August 22, 2024

Devotion for August 22, 2024

 

Reading: Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

 

Many students in our area return to school this week. They will go to new classrooms to meet new teachers. When they get to these places, they will have the opportunity to renew friendships from last year and make new friends. This is both exciting and can also make several young people nervous.

 

As a new school year starts, these young people are given the chance to make a new beginning. The grade book is wiped clean from last year, and they are given the opportunity to do better than they did the prior year. When the school year starts, people are anxious to see how these students do in their classes and what progress they make academically along with which activities they decide to try this year.

 

As a community, we are invited to pray for these students. Our prayers revolve around them having a successful year of school. We want to see them do well, and our desire for them is to excel in the classroom this year. Everyone is happy when the students in the community are doing well and are able to have amazing accomplishments.

 

As we pray for these students, we are also reminded that God wants a renewed relationship with every one of us. We all know there are times when we have fallen short of being the people God has created and called us to be. We have failed at always making God the number one priority in our lives, and we have fallen short of being able to love our neighbors as ourselves.

 

We have felt the pain of these shortcomings. We have had those moments when we think God has walked out on us when, in fact, we have tried to run away from God. We have also had those times when we have experienced strained relationships with the people God has placed in our lives.

 

God does not want our lives to be defined by our failures and sins. God wants our lives to be defined by having a right relationship with him that empowers us to have restored relationships with other people. That is why God sent Jesus into the world for us. When Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave, Jesus overcame our shortcomings once and for all. We have been given a new start. Our sins are completely wiped away, and our lives are wiped clean.

 

When we see new beginnings in our communities and schools, we get the opportunity to be reminded and to celebrate the new beginning all of us have been given in Jesus.

 

Let us pray. Awesome God, thank you for our schools. You have provided us with a place where students can grow and learn. We ask you to be with our students during this upcoming school year. Help them to experience new beginnings. We also ask that, as we watch our students experience these new beginnings, that we would be reminded of the new beginning you give to all of us through your Son. Amen.

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