Caught at the Bottom of the Slide
Reading: Psalm 46:1-3, 10-11
God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
    and the mountains quake with their surging.......
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth.”
The Lord Almighty is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Devotional: Sometimes life takes twists you did not anticipate. You go in one direction and come out turned completely around, moving in ways you never intended, uncertain of what happened in the middle. Psalm 46 describes a world that feels like it is coming apart at the seams, mountains falling into the sea, nations in chaos. Yet the declaration remains: God is our refuge. He is present. He is our help. The child who came down the slide headfirst was not afraid, not because the ride was smooth, but because she knew her father was waiting at the bottom. Your Father is waiting. You will not be dropped.

Personal Reflection: Where in your life have you felt turned around or disoriented? How does the image of a faithful Father waiting to catch you speak to that place?

Honest Prayer Over Impressive Prayer
Reading: Matthew 6:5-8 - “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Devotional: Jesus is remarkably straightforward in Matthew 6 about what prayer is not meant to be. It is not a performance. It is not a formula. It is not a repetitive chant designed to break through divine resistance. Your Father already knows what you need. That truth is not meant to discourage prayer. It is meant to liberate it. You do not have to impress God. You do not have to sound eloquent. You do not have to have it all figured out before you speak. Raw honesty before an unseen God is not a lesser form of prayer. It is exactly the kind of prayer He welcomes.

Personal Reflection: Have you ever avoided praying because you did not know what to say or felt your words were not good enough? What would it mean to simply be honest with God today?

The Danger of Anxious Living
Reading: 1 Peter 5:6-8 - Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Devotional: Peter, who walked closely with Jesus for three years, understood the cost of allowing anxiety to lead. Anxiety blames, criticizes, and demands instant solutions. It sends the text before the thought is finished. It raises the voice before the facts are gathered. It turns a disagreement into a crisis and a concern into a catastrophe. Peter's instruction in 1 Peter 5:7 is a reminder that God actually cares about the things that are weighing on you. The invitation is not to pretend the burden does not exist. It is to hand it to the One whose shoulders are strong enough to carry it.

Personal Reflection: In what area of your life does anxiety most often take the lead? What would it look like to respond rather than react in that area?

Waiting Without Giving Up
Reading: Isaiah 43:1-3
But now, this is what the Lord says—
    he who created you, Jacob,
    he who formed you, Israel:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
    I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters,
    I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
    they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
    you will not be burned;
    the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the Lord your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I give Egypt for your ransom,
    Cush and Seba in your stead.

Devotional: Isaiah 43:2 does not say "if" you pass through the waters. It says "when." Difficulty is not a detour from the life of faith. It is part of the journey. The question is not whether hard seasons will come but whether you will trust the One who promises to be present within them. Waiting is one of the most difficult things a person can be asked to do, because waiting reveals how little control we actually have. But the God who speaks in Isaiah 43 is not a God who watches from a distance. He is a God who walks through the water with you.

Personal Reflection: What are you currently waiting on? How is that season of waiting shaping your trust in God?

The God Who Already Hears You
Reading: Luke 18:1-8 - Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Devotional: The widow in this parable had no power, no position, and no influence. She could not control the outcome. Yet she kept coming. It is tempting to treat prayer as a negotiation, as though the right words or the right amount of persistence might finally convince God to pay attention. But prayer is not about getting God's attention. You already have it. Prayer is not about convincing God to care. He already does. Prayer is the act of returning to the One who never stopped watching for you. Come back today. He is already there.

Personal Reflection: What have you been hesitant to bring to God because you doubted whether He was listening?

Choosing What Is Best
Reading: 
Luke 10:42 - but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Philippians 4:6-7 - Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 6:33 - But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Devotional: Jesus told Martha that Mary had chosen what is best, and that it would not be taken from her. That word "chosen" is significant. Sitting at the feet of Jesus was not accidental for Mary. It was a decision. Every day you are surrounded by good things competing for the space that belongs to the best thing. Philippians 4:6-7 calls you away from anxiety and toward prayer, promising a peace that surpasses understanding. Matthew 6:33 invites you to seek God's kingdom above everything else. Today, make the deliberate choice to give your full attention to what God has actually asked of you, and trust him with the rest.

