“I have given it to you to make atonement” — the payment came from the One who was owed the debt. If you had to atone for your own sin, what would you bring? Your good deeds? Your guilt? Today’s devotional looks at what the blood laws in Leviticus reveal about how God deals with what we could never settle ourselves.
Jacob was not a great person. He made bad decision after bad decision through Genesis 28–31 — and God’s plan kept moving forward anyway. Not because Jacob earned it, but because God can work through our mess without needing it to be cleaned up first. Today’s devotional is for anyone who feels like their life is too messy for God to use.
Abram believed God — and then got impatient and made a mess. God went quiet for thirteen years. And I imagine Abram wondered: did I ruin it? Has God moved on? Then chapter 17 opens. God comes back — not with accusation, but with a reminder: “I am God Almighty.” And He adds a breath — the letter h — to Abram’s name, turning Abram into Abraham. The breath of God changes what had failed. Today’s devotional is for anyone who has made a mess of something and wondered if they’ve disqualified themselves from what God promised.
Jesus says “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love.” The moment we hear the word commands, we think of rules — of performance, of things to prove. But John Calvin saw it clearly: obedience is not the cause of His love toward us. It is the effect. We do not obey to earn His love. We obey because we are already living in it. The love always comes first — and a life rooted in that love produces obedience the way a branch produces fruit: not by straining, but by staying.