Monday's Verse of the Day Devotional

Good morning! Often, pity is looked at a negative word like feeling sorry for someone. I remember watching the Rocky movies as a kid and seeing Mr. T saying, "I pity the fool!" meaning he felt sorry for Rocky and thought he was a lousy fighter. It was negatively used.

But, in this verse, the word "pities" is used in a very positive way. It means to love deeply, have tender affection for with compassion. When a father sees his children in distress or struggling, he has compassion on them because of his great love for them.

A good father knows when to intervene and when to let them struggle. When we fear the Lord, He has mercy on us in our struggle with sin. He sent Jesus to take pay the penalty for our sin so we can be free. But, if we continue in sin, He lets trouble come so we see the error of our ways through the struggle.

He knows when to intervene and when to let us struggle. A young boy had a pet caterpillar in a cage that he fed and watched for days. One day, the caterpillar made a cocoon. The boy waited and watched until one day the cocoon started to move and open. He saw a butterfly starting to emerge.

He had pity on the creature as he watched it struggle to get free of the cocoon. So, he thought he would help it out and opened the cocoon. A couple days later, to the boys dismay, he found the butterfly deceased in the bottom of the cage. He talked to his father and told him what happened. He asked his father why the butterfly died.

His father told him he had good intentions by pitying the butterfly but his actions actually killed the creature. The boy was puzzled and asked how. The father explained that as the butterfly emerges, it struggles to get out and through that struggle, it gains the strength it needs to survive in its new life.

So, as Christians, we struggle. Sometimes, the Lord helps us out of those struggles because He doesn't want us to needlessly suffer. But, in other times, He lets us struggle, because in those times, He knows we need the strength and character that the struggle will build to carry us forward in the life He has for us. Fear the Lord, let His loving kindness teach you how to help others so you can both be strong to make a great day!