Thursday's Devotion & Rejection

This week I am daily posting verses and resources to help us keep our focus on God.
These resources and this past Sunday night's sermon were meant to build upon Pastor Doug's morning message "The Joy Placebo" from Isaiah 5:11-17

Today's Devotion and Rejection verses are Philippians 2:3-4.
Devote yourself to loving God and others.
Reject selfishness. 

The New Morning Mercies devotional for September 14th begins with the following statement:

The disappointments of relationships are many, but his grace is sufficient - in fact, it is made perfect in your weakness.

The devotional identifies the problem

Sin causes each of us to be selfish in the real sense of what this word means.  It makes us more demanding than serving, more accusing than forgiving, more defensive than approachable, and more critical than understanding and patient. 

It then clearly provides the answer

The hope for your relationship is not to be found in you or in the others in those relationships.  Hope is found in a third person who has invaded your relationships by his grace.   

You can give yourself to love, to forgive, to confess, to confront , to trust, and to persevere even when things are hard, because "he gives more grace."

The Bible reading for this devotional is James 4:1 - 10

For other Devotion and Rejection posts, go to https://drodgersjr.blogspot.com/search?q=Devotion+rejection