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If you have been following Life for Leaders for a while, you know that we often highlight the biblically based truth that our daily work matters greatly to God. This perspective is revealed, first of all, in the opening chapters of Genesis. It is reaffirmed time and again throughout Scripture.

Written by Paul Matsushima. Categories include De Pree Journal.

In Isaiah 29, the Lord indicts his people for saying the right things while their hearts are far away from him. They profess faithfulness to God, but their desires are selfish and idolatrous. Rather than seeking God’s glory, they live for themselves. Their worship is “by the book,” but not “by heart.” They do the right things but don’t do them as a genuine act of self-offering to God.

There is a time and place for followers of Jesus to be clear about the "don’ts," about beliefs and behaviors that are part of the old self and deserve to be taken off. Yet if we put most of our energy into opposing what’s wrong, we’ll have little left for doing and teaching what is right.

In yesterday’s Life for Leaders devotion, we focused on Jesus’ statement in Mark 2:27, “The Sabbath was made for humans; humans weren’t created for the Sabbath” (CEB). Today, I want to look back at the creation of the Sabbath, focusing on a short passage from Genesis 2.

According to Colossians, when someone bugs us, we’re to put up with them. But when somebody actually sins against us, we’re to forgive.

Today, I’d like to base this devotion on two verses from Psalm 22. In the first verse (22:2), the psalmist laments God’s lack of response to his desperate prayers. Even though he has called out to God day and night, God has not answered. The second verse (22:24) seems almost to contradict the first, affirming God’s attention to those who cry for help in their suffering.

As I was reading Psalm 129, the phrase “grass on the roof” caught my attention. That’s not something you hear every day. In ancient Israel, roofs of common homes were often made of beams and branches covered with thick mud. When the rains came, grass seeds embedded in the mud would sprout. But because its roots were shallow and its source of water temporary, the grass on the housetops wouldn’t thrive. It would wither and die even before it was fully grown.