Daily Devotional for December 13, 2023
God or Me
“We’ll be late for church if Bella doesn’t hurry,” Parker complained as he laced up his new neon sneakers. “She takes forever to do her hair! I want to show my friends my shoes.”
When they were finally on their way, Bella demanded that Parker close his window so the wind wouldn’t blow her hair. “Don’t you ever think of anything besides your precious hair?” Parker snapped. Bella tried to kick his shoe in response, but he pulled out of the way so she didn’t scuff it.
Before going into the church service, Bella went to fix her hair again, giving Parker time to show off his shoes. They both slipped into the row after the lights had dimmed for worship.
When they got home, Parker got out a magnifying glass. “It’s fun to use this to look at stuff. It makes everything look really big.”
“Let me see,” said Bella, grabbing the magnifying glass from Parker.
Dad took a couple little pieces of paper and wrote something on each. He gave one to Parker. “Look at this under your magnifying glass.”
Parker looked at it, shrugged, and handed it to Bella. She saw that Dad had written the word God on the paper. Dad handed Parker the second piece of paper. “Whoa, there,” he said when Parker reached for the magnifying glass. “Don’t put that one under the glass. It’s not supposed to be magnified.” Parker read it and handed it to his sister. Written in small letters was the word me.
“I get it!” Parker grinned. “We’re supposed to magnify God, not ourselves.”
“We can’t actually see God through a magnifying glass,” Bella pointed out.
“But we can see Him in the love and care He shows us through other people,” said Dad. “And as Christians, we can point others to Him. Since we know Jesus, we can show others who He is by reflecting His love. Yet it’s easy to magnify ourselves instead of God.”
“Yeah,” broke in Parker with a grin. “Like doing your hair all the time and making everybody late for church.”
“Or grumbling about your siblings and bragging about shoes,” added Dad. “While it’s good to enjoy the things God blesses us with, we want people to see that He is the focus of our lives, not ourselves. God loves us, and when we help others experience His love, we magnify Him.”
-Harriett A. Durrell
How about you?
Do you spend too much time focusing on yourself and what you want? Do you grumble and complain when things don’t go your way? The Bible tells us to magnify God in everything we do, and that means reflecting the loving character of Jesus, who gave up everything—even His own life—to save us. Think about how your actions affect those around you, and aim to bring glory to God, not yourself.
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