Morning Devotional 071125 It's Up to Us to Share God's Love

Liz’s Morning Devotional: Scripture selected from Upper Room

July 11, 2025

Phillipians 4:4-9

4 Be glad in the Lord always! Again I say, be glad! 5 Let your gentleness show in your treatment of all people. The Lord is near. 6 Don’t be anxious about anything; rather, bring up all of your requests to God in your prayers and petitions, along with giving thanks. 7 Then the peace of God that exceeds all understanding will keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus. 8 From now on, brothers and sisters, if anything is excellent and if anything is admirable, focus your thoughts on these things: all that is true, all that is holy, all that is just, all that is pure, all that is lovely, and all that is worthy of praise. 9 Practice these things: whatever you learned, received, heard, or saw in us. The God of peace will be with you.

Good Morning! Again, I say, rejoice!

When I saw today’s passage, I smiled because this is one that I frequently use when I need a reminder to start each day with joy in my heart. Joy is what allows me to pick up my feet when they seem too heavy or weary to lift. 

It is so easy to get caught up in the evil and ugliness of the world. Social media enables people to say and do awful things that spread across the internet like wildfires. Our local virtual papers are sounding grounds for the worst humanity has to offer. 

These sources allow people to “doomscroll.” (The act of compulsively scrolling through negative news and information online.) Who could have imagined the need for such a word twenty years ago? 

Negativity breeds negativity! 2025 is filled with people who have lost their way, but is this really something new, or have we just created a new way to capture all that is bad and give it a means to grow like a cancer through the hearts and minds of God’s children?

Satan or evil has always been crafty. Genesis 3:1 states, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 Corinthians 11:3 reads: "But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your minds may be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ." In this verse, Paul expresses his fear that the Corinthians are being led away from a genuine and pure commitment to Christ, similar to how the serpent deceived Eve. He is concerned that false teachers are influencing them with a distorted gospel. 

John 8:44 states, “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Evil is not new, but it has found a new, fertile ground in which to grow. The only power that can overcome evil is God’s love. Hidden among the doom and gloom are magnificent stories of endurance, gentleness, kindness, and joy. Paul tells us this is where our heart must dwell. 

Focus your thoughts on these things: all that is true, all that is holy, all that is just, all that is pure, all that is lovely, and all that is worthy of praise. 9 Practice these things: whatever you learned, received, heard, or saw in us. 

The God of peace will be with you.

Giving Lord, you bless us abundantly! Help use the tools and gifts you give us to overcome the hate and deceit that is working to take over our land. Thank you. We love you, Lord! In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen

Thought for the day: Pull the weeds of evil and plant seeds of love!

God’s love conquers all! Pastor Liz