A WORD FOR TODAY, June 27, 2024
Peggy Hoppes
We pray you have been blessed by this daily devotion. If you received it from a friend, you can see other devotions and studies by visiting our website at www.awordfortoday.org.
Blessings. Peg
I am on vacation this week, so instead of my usual pattern of regular devotions on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Midweek Oasis lectionary devotion on Wednesday, I’m going to post devotions on the lectionary scriptures, one each day of the week.
Scriptures for Sunday, June 30, 2024: Lamentations 3:22-33 or Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15, 2:23-23; Psalm 30; 2 Corinthians 8:7-15; Mark 5:21-43
A WORD FOR TODAY, June 27, 2024
“But as you excel in everything - in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you - see that you excel in this act of grace also. I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. As it is written, ‘Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.’” 2 Corinthians 8:7-15, WEB
I had a project I started a long, long time ago. It was a counted cross-stitch piece that I started as a gift to give to Bruce when he retired from the Air Force. I carried this project with me through a half dozen moves. It was a picture of the Air Force Seal, pretty large for a cross-stitch project, requiring a lot of work to complete. I decided that I wouldn’t finish the project. I looked at it a year or so before Bruce’s retirement, but decided that I would rather focus on some other ways of remembering his time served. The unfinished materials were ragged and stained and not worth the work. The bag hung in a place I could see daily, and I often looked at it as a reminder of its incompleteness. One day I finally gave up and gave it away.
There are many reasons why we leave projects incomplete. Homeowners who begin renovations run out of money for supplies. We become too busy with other work to do the work necessary to complete the project. Time passes and the project becomes unnecessary; it is a waste of time to continue with something that is beyond use. Health issues can make some things impossible to complete. There are some reasons, and some excuses for not finishing what we start.
It really didn’t matter if I finished the project or not. I didn’t make a commitment or a promise to anyone. No one’s life would have changed for the better or the worse because of the cross-stitch picture. However, we make commitments and promises all the time that do matter. Unfortunately, when we fail to complete those commitments, someone may suffer for it. There may be good reasons why we can’t fulfill our promise but that doesn’t help the one waiting for us to do what we said we would do.
Take, for instance, a pledge to donate something to an organization. That organization plans their budget around the pledge. If they do not get all the funds expected, they can’t pay their bills. There may be a perfectly good reason for someone to renege on their pledge. They might have suffered ill health or financial collapse. They might have found a better way to share their resources. We sometimes make commitments and then realize that the organization is wasting the funds. We make the conscious decision to take our money elsewhere so that it will do the most good. Whatever the reason, however, our decisions will impact those who are relying on our promises. There are many reasons why we should finish our commitments even if there are good reasons not to.
The Corinthians made a commitment to help the poor in Jerusalem. We don’t know what might have spurred them to make this promise or what might have happened that would delay its fulfillment, but Paul wrote to encourage them to finish what they started. This encouragement was not only because the poor in Jerusalem needed their help, but the act of giving would also serve as an example to the world of Jesus Christ’s generosity. The world sees Christ through our actions. By fulfilling our promises despite the hardships it might cause, the world sees our faith in action. It isn’t enough to want to do something. It isn’t enough to be eager and to talk about what we might do. Good intentions never fed a hungry child. We are encouraged by this text to complete what we have started, to do what we’ve said we would do.
A WORD FOR TODAY is posted five days a week – Monday through Friday. The devotional on Wednesday takes a look at the scripture from the Revised Common Lectionary for the upcoming Sunday. A WORD FOR TODAY is posted on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Word-for-Today-Devotional/339428839418276. Like the page to receive the devotion through Facebook. For information and to access our archives, visit http://www.awordfortoday.org