Daily Devotional For Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Good morning Southside. When I think about our adoption of Emmie, I think of our delight and joy God gave us through her. I love being with Emmie. I love us playing family games together, going on vacations together. I love spending time with Emmie in amusement parks. Just as Audrey and I take delight in Emmie, so does our heavenly Father take delight in us as His adopted children. Look at 1 John 3:1, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him” (NASB).
The whole New Testament reminds us how God delights in forgiving us from our sins when we repent and ask for forgiveness, how He delights in guiding us and leading us, how He delights in using us to share the Gospel, how He delights in one day bringing us home. When I look at Emmie, I have to ask myself, “Why is this girl from Bulgaria so precious to me as my daughter?” There were times Audrey and I wondered if we would ever have children. There were times we wondered if the adoption process would be successful. When our agency showed us her picture, I instantly loved her. There was no working up to it, or hoping I would love her, I loved Emmie. I didn’t know her. I didn’t know all the issues she might have being an orphan being transferred from orphanage to orphanage to foster home to foster home. I didn’t care because my love for her would not let me see that. It only let me see her.
Do you ever get emotional to hear your heavenly Father say to you, “I love you”? Have you ever asked God, “Why in the world would You adopt me knowing everything about me?” To hear Him say, “I have loved you before I even created this universe.” Do you get emotional over that? The real question is not: “Does God our Father love us?”, but ”Do we as His adopted children really love Him?” At this point you do not need to dispense with the “church” answer.
It is impossible to separate faith from feelings if you are truly Christ’s adopted child. There are times I look at God’s blessings to us through Emmie, and I tear up. She will never know how much I love her. Being a disciple of Jesus is more than just some mental assent or acquiring a lot of Bible knowledge. Being a disciple of Jesus involves emotions and affections. There are those Christians who worry about emotions, but God gave them to us. There are churches where it seems as if their worship is an emotional free-for-all. And there are churches where their worship is very logical, mental, methodical, almost robotic and mechanical, void of any emotion. Jonathan Edwards was a pre-American revivalist preacher and evangelist. He died on March 22, 1758. Please read what he writes:
“Our external delights, our ambition and reputation, and our human relationships—for all these things our desires are eager, our appetites strong, our love warm and affectionate, our zeal ardent. Our hearts are tender and sensitive when it comes to these things, easily moved, deeply impressed, much concerned, and greatly engaged. We are depressed at our losses and excited and joyful about our worldly successes and prosperity. But when it comes to spiritual matters, how dull we feel! How heavy and hard our hearts! We can sit and hear of the infinite height, and depth, and length, and breadth of the love of God in Christ Jesus, of his giving his infinitely dear Son—and yet be cold and unmoved! . . . If we are going to be emotional about anything, shouldn’t it be our spiritual lives? Is anything more inspiring, more exciting, more loveable and desirable in heaven or earth than the gospel of Jesus Christ? . . . The gospel story is designed to affect us emotionally—and our emotions are designed to be affected by its beauty and glory. It touches our hearts at their tenderest parts, shaking us deeply to the core. We should be utterly humbled that we are not more emotionally affected than we are” (Source: Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections, pp. 46-48).
Assignment: When it comes to your faith and relationship to Christ, is it more mechanical, robotic, mental, methodical, or are there times of deep affection and emotion? Do you ever stand or sit amazed in the presence of Jesus Christ? Does your heart ever burst forth with such gratitude to God for Him adopting you that you cannot control your emotions? As we see with the quote by Jonathan Edwareds, faith fuels feelings. Genuine intellectual and knowledge of God creates deep emotional desires for our Father. Does this describe you? Why or why not?
Scripture To Meditate On: 2 Corinthians 6:18, “‘And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,’ Says the Lord Almighty” (NASB).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, I do not want my faith to be absent of emotions. I want to live and experience the joy of my salvation. I want to be so overcome with emotions over You adopting me, that I will fulfill Your mission to me: go and make disciples so that these people become Your Sons and Daughters as well. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly