Afternoon Devotional
Key Bible Passage: Isaiah 61:1–2
God’s appointed times are perfect! When He begins to work, then immediately obey His command. Often we sleep while He is speaking to us. His call can be for our entire life—but we delay and say, “There is still time.” Yet God does not wait forever. If we delay in obeying His command, it means that we are disobedient and without faith; therefore we are not in a state of faith.
When God declares, “Now is the time of acceptance,” and you respond later, it can often be too late. When God’s invitation reaches people and they are not ready, God says, “I called you, but you did not answer; you had time, but you were not ready; I spoke, but you were not listening.” (Matthew 22:8)
God’s appointed times are always correct and perfect. He knows your circumstances completely. He has already provided you with all the means necessary to accomplish the work He has given you to do. He gives you the opportunity—so do the work.
The reason the Holy Scriptures teach us this is that God wants to speak to our hearts. If we do not give Him a place in our hearts or fail to obey Him, then we cannot fulfill His calling. When God speaks, His words carry great authority. What He says must be obeyed. We do not need to understand everything—only to know what message God has given us.
To respond to God has always been “now.”
Let’s Pray
Heavenly Father, Thank You that Your timing is always perfect. Help me to recognize Your voice and to respond to You without delay. Give me a willing and obedient heart so that I may not miss the opportunities You place before me. Strengthen my faith so that I may trust Your plans and walk in Your will. Teach me to answer You immediately when You call in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Devotional Title: What Is Shaping You? (2/3/26)
Transformation does not start with behavior; it starts with belief.
You cannot sustain a new life in a new year with an old mind.
What Paul is exposing in Romans 12 is not just a spiritual problem—it’s a formation problem.
But Paul says there is another way:
“Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (v. 2).
That word transformed matters.
Paul is not talking about external adjustment; he’s talking about internal renewal. The word he uses carries the idea of something being changed at the core.
This is not self-improvement. This is spiritual renovation.
God does not put new paint on old walls; he rebuilds the structure.
And this is where so many of us get stuck.
Because we try to fix our lives without addressing our thinking. We try to manage anxiety without examining what’s shaping our minds. We try to change habits without renewing beliefs.
But behavior cannot sustain what the mind has not embraced.
That’s why you can make progress for a while—and then end up right back where you started.
Because the inward man was never transformed.
Paul is showing us that lasting change always moves from the inside-out.
Which means if anxiety has become normal for you, it’s not just something to cope with—it is something to confront at the level of formation.
Not with shame. Not with guilt. But with truth. With love. And with God’s grace.
Because renewal begins when we become aware of what has been shaping us. The thoughts we rehearse. The lies we believe. The assumptions we live from without questioning.
God’s Word is inviting us to pause and ask a different question.
Not just, “What am I doing?” But, “What am I becoming?”
Because every pattern is forming you into something.
And Scripture tells us that if we want to discern God’s will—His good, pleasing and perfect will—it requires a renewed mind.
Not a busy mind. Not an anxious mind. A renewed one.
This is why the battle for your life is often fought in your thinking. Long before it shows up in your actions. And this is where hope enters the story.
Because renewal is possible, friends.
Your mind is not stuck. Your patterns are not permanent. Your formation is not finished. God can renew what the world has distorted.
The invitation is not to escape the world—but to resist its mold.
In John 17, Jesus prayed for his followers to be in the world, but not of the world.
To live counter-formed. To allow God to reshape how we see reality, how we interpret worldly events, how we understand ourselves.
Which means transformation doesn’t begin with trying harder. It begins with thinking differently. With allowing truth to challenge assumptions. With noticing the thoughts that have quietly taken authority in our minds.
And that’s where the next step comes in.
Because once we recognize that the world is shaping our thinking, the next questions become practical.
How do we respond?
How do we engage thoughts that oppose truth?
How do we stop agreeing with narratives that lead us into fear, shame and anxiety?
The Bible doesn’t leave us guessing. It gives us a blueprint. That in Christ, we are not passive recipients of whatever enters our minds.
We are called to take every thought captive, “making it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Devotional Title: The Value of God’s Word (3/2/26)
To live fully and joyfully, prioritize spending time with God in His Word.
Key Bible Passage: 2 Timothy 3:14-17
From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture is divinely inspired. In today’s passage, we are told that the sacred writings are “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that [we] may be … equipped for every good work” (vv. 16-17). No other book holds such value for living.
The Old Testament introduces us to God’s nature, ways, and power; it lays the foundation for us to understand the Lord’s holiness and humanity’s desperate need for a Savior.
The New Testament explains that Jesus sacrificially became our “bridge” to the Father (John 14:6). Its writings clarify why we must trust Christ for salvation, how to live as God’s children, and what to expect in this life and after death.
We should be excited about the Word of God, which is one of our greatest sources of hope. It is filled from cover to cover with instructions that lead to victory, both during earthly life and after physical death. That’s why reserving a portion of each day for Scripture meditation is wise. Whether it’s five minutes or an hour, spend time with the Father in the pages of His Word. He wants to help you understand and apply its teachings so you can live joyfully and experience the depths of His great love.
Persist in prayer. The Bible instructs us to keep bringing our concerns to the Lord (Luke 18:1-8; 1 Thess. 5:17). As we continue to pray, He will gradually weed out anything confusing until we come to understand His thoughts about the matter.
Search the Scriptures. The Word of God provides wisdom for all of life’s challenges (Ps. 119:105), and the Holy Spirit points us in the right direction.
So often when we’re faced with a critical choice, all we want from the Lord is a quick answer. But He desires something so much greater—to deepen our relationship with Him. Don’t let the urgency of your need keep you from enjoying the intimacy of God’s presence as you seek His will.
Scripture not only shows how each member of the Trinity fulfills a specific role but also reveals how those three roles interrelate and work harmoniously to make salvation and sanctification possible.
Having designed the way mankind would be redeemed, the Father set into motion events and prophecies that culminated in the life and death of a Savior. The Son carried out the plan, following His Father’s instructions to come to earth and die for our sins (John 6:37-38). The Holy Spirit sees to it that all people are exposed to evidence of God (Rom. 1:19-20) so they can feel a call toward His saving grace (John 16:8). And He transforms the lives of those who receive Jesus (2 Cor. 5:17).
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are equal in their divine attributes. Yet each has a different responsibility when it comes to humanity’s greatest need. Take a moment today to thank each member of the Trinity for the many blessings you’ve received.
Key Bible Passage: 1 Corinthians 7:13
Love has no boundaries. Love never says that you have gone too far. I can no longer love you. “Everything” means that it includes all things. If you have true love in your heart, others will know that you will continue to love them in the same way. Do your loved ones know that even if they disappoint you with their foolishness, your love for them will not diminish? Do others know that even if you are hurt by any of their actions, you will still love them and will not hold any grudge against them in your heart?
Love has the best intentions for others. If someone unintentionally harms you, you will not think that they have harmed you intentionally. If someone is worried about harming you, you certainly try your best to avoid harm, but you forgive them unconditionally while tolerating their wrong intentions. If someone constantly makes you angry, you have to tolerate everything. You should never lose hope in the one you love. You have to love others unconditionally, just as you love yourself.
The Holy Apostle Paul said, “If I have all the faith to remove mountains, and speak with the tongues of angels, and can prophesy, but do not have the love of God, I am nothing.” You can not say, “Well, I can not love people like that.” If God loves people through you, then that is how His love must be! Study 1 Corinthians 13, praising God for the unselfish and perfect love He has already shown you. Ask Him in prayer to now show His love through you spread love to others.
Happy Valentine’s Day! All my friends and family share your love with God and each other,
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, thank You for loving us with a perfect and unfailing love. Teach us to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things. Fill our hearts with Your love so that we may forgive freely, hold no grudges, and never lose hope in those we love. Let Your love flow through us to everyone around us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Pastor Imran John
“The Silent War in Your Mind: How the Enemy Torments Believers and the Authority You Have to Defeat It”
There is something I have noticed again and again in the body of Christ. One of the primary battlegrounds is not the bank account, not the platform, not even the physical body. It is the mind.
The enemy will try to steal your peace. If he cannot stop your calling, he will try to torment your thoughts. Scripture is very clear that our warfare is not carnal. Second Corinthians 10:3 to 5 tells us, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” Notice that phrase. Bringing every thought into captivity. The battlefield is the thought life.
Torment in the mind is one of the enemy’s oldest tactics. Fear, accusation, condemnation, intrusive thoughts, shame, despair. These are fiery darts. Ephesians 6:16 says, “Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.” The darts are aimed at your mind. They are meant to inflame emotion, distort perception, and weaken confidence in who you are in Christ.
But here is the truth. A believer is not powerless. First John 4:4 declares, “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” The Spirit of God lives inside you. That means torment does not have authority over you. It may attempt to harass you, but it does not own you. It does not define you. It does not have the final word.
At the same time, we must be honest. Many strong believers have seasons where the battle feels intense. Elijah, after calling down fire from heaven, sat under a tree and asked to die. David wrote psalms in deep distress. Even Paul spoke of fighting without and fears within. Experiencing mental pressure does not mean you lack faith. It means you are human and in a real spiritual war.
