Sermon: 8/23/26- Wednesday's Devotional

The Pattern of Grace
Reading: Judges 3:7-11; Romans 5:8

The cycle in Judges -- disobedience, judgment, crying out, deliverance, peace -- can look like a story of failure. But look more carefully. Every time the people cried out, God responded. He did not leave them in their oppression. He sent a deliverer. Othniel, Ehud, and the judges who followed were not instruments of judgment -- they were instruments of grace and mercy. This same pattern points forward to Christ, the ultimate Deliverer sent in response to humanity's cry. The book of Judges is not primarily a record of Israel's failures. It is a record of God's relentless faithfulness toward a people who kept falling off the bike.

Reflection: Where in your own story do you see God's pattern of deliverance at work, even in seasons you once thought He was absent?

Practical Application: Take time today to trace one difficult season of your life and identify at least one way God was at work during it, even if you did not see it then.