Right Thing, Right Time
Reading:
Galatians 4:4 - But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

Ecclesiastes 8:5- Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm,
    and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.

Psalm 31:15 - My times are in your hands;
    deliver me from the hands of my enemies,
    from those who pursue me.

Devotional: Galatians 4:4 tells us that God sent his Son when the time was exactly right — not early, not late. The greatest act of love in human history was governed by divine timing. Ecclesiastes 8:5 affirms that a wise person does the right thing at the right time. Psalm 31:15 places our times firmly in God's hands. You may be carrying something that is genuinely right but is meeting resistance because the timing is not yet aligned. Wisdom is not just knowing what to do. It is trusting God enough to wait for when to do it. Rest in his timing today.

Called Back by Name
Reading:
Luke 10:41 - “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things..

John 10:3 - The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

Isaiah 43:1 -
But now, this is what the Lord says—
    he who created you, Jacob,
    he who formed you, Israel:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
    I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

Devotional: When Jesus said "Martha, Martha," he was not scolding her. He was calling her back. There is a tenderness in the repetition of a name that signals deep care rather than condemnation. Isaiah 43:1 reminds us that God calls each of us by name and claims us as his own. John 10:3 tells us the Good Shepherd calls his sheep by name and leads them. Today, imagine God speaking your name twice, gently, pulling you back from whatever has pulled you away. You are not in trouble. You are being invited back into something better than your distraction.

The Weight of Wanting
Reading: James 4:1-3 - What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

Devotional: James cuts straight to the heart of human conflict. At the root of nearly every argument, every frustration, every moment of tension is a simple reality: you want something you do not have. The gas pump that will not cooperate, the conversation that goes sideways, the plan that stalls — these surface irritations almost always point to something deeper. Before reacting today, pause and ask yourself what you are actually wanting beneath the frustration. Bring that honest want before God. He is not surprised by your desires. He simply wants to be the one you bring them to first.

The Danger of Distraction
Reading: Luke 10:38-42 - As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Devotional: Martha opened her home with genuine love, yet somewhere between the door and the kitchen, she lost herself in the noise of preparation. Distraction rarely announces itself. It creeps in wearing the costume of responsibility. Today, sit quietly and ask the question the sermon posed: what is distracting me? Not every demand on your attention deserves your attention. God is not asking you to do less. He is asking you to see clearly what matters most. Identify one thing pulling you away from what is truly best, and surrender it honestly to God in prayer today.

Remarkable Things
Reading: Ephesians 3:14-21 - For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Devotional: The witnesses in Luke 5 said they had seen remarkable things -- a word that carries the weight of a paradox, something that shattered every expectation they walked in with. Paul prays in Ephesians 3 that believers would know a love that surpasses knowledge and experience a God who does far more than anything we could ask or imagine. The Christian life is not meant to be predictable. It is meant to be full of moments where God exceeds what we thought was possible. Do not let familiarity shrink your expectation of what He can do in a single moment, including this one.

Reflection: What expectation have you placed on God that may be too small for who He actually is?

Faith That Moves
Reading: Galatians 6:1-5 - Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load.

Devotional: Galatians 6:2 teaches that carrying one another's burdens is how we fulfill the law of Christ. Faith in this passage is not passive or private -- it is physical, inconvenient, and visible. Jesus did not commend the paralyzed man's faith in Luke 5. He commended the faith of the men who carried him. Sometimes your faith is expressed not in what you believe about God but in what you are willing to do for someone else. The roof did not open itself. Someone had to climb up, tear it apart, and lower a friend down. That is what living faith looks like.

Reflection: In what area of your life is God calling you to move from good intentions to visible action?

Your Deepest Need
Reading: Psalm 103:1-5 - 
Praise the Lord, my soul;
    all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins
    and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
    and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Devotional: When the paralyzed man was lowered through the roof, everyone in the room expected Jesus to address his legs. Instead, Jesus addressed his soul. Psalm 103 reminds us that God forgives all our sins before He heals all our diseases -- not because physical healing does not matter, but because the deeper wound is always spiritual. Jesus looked past the presenting problem and saw the root. This is what makes His love unlike any other. He does not treat symptoms. He goes to the source. Whatever you brought into this moment, He sees what is beneath it.