The key is understanding identity and authority. Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” If a thought is filled with accusation and hopelessness, it is not coming from the Father. The Holy Spirit convicts to restore. The enemy accuses to paralyze. Revelation 12:10 calls him the accuser of the brethren. When you feel relentless condemnation, that is a clue about the source.
Victory is not pretending the thoughts are not there. Victory is recognizing them, rejecting them, and replacing them with truth. Philippians 4:8 instructs us to think on what is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, and of good report. You have the right and the responsibility to redirect your mind. Renewing the mind, as Romans 12:2 says, is part of the transformation process.
And hear this clearly. You are not alone. The enemy isolates. He whispers, “You’re the only one struggling like this.” That is a lie. Many believers quietly fight battles in their thought life. The shame keeps them silent. But the body of Christ was never designed for isolation. James 5:16 says, “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” There is power in bringing darkness into the light.
The Lord is not intimidated by your mental battle. He is near. Second Timothy 1:7 says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” A sound mind is part of your inheritance. It may need to be fought for. It may need to be guarded. But it belongs to you.
If you are dealing with tormenting thoughts, do not assume you are defective. Do not assume you are disqualified. Stand on truth. Speak the Word. Worship when you do not feel like it. Surround yourself with believers who will pray with you. And remember that the One who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it.
The mind may be a battlefield, but you are not fighting for victory. In Jesus Christ, you are fighting from victory. No plan of the devil will ever defeat you.
Jesus is with us until the end of the age. He will never leave us, and he will never forsake us.
Devotional Title:Don’t worry about anything (2/11/26)
Devotional Title: The Cost of Running From God (2/10/26)
Devotional Title: How to Rekindle the Fire (2/9/26)
Our spiritual condition matters—for us and everyone in our circle of influence.
Key Bible Passage: Luke 10:26-28
The Lord created us to live passionately for Him—not only for the joys we will experience in a relationship with the Creator but also for the benefit to those around us. Just as the warmth and beauty of flames draw people toward a hearth, God uses our passion to draw others to Himself (Matt. 5:16).
So we must be careful not to let our fervor fade. Thankfully, the indwelling Holy Spirit nudges believers who start to head in the wrong direction. If you sense this happening, you can take several steps to realign yourself with Him.
First, evaluate where you are spiritually—ask God whether your fire has dwindled to embers.
Second, acknowledge any distance you’ve allowed to separate you from your heavenly Father, and repent. Third, refocus your attention on Jesus, and meditate on how He teaches His followers to live. Spend quality time in Scripture daily, asking the Lord to speak to you through His Word. Cry out earnestly, seeking God’s guidance and wisdom. Fourth, rely upon the Holy Spirit to guide you back to an intimate and exciting relationship with the Father. Finally, love and serve God by worshipping Him and loving others.
If your spiritual passion has diminished, ask the Lord to help you renew it. Living closely with Him is well worth the effort.
Devotional Title : Are you becoming perfect? (1/29/26)
Key Bible Passage: Hebrews 9:8
There is a positive side to suffering. We all suffer to some extent, but the good news is that through it we can become more like Jesus. Are you willing to pay any price to become more like Christ? There are some things that only through suffering and adversity can God establish in your life. Even Jesus, who
As the sinless Son of God, He also had to suffer, and thus, through His obedience, He became the cause of the eternal salvation of the world.
If you show distaste for your suffering, you are closing off parts of your life to God. If you do that, you will not be perfect either. There are aspects of your life that can only be perfected through suffering. The Spirit of God teaches you something very important, but you can only learn these lessons through suffering and adversity. Saul became king through suffering, but he did not develop the character he needed to do God’s work. David spent many years in religious torment and suffering. When he was finally crowned, he had become a man after God’s own heart.
Don’t be offended that God has placed suffering in your life. Don’t risk everything to avoid suffering. God didn’t spare even His Son. How can we expect Him to spare us? Learn obedience even in suffering!
Prayer;
Lord Jesus, I thank You for Your perfect obedience, even through suffering. Give me a heart that does not resist hardship but learns from it. Help me to trust You when pain comes and to submit to Your will even when I do not understand. Shape my character, refine my faith, and make me more like You through every trial I face. Teach me obedience in suffering, and lead me into the fullness of Your purpose for my life. Amen.
Devotional Title: Praying with tears(1/28/26)
Key Bible Passage: Hebrews 7:5
The life of Jesus is a model for our prayer lives. God wants to conform us to the image of His Son (Colossians 1:27, 28). If we are to be like Christ, our prayer lives must be like His. Many Christians do not want to pay the price that Jesus paid in intercession with God. Jesus prayed with loud cries and tears, and His “fear of God” led the Father to listen to Him.
You will remember that in the Garden of Eden, Jesus prayed that God would remove the cup. Why did the Father refuse to grant his request? God did not refuse because there was any sin in Jesus’ life, nor did He refuse because the Father did not love His Son. The Father refused because He loved His Son so much that He knew that the Son must drink the cup for the salvation of the world. In the same way, it is possible that He may now have to put you through many kinds of suffering in order to convey this message of salvation to the rest of the world.
Are you willing to give up your request for God’s sake? Do you love the Father so deeply that you can say in your tears, “Not my will, but yours be done?” Has God said no to any of your recent requests? Accept that answer. Are you learning obedience through your suffering (Hebrews 8:5)? If you are doing this, God can use you to bring the message of salvation to others.
Prayer:
Father God, We come before You with humble hearts. Teach us to pray as Your Son prayed—with sincerity, reverence, and surrender. Give us grace to accept Your will, even when it leads us through suffering. Help us to trust Your wisdom when You say no, and to learn obedience through every trial. May our tears become prayers that glorify You, and may our lives be used to bring the message of salvation to others. Not our will, but Yours be done in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Devotional Title: Father calls you. (1/27/26)
Key Bible Passage: John 6:65
During His earthly ministry, Jesus never seemed intimidated by crowds. Rather, He faced them boldly, His focus always being on those to whom the Father had sent Him. Jesus knew that because of sin, no human being has a natural desire to seek God. Sinful man always tends to hide from God rather than draw close to Him (Genesis 8:3; Psalm 1:14-3). So whenever Jesus saw that the Father wanted to draw someone to Himself, Jesus immediately began to draw that person into His fellowship.
Jesus had seen how hard Zacchaeus, a notorious tax collector, had tried to get a glimpse of Jesus. So Jesus immediately left the crowd behind and spent some time with the man in whose life the Father was working (Luke 1:10-19). When Jesus noticed that Andrew was following him, Jesus said to him, “Come!” (John 39:1). Every time the disciples experienced God’s truth, Jesus acknowledged that God the Father was working in their lives (Matthew 17:16).
As the sheep gathered around Jesus, He spoke some truths that were difficult for people to understand (John 6:6). Some of His words were so offensive that many who heard Him left Him, but Jesus did not give up. He saw that the Father was working in the lives of His disciples. That is why Jesus gave those disciples more importance and time.
When you want to spend time alone with Jesus, be sure that it is the Father who is calling you to his Son. Remember that when you decide to come into God’s presence, it is not really you who is drawing you into his fellowship. So as you study the Bible and pray, God will teach you more about himself.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, Thank You for calling us to Your Son. We acknowledge that without Your grace, we could never come to Jesus on our own. Open our hearts to recognize Your work in our lives, and give us a deeper hunger for Your presence. As we study Your Word and spend time in prayer, teach us more about who You are. Draw us closer into fellowship with Your Son, and help us to follow Him faithfully in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Devotional Title: The Greater Purpose of Blessings (1/26/26)
Key Bible Passage: Matthew 5:13-16
Ask yourself this question: When it comes to my faith, what kind of light am I? Is your light a flicker others can see only if they’re really looking? Or is it the kind that brightens everything up when you walk into a room? Remember, when even a small flame is strong, it brings light to the whole room. So, as Christians, we ought to “shine,” no matter where we are.
Shortsightedness may be what dims our radiance, and it can cause us to miss out on blessings. Before deciding to cooperate with the Lord, we may think we have to see exactly what He plans to do. But we are called just to be faithful ambassadors who trust His Spirit to do the work in people’s hearts.
As believers, we are all special—God’s “workmanship” is the term used in Ephesians 2:10. We’re members of His family, indwelt by the Holy Spirit; His light is the radiance within us. So our life has potential beyond imagination. We have no idea what amazing things the Lord can do through our willingness simply to shine the light of His powerful love.
If you’ll pray, “Father, do whatever You want with my life,” you can be sure that He’ll reveal the next step. God is willing and ready to move in the life of anyone who chooses to be available for Him.
The Cure for America’s Spiritual Cancer
By Shane Idleman
I once read an intriguing excerpt from a book; paraphrasing, it says: “A very prosperous and divided nation is about to implode. Many hold to a form of godliness but deny the true God. As drunkenness and addiction spiral out of control, sexual sin and perversion have captivated the minds of millions.”
