Saturday, January 24, 2026
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Romans 11-12
Key Verse
Romans 11:29 — “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”
Devotional Thought
Paul opens Romans 12 with a plea that rests on everything he has just written: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God.” The word “therefore” reaches back through the deep waters of Romans 11—the mystery of Israel and the Gentiles, the olive tree with its grafted branches, the unsearchable judgments of God. Because mercy has been shown to us, we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice. In late January, when the year’s resolve often begins to sag and the days feel long and gray, this is a timely word. The Christian life is not a burst of January enthusiasm that fades by February; it is a daily laying down, a steady offering.
Paul knew what it was to be a living sacrifice. He was an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin, once a persecutor, now the apostle of the Gentiles. In Romans 11 he wrestles with the hardest question of his heart: Has God cast away His people? His answer rings through the centuries—”God forbid.” Even when Israel stumbled, God preserved a remnant according to the election of grace. Elijah once thought he was left alone, but God had reserved seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal. Grace is never earned; it is given. And it is never exhausted; God is able to graft in again even the branches that were broken off.
Notice where this great theology lands: in the ordinary texture of relationships. Paul moves from the depths of divine wisdom straight into the duties of daily love. “Let love be without dissimulation.” “Be kindly affectioned one to another.” “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.” “If thine enemy hunger, feed him.” The doctrines of grace are meant to produce a certain kind of person—humble, hospitable, patient, unwilling to repay evil for evil. The renewed mind proves itself not in speculation but in how we treat the neighbor across the street and the difficult coworker down the hall.
This is the season for such quiet faithfulness. A living sacrifice is offered not once but continually, in the cold mornings and the long evenings, in small kindnesses no one sees. Paul reminds us not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought, and not to be conformed to this world. In a culture that rewards self-assertion and vengeance, the believer is called to overcome evil with good. “Be not overcome of evil,” Paul writes, “but overcome evil with good.” That is a resolution worth keeping all year long.
Reflection
- Where in your daily life is God asking you to be a “living sacrifice”—not in a dramatic moment, but in the ordinary routines of this week?
- Paul says to “rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.” Who near you is rejoicing or weeping right now, and how might you enter into their joy or sorrow today?
Prayer
Father, we come to You on the foundation of Your mercies, which are new every morning. You have not cast away Your people, and You have grafted us, wild branches though we are, into the richness of Your olive tree. Teach us to present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to You. Renew our minds so that we are not conformed to this world but transformed by Your grace. Give us love without pretense, patience in tribulation, and hearts that overcome evil with good. To You be glory forever. Amen.