Day 20 | Benevolent – Application

Read Philippians 2

Every day we have the opportunity to reflect God’s benevolence by giving to others as He has given to us. But genuine benevolence requires humility. Throughout His life on earth, Christ demonstrated God’s goodness through His humility—and we should do the same.

In Christ’s actions, we see the empathy and love we should have for each other. Both of these attributes can be summed up by one word—benevolence. Jesus was God in flesh and bone, and He came to show us how to serve. He was a servant of the people and a slave to God. He even laid His life down for those the Father loved. Jesus didn’t do any of these things to exalt Himself—in fact, it was quite the opposite. When we face hard times, we forget to thank God for His goodness. But Jesus showed us how to love God, even in the hard times and even if the hard times are caused by the people we love.

God’s goodness—His benevolence—goes beyond our comprehension. We know Jesus understood, and He shared it with us. In His goodness, Jesus gave us His Word, and in that Word is life. In it, we learn true humility, goodness, faithfulness, and love, to put it simply, we learn the character of the One whom we reflect to the world. We cannot hope to draw others to lives of love, grace, and goodness without the humility to see the Lord called us to faith in Him in that exact same way.

Pray the Lord will humble us and teach us to reflect His benevolent attitude to the world, so His Kingdom will grow and His name will be honored.