Special treatment

Pastor Matt Ewart

I’ve noticed something interesting that happens whenever I get a new smartphone (which isn’t all that often). As soon as it enters my possession, that phone gets special attention. I am careful with the way I handle it. I take special care to keep it clean. I am gentle when I pick it up and put it down. And alarms go off if the kids get anywhere near it.

A few months later it’s a different story. The phone doesn’t get as much care as it used to. It isn’t as clean as it was. And while I don’t throw it across the room, I do toss it around fairly liberally.

It’s interesting how things we once cared for greatly can depreciate so quickly.

How well do you care for yourself? And while we’re at it, how well do you care for the people around you? How you treat people—including yourself—communicates how valuable they are.

So as you think about yourself and the people around you, consider what John wrote: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1).

God paid a big price so that he could take sinful people and make them his adopted children, loved and completely forgiven by him. Through Christ’s holiness he sees you and those around you as priceless. Therefore, what God identifies as holy, treat and use as holy.

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org