Daily Devotional for April 19, 2015

Isaiah 64:1-8
Rip the heavens apart! Come down, Lord; make the mountains tremble. Be a spark that starts a fire causing water to boil. Then your enemies will know who you are; all nations will tremble because you are nearby. Your fearsome deeds have completely amazed us; even the mountains shake when you come down. You are the only God ever seen or heard of who works miracles for his followers. You help all who gladly obey and do what you want, but sin makes you angry. Only by your help can we ever be saved.

We are unfit to worship you; each of our good deeds is merely a filthy rag. We dry up like leaves; our sins are storm winds sweeping us away. No one worships in your name or remains faithful. You have turned your back on us and let our sins melt us away.

You, Lord, are our Father. We are nothing but clay, but you are the potter who molded us.

Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.

Seattle's Gravity Payments CEO, Dan Price, recently did something that astounded a lot of people.  He announced that he was slashing his annual salary by approximately 1 million dollars...and giving all of his employees a raise. He pledged that each employee will immediately jump to at least $50,000 in annual salary...and gradually move to the $70K mark within the next three years.  The end goal will be for no one to work at Gravity Payments for less than $70,000 per year.

Price, a 30-year-old single man who runs Gravity Payments - a company that helps businesses process credit cards and offers business analytics, solutions and support - realized that there was a tremendous inequality in the pay among the employees of his firm.  He could see that some of his staff struggled to make ends meet, pay off student loans, and put food on the table - all while Price was paid well over one million dollars annually.  Essentially, he asked himself, "Who do you think you are?" and realized that he was only as successful and productive as the members of his team.  This young business executive understood that life was about something much larger than Dan Price.

If you research Gravity Payments, you will see that they do a lot of community work and philanthropic projects...giving 10% of annual profits to charitable organizations and reaching out to the community to help in a variety of ways. It sounds like a pretty great place to work…a company that truly is striving to make a difference in the lives of others – beginning with their own employees.

The question “Who do you think you are?” is one that we should all be asking on a daily basis.  Because honestly, we are nothing without the power and presence of Almighty God.  Without His blessings and care, we are 100% ineffective – in anything and everything we do…at least in ways that really matter! God is truly the potter…we are merely the clay.  Without salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ, we are no better than filthy rags.  And certainly none of us is superior to the next guy.

This is a question that deserves to be answered by each of us.  Who DO we think we are? What are we doing in the name of Jesus?  If Jesus ripped open the heavens and returned today for His church, what would we have to say for ourselves? Are we making a point -  or making a difference?  And what are we willing to do about it?  

©2015 Debbie Robus

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