It continued: “Marriages are crumbling, families deteriorating, and children are suffering. There is little hope for justice when oppression and abuse run rampant. The cry goes out, ‘Is there any hope’?
Although it fits the bill, this is not a description of America; it’s the description of spiritual cancer in Israel in 700 B.C. And yes, there is hope. God, in His mercy, gave a remedy that is timeless—a healing balm for spiritual cancer. We must simply listen and obey those same principles.
Diagnose the Disease
Like physical cancer, spiritual cancer spreads and affects all areas—from the family to the government and the schools. And like a doctor, we too must properly diagnose the disease.
According to Barna, nearly 72% of churches don’t look to the Bible as their final source of authority and direction. But this isn’t surprising; the same was true in 700 B.C. Like in Israel’s day, we have also committed two evils: “They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13).
For true healing to take place, we must return to the Fountain of Living Water and drink deeply. The Christian life is to be living and vibrant, not dry and dead. Cisterns hold water, the source of life. Broken cisterns represent pride that drains spiritual life from the soul.
If we diagnose the disease of pride and return to Him, His healing touch can revive, renew, and restore our barren wasteland. We must be desperate for more of God! Desperate for His presence in our churches again. It’s truly our only hope.
The Sin of the Silent Shepherd
When the pew is sick, the pulpit must prescribe the remedy. But the remedy―the life-changing application of God’s Word―is being withheld. As a result, Jeremiah 5:31 is eerily similar to our condition today, “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; and My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?”
Like the Isaiahs and Jeremiahs of Israel’s day, pastors must diagnose spiritual cancer and provide treatment. A doctor would lose his license for saying that everything is fine where there are clear signs of cancer. How much more dangerous is it to remain silent in the midst of spiritual cancer?
Instead of completely changing their spiritual diet, silent shepherds continue to consume the junk food of liberalism and the downward pull of compromise. Instead of following Isaiah’s lead of crying out and lifting their voice like a trumpet to warn the people of their sins (Isaiah 58:1), many follow the lead of the false prophets who said “peace, peace” when there is no peace (Jeremiah 6:14).
We must pray diligently and ask for a mighty baptism of God’s Spirit upon our pulpits again.
What Will it Take to Break Us?
Isaiah 66:2 reminds us that God will look on “him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.” As I recently wrote in When Ministry Becomes Idolatry: “God is not impressed by numbers but by nearness to Him … If the blind beggar is unworthy of our attention, we need to check our hearts.”
We are waiting on God, but could it be that God is waiting on us? Gun safes are full but prayer closets are empty―stock options soar, but hearts are not breaking. We are angry but not desperate, mad but not humble, and enraged but not broken. What will it take to break us? The red, white, and blue cannot save us, but the crimson blood of Christ can: “Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity” (Joel 2:13 NIV).
To get the ear of God and experience spiritual healing, we must return to brokenness, reverence, and the fear of the Lord.
The Cure is Simple, but Not Easy
When diagnosed with cancer, there is an urgency to make drastic lifestyle changes. When it comes to spiritual cancer, shouldn’t we be just as aggressive and drastic, if not more so? Shouldn’t there be a sense of urgency? Absolutely. But we are not desperate enough. Desperate people do desperate things and cry out like Isaiah, “Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence” (Isaiah 64:1 NKJV).
When was the last time you spent half a day praying and fasting for God to rip the heavens open and come down? God listens to desperate, broken people who repent and focus on Him. We must begin here. It’s simple, but not easy. Throughout Scripture, the call of God is not to Washington, Hollywood, or Sacramento, but to us.
Devotional Title: The Benefits of Wisdom (1/20/26)
God generously gives wisdom—all we have to do is ask.
Key Bible Passage: James 1:5-8
Wisdom is one of the most important tools in times of trial. And James 1:5 says God will give it generously when we ask.
However, there are times when wisdom doesn’t feel easy to acquire—for example, when God allows a test in our life after we’ve asked Him to make us wise. He may permit a challenge because temptations and difficulty can help us discover our level of devotion to Him. When we go through a time of testing, we learn whether we’re willing to say, “God, I don’t like this or understand it, but I’m going to obey You no matter what.” It’s hard to know for sure whether we would respond this way unless we go through difficulties that put our faith to the proof.
In fact, we grow in our devotion to the Lord by making wise decisions despite opposition and by obeying regardless of temptation or inconvenience. Such challenges are similar to a refiner’s fire: They sanctify and purify us (Job 23:10). These situations not only reveal what God is doing in us; they can also point out ways we might be trying to ignore the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
Allowing God to do His work positions us to receive blessings, see His power, and feel His love in new ways. This is not only a way to become wise; it’s also the pathway to great joy.
Devotional Title: War … or training? (1/15/26)
Key Bible Passage: Hebrews 6:12
Christians have a tendency to attribute any unpleasant event to spiritual warfare. When a problem arises, most people immediately pray to God to deliver them from it. Their distressing situation may not have anything to do with Satan or spiritual warfare. Instead of recognizing that we are reaping what we have sown (Galatians 7:6) and thus receiving discipline from our heavenly Father, we tend to attribute our difficulties to Satan’s attacks, because it seems more honorable to us to do so.
Often what we mistake for an attack from Satan may actually be an attempt to love us.
Discipline from a loving father. If you fail to be a spiritual teacher to your children, God may allow them to fall into sin. If you are dishonest in your work, God may allow you to suffer the consequences for your integrity. It would not be wise to pray to God to ease your suffering. God will not allow you to suffer the consequences for your integrity.
God trains you to focus on Him and bring about the needed change in your life. How sad it would be if we could never make any connection between our problems and God’s training. If you let Him teach you every day.
If you call it spiritual warfare or the work of the devil, then God’s discipline will not be beneficial to you. Even if your difficulty is not a warning from God, God’s Word tells us that God also disciplines us when needed.
If you do not understand the discipline from God, you are actually blaming Him for not answering your prayers or for not protecting you from the devil, when God is warning you that you are in danger because of your sin. Are there difficult circumstances in your life? Could this be a warning from God? God, whose nature is perfect love, will correct you because He always wants the best for you.
Let’s Pray
Heavenly Father, Give us wisdom to discern Your loving discipline from the trials we face. Help us not to blame the enemy when You are training our hearts. Teach us to submit to Your correction, to learn from it, and to grow closer to You through it. May we trust that every correction comes from Your perfect love and is meant for our good. Amen.
Devotional Title: God’s effective Word (1/14/26)
Key Bible Passage: Hebrews 12:4
Has the Word of God ever made you feel uneasy? Does studying the Bible make you restless? Have you ever felt as if a passage of Scripture was speaking directly to you while listening to a sermon? If so, you are experiencing the truth that the Word of God is alive, knowing your thoughts and examining your inclinations.
Whenever God’s Word speaks to you, it always has a purpose. God knows your heart and what you need to do to become more like Christ. If you are sinning in your speech, God’s Word will speak to you about the right use of your tongue. If you are struggling to forgive someone, God’s Word will bring to you the standard of forgiveness. If pride has taken over your life, God’s Word will speak to you about humility. So, wherever we are sinning in our lives, God will bring that area of our life to the fore through His Word.
The anxiety that leads to sin can be easily ignored. The easiest way is to run away from it. You can’t hear God’s voice. You can’t read the Bible, and you can even avoid those who support the truths of the Bible wherever it is taught. However, doing so will not help. When God convicts you, the best way to be convicted is to pray like the psalmist, “Search me, O God, and know my heart…” (Psalm 23:139). Let yourself be thoroughly cleansed by God’s Word and seek out the sin or impurity within you (Ephesians 22:5). See how what God’s Word teaches you applies to your life. Take every word of God’s Word seriously, knowing that it searches and purifies your heart and mind.
Let’s Pray
Heavenly Father, Thank You for Your living and powerful Word. Search my heart, O God, and reveal anything in me that does not please You. Give me a willing spirit to receive Your correction and the grace to obey what You show me. Cleanse my heart and mind through Your Word, and shape me to become more like Christ. Help me not to run from Your truth but to walk in it with humility and faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Knowing God’s will through prayer (1/13/26)
Key Bible Passage: Mark 1:35
The disciples were well aware that Jesus spent time praying early in the morning, and since they also knew the place where he prayed, they would reach out to him whenever they needed him. When Judas prayed to Jesus, he led the soldiers to the place where Jesus prayed.
The Lord Jesus prayed whenever he had to make an important decision. He prayed when he was tempted to obey the world against the will of his Father (Matthew 4). When it came time to choose disciples, he spent the whole night in prayer (Luke 12:6). If the Son of God found it necessary to pray all night to know his Father’s will, how long might we need to pray to know the will of our Father?
