Daily Devotional for March 31, 2018
Beautiful Beets
“Breanna,” said Mom. “Can you please run to the basement and get the last two jars of Grandma’s pickled beets?”
“Okay,” said Breanna. She soon returned with two dusty jars of deep purple-red beets. “I love the color of these beets—it’s so pretty!” She put one jar on the counter, then wiped the dust off the other and held it up to the light. “I wish I had a sweater this color.”
“It is a pretty color,” said Mom. She picked up the jar on the counter. “Oh no! The seal on the lid of this one is broken. We’d better not eat these—they may be spoiled.”
“But they look fine,” said Breanna.
“They may be okay, but when the lid isn’t sealed, bacteria can get in. Better not to take a chance on them—if they’re spoiled, they could give us serious food poisoning. We’ll just eat the beets in the other jar.”
Mom poured the contents of the jar with the broken seal down the drain. “You know what? These beets remind me of us.”
Breanna laughed. “You and I are like spoiled beets?”
“I was referring to people in general,” Mom said, “but that includes us. Before a person knows Jesus, they might look just fine on the outside. They might seem successful, happy, and beautiful. But we’ve all got poison inside our hearts—sin. And we can’t get it out by ourselves.”
“Yeah,” said Breanna thoughtfully. “That’s why we need Jesus.”
Mom nodded. “When we trust in Him, He takes away our sin and gives us new hearts—just like new beets being put into a new jar. Then He seals us with the Holy Spirit, who changes us and helps us live our new life—and that seal can never be broken.”
“But don’t Christians still sin?” Breanna asked.
“Yes,” said Mom, “Christians still struggle with sin, but we’re no longer under its control. Because we have new hearts, we’re able to live the way the Holy Spirit urges us to and do what’s right. And when we do sin, we can confess what we’ve done to Jesus and He’ll forgive us and wipe it away—just like you wiped the dust off that jar of beets. Our new hearts can never be spoiled.” – Joyce R. Lee
How about you?
Has Jesus given you a new heart? Being talented, rich, good-looking, popular—none of these things changes the fact that our hearts are sick with sin. No matter how good we look, sin has spoiled each one of us, and we desperately need Jesus to make us new. If you haven’t already, ask Him to take away your sin and give you a new heart today. (To learn more, click the blue “Good News” button in the column to the right.)
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