and experience the transforming power of the Son. “So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free” ( John 8:36, NLT).