The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. Zephaniah 3:17

Today’s Scripture

Zephaniah 3:14-17

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Today’s Devotional

Sentenced to fifty years in a maximum-security prison, a sixteen-year-old girl sat in solitary confinement. Due to her age, she remained separated from the other inmates. For nearly a year, she had no outside visitors. During an outreach and baptism held at the facility, the guards let a ministry leader enter the girl’s cell. She heard the gospel, surrendered her life to Jesus, and asked to be baptized. At first, the team considered using water bottles, but then the prison staff shut down the entire facility and led her to a portable baptismal pool. As God’s people prayed, she wept.

Though God promises to judge those who reject Him, He also extends mercy to those who repent. He restores and protects those who trust in His name (Zephaniah 3:10-12). Repentance leads to redemption, because God Himself “has taken away” the punishment we deserve (v. 15). Hope resounds in the prophet Zephaniah’s words about God: “He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing” (v. 17).

So we can share the gospel with compassion and confidence, especially with those who may feel they’re too far from God. No matter where we are, what we’ve done, or how alone, forgotten, or unworthy we may feel, God loves and pursues us. Every person is within God’s reach.

Reflect & Pray

When have you felt too far from God? How has His mercy toward you changed your compassion toward others?

Loving God, please help me care enough to see and share You with those who need You as much as I do.

Want to do more to share your faith? Check out this testimony guide.

Today’s Insights

Zephaniah, like most biblical prophets, has words of both scathing judgment and confident hope. He describes “the day of the Lord” (see Zephaniah 1:7) as one that would be ominous not only for gentile nations but also for those in Judah who were worshiping their gods. But the final lines of the book look beyond that judgment with some of the most precious sentiments one can imagine: a God who takes “great delight in you” and “will rejoice over you with singing” (3:17). In between these two phrases we read: “he will quiet you [or be quiet] by his love” (esv). The God of justice has an affectionate and sympathetic parental love for His daughter Jerusalem in the wake of her necessary discipline. We too can be assured that no one is too far from God’s love.

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