Live Your Blessing February 14, 2026 Devotional

MATTHEW 5:45 | ⁴⁵ so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.

This is a deep and profound teaching. God does not, in the here and now, apportion His judgement and blessing according to our relative levels of merit and demerit. Yes, often bad or careless behavior has unpleasant or destructive consequences, but ultimate final judgement is still to come.

Now this can be frustrating when we are victimized or we see evil succeeding. We want judgement to happen now! But we live in the time of God’s forbearance, when His grace calls the world to           repentance and His mercy is offered to those who respond. If God dealt with us all according to our desserts, no one could stand.     Instead, God blesses even those who don’t deserve it, with sun and rain, and many other things that provide opportunities for life and growth, for love and goodness. He poses to each one the question of whether we’ll see His gifts as gifts, His blessings as blessings, and respond with gratitude and faith. God uses both provisional judgements, or reality checks, and blessings to awaken us to His will and ways.

Thank God for His undeserved daily blessings.

Gracious God,

I live in a world of perpetual blessing, of fruitfulness and beauty. I enjoy the gift of language to express my inner world and connect with others, and to pray to You, the source of every good and perfect gift.

Amen.