Mercy and Grace

Welcome to today's encouragement from your friends at Our Daily Bread.

The devotional for today is titled Mercy and Grace, and it was written by James Banks. A stately sunflower stood on its own in the center of a lonely stretch of National Highway, just a few feet from the fast lane. As I drove past, I wondered how it had grown there with no other sunflowers visible for miles. Only God could create a plant so hardy it could thrive so close to the roadway in the gray gravel lining the median.

There it was, thriving, swaying gently in the breeze and cheerfully greeting travelers as they hurried by. The Old Testament tells the story of a faithful king of Judah who also showed up unexpectedly. His father and grandfather had enthusiastically served other gods, but after Josiah had been in power for eight years, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David. He sent workmen to repair the Temple of the Lord, and as they did, they discovered the Book of the Law, the first five books of the Old Testament. God then inspired Josiah to lead the entire nation of Judah to return to the faith of their ancestors, and they served the Lord as long as Josiah lived. Our God is the master of unanticipated mercies. He's able to cause great good to spring up unexpectedly out of the hard gravel of life's most unfavorable circumstances.

Watch him closely. He may do it again today. Now let's turn our attention to God's Word, and we'll go to 2 Chronicles chapter 34 verses 1 through 8. In his twelfth year, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles and idols. Under his direction, the altars of the bales were torn down. He cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them and smashed the Asherah poles and the idols. These he broke to pieces and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. He burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and so he purged Judah and Jerusalem. In the towns of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali, and in the ruins around them, he tore down the altars and the Asherah poles and crushed the idols to powder and cut to pieces all the incense altars throughout Israel. Then he went back to Jerusalem.

In the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign, to purify the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan, son of Asaliah, and Maasaiah, the ruler of the city, with Joah, son of Joaz, the recorder, to repair the temple of the Lord his God. Now let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much that you never change. In Lamentations, chapter 3, verse 23, the Word says that your mercies are new every morning. Would you help us to look forward to what you have for us this day, and may your mercies be visible to others as we follow you. It's in your great name that we trust and pray. Amen. Today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.