So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better. Colossians 1:9-10
Why does God bless or punish us? Ever stopped to think about what you really believe?
A minister told of a woman in his church who believed, in order for God to bless her, she needed to have what she called a daily “quiet time” when she read a selection from a daily devotional book. “Soon she began to think that if she did a longer quiet time, she would get more blessings. At one point, she was reading seven devotional books during her prayer time.” The minister gently explained to her that Spiritual practices or “ … disciplines only do one of two things: connect us to God or help break the power of sin.”[1]
So, if you’re listening to, watching or reading this devotional—sorry, you won’t receive a financial benefit because you did. Nor will you get sick because you miss a day in your streak of daily devotional time. In the Bible book of Colossians, the Apostle Paul wrote to Jesus-followers telling them that what he asked God to give them was “ … complete knowledge of his will and … spiritual wisdom and understanding” so that two things would happen in their lives: they would “always honor and please the Lord” and their lives would “produce every kind of good fruit.”
Scripture is clear that the end result of any spiritual practice we bring into our lives should be this: that “All the while, [we] will grow as [we] learn to know God better and better” (Colossians 1:9-10). You don’t need seven devotional books to do that.
Peaceful fruit, joy and blessing in our lives come from knowing God and letting Him transform us. A spiritual practice like taking in God’s word daily produces blessing that nothing can ever diminish.
[1] Omaha Church, “Blog Post 2/1/12,” accessed October 7, 2025, https://omaha.church/blog-post-2-1-12?utm_source=chatgpt.com.
