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World Changing Words Devotional-Day 33

by David Joynt on September 03, 2020


HABAKKUK 2:4 | 4 Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.

In relationships, like marriage, the test comes when things are difficult. The promise to love “for better or worse” becomes real when things are “worse.” Habakkuk develops a view of our relationship with God that moves beyond obedience to His laws and instructions. That obedience may arise from fear or greed, if we anticipate rebellion will lead to adverse effects and conformity to success. This reduces our motivation to self-interest and runs the grave risk that God is not loved genuinely, because of who He is, but only for “what He can do for me.”

 Instead the just “live by faith”—even when wishes are not fulfilled, when difficulties occur, when failure looms.

 How unconditional are your relationships?

 What motivates you?

 

Tags: obedience, motivate

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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