NIV Devotions for Women - Blessed Are the Desperate

Zechariah 1:1–21

I’m a colorful sinner, and I’ve fallen woefully short of God’s glory. I’m desperate for divine help. We all are.

C.S. Lewis paints a vivid description of how we humans seem to desecrate every good thing God does for us. In his book Letters to Malcolm, Lewis writes, “We poison the wine as He decants it into us; murder a melody He would play with us as the instrument. We caricature the self-portrait He would paint. Hence all sin, whatever else it is, is a sacrilege.”

Maybe you expect rejection from a perfect God because of your less-than-perfect past. Or maybe you’re spiritually crippled by a sin that seems unforgivable. But the good news of the gospel is that our heavenly Father loves us with an everlasting love.

We need to acknowledge the fact that we’re crippled—that there is nothing righteous in us, that we are desperate for his mercy. And when the Spirit prompts us to recognize our need for salvation, God provides a Savior through the sacrifice of his only son, Jesus, who rescues us from barren places and gives us a seat next to him at the Lord’s banquet table.

Because of God’s mercy, our stained hearts have been bleached by the blood of the Lamb. The God who spoke the universe into existence, who breathed life into Adam, who stretched out the heavens and the necks of giraffes, has looked down, taken our hand in his, and said, “Yep, she’s mine.” Even though we’re crippled, we have been royally adopted by the King of kings and Lord of lords. We are listed as his next of kin. Our names are written on his hands and in his book of life. His love for us is based on his character, not our performance. And it is greater than we could ever hope for or imagine.

“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)

Blessed are the desperate.

—Lisa Harper

Reflection

1. Describe a time when you felt desperate for God’s mercy. How did God rescue you from the barren place?
2. When did you know that you belonged to God? How does knowing that your name is written on his hand and in his book of life comfort you?
3. In today’s passage, the Lord spoke of those who would not listen to him. Do you know people like that? Spend time praying that they will begin to hear God’s voice and turn or return to his Son.

Zechariah 1:4, 6 
“Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the earlier prophets proclaimed: This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Turn from your evil ways and your evil practices.’ But they would not listen or pay attention to me, declares the LORD . . . But did not my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, overtake your ancestors?”

Related Readings

Isaiah 55:6–13; Malachi 3:6–7; 1 Peter 2:22–24