Devotion for Thursday, April 24, 2025

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.  So you too, outwardly appear righteous to people, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matthew 23:27-28).

In this world, we are obsessed with how things look.  If it looks good on the outside, we are good with it.  The Lord is interested in who we are.  He has created us to be His children.  But something has gone quite wrong – we sin.  He has established the necessary provision to be made right again, from the inside out.  Do not be filled with lawlessness and hypocrisy, but come into the presence of the Lord and be saved.

Lord, You know that I am trapped in the games of this world.  Guide me, Jesus, so that I see the game for what it is.  Lead me up and out of the mess of this world’s thinking so that I may think clearly.  Help me to see things with the mind You have given me and lead me to understand things as they are and not as I wish them to be.  Let me not walk with dead bones, but live in the truth You have revealed.

Lord Jesus, You have come that we may have abundant life.  Lead me in the way of truth.  Guide my thinking to stand fully on what You declare to be right and true.  Help me to always see things as they are and to not see them as I want them to be.  From the inside out, help me to live the life You have given me and keep me from the wishful thinking life this world keeps selling.  Amen.