Week of March 29, 2026
I AM MY ACTIONS AND COMMITMENTS
Monday | March 30
Read: Matthew 6:19-24 & 33
Devotion: What are you committed to? What values, desires, and goals drive the choices you make? These are significant questions for us this week. With all the issues and noise clamoring for our attention, our time, and our resources, we don’t often take time to reflect on what is influencing how we use our time, our energy, our money, or how we choose to treat others. In our Bible reading today, Jesus calls us to ask ourselves what we are committed to. It is so important because the answer shows us the state of our hearts.
If you are like me, you just might discover that your heart is straying from its commitment to Jesus and living according to His way. With an honest look at where my time is going these days, I have discovered that my heart seems overly committed to personal comfort. Too much time watching shows, playing games, scrolling through internet videos, and couch-sitting...
Sure, I can rationalize and say, “But I read the Bible, go to worship, and pray. I do things to help others.” However, my commitment to other things reveals the truth that my heart keeps seeking things of this world, which detracts from my commitment to seeking God’s kingdom.
I am so thankful that Jesus doesn’t give up on me. His heart keeps reaching out, keeps calling me back. He keeps inviting me to a better life with Him, and to learn that it is there where the greatest treasure lies.
Reflect: As you think about how you devote your time, energy, and resources, what do you appear to be most committed to? What changes would you like to make?
Pray: Lord Jesus, I confess that I tend to treasure the things of this world in my heart more than I should. Forgive my misplaced priorities, show me what I need to leave behind, and help me to set my heart on you.
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Tuesday | March 31
Read: Mark 8:31-38
Devotion: Often, we choose our actions and commitments to achieve specific goals. We may commit to a specific job to gain more financial security, to a book club to make new friends, or to a cooking class to learn how to make the perfect soufflé. A commitment requires dedicating oneself to a specific cause or obligation. Our culture tells us to choose our commitments to gain what we want from this world. But Jesus tells us differently. Jesus states in Mark 8:36, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”
Commitments can be very good. Yet there are times when we allow our earthly commitments to pull our attention away from the spiritual commitments in our lives. We sometimes focus on gaining “the world” at the cost of forfeiting the caretaking of our own souls.
How do we combat this? Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. That means putting Jesus' commitments before our own. It means submitting our desires and dedications to Him and allowing Him to direct our commitments instead. God’s ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. There is no one better to whom we can make our commitments.
Reflect: Is there a worldly commitment in your life that has been overshadowing your spiritual commitments? Is there something God is asking you to commit to? Something God is asking you to step back from?
Pray: Dear Lord, thank you for reminding me of Your goodness and Your ways. I pray that You would shed light on my commitments. Show me the areas where I have tried to gain the world. Help me to let go of commitments that don’t honor You and lead me to the right commitments. I choose to deny myself today to seek and pursue Your will. Lead me and guide me, oh Lord. Amen.
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Wednesday | April 1
Read: John 12:20-36
Devotion: There were 10 frogs on a log. One frog decided to jump off. How many frogs were left on the log?
Think about it this way. Deciding to do something is very different from doing it. When I was a young teen, a popular song in youth groups was “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.” Many of us would sing those words with heartfelt gusto at youth nights, but what happened the rest of the week? Speaking for myself, and many of my friends, we spent a lot of time following plans that were pretty far from following Jesus. Like that one frog, we had decided, but our commitment and our actions often did not follow. Even now, as an adult Christian, I struggle. Too often, I have decided to be more loving to someone, to give my prayer life more attention, to spend more time serving others, only to fall back into old routines.
In today’s reading from the Gospel of John, Jesus shows true commitment to action. He was committed to carrying out the Father’s plan to save us. The reality of how difficult and painful it would be disturbed Him deep in His soul, and yet He followed through.
Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13, NIV) Then He showed us how true that statement is. Thank God for Jesus’ commitment to action on our behalf. May his action inspire and empower us toward a greater commitment to walk in his light and love.
Reflect: How has Jesus’ saving action shaped how you see yourself and how you live your life?
Pray: Jesus, thank you for your commitment to action to set me free from the power of sin and death. Help me move from decision to action when it comes to living and loving as you do. Amen.