Because Jesus was surrounded by people, He knew that He needed to go to a quiet place to hear His Father’s voice clearly. Many people tried to keep Jesus from doing His Father’s will. His disciples wanted Him to stay with the shepherd (Mark 1:37). The shepherd wanted to make Him king (John 15:6). Satan tempted Him to do His will (Matthew 9:6, 3:4). Jesus knew that His purpose was not to be the center of attention but to do His Father’s will. Jesus organized His earthly ministry through prayer (Luke 12:6); miracles followed prayer (John 11:42); prayer gave Him strength in times of trouble (Luke 28:9-31); prayer enabled Him to carry the cross (Acts 4:22-41); It was through prayer that He remained on the cross to endure the intense agony (Luke 46:23). Follow the example of the prayer life of the Savior Jesus, take time to pray with God, and live your life Create an agenda.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, Teach us to seek Your will through prayer just as Jesus did. Help us to rise early, to find quiet places, and to listen for Your voice. Give us hearts that desire Your will above all else. Strengthen us through prayer in times of decision, temptation, and suffering. May our lives be organized by prayer and guided by obedience to You alone.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Devotional Title: How to Walk With God (1/12/26)
Through the cross of Christ, God invited us into relationship with Him.
Key Bible Passage: Genesis 5:21-24
Enoch had such a close walk with the Lord that Scripture says, “God took him” (Gen. 5:24). This means that Enoch did not die but was taken directly into the presence of the Lord. As we seek to follow God with passion like Enoch’s, here are some steps that will help us grow:
Reconciliation. This term essentially means “God moving toward us.” Through the cross of Christ, God has already made His move in our direction. (See 2 Cor. 5:18.) When we place our faith in the Savior, we immediately take part in that reconciliation.
Trusting God. Our heavenly Father wants us to know He is concerned with our spiritual growth and, through Jesus, has provided the way for us to walk closely with Him.
Agreement. To appreciate the relationship God wants to have with us, we must agree with what His Word teaches.
Fellowship. Just as our human relationships fall apart without regular contact, our intimacy with the Father is harder to experience if we do not spend time with Him.
Walking with God requires careful attention to the details of our Christian life. When we set our course for God, He will always be there to direct our path (Prov. 16:9).
Devotional Title: What Fasting Adds to Prayer (1/9/26)
Key Bible Passage: John 4:34
From the beginning to the end of Jesus’ ministry, we see a stark contrast between his priorities and the thinking of his disciples. The disciples were often concerned about meeting their physical needs (Matthew 14:15-17; Luke 28:18). Jesus repeatedly assured them that their heavenly Father knew their needs and would provide for them (Luke 11:13-11). Jesus emphasized that this should be their priority:
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 33:6).
When Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well, his disciples went to a nearby town to buy food. While his disciples were concerned about physical growth, Jesus was giving the woman living water that would satisfy her soul for eternal life. When they returned, the disciples asked Jesus for food, but he replied that my food was for doing the will of my Father. Since they were all focused on physical food, the disciples misunderstood his answer. Jesus’ own life purpose was obedience to his Father. Because of his obedience to Jesus, the woman received eternal life that day. She was overcome with joy and brought many others to Jesus to hear him for themselves, and many believed that he was indeed the promised Messiah and Savior of the world (John 4:39-42).
The apostle Paul understood what Jesus was teaching his disciples. The apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Rome that the kingdom of God does not consist in eating and drinking, but in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And whoever serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men (Romans 17:14, 18).
When Satan tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread, he briefly quoted the Bible from the perspective of his life and ministry, saying, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord does he live” (Deuteronomy 3:8).
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, Thank You for reminding us that our true food is to do Your will. Help us not to be consumed by our physical needs, but to seek first Your kingdom and Your righteousness. Teach us to live by every word that comes from You, and fill our hearts with righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. May our lives bring glory to You and lead others to know Jesus as the Savior of the world In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Key Bible Passage: Jeremiah 6:18
God knows how to save your family, your friends, your church, and your world. For this work, He seeks people who will surrender themselves to Him so that He can use them for His divine work. Clay has no plan of its own. It is just clay. Ready to be molded and shaped exactly to His will. Subject to owner’s will. “Sometimes we proclaim with great enthusiasm about God: “I have discovered the secret of my strength and grace, and I know how to serve you better.” Then at other times we say to the Lord, “I know my weaknesses. Therefore, I know that no one is qualified to serve.” However, this is not a characteristic of clay. God does not necessarily use only our strengths to do His work; He knows how to use our weaknesses as well (2 Corinthians 10:12). He can make us into the weapons He needs. When God’s work requires humility, He finds someone humble and meek to serve. When His work requires passion and zeal, He finds someone to work for. He finds a servant who is filled with the Holy Spirit and can work with zeal.
God uses pure vessels, so He seeks those who will allow their filth to be cleansed. There is no glory in being clay, nor is there any pride or boasting. God also needs the same, namely clay that can be molded into a mold.
Be ready and worthy. If you have been telling God what you can and cannot do, give up that tendency and surrender yourself completely to Him. He will mold you like clay to His will.
Prayer:
Lord, we come before You as clay in Your hands. We surrender our plans, our strengths, and our weaknesses to You. Cleanse us, shape us, and mold us according to Your perfect will. Make us vessels fit for Your work, ready to serve wherever You place us. We desire no glory of our own—only that Your purpose be fulfilled through us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Christianity is a deep and personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This relationship grows stronger day by day. It is not just a list of religious beliefs, religious activities, or avoiding certain sins. Obedience to every command of God strengthens this deep relationship of love. God designed worship so that we may see Him in His glory and then live lives that honor that glory. Sadly, for many people, worship has become only a “religion.” For them, it is like attending a meeting. God established sacrifices so that His people could express their love for Him. But instead, we often bring offerings just to calm our guilt or try to please Him, even though we know our offerings can never truly remove His displeasure. God told us that we can speak to Him through prayer. But many of us pray without thinking. We rush into prayer as a duty, without stopping to listen to the heart of our heavenly Father. God gave laws to protect those who love Him, so that by obeying them we can keep a strong relationship with Him and remain under His protection.
But these laws can easily turn into something lifeless, like strict religious rules.
Religious activity without fellowship with God becomes an empty ritual.
The people in Jeremiah’s time were satisfied without God’s presence.
They were so busy with religious rituals that they did not even notice God was absent. Is it possible to attend worship services, give offerings, and pray without truly experiencing God’s presence? Yes, it is possible. Many Christians have sadly experienced this. Do not live a religious life without a life-giving relationship with Jesus Christ. When you experience God’s presence, it brings a powerful and beautiful change in your life.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, Save us from empty religion and lifeless rituals. Give us hearts that truly seek Your presence. Teach us to worship You in spirit and in truth. Help us to pray with understanding and to listen to Your voice. Let our obedience come from love, not duty. Draw us into a deep and living relationship with Jesus Christ, and transform our lives by Your presence In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Devotional Title: Change by you (1/5/26)
Key Bible Passage: Daniel 1:8
Would you believe that the God who called you to His service and gave you His Holy Spirit can do greater things through you than the Holy One He called you to do? Have you ever wondered why God has placed you where you are today? Events in the world do not happen without a purpose. God has a purpose in them. God has also placed you here for a specific purpose.
Daniel did not let the trials that came with time come between him and God. And God knew that in order to please God with his life, he needed to obey God in all things. Daniel refused to obey the most powerful king in the world at that time, because he knew that obeying the king would be tantamount to betraying God’s king.
History is full of examples of the faith of Christian men and women who knew that God would do great things for His kingdom through them. At a very critical time, God planned to bring Esther to the king’s court. He planned to bring Esther to the court so that she could save the lives of God’s people (Esther 14:4). God wisely made Joseph a powerful advisor to Pharaoh in Egypt so that Jacob and his family would be protected from the ravages of famine (Genesis 40:39, 41).
Are you deciding how to live your life based on what is happening around you? Or are you giving God the opportunity to use you to change the world around you? Pray to God to reveal His purpose for you and His will for your life.
Let’s Pray
Heavenly Father, Thank You for placing me where I am today according to Your divine purpose. Give me a heart like Daniel, and faithful, that chooses obedience over compromise. Help me to trust that You are working through my life for Your glory, even when I cannot see the full picture. Reveal Your will to me clearly, and give me courage to walk in it. Use my life to bring change for Your kingdom In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Devotional Title: “New Year , A New Thing*
At the beginning of a new year, the Lord reminds us of a powerful promise in Isaiah.
Key Bible Passage : Isaiah 43:19
This verse is a call to hope, renewal, and faith. No matter how the past year was—filled with struggles, delays, or disappointments—God declares that He is doing something new. God is never limited by our past; He is the God who prepares our future. The wilderness represents those seasons of life where we feel lost and directionless, and the desert represents times of dryness, pain, and emptiness.
Yet God promises: To make a way in the wilderness— where no path seems possible To create rivers in the desert— where life feels dry and hopeless The new year also challenges us to recognize God’s work. Often, because of old mindsets, past hurts, or fear, we fail to see the new thing God has already begun.
Today, God asks us:
“Will you not recognize it?”
Let this year be a year of faith. A year of moving forward. God is the One who turns the impossible into the possible, and He will surely walk with us throughout this new year.
Let ‘s Pray
Heavenly Father, We thank You for the gift of this new year. We choose to trust Your Word that You are doing a new thing. Lord, open our eyes so that we may recognize Your work. Where there is wilderness in our lives, make a way. Where there is dryness and desert, let Your rivers flow. We lay down our fears, disappointments, and past burdens at Your feet and step into this new year with faith and hope. May this year be filled with Your glory, Your presence, and Your purpose. We ask all this in the name of Jesus Christ.Amen.
