Daily Devotional for August 19, 2022
A Lesson from Toby
Toby, Macy’s puppy, was always running into everything. He ran so fast and never paid attention to where he was going.
After Toby had run into the sliding glass door for the third time that day, Macy scooped him up in her arms. “Be careful where you’re running,” she said as she stroked Toby’s fur. “You’ve got to slow down. You’re going to hurt yourself!”
“Time for dinner!” Mom called.
Macy set Toby down gently and went into the kitchen.
“Is Toby doing better now?” Mom asked.
“Not really,” said Macy with a sigh. “I wish he would slow down a little.”
“He will,” said Dad. “It’s just because he’s a puppy.”
Just then, they heard Toby cough loudly. “Looks like he’s going to have to learn not to gobble his food so quickly too,” Mom said.
After dinner, Macy picked up Toby and carried him into the family room for devotions.
“Watching Toby tonight reminded me of a Bible story,” Dad said. “One day, Jesus visited two of his friends, two sisters named Mary and Martha. Mary sat and listened to Jesus teach, but Martha got caught up in all the preparations for dinner, since making sure guests were happy and well fed was very important in Jesus’s day. She was so busy running around making sure everything got done that she forgot to take time to sit with Jesus.”
“That sounds like Toby, all right!” said Macy. “He’s always running around like crazy.”
“We’re often like that too,” said Dad. “We run around in all directions. It’s easy to get caught up in the busyness of our everyday lives, but Jesus calls us to take time to rest—to slow down and spend time with Him in His Word and in prayer. We can rest because, through his death and resurrection, Jesus did the work that needed to be done so we could be saved and have eternal life. When we slow down and let Him remind us of that, we experience His love, strength, and peace.”
Mom nodded. “Just like Toby needs to slow down so he won’t hurt himself, we need to slow down so we can sit with Jesus and dwell on the precious promises in His Word.”
-Lisa Fuller
How about you?
Do you often find yourself running in all directions—too busy to rest and hear from God? In our busy world, it’s easy to think we need to be working all the time. But Jesus shows us something different. Because He died on the cross, we don’t have to hurry around trying to please God or other people. Instead, we can rest in His love for us and enjoy being with Him.
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