Your Summer Reading List June 17, 2026 Devotional

“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
Luke 15:28-30

There is a tendency we all have to base our worth or the worth of others on what they can produce or how they live. This line of thinking and comparing will lead a person to a place of frustration and anger—like the older brother. The brother is missing at least two aspects of the father. That the father’s love is abundant and free. No amount of work and striving will cause the father to love; the father is love. The love of the father is abundant not a zero-sum game; more than enough for everyone. The father loves the older brother no less because of his love for the younger. The brother has lost the plot of God’s loving reconciling nature. All of us, like the brother, need to be reminded that our worth is based on the love the Father has for us, which leads to joy when others experience grace and forgiveness.

Where do you see your value or the value of others?

How is your joy today?