Press the arrow to listen to Matthew West sing “The Motions” as you read today’s devotion about personal progress.

Scripture
Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked so hard to achieve. Be diligent so that you receive your full reward. 2 John 1:8

Observation
Who invented the grocery store? Ever hear of the A&P? My mom used to shop in one of their small downtown stores with the rooster weathervane on the top. The A&P by the 1930′s was America’s leading grocery store chain, boasting 16,000 stores and $1 billion in revenue annually. Today they have a mere 447 stores and have fallen to number 21. What went wrong? The formula that made them successful killed their success. Their method was to build tidy stores on the edge of downtown. It worked until the supermarket came along. Instead of building bigger stores in the suburbs, A&P kept with the plan and lost all they had achieved.

Success is not stable it is a growing thing. A plant may be perfect one day, but let watering lapse and soon it will be dead. What we have achieved in life is transient. We can lose everything not just by doing nothing but by doing what we’ve always done. It is the choice not to improve that can cost us dearly. The rules that made us successful can be our downfall if we don’t adapt.

Application
My goal in life must be not a great middle but a great ending. There is no place for coasting. It is time to live with the perspective of a start up company no matter how old I may grow. In this little book of 2 John, John is protecting the church from false doctrine not by teaching theology, but by reminding them to really love each other. If there is anything I need to excel at it must be that. I must love extravagantly, even those who do not reciprocate.

Prayer
Father, reinvent me today so that I do not lose what you have given to me. Do not make me something different, instead take me back to the basics of love. Reinvent me backwards to the core of who you have made me to be. Amen.

Press the arrow to listen to a heart-warming song about adoption just released by Desperation Band.

Scripture
See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! 1 John 3:1

Observation
There are many children who pass by me in public places. I have no urge to talk to them, to drive them to school, to buy them clothes or to take them out for ice cream, because they are not my kids. I feel no responsibility for them because they belong to someone else.

I have had the experience of adoption. Of feeling the heart expand to take responsibility for children that do not belong to me. It was a strange feeling when it came. It was as if my heart stretched an extra size longer, and there was another human being inside of my heart. I love being a father and a foster-father!

How much better it feels to the orphan to be picked out of the line for adoption. It is especially heart-warming for a gangly, pimple-faced teenager who feels too old to be picked. The person in that line-up is me or you. The word adopted means “wanted”. God, who of all human titles has chosen the name “Father”, has chosen to focus all of that loving attention on us.

Application
My adoption is not a fiction; it is a reality. I am loved, cared for, watched over, corrected and supplied because I am a son. Accepting the fact “that is what we are” is one of the most important things we can do as a Christ follower. We must lift it out of dry theology books and make a family portrait with our own picture front and centre.

Prayer
Father, let those words roll over my spirit today: “that is what we are!” I want that to take over my thinking and living today. I am a son with all of the trimmings. It does feel good! Amen.

Scripture
One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”

Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” John 20:24-27 (New Living Translation)

Observation
The obvious is amazing. Through locked doors, Jesus came to the disciples alive after he was dead. That is not everyday news. But what is more astounding is the not so obvious. Jesus was present in the room when no one saw him.

The proof is in how Jesus repeated Thomas’ private conversation word for word. Jesus visible was amazing; but Jesus invisible is astounding. When we are gathered together with other believers, Jesus in our midst even when we can’t see him.

Immediately, we get fearful of saying the wrong thing and want to get things right. But that’s not the point of this story. It is more tender than that. Jesus heard and turned a protest into a prayer. God hears our private longings and does the remarkable to bring them about.

Application
There are times in my own life that I know that Jesus has been eavesdropping on my conversations. My objections in private with friends become public answers to prayers that I never prayed. Jesus is listening to every conversation. I need to live in the fear of what God thinks and speak well, and yet more. I need to live in an expectation that Jesus just might hear the longing of my heart and do more than I expect.

Prayer
Jesus, help me to speak today knowing that you are listening. Amen.

Press the arrow to see visually what Jeremiah wrote on paper. It will make today’s devotion about seeing potential come alive.

Scripture
I have made you a tester of metals,
that you may determine the quality of my people. Jeremiah 6:27

Observation
One great gift God can give to a leader is the ability to see the potential in others. This perception is to see people not just as they are but as they could be. It includes an ability to see in them what they cannot see in themselves. And certainly it is the capacity to discern potential before everyone else can spot it.

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the work of an assayer, or tester of metals:

An assayer is a person who tests ores and minerals and analyzes them to determine their composition and value. They may use chemical solutions, and chemical or laboratory equipment, such as furnaces, beakers, graduates, pipettes, and crucibles. An assayer separates metals or other components from dross materials by solution, flotation process, or other liquid processes, or by dry methods, such as application of heat….

That sounds just like the work of a preacher-leader. How does he spot potential in people? By how they respond to God’s word. Jeremiah the prophet was a preacher, and a preacher can see best what is in human hearts. By speaking God’s word and watching the response, a pastor can see whether a person is teachable or not.

The work of a pastor is not just to talk, but to develop the potential of people. That must motivate everything that he does. That is my call today.

Prayer
Father, there is so much potential that swirls around me everyday. Please give me the ability to perceive it and know where it best fits. Amen.