By Laura Hardin  (WITHIN Devotional Contributor)
 
The Lord wouldn’t call himself a shepherd to us if we didn’t need one.
Some days I wake up full of faith and eager to follow Jesus. Other days I wake up forgetful and reluctant to sacrifice my preferences for the glory of God and the good of the people around me. I am often a walking paradox. I love Jesus. I love myself. I want to follow Jesus. I want to be my own god. 

If we’re honest, we all live in the tension of being new creations who must regularly put our old selves to death (Colossians 3:5-10). We live to worship and enjoy the triune God but the temptation to live for self often overwhelms and gets us off track.

On our good days, we’re like Peter in Matthew 26:33-35, declaring we will never fall away. We’re like the Israelites in Exodus 19:8, saying that we will do all that God commands. But Peter denied that he knew Jesus three times and wept in shame afterwards. And when God took too long to give them his law, the Israelites fashioned another god to worship instead.

Robert Robinson put it well in his hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” when he writes, 

“Prone to wander Lord I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here’s my heart Lord
Take and seal it
Seal it for thy courts above.”

We are not as good as we think we are. There is a part of us that races to do things our own way at first opportunity. It’s called our sin nature. And we will struggle against it until we die or Jesus returns. Since the war against our flesh isn’t going anywhere, we have need of patience with ourselves and with God’s process of making us like himself.

Someone recently asked me, how can I stay in this place of clarity, hope, and faithfulness? Whether it’s a good day and we’re tempted to pride or a frustrating day and we’re tempted to despair, the answer is the same--stay close to the shepherd. He restored Peter before ascending to heaven. He showed compassion and mercy to Israel by renewing his covenant with them. He restores us too as we remember our dependency on his grace, confess our sin, and prayerfully move forward in obedience.

When we’re frustrated by our spiritual inconsistencies, God is not. He knows our frame. He knows how sin works. He knows that apart from him we cannot do anything that glorifies him. He never loses sight of how much we need him. He already gave us Jesus and he knows that even on a bad day, we’re okay. When the glittery shine of sin entices us, he takes his staff and pulls us close like the good shepherd that he is. He will not lose his own or let them fall prey to a ruthless predator. 
He sees us when we wander and he goes after us. Every. Single. Time.

Though we change on God often, he never changes on us. Our love threatens to grow cold. His love remains hot and relentless. 
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Sister, it’s his faithfulness to us on those days we feel most undeserving of his love that settles how real his love is for us. It’s settled. Secured in Christ. We can enjoy the love and care of our Good Shepherd right now no matter how our days are going.
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The weekly devotionals seek to encourage you to dig deeper into Scripture as you take the time to daily read, meditate, and internalize the verses in the devotional, along with the passages provided below to give greater context. Take the time to read them throughout the week (repetition is important) and ask the Holy Spirit to help you grasp what God is showing you about Himself, about you, and how to live in light of these truths. 

Passages to read/memorize/meditate:
Romans 7:21-8:6
1 John 2:1-6
Psalm 23
John 10:27-30
Questions to Reflect on:
1. How do you relate with God on a bad day?
2. How do you define a good day with Jesus?
3. Name three things that are true of you and God no matter how you feel in this moment.
4. Your friend confides in you that she does not feel like a good Christian. How would you encourage her?

By Debbie Ramamoorthy  (WITHIN Devotional Contributor)

The talk around COVID-19 has consumed us all. There is no denying it. It consumes us for very real reasons. Reasons that are rooted in fear, loss of certainty, unknowns, anxiety, grieving- and everything in between.
 
We are in the Amazon region of Ecuador, living and sharing our walls with those who lost their jobs overnight. Taxi drivers, Tienda owners, small businesses, maids-all of whom are those we share the same street with. Week 1 passed, then week 2, week 3, week 4... week... 9? Are we really on week 9 of the lockdown? A lockdown in Ecuador looks a little different. We have a curfew of 2pm, with the police monitoring the streets yelling at us to get back in our homes and fining us if we disobey. We have one day a week where we are allowed to go grocery shopping. A task that now takes up to anywhere between 5-7 hours of the day. Between biking (often in the pouring rain) or the beating heat, bringing back our groceries and then the grueling process of disinfecting, it can be exhausting. Yet, we can't seem to take our eyes off of those who live right across the street from us, or those whom we share a wall with! The workers who no longer have money to put food on the table. The kids who are running around a 5x5 foot concrete "patio" behind a metal fence, in the hopes of expending just a small bit of overflowing energy. So, am I writing this to paint a sad picture of the reality of our world? No! Recently, we have been studying the book of Galatians and this is what God is teaching me. 
 
Galatians 2 talks to us about remembering the poor. "Their only suggestion was that we keep on helping the poor, which I have always been eager to do." (vs.10)

We were daily reminded that our nature is to not be selfless. We are innately selfish. We cope by holding on to what feels safe and comfortable. During times like these, where we each have our plates full of our own grievances, the question we should ask is how can we move from an inwards posture to an outwards one? It doesn't feel natural, yet alone, desirable. We can fall into the thought that we have to first work on surviving before being able to help others, right?
 
Well my challenge today is to let Galatians 2, and the call to help the poor, be digested within us. Let us sit with what we are being asked of. We aren't simply asked to help the poor by doing our due diligence. For me, it is about taking a look inward and allowing God to convict me of my sin! It is allowing Him to bring out the areas within me that need refinement--those areas of selfishness and insular thinking, so that I can "... have the same mindset as Jesus Christ." (Philippians 2:5-8).
 
