Today's daily devotion

Humble Service Is Pure Religion

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.—JAMES 1:27 KJV

She was not a “great” Christian. She didn’t do “marvelous things for God.” She was no missionary like Amy Carmichael or Gladys Aylward. Books and movies won’t be written about her. Her short life was spent in a rural area of Pennsylvania. But decades after her death, she is still remembered for her many acts of kindness.

Her children remember, too. Often they sat in the car alone, waiting as she visited the sick in the hospital or the bereaved at the funeral home. Often they sat politely on dusty chairs as she visited shut-ins, and sat quietly in the backseat as she talked to the widows she drove around in her car.

Those kids helped her sort clothes for the poor and for children on mission fields. And they watched in amazement on her last Christmas, when she was in the final stages of cancer, as she left her home to visit her elderly friends at a nursing home.

Although the world did not recognize her good works, God did.

Her religion was pure and undefiled before Him.

Dear Father, I want so much to do great things for You—but there’s never time because I’m so busy caring for the needy around me. Please remind me that greatness in Your eyes comes in humility and lowliness, in caring for those who have afflictions. Thank You for the many opportunities You give me to serve.

Adapted from

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