Devotional Title: God’s Word Is Not ineffective (12/30/25)
Key Bible Passage: Luke 1:37
The angel Gabriel told Mary that God intended to do something that was impossible for man. All human science agrees that a virgin could not have a child without a man. It was impossible. Yet this is what was going to happen. When God intends to do something impossible, it is not meaningless. When was the last time God did the impossible in your life? When was the last time God spoke about what He wanted to do and you were terrified by it?
God still does the impossible! Many times we admit that God does what He wants. Then we add an additional sentence: “But I don’t think God would do that to me.” We don’t deny God verbally, but we deny God in practical terms. We say that God performs miracles, but we never expect miracles in our lives.
God was making provision for the salvation of mankind. The important thing in this regard is that Mary not only believes that God can do the impossible but also offers her life for the great work that God was making provision for through her womb. The difference between a believer and a civilized person is their belief in God and their obedience to Him. Some people may imitate the morals of a Christian, but they cannot experience the miraculous power that only occurs in the life of a believing Christian. Do you believe that nothing is impossible for God?
Let’s Pray
Heavenly Father, We thank You because Your Word never fails. Forgive us for the times we believe in miracles but do not expect them in our own lives. Help us to trust You completely, even when what You speak seems impossible. Give us hearts like Mary—hearts that believe, obey, and surrender fully to Your will. Strengthen our faith so we may experience Your miraculous power and live as true believing Christians. We declare today that nothing is impossible for You In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Devotional Title: Popularity before God(12/29/25)
Key Bible Passage: 2 Corinthians 10:18
It is true for all of us that we want support and approval from others for our actions. Children want validation from their parents for their actions. We adults also want our opinions to be valued and supported in front of our friends, colleagues, and our employers. Sometimes the approval of others becomes so important in our lives that we judge our own worth and status in the context of it. We judge ourselves.
The apostle Paul said that he did not seek to gain popularity with people. Those who objected or criticized him thought that their objections would decide what he had done. However, these were the same people who praised themselves for their own behavior and their own opinions. They wanted confirmation or validation for their opinions from others and they were getting it from others.
Jesus said that those who seek the approval of others have “received their reward” (Matthew 2:2-5). The apostle Paul also realized that it is not difficult to gain the praise of others, but it is a greater achievement to gain the approval or affirmation of God. Paul also desired the same approval that Jesus received from the Father (2 Timothy 2:3-5). The holy apostle Paul knew that it is not difficult to remain humble in our own eyes. There was a time when Paul (Saul) himself was like that. At that time, he did not realize that the righteousness he boasted about was nothing but rubbish in the kingdom of God (Philippians 8:3).
Whose opinion is most important to you? Are you satisfied and happy with the approval of those around you? Do you consider your lifestyle satisfactory? The most important thing is the praise and appreciation that comes from God. The joy that God gets from your life is your pure and righteous life It must be due to lifestyle.
Let’s Pray
Heavenly Father, We come before You acknowledging that many times we seek the approval of people more than Your approval. Help us to examine our hearts and align our lives according to Your will. Teach us to live for Your pleasure alone and not for human praise. Grant us humility, purity, and obedience so that our lifestyle brings joy to You. May our lives reflect righteousness and faithfulness, and may we seek only the commendation that comes from You In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Devotional Title: Worship at Christmas (12/25/25)
Today, make time to be thankful for the gifts under the tree—and the Gift placed in a manger for you.
Key Bible Passage: Matthew 2:7-11
Of all of the responses we can have toward Christmas, worship most pleases God. We have every reason to rejoice greatly that Jesus came to earth in human flesh. We’re truly blessed that His purpose in coming was to rescue us from sin (1 Tim. 1:15) and make possible a relationship with our heavenly Father.
The Magi traveled all the way from the East for the sole purpose of worshipping the King of the Jewish people. Knowing a star signaled His birth, they journeyed hundreds of miles to find Him. The Magi believed God was leading them to the King, and when they finally arrived in Bethlehem, they showed reverence by humbling themselves and celebrating the Christ child with gifts. These were wealthy, wise, and respected men, yet they understood the infant was far greater than they.
Is Jesus the center of our celebrations, or have we let other interests take pride of place? Holding on to the right priorities can be challenging at this season. But we lose when we focus only on the gifts under our trees and miss the gift in the manger.
It’s easy to get sidetracked from what is most important. To help prevent that, let’s imagine all the inconveniences, setbacks, and risks the Magi endured in their pursuit of the infant King. Like those wise men, may we follow the Savior, whatever it takes.
Devotional Title: How Long? (12/24/25)
Key Bible chapter : Psalms 13
I find myself often asking a similar question these days: How long?
How long, O Lord, will we continue to feel the effects of sin in the world? How long will underserved communities experience such pain? How long will people within our country, and even the church, be in such disunity?
I have yet to hear any answers to these questions.
But I find comfort in this psalm — not because it provides answers but because it redirects my concern. For the first two-thirds of this short psalm, the author David grieves not understanding God’s timing. He cries out for deliverance from his enemies.
But then David responds in remembrance of who God is. He doesn’t declare his trust in God’s timing but in His steadfast love. David relies on who he knows God to be: loving and kind. And he relies on the promise God gave him: God would save him.
Just as God comforted and assured David, He offers His steadfast love to you and me today. God invites us to share our anxieties with Him, for He cares about us (1 Peter 5:7). He wants to be with us in our pain, fear, and challenging situations. The Christmas season isn’t simply about celebrating what God did thousands of years ago, but what He is doing for you when you trust His Son. Jesus is Immanuel, God-With-You, right here and now.
As you prepare your heart for the celebration of Jesus’ birth, remember and reflect on who Jesus is and what He did for you —He gave you freedom from sin and restored your relationship with God.
God gave us the greatest gift: Himself.
I would encourage you sometime today to reflect on 1 Peter 5:7, “[Cast] all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you”. On paper, list every worry you can think of. Read and write out Philippians 4:6-7 across that list. Give all those worries to God. Thank Him for taking care of them. Demonstrate your “letting go” by tearing up the list and throwing it away.
Then, take time to look forward to today.
Let’s Pray
Father, thank You for caring about every detail of my life. You are Immanuel, God-With-Us, and You journey alongside me in everything I do. Lord, You are so loving and kind. I know one day there will no longer be any more illness, pain, or injustice; but right now, I feel sorrow and pain. Help me to hold joy in my heart in the midst of challenging circumstances. Will You comfort us as we await Your return? Thank You for coming to save us. We love You. Amen.
Devotional Title: O Holy Night (12/23/25)
Key Bible Passage: Matthew 1:21-23
“O holy night. The stars are brightly shining.
It is the night of our dear Savior’s birth.”
One of my favorite Christmas song is “O Holy Night” . It has a great melody and story.
Oh it’s profound words truly point to the heart of Christmas.
“Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.”
These words tell us of our need for a Savior.
When our creative God set the universe into motion, the Bible says it was “very good” (Genesis 1:31, ESV). Humanity was the pinnacle of God’s creation, made in His image to reflect Him. We were made to flourish.
But Adam and Eve’s rebellion in Genesis 3 broke our relationship with God, and evil entered our world. Sin is now a part of our nature. I see the sin in my own life, in our communities, and in our world. Sin and its ripple effects are devastating. We died spiritually that day in the garden, and we need God’s intervention to bring us back to life.
“A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new glorious morn.”
But in the same chapter, in Genesis 3:15, God’s promises of redemption and restoration begin. Even as Adam and Eve turned from Him, He responded in love and hope. And this restoration will be a gift to us, not anything we can earn.
Jesus, our promised hope from God, suffered and died so we might have a restored relationship with God, be saved from our sins, and be made whole. Now we long for the day when the hurting world will be fully restored by the Messiah who was born in a manger.
This hope is the heart of Christmas — that we would remember and reflect on the hope we have because Jesus, God’s greatest gift, came to earth to save each of us. Now, you and I can experience joyful hope as we eagerly wait for God to fulfill His promise — for Jesus to return and restore humanity and our world to the goodness God intended from the start of creation.
Let the weary world rejoice.
I would encourage sometime today to reflect on where did you need God to intervene in your life right now? Where do you need the hope God offers? What hope can Immanuel, “God with us,” give you for the future? Pray and ask God to give you that hope today.
Let’s pray
Father, the world is weary, and we long for hope. I confess the brokenness in my own heart, and I see the destruction of sin throughout the world. God, thank You that You have loved us so much that You sent Jesus into the world to save us. You are God with us. Thank You that because of Jesus, I can now have a relationship with You. Restore my hope. Restore the world.
Devotional Title: Contagious Joy(12/19/25)
Joy naturally flows from knowing Christ, and it draws others to Him.
