After 20+ years and nearly 1,900 devotionals here on the website (more than 4,000 overall), we’re expanding to Instagram at @gleaningsdevotional.
You have been asking for them to be added to Instagram, We listened.
Our full issueswill always live right here — but Instagram gives you a daily visual reminder to visit, with Scripture graphics and devotional highlights designed to point you back to the full post.
Think of it as a signpost, not a substitute.
A New Feature
We have also recently added a new feature. Each issue now contains a summary and three key points. That’s because some of you have asked for them to accompany small group discussion
Let’s talk about faith. I recently overheard a conversation in a coffee shop.
A couple of fellows I didn’t know were having an animated discussion. One of the men said, “Who needs faith? I’ve lived my whole life without it.”
His friend replied with a sarcastic “Amen!” From the little I heard, it was clear that they were making fun of a mutual friend or acquaintance.
They continued for quite a while, mocking anything to do with faith or religion, before moving on to some other topic.
I wanted to (but didn’t) ask how they were managing to sit or drink their coffee. The chairs hold them up, but only their faith in that fact allowed them to sit.
If they didn’t have faith in the chair’s safety, they never would have sat down. They had faith that the coffee cup wouldn’t suddenly break and pour scalding liquid on them; otherwise, they never would have picked those cups up.
We have faith that we’re going to be alive in the morning or we would never set our alarms. We have faith that we’re going to be alive for the evening meal or we wouldn’t plan the menu.
Whether we recognize it or not, we all have faith in something. We simply couldn’t function without it. Even the most ardent atheist has faith, not faith in God but faith in many things.
Faith Matters
Faith is critical; without it, our lives would fall apart.
Even more critical, though, is where you place your faith. If all your faith is in personal relationships, you are going to get burned at times because people and circumstances change, and you will eventually get hurt.
If all your faith is in your wealth, you’ll worry about the value of your investments and while you can be wise and diligent about your investment choices, you could lose it all.
If your faith is in science, you’ll be shaken as new discoveries throw out old “facts”.
If your faith is in your own wisdom and abilities, you’ll be destroyed if those things are taken away. When all my faith was in my abilities and I suffered my brain injury, my whole world collapsed. Only coming to faith in Christ sustained me.
You can’t live life without faith. More importantly, your eternal destiny depends not only in faith but in faith in the right person.
There is only one unchanging place to put our faith, one true eternal hope. That place is Christ.
