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Day 4 - Wednesday | Daily Devotions | Connect the Testaments | Morning and Evening: Daily Reading | My Utmost for His Highest | Thoughts for the Quiet Hour |

  April 9: The Global Reset Button Deuteronomy 15:1–17:20 ; 2 Corinthians 4:7–18; Psalm 37:1–22 When I was a kid, I loved playing Super Nintendo—especially Donkey Kong. Despite my love for it, it would sometimes make me angry. When I couldn’t handle the way the game was panning out, I would slam down the controller and hit the reset button. I would start fresh. It’s more than a little sad that my entertainment made me act like a caveman. Yet those moments of resetting the entire system felt like another chance at life (albeit a virtual one). With the state of the global economy, it often feels like the world needs a reset. It’s tempting to say something as radical as, “Let’s forgive all debts and start again.” Though this couldn’t happen—and it would be highly problematic, since the statement depends on goodwill, a free economy, and general care for one another—it doesn’t stop us from hoping. God actually created a system for this audacious idea: in the Year of Jubilee, or the ...

Day 4 - Wednesday | Daily Devotions | Connect the Testaments | Morning and Evening: Daily Reading | My Utmost for His Highest | Thoughts for the Quiet Hour |

  April 8: Compelled to Worship Deuteronomy 12:29–14:29; 2 Corinthians 4:1–6 ; Psalm 36 When we experience God’s mercy, it shows. Our instincts change, and our priorities shift from gratifying our own ego to making much of God. We stop fearing what others think of us and find our identity grounded in Christ. It’s a transformation that shows God is working in our lives. Paul recognized the transformative power of the gospel, and it drove his ministry. This is evidenced in his second letter to the Corinthian church: “Just as we have been shown mercy, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced shameful hidden things, not behaving with craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but with the open proclamation of the truth, commending ourselves to every person’s conscience before God” (2 Cor 4:1–2). Paul wasn’t manipulating or distorting the good news for his own gain, as some in the community were doing. He preached the good news to all people with openness and sincerity. He allow...

Day 3 - Tuesday | Daily Devotions | Connect the Testaments | Morning and Evening: Daily Reading | My Utmost for His Highest | Thoughts for the Quiet Hour |

  April 7: An Irrational Life Deuteronomy 11:1–12:28 ; 2 Corinthians 3:9–18; Psalm 35:12–28 Love is irrational. It requires doing things that compromise every survival instinct. Moses tells God’s people to have a memory of what God has done among them and to love Him as a result: “And you shall love Yahweh your God, and you shall keep his obligations and his statutes and his regulations and his commandments always. And you shall realize today that it is not with your children who have not known and who have not seen the discipline of Yahweh your God, his greatness, his strong hand, and his outstretched arm” (Deut 11:1–2). The Bible doesn’t say, “Keep Yahweh’s commandments when you feel like you love Him,” or “Keep Yahweh’s commandments when things are going your way.” It says, “You shall keep [Yahweh’s] … commandments always .” God’s greatest commandments are about loving Him and others (Mark 12:28–31; compare John 15:12). We love God and keep His commandments because He firs...