Key Bible Passage: 1 John 1:1-4
Jesus calls us to be His witnesses (Acts 1:8). On hearing this, some Christians worry that they need special skills or charisma in order to explain the good news to someone else. Yet to bear witness is not merely to share the plan of salvation. The phrase literally means “to know by personal experience” or “testify to.” In today’s passage, John wrote that he was sharing things he’d experienced firsthand. What he was saying is this: “I’m full of joy because of the experience of knowing Jesus, and I want you to share in that joy.”
When you’re in love with someone, you are excited about the relationship and enjoy spending time together. Likewise, when you’re in love with Jesus, you can’t keep to yourself the joy that comes from knowing Him—it just spills over, bearing witness and strengthening other believers. People around you will pick up on the deep, genuine gladness in your heart that goes beyond natural happiness. And some who don’t yet know the Lord will find themselves hungering for the joy you have.
Witnessing is not a matter of eloquence or talent; it’s an overflow of a relationship with Jesus. As you allow the Holy Spirit to increasingly express His life and power through you, contagious joy will be the fruit of His indwelling presence.
Devotional Title: The Test of Loyalty (12/18/25)
Key Bible Passage:Romans 8:28
Only the loyal soul believes that God engineers circumstances. We take enormous liberties with our circumstances, treating the things that happen as if they’d been engineered by human beings. We say we believe God is in control, but we don’t really. If we did, we’d be faithful to him in every circumstance; we’d have just one loyalty, and that would be to our Lord.
Most of us tend to go about our lives thinking we’re in control. Then, suddenly, God comes in and breaks up our circumstances, and we have the shocking realization that he was in control all along and that we’ve been disloyal to him by not recognizing it. We didn’t see the special thing he was trying to create with our circumstances, and now the thing is gone, never to be repeated all the days of our life; the test of loyalty always comes in this way. We have to learn that if we will worship God in difficult times, he will show us that he can alter our circumstances in two seconds flat, whenever he chooses.
Loyalty to Jesus Christ is what we stumble over today. We will be loyal to work, to service, to anything else; just don’t ask us to be loyal to Jesus Christ. Many Christians are intensely impatient of talk about loyalty to Jesus. Our Lord is dethroned more emphatically by Christian workers than by the world. God is turned into a machine for generating blessings, and Jesus into a worker among workers.
The idea we should have isn’t that we work for God but that we are so loyal to him that he can work through us. God wants to use us as he used his own Son. When Jesus said, “You will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8), he meant “witnesses who satisfy me in any circumstance I put you in, witnesses I am counting on for extreme service, with no complaining on your part and no explanation on mine.”
—My Utmost for His Highest
If you could snap your fingers and have peace in one area of your life right now, where would that be? Maybe it’s in your relationships, your finances, your health, or even in your own thoughts. We all long for peace, but so often we chase it in places that can’t sustain it, like success, security, or control.
The Bible shows us again and again that true peace isn’t something we can manufacture — it doesn’t come from circumstances, but from God’s presence. He delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. He raised up judges like Gideon and Deborah to restore peace to His people. Jesus calmed a storm with just a word. He freed a man possessed by demons and forgave a woman caught in sin.Every time chaos showed up, God’s presence brought peace.
That’s why the prophets called the Messiah “Immanuel” (God with us) and the “Prince of Peace.” God’s presence and peace are connected. Peace isn’t something Jesus gives apart from Himself. He is our peace. Wherever He is, peace reigns.
This Christmas season, you may find yourself in the middle of stress, conflict, or uncertainty. Don’t wait until things settle dowm to look for God. Invite Him into the middle of your storm. His peace isn’t fragile; it doesn’t depend on everything being perfect. It’s strong enough to quiet your heart even when life around you is loud.
So when the chaos presses in, remember: Peace isn’t found in the absence of trouble, but in the presence of Jesus.
Prayer: “Jesus, you are the Prince of Peace. Quiet our worries and calm our spirits. Let Your peace rule in our hearts and homes this season.”
Jesus saves us—and provides everything needed for daily living.
Key Bible Passage: 1 John 2:15-17
In Luke 18:18-30, a wealthy ruler approached Jesus to learn how to secure his future in eternity. Jesus used the moment to reveal the man’s wrong thinking and a spiritual stumbling block.
First, the affluent man erroneously believed good deeds were the means of entering heaven. Eternal life is not “bought”; it is a free gift through faith in Jesus Christ. Nor is it something we can attain apart from God. Eternal life becomes ours at the moment of salvation, when the life of God comes to us in the person of His indwelling Holy Spirit (John 4:14; John 14:16-17).
Second, the man’s identity was tied up in material things. Jesus addressed this spiritual obstacle by issuing a loving challenge: “Sell all you possess and give to the poor … and come, follow Me” (Mark 10:21). The Lord was not saying that giving everything away was the path to salvation. He wanted this young man to realize his difficulty—that his possessions owned him. Jesus offered treasure in heaven, but the man turned away.
Have we fallen into the same trap of believing in Jesus for salvation but trusting exclusively in ourselves for daily living? It can be tempting to depend on our own intelligence, talents, material possessions, or family instead of looking to God for direction and solutions. On whom or what do you depend?
Humbly serving others glorifies our Savior.
Key Bible Passage: John 13:3-15
In ancient Israel, sandaled feet got filthy after a day of walking. It was customary for a person entering a home to remove his sandals and clean his feet. Or, if the homeowners were wealthy, servants would do the washing. This distasteful but necessary task fell to the worker of lowest position in the household.
Imagine the disciples’ surprise when the Son of God put Himself in the role of a lowly servant and knelt to clean their feet. The need for such a service was great, but not one of them offered to do it. Jesus did more than fill a need; He offered an object lesson, explaining, “I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you” (John 13:15).
Jesus desires that we be willing to humble ourselves to serve others. He is looking for men and women who will ignore pride, position, and power in order to do whatever must be done, wherever it needs doing, and for whoever requires assistance.
Jesus performed this humble act of service the day before His trial and crucifixion. Yes, He washed dirty feet, using the same hands that would be pierced by nails. He took the time to show us that every task God gives us, no matter how “lowly,” is important to His kingdom.
Those who deny themselves to follow Jesus discover the greatest adventure in life.
Key Bible Passage: Matthew 10:24-42
Salvation is a free gift of God. It comes to us through faith in Jesus, whose sacrifice fully paid for our forgiveness and reconciliation with God. There’s not a single thing we can add to bring salvation about; our role is simply to believe. But from that moment on, each of us must make a choice: Will we follow Jesus or just coast along, doing what we want? If we limit our Christianity to merely sitting in a pew, we’ll miss the greatest adventure of our life.
Jesus never painted a rosy picture when He called people to follow Him (Matt. 24:9). He stated quite plainly that becoming His follower would require self-denial, sacrifice, and suffering. Following Jesus means that He directs our life. We give up our rights to do whatever we want and instead submit to His will, even when it is difficult or doesn’t align with our preferences. If you don’t realize how good, loving, and wise our God is, walking in His will may seem scary or even foolish.
But those who deny themselves to follow Jesus discover they lose nothing and gain everything. Even when His disciples are in a season of pain and suffering, the Lord knows how to give them inner peace and a joy that transcends circumstances. Are you looking to Jesus or yourself for direction? Your lifestyle, words, and attitudes reveal who truly rules your life.
There’s only one way to a right relationship with God—through faith in Jesus Christ.
Key Bible Passage: John 3:1-8
In today’s passage, we read about Jesus meeting with a Pharisee named Nicodemus. This man was a teacher and a member of the Sanhedrin—the ruling council that tried to discern false teaching and make sure God’s law was upheld.
Realizing the signs Jesus performed were beyond the ability of a mere man, Nicodemus came at night to ask Him questions. The Lord explained that “unless one is born again” he could not see the kingdom of God (3:3). This must have come as a surprise to the Pharisee, who had been confident of his own religion and morality.
Are you like Nicodemus? Do you believe good deeds and religious behavior can earn you a place in heaven? No matter how much we may wish this to be true, the Bible teaches otherwise: We all have sinned, and our sin has separated us from God. There’s only one way to salvation—through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (John 14:6).
Later in His conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus said, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save it—one person at a time, through faith in Him (John 3:17).
In God’s Word, we discover guiding principles for a satisfying life.
Key Bible Passage: Deuteronomy 8:1-6
The Bible should be the main course in our “literary diet.” If we spend time in the Word, filling ourselves with its truths—just as we fill ourselves at the dinner table—our spirit and character will be nourished, joyful, and thriving.
It is in God’s Word that we learn how He thinks and what He does. In those pages, we also discover the guiding principles for a fulfilling life.
After all, how can we trust our heavenly Father unless we know Him? And how can we become like Jesus unless we practice the habits He details in Scripture?
In Proverbs 4:25-27, we read, “Let your eyes look directly ahead and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you … Do not turn to the right nor to the left.” What this means in practical terms is that every time we must make a decision, we’re to sift it through what we know of the Lord from Scripture. We do not live by human reason, the opinion of others, or our own wisdom. Rather, we conform our mind, heart, and will to the biblical standard.
Bread will keep the stomach full, but life will be empty without a daily serving of reading and meditation. Learn to recognize spiritual hunger pains, such as discontent or an ambivalence toward the things of God—and choose to feast on His Word.
