OUR DAILY BREAD DEVOTIONAL FOR TODAY
Our Daily Bread for today is here. Give us this day our daily bread (Matthew 6:11).
The word of God is food to the spirit man. “Eat and digest” the word of the Lord for today and let its unchanging power nuture your faith and help in your daily walk to Christ.
The Topic of Our Daily Bread For 2nd February 2025 is “Christ’s Visual Paradox”
Bible in a Year: Exodus 29-30Matthew 21:23-46
Memory Verse: Matthew 5:4
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Today’s Scripture & Insight: Matthew 5:1-12
The first and last beatitudes contain this promise: “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3, 10). Bible teacher D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones notes that Christ begins and ends with this phrase “because it is his way of saying that the first thing [believers in Jesus] have to realize . . . is that you belong to a different kingdom.” Believers live in two different worlds. We’re living on this earth, “but our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20). Christ sheds light on Matthew 5:10-12 in John 15:19-20: “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”
Click Here to Read Previous ODB Devotional
ODB MESSAGE FOR TODAY
One of the great hymn writers of all time, Isaac Watts, wrote “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.” In penning its lyrics, he used the poetic device of paradox to show a contrast in themes: “my richest gain I count but loss” and “pour contempt on all my pride.” We sometimes call these oxymorons, “words used in seeming contradiction to themselves”—like “awfully good” and “jumbo shrimp.” In the case of Watts’ lyrics, this device is far more profound.
Jesus used paradox often. “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3), He said, suggesting that those who have no hope will receive more than they could ever hope for. When you or I mourn the loss of someone dear and are sad, Jesus says we “will be comforted” (v. 4). Christ was showing how in God’s kingdom the common rules of life don’t apply.
These paradoxes tell us that life in Christ defies all expectations: we who are nobodies are cherished as somebodies. It was on the cross that Jesus bore a visual paradox—a crown of thorns. Isaac Watts took this symbol of ridicule and, paradoxically, gave it soaring beauty: “Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, / or thorns compose so rich a crown?” In this we thrill yet are mindful of the final line of the hymn: “Love so amazing, so divine, / demands my soul, my life, my all.”
Reflect & Pray
What statement in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5) do you most identify with? How does it relate to your life experience?
Dear God, thank You for Your sacrifice on the cross, for making me a somebody in Your kingdom.
Our Daily Bread 2025 Devotional is written by Con Campbell and published by Our Daily Bread Ministries. Read more
Visit the ODB official website here: www.odb.org
Thank you for reading. This Devotional was shared via www.TheDevotionals.Com.NG
♥Blessed by this? Click here to Share This Devotional
