SEPTEMBER 24, 2025

 “Decision-making based on emotional intuition, without the aid of reason to keep it in line, pretty much always sucks. You know who bases their entire lives on their emotions? Three-year-old kids. And dogs. You know what else three-year-olds and dogs do? Shit on the carpet.” 

― Mark Manson

ISAIAH 1-3

17Learn to do right; seek justice.

Defend the oppressed.^a

Take up the cause of the fatherless;

plead the case of the widow. (1:17)

GALATIANS 2

 20I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”^e

JOURNAL 

True greatness doesn’t come from my own strength, cleverness, or emotions, it comes from the daily surrender of myself to God’s Spirit. Each day is a crossroads: I can either surrender to the Spirit who gives life, or I can default to my emotions, my flawed habits, and my broken ways of reasoning. When I don’t surrender daily, my life slowly bends back toward self. And self will always chase comfort, power, or temporary relief, never holiness.

The leaders in Isaiah’s time show what happens when surrender is absent: they lived shallowly, chasing emotion and appearance, and their people fell into moral decay (Isaiah 1:17). Leadership without surrender produces rot. My own leadership, at home, in the classroom, on the field...cannot survive if it rests on emotion, pride, or fleeting passion. Character flaws will eventually surface. But when Christ is my life, when I can truly say, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20), then even my weakness is covered by His strength.

This surrender is not a one-time event; it is a daily choice. Jesus Himself said the road is narrow (Matthew 7:13–14), and few find it. That means it takes deliberate, daily dying to myself. If I neglect this surrender, I drift toward the wide road, one paved with my emotions, my pride, and my fears. Left unchecked, my feelings become my master. They promise life, but they deliver destruction.

Each morning, God’s Word exposes my waywardness. It confronts my heart, not to condemn me, but to call me back to His design. This confrontation is uncomfortable. Sometimes I want to avoid it. But it is in this very tension that I am reminded: surrender to God is not weakness, it is the only path to true greatness.

So today, Father, I choose the narrow road. I surrender my desires, my emotions, and my flaws. I ask Your Spirit to lead me. May my life reflect not the brokenness of self, but the beauty of Christ living in me. Thank You for another day to glorify You and to build Your Kingdom.

13“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

MATTHEW 7:13-14