All who receive Jesus as Savior are redeemed and forgiven.
Key Bible Passage: Acts 9:1-19When people receive exciting news, what’s the natural thing to do—keep it under wraps or tell others who can share in their joy? The second option, of course. That’s the reason Paul told others about salvation; it was good news he simply couldn’t keep to himself.
God saved Paul on the road to Damascus, and the apostle dedicated the rest of his life to spreading the good news of the gospel. Yes, he did so because he was thankful and felt devoted to the Lord. But there was more to the apostle’s motivation—he also felt compelled to offer hope to a world in need (1 Tim. 1:15-16).
Paul’s message was that God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world as a human being. Through His death on the cross, Jesus redeemed mankind, and all who receive Him as their Savior will be forgiven.
Paul realized the gospel had to be shared, but not just with those around him—he had to tell everyone! Some would accept the truth, while others would reject it. But Paul wasn’t responsible for their reaction. His task was simply to tell about Jesus.
Do you feel the same joy and gratitude that Paul felt? Pray that God would give you the courage and wisdom to share His good news with others.
Devotional Title: How God Works (10/30/25)
Devotional Title: Our Generous Provider (10/29/25)
Devotional Title: Genuine Repentance (10/28/25)
Devotional Title: When Facing Life’s Mountains (10/27/25)
Devotional Title: Alone With God (10/24/25)
Devotional Title: A Life of Becoming (10/22/25)
Devotional Title: The Benefits of Gratitude(10/21/25)
Giving thanks moves our eyes from our situation to the Lord’s faithfulness.
Key Bible Passage: Psalm 105:1-5
Thanking God glorifies and magnifies Him, but did you know it also benefits us? Giving thanks . . .
Refocuses our attention. Life is filled with things that keep us from seeing all God has done. Instead of carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders, we should try refocusing on the Lord by thanking Him for His provision, guidance, and faithfulness.
Relieves anxiety. We all deal with pressures, expectations, and responsibilities. But when we bring our concerns to the Lord with thanksgiving, the burden shifts to Him, and His peace comes to us (Phil. 4:6-7).
Refreshes our relationship. Gratitude keeps us from thinking that the Christian walk is all about us. Our fellowship with God is enhanced because we’re focused on Him instead of ourselves.
Reinforces our faith. When we thank the Lord for His past faithfulness, our confidence in His present faithfulness soars.
Rejoices our spirit. Thanksgiving brings us a sense of joy and helps us combat discouragement.
Although gratitude is always beneficial, that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Shifting our focus and thanking the Lord for all He’s done is the fastest way to change our attitude and reenergize ourselves to push through whatever challenges we face.
Devotional Title: The Transforming Grace of God (10/20/25)
God can transform any sinner into a saint.
Key Bible Passage: Romans 8:28-30
One of the most miraculous displays of the Lord’s power is His ability to transform an unrighteous man into a shining light for Jesus. The apostle Paul is a great example of how God can change …
• The religious into the redeemed (1 Tim. 1:12-13). Before his conversion, Paul was deeply religious, but not in a good way. He relied on his pedigree, performance, and piety to gain authority and acceptance. When he met the Lord on the road to Damascus, however, he discovered that all of his religious works and credentials meant nothing. The only way we can become acceptable before God is through receiving the saving grace of Christ—and that’s how Paul’s sin was replaced with a righteous spirit.
• A servant of sin into a servant of God (Rom. 6:17-18). Paul had been hostile toward the early church—promoting blasphemy, punishing believers, and voting for them to be punished with death (Acts 26:10-11). Yet after salvation, he became a dedicated missionary who spread the gospel wherever he could.
Our Father turned one of the early church’s enemies into a wise and repentant leader. Commit to obey the Lord, and see what happens. He is faithful to complete the good work He has begun in you (Phil. 1:6).
Devotional Title: Building Lasting Friendships (10/17/25)
Genuine friendship is built upon a foundation of mutual love, respect, and commitment.
Key Bible Passage: Romans 12:10-11
How many true friends do you have? At first, lots of names may come to mind, but the longer you think about it, that number will likely dwindle. Many of us do not have a great quantity of genuine friends—the ones who remain loyal no matter what.
This dependable, intimate closeness is what the Lord wants for us, but it’s a rare treasure. The biblical account of David and Jonathan (1 Sam. 18:1-30; 1 Sam. 19:1-24; 1 Sam. 20:1-42) can help us learn how to foster such a relationship. Their story demonstrates that genuine friendships are built upon a foundation of mutual respect, love, and authentic commitment. Today, let’s explore the first component.
For true companionship, there must be appreciation by both parties of the other’s godly qualities. This starts with an attitude of valuing all people, knowing that they were created in God’s image and are loved by Him. But at the same time, the regard that David and Jonathan displayed toward one another was greater than mere respect; it revealed admiration for the attributes each had that were commended in Scripture.
Consider your friends. Do they exhibit godly characteristics that you respect? And do they, in turn, have admiration for the biblical qualities they see in you? This mutual respect is a necessary foundation for genuine friendship.
Devotional Title: Sifted for Service (10/16/25)
God uses challenging circumstances to sift our heart, exposing sin so that we might grow in holiness.
Key Bible Passage: Chronicles 32:1-31
In one way or another, we are all being sifted by the circumstances that God allows to come our way. Sifting is never comfortable, but it exposes the “chaff” in our life—in other words, anything worthless—and gives us the opportunity to deal with it.
King Hezekiah was given such a chance at the pinnacle of his astonishing rule. He had just witnessed the Lord bringing about a spectacular victory over Sennacherib and the Assyrian hosts. After that, God healed him from a mortal illness, and then Hezekiah was also offered a supernatural sign that actually drove the sun’s shadow 10 steps backward on the stairway (Isa. 38:5; Isa. 38:8).
On the heels of these miracles, emissaries from Babylon approached Hezekiah with flattery. Would he give in to pride and be consumed with an inflated view of himself? Scripture tells us, “God left him alone only to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart” (2 Chron. 32:31). As a result of this test, the chaff of self-importance was revealed.
Think about your own life and ask the Father to reveal any chaff. Though the process can be uncomfortable, remember that the Lord is guiding and interceding for you. Furthermore, the winnowing tools are in His hand, so be assured they will be used only for your ultimate good (Luke 3:17; Luke 21:18).
Devotional Title: Brokenness Leads To Testimony (10/15/25)
Key Bible Scripture: Romans 8:18
Suffering is one of life’s more somber realities. Whether it’s in a relationship or a difficult circumstance, we all experience suffering to some degree. Not only do we experience it, but we also have to deal with it. There are two options when it comes to suffering: we can turn bitter or we can embrace brokenness.
Bitterness causes us to focus on the “unfair” scoreboard of life and ultimately breeds resentment. On the other hand, brokenness—while a difficult reality to embrace—can create unique opportunities for God to use us.
When Jesus fed the 5,000, he broke the bread and gave it to the disciples to distribute. There are several applications pertaining to brokenness in this story. Just like the bread passed through the hands of Jesus so it could be distributed to the hungry masses, our moments of brokenness always pass through the hands of our good and faithful heavenly Father.
Our stories are bigger than we are, as is our brokenness. When we, like the disciples, embrace the broken pieces that are handed to us, those pieces can be used to nourish other people. Our current sufferings pale in comparison to what God wants to do in us if we will only lean into our brokenness and allow God to have his way. It’s at this point of surrender that God is able to reveal his glory through us.
In our times of brokenness, the most comforting thing to remember is that the bread was in Jesus’ hands when it was broken. His hands are more than capable of holding us in our brokenness and charting a path for through which his glory can be revealed.
Devotional Title: Thank God For Using Other To Encourage you(10/14/25)
Key Bible Passage: Matthew 3:13-17
Have you ever noticed how much we crave approval? Of course, you have. Nothing is more human. This is a real need in each of us, and, at times, the pursuit of it can be consuming. It’s important to remember that only one voice has the power to bless us in an ultimate sense: the voice of our heavenly Father.
Twice in the ministry of Jesus, God the Father audibly spoke his approval of Jesus. Once was in the passage listed above, as Jesus was baptized at the beginning of his public ministry. The second is during his transfiguration, which happened just before his trial and execution (Matthew 17:1–5).
Jesus did not need the same approval of his peers that we often crave. In fact, the Gospels state that Jesus did not “entrust himself” to human approval because he knew just how temporary and fickle it was (John 2:23–25). Jesus could do this because he knew with certainty that his identity rested completely on the only source of ultimate blessing, that of God the Father.
If I want the approval of others more than I am willing to accept that I’m fully approved of in Christ, I’ll be tempted to worship something else—an idol. So, if anyone pays you a compliment this week, take a moment to thank God for using that person to encourage you. On my better days, practicing that little habit helps me stay more focused on the only place my ultimate approval comes from.
Devotional Title: Are You Meditating in God’s Word (10/13/25)
There is a promise in Psalm 1: If we delight in and meditate on God’s Word, whatever we do will prosper. To delight in and to meditate on means that we are thinking about and turning over God’s Word in our minds and hearts daily.