We have a role model in the person of Jesus Christ! We really don't have to look much farther. He was fully human, and did His ministry on Earth, amidst a broken and sinful humanity. Yet, He was constantly being renewed and led by the Father to serve. So, in the same way- how can we start letting the gospel of Good News inform the culture we create? Rather than allowing our world’s culture to dictate the gospel, how can we allow the gospel to dictate our culture? We do this by pouring ourselves into Scripture and allowing the Lord to direct our ways. It's moving from an insulated way of thinking into a selfless way of living. 
 
So, while going through this very real, painful, challenging and in some ways heart-breaking, process of refinement, I have been challenged to show up. To show up for my neighbors. To show up for those close to me and far away from me. To give my tangible resources such as food and groceries. To give of my time to those who need a listening ear during this time of loneliness and isolation.
 
I have been convicted that while it’s easy for me to give my resources and check that off my list, I need to take it beyond that. I also have seen how it’s easy to only think about how this time is allowing me to reconnect with my family and to grow me internally but it has to be more. God is showing me that it’s a time to actually serve others by being able to think about them and their needs and to make the time to pray for them---not just focus on what’s happening with me.  
 
My hope and prayer is that we are able to step into the tangible world of loving our neighbors as Christ desires for us to love them!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The weekly devotionals seek to encourage you to dig deeper into Scripture as you take the time to daily read, meditate, and internalize the verses in the devotional, along with the passages provided below to give greater context. Take the time to read them throughout the week (repetition is important) and ask the Holy Spirit to help you grasp what God is showing you about Himself, about you, and how to live in light of these truths. 

Passages to read/memorize/meditate:
Galatians 2:10
Philippians 2:5-8
Psalm 89:4-18Questions to Reflect on:

1. What are some ways in which God has been challenging you during this season of the pandemic?
2. Are there ways in which you can be serving your neighbors? How?
3. What have been some of your biggest challenges during this season? How has God used that to refine you?

By Nicole Arong (WITHIN Devotional Contributor)

“Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.” (Proverbs 16:32 ESV)
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Last Sunday, I listened to a sermon on Proverbs 16:32 dealing with anger. As usual, the sermon was timely, as I had been dealing with anger on a deeper level, lately. I had been feeling as though it was stirring up in me and at any minute, it could burst like the old wine skins that Jesus had mentioned.

Feeling motivated by the sermon, I quickly assured myself that the week ahead would be better. I would control my anger and try harder not to get so frustrated. Life has come with so many changes during this pandemic and I have been trying to balance working from home, homeschooling, making meals, keeping the house clean, and caring for my husband...all with my high type A standard. But it wasn’t working. And while reflecting on the sermon, I reminded myself that the anger I was feeling in response wasn’t a righteous anger and I needed to let it go. So, I told myself I would.

During the following days, moments that could have easily been a burst of anger, dissipated into a slow leak. The anger was not extinguished but I had managed to slow it down. Then in the middle of the week, when we had our Community Group, a point was made that stuck with me: When you are angry you need to ask yourself, “What do I want in this? What is making me angry?”

I wrestled with those questions for most the night. What is it? I love my kids and I love being with them and I appreciate my job and the flexibility it had provided. But it finally clicked- what made me angry is that I want to succeed; I don’t want to fail. My identity had been compromised. I realized that my anger wasn’t as tied to my outside circumstances as it was to what was going on inside of me. I had forgotten my identity. It is in my nature to cling to works, forgetting that they can no longer condemn me or save me. More often than not, I make much of what I can accomplish. 

In the day to day grind, it is easy to push truth aside. In the prioritization of our time, we can forget to bathe in grace and truth. I have to remind myself that I am a daughter before I am a mother, wife, or an employee. I am His. I am a child of God, paid for by Christ, and He has promised to love me. In his eyes, I cannot fail and through His Word, He has lovingly provided me truth and promises to rest in. He loves me in spite of me and not because of me. And His love is no longer tethered to my works.

What I had been doing, I had been doing on my own. I was trying to carry the world by my own strength and was terrified of the failure that would come if I couldn’t. I was trying to do it alone and without prayer and I was terrified of the outcome. I was trying to impress my kids, my boss, myself and yet forgetting to commune with Him who loves me most.

Ultimately, I must remember that I do not fail or succeed according to the world’s standard.  “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:10) 

I am called to try my best and do all things unto the glory of God. Not to the glory of anyone else including myself.

In a practical sense, that means that this week I will pray. I will make time for God and I will meditate on His truths. I will evaluate my life against God’s standard and not my own. And I am sure God cares very little about the laundry piling up or the positioning of my throw pillows. This week, I will walk as a daughter, loved by her Heavenly Father. And if I feel anger creep up at what I cannot accomplish, I will choose to rest in Christ, knowing that He knows my limitations and loves me still.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The weekly devotionals seek to encourage you to dig deeper into Scripture as you take the time to daily read, meditate, and internalize the verses in the devotional, along with the passages provided below to give greater context. Take the time to read them throughout the week (repetition is important) and ask the Holy Spirit to help you grasp what God is showing you about Himself, about you, and how to live in light of these truths. 

Passages to read/memorize/meditate:
Proverbs 16:32
Galatians 1:10
Galatians 3:3
Ephesians 2:8-10
Romans 8:37-39

​Questions to Reflect on:

1. What are some things that cause you anger?
2. How has this devotional helped you see the root cause of your anger?
3. When I am angry, what do I turn to?
4. Who do I say I am? Who does Christ say I am?
5. Do I seek worldly wisdom, or do I seek God's council in Scripture and prayer?