The Curious Pilgrim

Daily Office Reflections – Monday, July 20

God’s Ways Are Not Our Ways

Readings: Psalm 41 • 1 Samuel 24:1–22 • Acts 13:44–52 • Mark 4:1–20

Today’s Daily Office readings reveal a timeless truth: God’s purposes never change, but our response to them does.

The psalmist reminds us that God is eternal. “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.” God is infinite while we are finite. We see only a small piece of the story; God sees the whole picture. The psalm also proclaims that the Lord watches over the poor, strengthens the weak, and delivers them in times of trouble. Humanity’s greatest poverty is often not material but spiritual—a lack of understanding of God’s heart and God’s purposes.

Jesus illustrates this reality in the Parable of the Sower. The same seed is scattered everywhere, yet it produces four very different responses. Some hearts are hardened and never receive the message. Others respond with enthusiasm but quickly fall away. Some allow the worries, riches, and distractions of life to choke the seed. Still others receive God’s word with open hearts, and their lives bear abundant fruit.

The stories of Saul and David bring Jesus’ parable to life. Saul allowed jealousy and fear to harden his heart. Instead of celebrating God’s work through David, he sought to destroy him. David, however, responded differently. Though he had every opportunity to kill Saul, he refused to harm “the Lord’s anointed.” He merely cut off a corner of Saul’s robe, and even that troubled his conscience. Confronted with David’s mercy, Saul confessed, “You are more righteous than I.” For a brief moment, Saul saw what God had been trying to teach him.

The same contrast appears in Acts. Paul and Barnabas proclaimed the good news throughout Asia Minor. Many of the Jewish leaders reacted much like Saul—with jealousy. Rather than rejoicing that God’s salvation was reaching more people, they stirred up opposition and drove the missionaries from the city. The Gentiles, however, responded with joy. They embraced the message that they, too, were included in God’s covenant of grace, and the gospel spread even farther.

These readings invite me to ask a simple but searching question: What kind of soil am I? When God challenges my assumptions, expands my understanding, or calls me beyond my comfort zone, do I respond like Saul—with fear and jealousy—or like David, Paul, Barnabas, and the Gentiles—with humility, mercy, and joy?

God’s ways are often different from our expectations. Again and again, God chooses mercy over revenge, inclusion over exclusion, forgiveness over retaliation, and love over fear.

As a follower of Jesus, I pray that my heart will remain good soil—ready to receive God’s word, willing to be transformed by it, and eager to bear fruit for the sake of God’s kingdom.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” says the Lord. (Isaiah 55:8)