S. O. A. P.

Here’s Your 90 second AM Devotional!

S-cripture:

John 19:16

Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

O-bservation:

Here is the sad completion to an infamous act by an infamous man, Pilate. He was the Roman Governor of Judea who handed Jesus over to be crucified. If you could ask him today why he did it, he’d probably say, “I Thought I Had To.”

A-pplication:

It’s never the right time to do the wrong thing. Pilate’s own wife had warned him not to deal with Jesus in any way because she had a dream about it (Mt. 27:19). If a person is like Pilate, who was already locked in to his own protocol on how things should be done, well even a wife’s dreams won’t reach that person. Here was the son of the Living God standing in front of him. Earlier he had ordered Jesus flogged!! Now he was handing Him over to the mob!!! Whenever I use the excuse, “I Thought I Had To,” I’m admitting that I yielded my ability to do what is right over to someone else. Hold on to integrity in all things. Yes, it was the will of God that Jesus suffer and die, but no one HAD to hand Him over to the mob. Just do the right thing, God will take care of the rest.

P-rayer:

Dear Jesus,

I’m always pressed on every side. It’s always easier to take the short cut. But, I’ve learned that’s the long way home. Help me do what’s right, not what’s expedient. Amen