God’s Family

Wednesday, August 27

Psalm 68:6 (NIV)

“God sets the lonely in families; He leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.”

Devotion

God’s heart is tender toward the lonely and broken. Gill’s Exposition reminds us that God, enthroned in glory, bends down to provide for the lowliest. He takes the place of a father to the orphan and brings the isolated into His family. 


Earthly families give us belonging, love, and support. There can be a sense of shared responsibility for the burdened. Statistics show nearly 30% of people around the world experience loneliness, a growing burden even in our digital age. Yet God has given us the Body of Christ to be a true spiritual family—a place where no one should feel unseen or forgotten. We are called to be intentional, to reach out, and to embody His compassion.   


There is an urban legend of a church being destroyed around the time of WW II. After the war, they found that there was a statue of Christ with outstretched arms that remained intact, only His hands were missing. The church decided not to repair the statue because they felt the members of the church were meant to be the hands of Christ on Earth.  


We are God’s family and His instruments of love. May our hands, feet, and voices expand His kingdom, pointing people to the Father who sets them in His family.

Today’s Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father,
I have been lonely. Set me more completely in the family of Jesus. I have been a prisoner. Lead me out with singing. But I have also been rebellious. Bring me greater measures of repentance, faith, and obedience so my time in a sun-scorched land can be brought to a close. Help me not to be selfish, but to consider the needs of others as more important than my own and to truly learn to love my neighbor as myself. In the Name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Apply It Today

The cure for loneliness is not busyness (even within the church) but Jesus. Jesus heals. Jesus restores. When we give up our rebellion and walk in the light, then we have fellowship with Jesus, and then with each other. What God has done in you and for you, He wants to do through you. (1 Corinthians 1:3-5). Where are you in this process? Where can you take a step further?

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