Reflection: What are you asking God to fix on the surface that He may want to heal at a deeper level?

The Crowd Is Not Your Enemy
Reading: Romans 15:1-7 - We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

Devotional: In Luke 5, the crowd blocking the door was not malicious. They were simply people who wanted the same thing -- to be near Jesus. Yet they became an unintentional obstacle. In life, the people who get in your way are often not against you. They are simply pursuing their own need. Paul writes in Romans 15 about bearing with one another and welcoming each other as Christ welcomed us. The call is not to resent the crowd but to find creative ways to move through it together. Grace sees the crowd differently.

Reflection: Is there someone you have been treating as an obstacle who is actually on the same journey as you?

People Who Go Up on the Roof
Reading: Luke 5:19-26 - Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”

Devotional: The paralyzed man in this passage could not get to Jesus on his own. He needed people who refused to accept obstacles as final answers. His friends saw a crowd and chose a rooftop. Their determination was not reckless -- it was love in action. Who in your life is waiting for someone to carry them forward? The most powerful thing you can do for another person is refuse to give up on getting them to the one who can meet their deepest need. Friendship, at its finest, looks like effort that costs you something.

Reflection: Who are you carrying right now, and who is carrying you?

Casting Your Anxiety on the One Who Cares

Reading:
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:6-7

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

Devotional: First Peter 5:6-7 offers one of Scripture's most tender invitations — to cast your anxiety on God because he genuinely cares for you. This is not a passive suggestion. The language is active and intentional. Cast it. Throw it. Release it. Philippians 4:6-7 adds that when we bring our requests to God with thanksgiving, a peace that surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts and minds. Worry demands that you carry what you were never designed to hold. God does not ask you to figure everything out. He asks you to bring it to him. Today, come to him — not with polished words, but with honest surrender.

Reflection Question: What would change in your daily life if you consistently practiced casting your anxiety on God rather than carrying it alone?

Worry Sees the Picture, But Not the Whole Picture
Reading: Proverbs 3:5-6 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths straight.

Devotional: Proverbs 3:5-6 calls us to trust God fully rather than leaning on our own limited understanding. Worry, by its very nature, operates with incomplete information. It fills in the blanks with worst-case outcomes and convinces us that what we fear is what is certain. But God sees the whole picture — every detail, every outcome, every person involved — and he remains unmoved. You are not navigating your circumstances with partial vision alone. God sees what you cannot.

Reflection Question: What blind spots might worry be creating in how you are viewing your current circumstances?

Seek His Kingdom First
Reading: Luke 12:29-31 - And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

Devotional: Jesus does not simply identify the problem of worry and walk away. He offers a remedy. In Luke 12:29-31, he instructs his followers to seek God's kingdom — his reign, his rule, his ways — as the active alternative to anxious living. Seeking the kingdom is not passive. It is a deliberate reorientation of your attention and your trust. It means asking, in the middle of whatever is unsettling you: what does God want here? What would it look like if his ways were fully at work in this situation? When you seek his reign, you are no longer the one carrying the weight alone.

Reflection Question: What area of your life have you not yet surrendered to God's reign and rule?

The Danger of Moving Too Soon
Reading: 1 Samuel 13:5-14 - Saul remained at Gilgal, and all the troops with him were quaking with fear. He waited seven days, the time set by Samuel; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and Saul’s men began to scatter. So he said, “Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings.” And Saul offered up the burnt offering. Just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to greet him.

“What have you done?” asked Samuel.

Saul replied, “When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Mikmash, I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the Lord’s favor.’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.”

