Intentional

God is holy and intentional; He does nothing unintentionally. Paul wrote in Romans 2:4, “Or do you despise the riches of His kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” Can you imagine what life would be like if God discarded His holy and kind nature and became unintentional, capricious, unpredictable, a decision-maker whose will was based on whim? We would have no hope of redemption, an eternal relationship based on love, because His word would be open at any time to change, dependent upon the state of His nature.

Meditation
2 Kings 8:1,2--Elisha said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Get ready, you and your household, and go and live as a foreigner wherever you can. For the Lord has announced a seven-year famine, and it has already come to the land.” So the woman got ready and did what the man of God said. She and her household lived as foreigners in the land of the Philistines for seven years.
 
God’s intentional kindness to the Shunammite woman spared her and her family from a bad famine. Then He blessed her with favor from the king when she returned from living among the Philistines, by restoring to her the land she had left and providing the calculated worth of the field as income from the time she and her family were away (vs. 6). 
            
We live in a world where unholy relativism and feelings rule. Consequently, fear is an ever-present factor because there is no guarantee that government officials, family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, or anyone, for that matter, will do the right thing. Whenever holy intentionality is replaced by unholy, wayward decision-making, hell reigns supreme. Feckless “truth” rips apart our society. Praise God that we don’t have to live without hope under such conditions.
            
Jesus intentionally said, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Your heart must not be troubled or fearful” (John 14:27). Are we listening? We do not have to live in fear. We have a deliberate Savior who, in obedience to His Father, sacrificed His life to save us and sent the Holy Spirit to help us who trust Him negotiate life on earth. So whether a seven-year famine approaches, our land is taken, our lives are upended by tragedy or tyranny, we may rest in the certainty that God loves us and is purposeful in promising eventual and permanent victory. Something to think about . . . in reveration!
 
Inspiration
The only way in which the kingdom of God can be established is by the love of God as revealed in the cross of Jesus Christ, not by the lovingkindness of a backboneless being without justice or righteousness or truth.  The background of God’s love is holiness.  His is not a compromising love, and the kingdom of our Lord can only be brought in by means of His love at work in regeneration.—Oswald Chambers in The Psychology of Redemption 92
 
©2025 Daniel York  ARR.  Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  To receive these devotionals, go to www.firstcause.org and click the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed, subject to the inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)