Jacob, who took his brother by the heel before he was born, was always trying to get an advantage, and later, as a grown man, strove with (the angel of ) God and prevailed, was looked knowingly to by the prophet Hosea, who had his own family struggles with wife and children (Hosea 12:2–6). And those who sought the God of Jacob traveled up to Jerusalem through the ancient gates into the holy temple with clean hands and pure hearts to meet Him, according to the liturgical psalm of ascent (Psalm 24). The story of Jacob lives on!

This dramatic story leaves nothing out, including Jacob’s three dark night experiences, followed by his descent into Egypt, in order to instruct the reader about finding faith in the darkest moments of life within a complicated family. No other Bible character had to struggle so hard for his faith in such a way, laying his whole soul bare on his wedding night, during his farewell dinner with his blind father, and following his sons into Egypt. But in the end, Jacob’s struggle with God in the dead of night enabled him to capture his place as a founding father of faith who gave his name to the whole nation of Israel, which remains so even to this day. Jacob is a great Bible hero of faith. 

A bipolar power this nation will become–part lamb, part dragon. And yet we can still sing: “God bless America, land that I love / Stand beside her and guide her / Through the night with the light from above.”

Because God has blessed this nation. In fact, the author of The Great Controversy described America’s receipt of divine blessings this way: “The Lord has done more for the United States than for any other country upon which the sun shines.” In any language, that is a largesse of blessings!  

But those blessings have come at a price, a high price. Jesus Himself defined the divine standard of judgment in unmistakable terms: “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” (Luke 12:48). Which, being interpreted, means that on the great Judgment Day, this land of great gifts will have to answer for what she did with these bestowals of divine approbation. When America stands before Almighty God one day–with the wealth of the ages overflowing from her hands–He will quietly ask, “What did you do with all the blessings I showered upon you?” And what shall we say?

Something has happened to the soul of America. And it is not good. And all the talk we hear about the iron fist of law and order will not heal the moral sickness that chokes America’s soul. You can’t enforce salvation. We who have been given much now shut the rest of the world out and hoard our riches for our own pleasure and profit. All the while, inside our closed-off borders, human beings are suffering of want and hunger. Just like France before the revolution, the wealthy grow wealthier. Until the downtrodden rise up and storm the Bastille. 

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When Devoted ends June 30, another option to consider is the United Christian Broadcasters devotional email.

Think hopefully about the future. When I lived in the Philippines for almost a decade, I observed how humble people nearby survived adversity by looking to the future with hope. Every year, during the rainy season, typhoons arrived, and some of these tropical storms destroyed lives. Quite frequently, the torrential rains would destroy the meager dwellings of these families, leaving them homeless. After the storm had passed, I inquired about them or their relatives and learned that they had lost virtually all their possessions and did not have insurance. They would reply with a smile, “Tomorrow will be better.” What a positive way to face catastrophe! They acknowledged that there was nothing good about what had happened, but they recognized that they still had the future, and they chose to look forward and to rebuild with hope and enthusiasm.

Once you have learned more about your emotional tendencies, you need to remember that you control how you think and feel, and then you can seek contentment, serenity, joy, calm, optimism, anticipation, hope, enthusiasm, and trust. In faith, you can hold on to this blessing sent by Paul to the church in Rome: “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13, NKJV). 

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Devoted emails will end June 30. Looking for an alternative? Consider GraceNotes. 

Every act of life, however small, has its bearing for good or for evil. Faithfulness or neglect in what are apparently the smallest duties may open the door for life’s richest blessings or its greatest calamities. It is little things that test the character. It is the unpretending acts of daily self-denial, performed with a cheerful, willing heart, that God smiles upon. We are not to live for self, but for others. And it is only by self-forgetfulness, by cherishing a loving, helpful spirit, that we can make our life a blessing. The little attentions, the small, simple courtesies, go far to make up the sum of life’s happiness, and the neglect of these constitutes no small share of human wretchedness. –Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 158.

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.