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Thursday | April 2
Read: James 1:22-27 & 2:14-26
Devotion: Have you ever piled into the car after church and grabbed some lunch, when a well-meaning family member asked you the (possibly slightly infuriating) question, “So, what did you learn at church today?” Or have you ever read through a chapter in the Bible just to get to the end and realize you can’t recall a single word you’ve read?
This happens to the best of us and has been happening for a very long time. The book of James warns us: "Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” Listening to a sermon is great! Reading the Bible is invaluable! But along with learning and listening comes the responsibility to continue in it, and as James says, “not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it.”
James gets even more confrontational later in the next chapter when he says the blunt words: “Faith without works is dead.”
Does this mean we are saved by our works? Absolutely not. Does it mean that we must try hard to be good enough? No. Rather, it’s a reminder that as we continue forward in faith, we are also called to act. Just as a branch connected to a vine bears fruit by the vine’s power alone, so we are equipped through faith to do good works by the power of God alone. Let’s let our actions show the faith we have in our great God!
Reflect: How does your faith cause you to act personally? Is there an action you feel God leading you to take in your life right now?
Pray: Dear Lord, I confess that there have been times when I have looked at Your word, walked away, and immediately forgotten what it said. I am sorry for the times that You have led me to take action, and I have not followed through. Help me to see the importance of bearing the fruit of good works through abiding in You. Show me the next step that You would like me to take and give me the strength to follow through. I am ready. Amen.
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Friday | April 3
Read: Ephesians 4:1-6 &15-16
Devotion: Growing up, my dad was very adamant that we follow through on our commitments. If we set out to do something, we needed to see it through. I believe he came to regret this when I decided to play basketball in middle school. To say I was uncoordinated would be an understatement. But, as my parents sat through every painful game, I was reminded to stick to my commitments and that quitting was not an option.
Our commitment to living as followers of Jesus sometimes feels like middle school basketball. Some of us seem to really know what is going on - they are the point scorers, boosting team morale along the way. As Christians, they seem to wear the aroma of Christ with ease. They just don’t seem to struggle with sin the same way others do. Then there are those who talk a big game, but the minute they get on the court, everything falls apart. We see Christians in name only, who use the name of Jesus only when it benefits them, and have two sets of words and actions based on who they are with. Then there is me - stumbling through the game, just trying to remember which way we are going and not to stand directly under the basket. These are Christians who try and try again - who stumble and fall, but continue to ask for forgiveness, change, and repeat.
No matter who you are in this analogy, the point is that you don’t quit. You stick it out. You follow Jesus with your heart, mind, soul, and body, and when you fail, you get up and try again. You are not alone in this fight, but you have the greatest teammate and coach in Christ.
Reflect: Who are you on this court? As a follower of Jesus, do you find it easy to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called?” (Eph.4:1) Or is it a daily struggle to turn your heart to Jesus, repent, and continue to fight for your faith?
Pray: Lord, help us live the way You have shown us. Give us wisdom, courage, and encouragement as we fight the good fight. In Your Name, Amen.
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Saturday | April 4
Read: Colossians 3:12-17
Devotion: Jesus was put to death so that we can put on life. Jesus was dressed in grave clothes, so that we can be dressed in the clothes of heaven. The clothes of heaven are not abstract, ethereal, or other-worldly. They are the things Paul tells us to put on in Colossians 3: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, peace, love, and forgiveness. Just as Jesus was dressed in death, so we are dressed by him in life. This way of life is a gift from Jesus, imparted from him, and put on by the power of the Holy Spirit.
If you are wondering if you’ve experienced the power of the Holy Spirit, ask yourself if you’ve experienced gentleness when you wanted to be harsh. Ask yourself if you’ve experienced peace in chaos. Ask yourself if you’ve ever been able to forgive in an impossible situation. This is God’s gift of life for us. This is the clothing of the empty tomb.
Jesus took his rest in the grave so that we can rest in him. Our Christian life requires effort, action, commitment, follow through. But it requires the right starting place- an identity squarely rooted in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. These 40 days of Lent have been an opportunity for us to root our own identities in the work of Jesus Christ and to see how a faithful life of love flows from it. Christ is risen; he is risen indeed! Go and put on this transformational life today and forever!
Reflect: How has Jesus shaped your identity over the past 40 days? What has shifted in your heart, mind, body, and soul?
Pray: Jesus, thank you for your love, for your sacrificial death, for your resurrection. Shape our hearts by your love and clothe us with your life. Enable us always to see who we are in you. Amen
