https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260210dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9 Who Are You? Have you found yourself yet? Many of us are on a quest to find ourselves, or at least were at one time in our lives. We live in a world so full of people, groups, and ideas that we wonder where we fit. And so, we spend much of our lives searching for an identity—looking for a way to define ourselves. There is no shortage of possible answers to the question. Perhaps we define ourselves through our athletic or musical abilities. As our skill and prowess grow, so does our self-esteem. Or maybe we define ourselves by our level of popularity. As our reputation with others increases, so does our own feeling of self-worth. We may define ourselves through our careers. As we climb the ladder of success, we also climb the ladder of value in our own eyes. Have you discovered the problem with all these methods of finding or defining ourselves? Eventually, (hopefully before it is too late), we discover the emptiness of all these things. We will inevitably find others who are more athletically or musically gifted than we are. There will no doubt be something we do or say that will harm our reputation with others. And we will likely have one business failure or another. When all these things happen, our sense of value, identity, and self-worth will be shattered. Then what? Thankfully, God has provided the answer to the question, “Who are you?” Through the work of Jesus as our Savior, God has made us his chosen people. He says that we are his “special possession.” This happened because Jesus came to live and die in our place to take our sins away and to make us right with God. Through faith in Jesus, we now have a new identity. We are God’s people. And that is an identity that can never be taken away from us. Prayer: Dear Father in heaven, thank you for making me yours through faith in Jesus. Help me to always and only find my identity as your child. Amen.   Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260209dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion The people all responded together, “We will do everything the LORD has said.” So Moses brought their answer back to the LORD. Exodus 19:8 Don’t Worry About the Fine Print “Sign here, here, and here, and write your initials here, and here, and here.” If you have ever signed a contract, you have heard those words. Whether putting a downpayment on a house, buying a car, or adopting a life insurance policy, you are asked to sign your name and agree to all the fine print. So much fine print! With such documents there are pages and pages of legal expectations and ramifications. It is all overwhelming at the moment and the best we can do in a few minutes is to briefly skim the headings to get a vague idea of what it is we are agreeing to. Names are signed in the hope that this will not come back to bite us. Agreeing to keep God’s law is similar. On the surface, God’s law might look simple. I mean, there are only ten commandments, right? But the more we dig into the fine print; we realize that there is much more than meets the eye. Even a quick perusal of God’s law to us in the Bible shows that we are held accountable for even our thoughts, in addition to our words and actions. Things like doubt and worry leave us just as culpable as theft or murder. It soon becomes evident that there is no way we can perfectly hold up our end of the bargain. Thankfully, we have someone who did it for us. Jesus knew all the demands of God’s law, and he signed his name on the dotted line of our contract. And then he was born into this world to take our place and to do the work of holding up our end of the bargain. He even did it perfectly! He never once sinned. He also gave his life in our place to pay the price that was demanded of us for the times we had broken the contract. Because of Jesus’ work in our place, God held up his end of the deal and has forgiven our sins and given us the free gift of heaven! Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for signing your name and holding up my end of the deal. Thank you for saving me. Amen.   Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260208dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion [Jesus said] “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:16 Shining Faith One way you can share the precious love of God with others is to simply live your faith. Love others as God loves you. Let your Christian joy be evident to all. You may be trying to reach a lost spouse, a straying college student, or a rebellious teenager. You may be trying to raise young children, reach a spiritually indifferent neighbor, coworker, or bowling buddy. Jesus says that the sincere and authentic way that you live your faith will influence others. Oh yes, we know that some will reject Jesus. But others will be led to find out what makes us tick. Then we can tell them what we have been showing them with our lives—the love of Jesus. The real story of our Savior is such a powerful message that it leads people to put their faith in the heavenly Father and glorify him. There certainly are many reasons to live our faith. We love because Christ first loved us. Sadly, we have given Christ many reasons to forsake us, but he has remained faithful to his promises and to us. In obedience and love to his Father and in love for us, he willingly walked to the cross and gave his holy blood as a complete sacrifice for our sins. The Father has declared us perfect in his sight through Jesus. By living our faith, we show thankfulness to our loving God. We have another reason to live our faith. Jesus died not only for us but for all people. When we live our faith, others will be attracted to learn about God and his love. Therefore, our Christian lives give thanks to God and are directed toward the salvation of all people. What glorious purpose for our lives! So let your faith shine brightly. Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to let my light shine wherever I am and whatever I do. Amen.   Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.