OUR DAILY BREAD DEVOTIONAL READING MAY 13, 2025, TUESDAY ODB MESSAGE
Our Daily Bread Tuesday 13th May 2025 Devotional TOPIC: A Helping Hand
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 2 Kings 17-18; John 3:19-36
KEY VERSE: “ ‘If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you.
TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
Leviticus 25:35-38
INSIGHT FOR TODAY
Every seven years, the people of Israel and all who lived with them were to stop their agricultural pursuits and live off only what the ground yielded (Leviticus 25:1-7). This was called the Sabbath Year. They let the land rest and enjoyed the fruit of that rest for a full year as they depended on God to provide for them.
In addition, every fifty years (after the seventh sabbath year), they observed the Year of Jubilee (vv. 8-55). Not only were the people to let the land rest, but they were also to cancel all debts across the nation and return all ancestral property to the families and tribes to whom it originally belonged. The Year of Jubilee compassionately prevented families from getting stuck in cycles of poverty so that all God’s people could enjoy the blessings of the land that He alone had given them.
Our Daily Bread Tuesday 13th May 2025 Devotional MESSAGE
In the early 1900s, laws restricted Black people and immigrants in the United States from renting or buying property in Coronado, California. A Black man named Gus Thompson (who’d been born into slavery) had purchased land earlier and built a boarding home in Coronado before the discriminating laws were passed. In 1939, Gus rented to an Asian family, and eventually sold the land to them. Nearly eighty-five years later, after selling the property, some members of the Asian family are donating their proceeds from the sale to help Black college students. They’re also working to name a center at San Diego State University after Gus and his wife, Emma.
Leviticus also speaks of what it means to treat others well. God instructed His people, “Help [the poor] as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you” (25:35). He instructed the people to treat each other well and fairly, especially those in need. Out of reverent “fear” (v. 36) for Him, they were to help those who’d fallen on hard times and weren’t able to take care of themselves. They were to treat them just as they would treat a “foreigner and stranger” (v. 35)—with hospitality and love.
Gus Thompson and his wife helped a family that didn’t look like them. In return, that family is blessing many other people. Let’s extend God’s compassion to those in need as He helps us reveal His love for them.
REFLECT: Who needs help in your community? How can you extend care to them?
PRAY: Caring Father, please open my eyes so I can see how to help others.
Our Daily Bread Ministries (ODB) is a Christian organization founded by Dr. Martin De Haan in 1938. It is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with over 600 employees. It produces several devotional publications, including Our Daily Bread. our daily bread devotional for today audio our daily bread booklet. (Our Daily Bread 13th May 2025 Devotional)