Day 18: What Do You Value Most?

Devotional: Applying the Bible to my today.

Read: John 8:53-54

By José Heredia

I don’t consider myself to be a very organized person. But never have I lost more stuff than when my daughter, Everleigh, began to walk. She is at a very fun stage of life. She is discovering new things and, for better or for worse, she is learning to imitate my wife, Sammy, and me. Out of all the things she could have learned to imitate, my least favorite would be her wanting to throw away trash every time we do.

We have a tall trash can, so we didn’t think she would be able to open it by herself and throw things away. But, she can!  She’s gotten so good at it, that it is the first place we look when we are missing a phone or a wallet. She has thrown away her sippy cups, our keys and computer chargers. Who knows what else is now gone forever? I dread Sunday nights when I have to take out the trash so that it can be picked up on Sunday morning. I am afraid I will never again see one of the things I value. One of the most shocking things about this is the fact that she will throw away some of her most expensive toys. I will pick it out and clean it up. But she will proceed to the recycling bin, which is next to the trash can, pick out whatever she can find and play with it for hours. Never again will I spend money on toys for her.

What I realized through this is that she does not understand the value of things. She does not understand that an empty can for beans is worthless compared to her building blocks. In our passage, the Pharisees had the same exact problem. When the Pharisees were in front of Jesus, they sarcastically asked, “Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do You think You are?” They had mistakenly placed more value on Abraham than on Jesus.

To the Pharisees, Abraham represented everything. He represented religion, culture, tradition and faith. There was nothing wrong with them looking up to Abraham. The problem was that they put more value on him than on Jesus. Their eyes were so fixated on Abraham, that they could not see that the Man they had in front of them was the Man they had been waiting thousands of years to see! Their deliverer, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, God incarnate.

Abraham might not be our distraction from Jesus, but I am almost certain that most of us have something we value more than Jesus. My hope is that we can examine the things that are keeping us from making Jesus the most valuable Person in our lives. When we begin to value Jesus more, the main thing that changes is that we now love the same way He did.

Father, thank You for revealing Yourself to us through Jesus. We are thankful for Your presence and we want to make You the main thing in our everyday lives. Help us get rid of sin and the distractions that keep us from making You the most valued thing in our lives. Help us to find ways to love others the way that You love us. Amen.

Josè Heredia is the Worship Minister of Bay City Church in San Francisco, CA. Find out more about Josè and Bay City Church at www.baycity.church.