“You have done a foolish thing,” Samuel said. “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”

Devotional: Saul saw the enemy assembling. He saw Samuel absent. He saw his men scattering. And then he acted. In 1 Samuel 13:5-14, we watch a king make a catastrophic decision not out of rebellion, but out of panic. Worry became his decision maker, and it cost him everything. When anxiety rises, the temptation to do something — anything — feels overwhelming. But sometimes the most faithful response is stillness. God's timing rarely matches our urgency. Before you send the message, end the relationship, or take matters into your own hands, pause. Ask God what he sees that you do not.

Reflection Question: Is there a situation in your life right now where worry is pressuring you to act before God has given you direction?

When Worry Takes the Wheel
Reading: Luke 12:22-26 - Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

Devotional: Jesus does not whisper his instruction — he declares it directly to his closest followers: do not worry about your life. In Luke 12:22-26, he reminds us that worry cannot add a single hour to our existence. It consumes energy, distorts reality, and drives decisions that are better left unmade. Worry is not wisdom. It is imagination running without a leash. Today, identify one specific thing pulling at your mind. Name it. Then ask yourself honestly: is worrying about this producing anything of value? Surrender what you cannot control and trust the One who holds every hour.

Reflection Question: What has worry convinced you to believe that simply is not true?

Put Yourself in the Frame
Reading: Luke 15:20 - So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

Devotional: The most important question from this series is not what you see when you look at someone else. It is what you see when you step into the story yourself. When you place yourself in the frame, everything shifts. You are not just the observer at the table. You have been the woman in the room. You have been the one who did not belong, the one no one invited, the one whose past walked in ahead of you. And Jesus did not turn away. He let you come. He washed your feet. He called you forgiven. Now go and do likewise.

Reflection: When you honestly place yourself inside these stories, who do you most identify with, and what does that reveal about where God is still at work in you?

Do Not Grow Away From People
Reading: Galatians 6:1-5 - Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load.

Devotional: Growth is a gift. But growth can quietly become a wall. The further along you travel in your faith, the easier it becomes to forget what it felt like to be at the beginning. You remember the confusion, the shame, the searching. But memory fades, and comfort sets in, and before long you are looking at someone else's starting line with impatience rather than compassion. Do not grow so far that you lose sight of where someone else is standing. Your maturity was never meant to distance you from people. It was meant to equip you to walk back toward them and stay close.

Reflection: How has your spiritual growth either drawn you closer to struggling people or created distance from them?

What Acceptance Actually Costs
Reading: Romans 15:1-7 - We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me..........Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

Devotional: Acceptance is not a passive thing. It costs something. It cost Jesus everything. When Paul bookends his teaching in Romans 14 and 15 with the same instruction to accept one another, he is not being repetitive. He is being insistent. He knows how hard it is. He knows the community he is writing to is full of people with different politics, different religious backgrounds, different convictions. And yet the call stands. Accept one another just as Christ accepted you. Not after they clean up. Not once they agree with you. Just as. The just as is the hard part, and it is the whole point.

Reflection: Is there someone in your life or your church community whom you have accepted conditionally rather than fully?

Selective Sight
Reading: Romans 2:1-4 - You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

Devotional: Simon watched the woman and thought, she does not belong here. He never once turned that same gaze on himself. This is the quiet danger of selective rule following. We enforce standards for others that we quietly suspend for ourselves. We notice the gym hoarder but forget our own reserved parking spot. We see the speck and miss the plank. Jesus did not shame Simon publicly. He told him a story and invited him to see himself in it. That is what Scripture does when we let it. It holds up a mirror. The question is whether we are willing to look.

Reflection: Where in your life are you holding others to a standard you are not applying to yourself?

The Circle Is Bigger Than You Think
Reading: Luke 7:36-50 - When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”

Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”

“Tell me, teacher,” he said.

“Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

Devotional:
There is always someone in the room who does not seem to belong. Simon the Pharisee saw the woman and immediately began calculating her worth, her reputation, her right to be near Jesus. But Jesus never flinched. He let her come. He welcomed what she brought. The circle Simon was drawing in his mind was far too small. Jesus has always drawn a larger one. Before you assess who belongs in the spaces you occupy, consider this: someone once made room for you. Extend the same grace that found you to the very next person who walks through the door.

Reflection: Who have you mentally excluded from the circle lately, and what would it look like to genuinely welcome them?