Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. – James 4:8 (NIV)

In yesterday’s devotion, we looked at Zechariah 1:3. It says, “Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty”

I like it when I come across verses that are very similar in the Bible. Today’s verse is very similar, and it’s nice to see that the heart of God is really to have us return to Him.

God is a loving father. He wants us to have a thriving relationship with Him. That’s His best for our lives. But sometimes, we get busy. The things going on in our lives often can fill up so much of our time that we don’t make time for God.

Like a loving father, God calls us to Him. He wants us to be with Him, even if it is just for a few minutes at the beginning and end of the day. Whatever time you can carve out in your day, God wants to meet you there. He loves you so much and His heart cry is that you return to Him. That you don’t get too busy or too distracted to make intentional time for Him.

Today, challenge yourself to make room for God. Find some time that you can spend talking to Him, worshipping, and reading your Bible. You’ll be so excited to see how much you can get out of taking time with God.

Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty. – Zechariah 1:3 (NIV)

I like the game of tennis. One of my favorite things is just to play for fun, not keeping score, and just hitting the ball back and forth over the net. To me, it’s really fun to see how long I can hit the ball back and forth. When I was playing tennis on my school’s tennis team, one of the coaches gave me a simple strategy to help me win more matches. He said to just hit it over the net one more time than the person I was playing against. My coach said if I’d do that, I’d win the majority of my matches.

And my coach was right. I wasn’t the best player. I didn’t have a really fast serve, I wasn’t athletically a lot better than the players I played against. However, I just focused on hitting the ball over the net one more time than my opponent, and I did surprisingly well in my tennis matches.

I feel we can learn a little about the character of God from this idea. Of course, God isn’t out there hitting tennis balls to us, but His strategy is a little like the one my tennis coach gave me. No matter what we do, whether we sin, whether we don’t, whether we do good, whether we don’t, God is always returning His love to us. God is always ready for us to come near to Him. He’s always ready for us to return to Him. All we have to do is choose to respond to His love.

Today’s Truth: God is always near us and willing to love us and have fellowship with us. He’s always ready to extend love to us if we’ll just ask Him to.

So today, take a look at your heart. Have you moved away from God? Have you gotten busy and forgot that God is always waiting for us to respond to Him. He is willing and ready to fellowship with us, all we have to do is to respond to His love.

She obeys no one,
    she accepts no correction.
She does not trust in the Lord,
    she does not draw near to her God. – Zephaniah 3:2 (NIV)

This verse is really interesting. God longed to be close to the people, and yet they didn’t draw near.

Do we ever do that? God loves us and wants to be close to us, and yet how often do we get so busy and caught up in our day to day affairs that we don’t even stop to acknowledge Him or to be close to Him.

When we don’t draw near to God, in a way, we’re saying that we don’t trust Him. Maybe we don’t trust that He cares enough to help us when we struggle. Perhaps we doubt that spending time with Him helps us in the things of life.

But God really does care. He wants to be a part of our life. He wants to help us when we struggle. All we have to do is draw near to Him. He’s always there, always willing to hear us, speak to us from His word, and help us with what we need.

So today, challenge yourself to draw close to God. Spend time in your Bible and in prayer and see how great a relationship with God can truly be.

“See, the enemy is puffed up;
    his desires are not upright—
    but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness – Habakkuk 2:4 (NIV)

Have you noticed how easy in life it can be to rely on yourself? You might think, if I work hard enough, I’ll get into the college I want. Or perhaps, if I practice my instrument enough, I’ll be able to get a solo in the school band concert. Sometimes, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that in life, it’s all about me. And feel like you’ve got to do it all in your own strength.

Now, as a caution, the Bible teaches about working hard and doing all things to the glory of God. So what is being discussed today isn’t saying that you shouldn’t work hard. Rather, you shouldn’t put confidence in your efforts. That’s being full of pride.

Pride looks to itself. Faith looks to God.

That’s the message of today’s Bible verse. We want to look to God. We want to read His word and get His input in the decisions we make and in the things that we do. Faith says I’m going to follow after God, no matter what it costs me, and I know that God will come through.

Pride says, it’s up to me, my strength, and my ability.

Part of living the Christian life is letting go of pride. It’s realizing there is nothing I can do to earn God’s love and living by faith knowing that you’ve been made righteous in God’s sight.

Today, challenge yourself to live by faith. Choose to go after the things of God. Choose to make God’s word the number one priority in your life and live according to it and not according to your ideas and efforts.

yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
    I will be joyful in God my Savior. – Habakkuk 3:18 (NIV)

Habakkuk faced chaos. He’d seen destruction, loss, and things falling apart around him. But in Habakkuk 3:18 he declares, “Yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will joy in the God of my salvation.” That’s a powerful, surprising response: choosing joy in the middle of pain.

Habakkuk’s choice shows that joy isn’t just an emotion that appears when everything goes right. It’s a decision to trust God even when things seem difficult.

Choosing joy doesn’t mean pretending everything is fine. Habakkuk didn’t ignore the hard stuff — he acknowledged it. But he shifted his ultimate security from circumstances to the Lord. Joy rooted in God is steady because it rests on who He is: faithful, loving, and the source of salvation. When your joy depends on grades, likes, or approval, it’s fragile. When it’s grounded in God, it is grounded in something sure and solid.

How do you choose this kind of joy? A large part of staying joyful is recalling God’s past faithfulness: read Scripture, recall answered prayers, or moments you felt God near. You can also practice gratitude. A good place to start is to list three things God has done for you in the past, or to recall something about God’s character. Finally, spend time in prayer and ask God to give you joy that outlasts your circumstances.

Today’s truth: rejoice in the Lord even when life is messy.

Choose to let your deepest joy come from knowing God. When you begin to realize that knowing Jesus is the best part of life and you live out of your relationship with Him, you begin to be able to be full of joy at all times.