DAILY DEVOTIONAL – July 1, 2020

“Paying It Forward“

Prayer:  Our most generous God, You spared no expense in sacrificing Your precious Son Jesus so that we, who have deserved nothing but Your wrath and judgement, might receive the priceless gift of eternal salvation by Your grace through faith in Jesus.  Lord, give us generous hearts and help us to worship and praise You by loving others by living and giving of ourselves generously.  Amen.

Scripture: Hebrews 2:9

But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Devotion – “Paying it Forward”

The website www.goodnewsnetwork.com tells a heart-warming true story of unwarranted generosity.

Back in 2015, Officer John Baggs went above and beyond the call of duty so he could surprise the mother of a fallen soldier with a special gift on Veteran’s Day.

The gift was a car that had once belonged to Army Specialist Jose Torre who had died while he was serving in Iraq in 2011.

After Jose passed away, his mother Candida, who is from Huntington Beach, California, had an emotional connection to the car because it always made her think of her son. So when she got in a car accident that ended up totaling the vehicle, she was heartbroken to hear that the insurance company would be unable to fix it.

Baggs, who had been a responder to the collision, was moved by the woman’s predicament. So with a little help from Triple-A and 27 different car repair employees giving 120 hours of service, the officer managed to orchestrate the $15,000 repair in time to unveil the renovated car for Candida on Veteran’s Day.

“With all my heart, it means a lot to have it back, it really does,” Torre told KCAL.

“It’s nice to know that there are people in the world that have good hearts, that are willing to pay it forward,” she added.

What makes this story so special is that there was no reason why Officer Baggs should have been so kind, no reason why all of those other companies that helped him should have donated so much money and labor to fix up the car that belonged to Jose Torre and that meant so much to his mother Candida.  Candida did nothing to deserve such generosity, it was done simply to bless someone for the sake of blessing them.  She couldn’t afford to fix the car herself, so others stepped in and paid the price.

Candida said, “It’s nice to know that there are people in the word that are willing to pay it forward.”  Paying it forward means to respond to one person’s kindness by being kind to someone else at a future or “forward” date.

2,000 years ago there was someone else who selflessly gave a gift to those who couldn’t afford to cover the costs themselves.  Jesus Christ, God’s Son, selflessly gave up His priceless life.  He paid the price for sins on the cross that we could not afford to pay ourselves in order to be made right with God.  We did do, and can do nothing to deserve such an eternally valuable gift.  We could never be kind enough to God, to Jesus or to one another in order to give Jesus a reason to “pay it forward.”  Yet, Christ not only paid it forward, but paid it backward…He paid for the sins of the whole entire world and for every person that has ever or will ever live.

As our text from Hebrews said for today, “Jesus suffered, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”

There are not enough good deeds to be done in the world that could justify us before God or rid the world of the pain and suffering that sin has caused.  As people of faith we are certainly called to live our lives in generosity to others, not because it secures our salvation or contributes to it, but because we have already received the riches of heaven and have already been given all that we could ever want or need in Jesus.  In John 13 Jesus says, ³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Live generously my friends, give freely and without cause…love others as Jesus loved us by giving Himself freely for our sake.  Live generously and give so that the Name of our Lord and God Jesus would be glorified, and so that through our unwarranted generosity as disciples of Christ, the world would come to know His precious gift of salvation.

Have a wonderful day everyone, and remember that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow.  Amen.