Heart of God by Zach Williams: A 5-Day DevotionalSample

"There's only love in the heart of God,

No room for shame in His open arms,

There's beauty from ashes, so come as you are

There's only love in the heart of God"

In the last couple of years, we have witnessed an unusual amount of sickness and death. Due to the pandemic, it was difficult to gather and mourn together. Sometimes I question why God allowed so much suffering and sadness to occur.

God said there would be a time for mourning, but He doesn't want us to live at that address permanently. He wants us to trade mourning for dancing.

Many of us feel that when we enter a relationship with Jesus, all our problems will disappear. As you know, this is not true. In this world, we will have troubles. There will be tragedy, and there will be death. In the Old Testament, we read where people mourn by pouring ashes on their heads. At times so many ashes are poured they end up sitting in a pile of ashes as they cry out to God.

Our Father does not leave us there; He desires to trade those ashes on our heads for a beautiful crown. He wants to pick us up out of our mourning and sadness and give us joy! He has overcome the world and defeated death! He wants to restore us with His great love!

Reflection:

What happens when you sin against God? No matter how hard we try, our sinful nature causes us to stumble. God hates sin, but what about you? We are quick to point out the sins of others, but what about our own sin? Do we minimize it? Do we say, "It's not that big of a deal; everyone does that."

A proper reaction would be to mourn our sin, to see it as God does, and to repent and ask forgiveness. It is true that God always forgives us and does not keep a record of our sin. The realization of this should cause us to long to be closer to the God who lavishes this great love on us.