THE UPPER ROOM DAILY DEVOTIONAL 18 JULY 2024, THURSDAY MESSAGE
TOPIC: Broken Crayons
TODAY’S READING
Romans 12:1-8
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. – Psalm 51:17 (NRSVUE)
TODAY’S MESSAGE
At the end of each school year, my mom would put all the broken crayons from the classroom in a container for me to use at home. I never liked broken crayons, but those broken crayons still colored.
My granddaughter, Arianna, is an artist. For a project, she once took brand-new packs of crayons and broke them on purpose into different lengths. She then carefully arranged the pieces on a piece of wood until a picture emerged: a child’s hand and an adult’s joined together with a butterfly hovering above them. The beauty of the colors and the amount of work that went into the piece of art are apparent to all who view it.
God wants to make us new — to transform us. Even when we feel broken and useless, God still has a purpose for us. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he urged them to offer their “bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” and to “not be conformed to this age, but to be transformed by the renewing of the mind.” Just as broken crayons still color and can be repurposed into something beautiful, God can transform and redeem our brokenness.
TODAY’S PRAYER
Dear God, thank you for helping us to find new purpose even when we are broken. Transform us so that we may serve you well. Amen.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
God can redeem my brokenness.
PRAYER FOCUS
Young artists
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More from Carol Harrison
The Upper Room Daily Devotional 18 July 2024 Message. The Upper Room is a daily devotional magazine published in more than 30 languages and 100 countries around the world. The daily meditations are written by readers of the magazine and others interested in sharing their faith experiences through writing—both laity and clergy, published authors and new writers. The meditations are stories of real people working to live faithfully with the Bible as their touchstone. Every day, readers of The Upper Room around the world read the same story in many different languages and pray the same prayer together. Read More
