The Living Word: A Daily Devotional with Jeff & Dale from The Jenkins Institute

Week 28: Friday, Have Courage to Remember

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God is far greater than the homeowner who provides for the

physical needs of his friend’s friend (I hope you followed that). God

will give greater gifts (Luke 11:13) and is never inconvenienced. He

desires us to ask, seek, knock—repeatedly if need be (Luke 11:8).

But I would like to dive deeper and elevate the courage of the

homeowner who reconsidered his initial denial, coming back to

help in the end.

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to Hearing God's Stories, a daily devotional of the parables presented by the Jenkins Institute. Friday, have courage to remember today's scripture, Luke 11, 8. God is greater for the homeowner who provides for the physical needs of his friend's friend. I hope you follow that. God will give greater gifts, Luke 11, 13, and is never inconvenienced. He desires us to ask, seek, knock, repeatedly if need be, Luke 11, 8. But I would like to dive deeper and elevate the courage of the homeowner who considered his initial desire, denial, coming back to help in the end. I believe that Jesus is elevating the bold request of the friend, but it also seems fair to acknowledge the humility it took to renege on the initial denial and to give the bread in the end. Have you ever made a decision you later realized was not the best decision? Was it easy to admit your fault? Have you ever reacted in a way that you thought that you were not proud of and needed to later circle back to that moment and apologize? Aren't those moments hard? They cut to the core of our prideful humanity. Such moments may providentially be used and aligned by God to train our stubborn hearts to be broken and contrite before Him. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16 18. Changing a decision may mean facing consequences or criticism, so we often dig in deeper, hoping we can fix or justify the original choice rather than start over. Changing a decision could not could cause us to feel vulnerable, which opens up to judgment, rejection, or ridicule. This scares us since we are prone to protecting our self-image. But change our course or going back on a previous decision is not weakless, but rather wisdom, weakness, but rather wisdom in action. Today I will confess to every small mistake I make so I can build muscle to handle the bigger ones that will come later. Week twenty-eight. The Parable of the Friend in Need, Luke 11, 58 by Austin Johnson. I'm Dale Jenkins. You've been listening to Hearing God's Stories, the Parables of the Bible. Thank you for joining us for the Living Word. For more encouragement and ministry resources, visit the Jenkins Institute dot com and may God's richest blessings be yours, is our prayer for you.