Daily Devotional
What Do You Value Most?

January 8, 2023

Ponder This

There are some things you can replace. But if you lose your soul, it’s an irreversible loss. Jesus said, “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Mark 8:36). You can’t gain the world. If you could gain it, you couldn’t keep it. If you could gain it and keep it, it wouldn’t satisfy you.

Suppose somebody comes to you and says, “I have an offer for you. I will give you anything and everything you want. Do you want money? You can have it. Do you want pleasure? You can have it. But there’s something I want from you. I want your little finger.” Would you take him up on that deal? Maybe you wouldn’t, but I’m telling you there are millions in this world who’d say, “Sure, it’s a deal.”

There are so many who are giving far more to gain far less. They are giving their souls, not their eyes, ears, or hands—their souls—and they are not gaining all the pleasures of this world.

• How have you valued building up your faith rather than the things of this world? How have you valued the world over your faith?
• Why do you think it is so easy to get lured in by the world?

Practice This

Think about the people around you, do they know the value of their souls? Pray for one person you know is trying to gain the pleasures of the world at the cost of his or her own soul.