Hebrews 4:12 says that the Word of God is living and active. It is powerful. As we think about God’s Word, our minds are renewed and the decisions we make on a daily basis change. This can affect our emotions. When we make right decisions based on the truth of God’s Word, we have a sense of peace and joy and delight. These contribute to a “prosperous life” according to God’s Word.
Pick your favorite passage from the Bible (or use Psalm 1:1-3). Read it a few times. Perhaps copy it word for word. Meditate on it. Turn it over in your mind and begin to put it into practice. See the difference it makes in your thoughts, decisions, and emotions. It will change your life.
In what ways are you delighting in and mediating on God’s Word?
Devotional Title: Building Muscles of Faith (10/10/25)
Do you want a stronger faith? Each day is an opportunity to practice trusting God.
Key Bible Passage: I Kings 18:22-23
Have you ever wished for stronger faith? Faith is like a muscle, which must be exercised in order to become strong.
As Christians, we are to trust in God for everything, not just for salvation (Prov. 3:5-6). The growth of faith is a process that involves increasing degrees of trust throughout life. Weak faith hopes that God will do what He says, but strong faith knows He is faithful to accomplish all He says He will do.
Elijah was a man of great faith who saw challenges as opportunities for God to work. The prophet also believed in the Father’s supernatural ability. So can you. The Lord may not do every miraculous thing you ask, but He does some extraordinary work in and through each person who trusts in Him and is obedient.
You may think you’re not good enough for God to use you, but the Bible is filled with examples of flawed people whom God selected for service. He isn’t looking for perfection, but for people who believe in and rely on Him. He doesn’t simply work through people of faith; He transforms them (Rom. 12:1-2).
Start by reading God’s Word to learn His will. Each day is an opportunity to grow in this area. Ask the Lord to show you verses that apply to your circumstances. If you follow His lead, your faith muscles will grow, and He will be glorified.
Devotional Title: Who Do You Say That I Am?” (10/09/25)
When we truly believe Jesus is Lord, the way we live will change.
Key Bible Passage: Matthew 16:13-18
The question hung in the air like a thick morning fog. Imagine the silence from the disciples when Jesus asked, “Who do you say that I am?” (Matt. 16:15). They may have been too scared or uncertain to speak. But then Peter looked at Jesus and declared, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16).
Calling Jesus “the Christ” was consequential in the first century. Such a statement led to the death of many believers, as the Jewish and Roman authorities persecuted Christians who were willing to take a stand for their faith. Even those who walked side by side with Jesus and excitedly took part in His ministry would be taking a huge risk to call Him by such a title. So they sometimes remained silent while continuing to work for the kingdom.
Isn’t it interesting that today’s church often has the opposite problem? Many people are quick to exclaim, “Jesus is Lord!” but then fail to go about His work. If there’s a gap between what you profess with your mouth and what you’re doing for the kingdom, remember that Jesus calls us to be consistent in testimony and deed. If your confession is “Jesus is Lord,” then your life should reflect your bold stance. What can you do today to demonstrate your faith to others?
Devotional Title: Being Mindful of God’s Presence (10/08/25)
Key Bible Passage: Acts 9:31
When God works, our times of testing, hardships, and opposition can also appear. We must always remember that God (the Lord) is with us and we must remain mindful of Him. Only God’s Spirit can make us strong.
God’s presence in every circumstance is the reality that strengthens our faith and gives us courage. Even today, the church is passing through times of persecution and suffering in many places. At such times, the greatest need of the church is to be joined in fellowship with God so that it may experience His living presence.
When we are in constant fellowship with Him, His presence transforms our fear into peace. The early church experienced the same thing. Though they were persecuted, the Holy Spirit filled them with courage, multiplied their numbers, and strengthened them. Those who lived in the fear of God walked faithfully, and their lives became a witness to the world.
When a person loses the fear of God, sin finds a place to grow in his heart, and sin ultimately destroys life. The Bible says: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 9:10). Whoever lives in the fear of God lives a life of wisdom and victory, but the one who rejects it lives in danger of judgment.
Therefore, we must live every day with the awareness that God is with us. In our weakness, we should surrender our lives to Him so that He may use us for His glory.
Devotional Title: The Truth That Sets You Free (10/07/25)
Key Bible Passage: 1 John 4:13-19
Did you know painful situations never mean that God doesn’t love you? To believe otherwise is to heed the voice of the Deceiver. Think about it: Did Jesus’ suffering indicate that the Father didn’t love the Son? Of course not.
There are hardships in life we can’t always explain, but they can never cancel out or diminish God’s love. Realizing divine love is unconditional brings us …
Joy. How wonderful to know that, whether you’re awake or asleep—no matter what you do or don’t do—the Lord’s love for you never changes.
Freedom. You don’t have to measure up to some standard in order to be accepted. Since God’s love isn’t based on your performance, you’re freed from trying to earn it—which isn’t possible anyway.
Security and assurance. You can always depend on the Father’s unfailing care, even when you have failed. He will never leave you, and His Spirit within each believer is evidence of His constant presence.
If you’ve ever watched the ocean, you know that its waves keep rolling onto the shore. Sometimes they crash with unbelievable force, and other times they’re gentle. Either way, they can’t be stopped! Likewise, there’s nothing you can do to stop almighty God from loving you.
Devotional Title: Faith In The Unseen (10/6/25)
Key Bible Passage: 1 Corinthians 2:5
When God created Adam and Eve, He granted them the freedom to choose between knowledge and life (Gen 3:1–7). Had they chosen life, it would have meant living in God’s presence for eternity. Instead, they chose knowledge; disobeying God and simultaneously ushering in the era of death.
Some claim that if God created everything, He must have created evil. That isn’t true. Evil, like death, is merely the absence of God. In the same way, cold is the absence of heat, and darkness is the absence of light. The potential for evil came into existence when God gave Adam and Eve the freedom to choose. And because He is life (John 11:25), when Adam and Eve decided to disobey God, evil and death became a reality.
Their hunger to know more has since become humanity’s greatest temptation. It has become more valuable than obedience to our Father, or even life itself. That is why it’s so important to remember that if we want to know God, we must have faith in the unseen.
Start by believing in God’s character. He is who he says. And believe in His promises. He will do what he says. When we trust that God’s promises are intended for us, even when we can’t see them coming to fruition, we take giant leaps away from the need to know and toward an authentic life with God.
Devotional Title: The Possibilities of Prayer (9/23/25)
How vast are the possibilities of prayer! How wide its reach! What great things are accomplished by this divinely appointed means of grace! It lays its hand on Almighty God and moves Him to do what He would not otherwise do if prayer was not offered. It brings things to pass which would never otherwise occur. The story of prayer is the story of great achievement. Prayer is a wonderful power placed by Almighty God in the hands of His saints, which may be used to accomplish great purposes and to achieve unusual results. Prayer reaches to everything, takes in all things great and small which are promised by God to the children of men. The only limits to prayer are the promises of God and His ability to fulfill those promises. “Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it.”
The records of prayer’s achievements are encouraging to faith, cheering to the expectations of saints, and are an inspiration to all who would pray and test its values. Prayer is no mere untried theory. It is not some strange unique scheme, concocted in the brains of men, and set on foot by them, an invention which has never been tried nor put to the test.
Prayer is a divine arrangement in the moral government of God, designed for the benefit of men and intended as a means for furthering the interests of His cause on earth, and carrying out His gracious purposes in redemption and providence.
Prayer proves itself. It is susceptible of proving its virtues by those who pray.
Prayer needs no proof other than its accomplishments. “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine.” If any man will know the virtue of prayer, if he will know what it will do, let him pray. Let him put prayer to the test.
Devotional Title: The Weapon of Prayer (9/22/25)
Prayer cannot be retired as a secondary force in this world. To do so is to retire God from the movement. It is to make God secondary. The prayer ministry is an all-engaging force. It must be so, to be a force at all. Prayer is the sense of God’s need and the call for God’s help to supply that need. The estimate and place of prayer is the estimate and place of God. To give prayer the secondary place is to make God secondary in life’s affairs. To substitute other forces for prayer retires God and materializes the whole movement.
Whatever affects the intensity of our praying affects the value of our work. “Too busy to pray” is not only the keynote to backsliding, but it mars even the work done. Nothing is well done without prayer for the simple reason that it leaves God out of the account. It is so easy to be seduced by the good to the neglect of the best, until both the good and the best perish. How easily may men, even leaders in Zion, be led by the insidious wiles of Satan to cut short our praying in the interests of the world. How easy to neglect prayer or abbreviate our praying simply by the plea that we have church work on our hands. Satan has effectively disarmed us when he can keep us too busy doing things to stop and pray.
Apostolic preaching cannot be carried on unless there be apostolic praying. Alas, that this plain truth has been so easily forgotten by those who minister in holy things! How easy to slip away from the closet! Even the apostles had to guard themselves at that point. How much do we need to watch ourselves at that same place! Things legitimate and right may become wrong when they take the place of prayer. It is not only the sinful things which hurt prayer. It is not alone questionable things which are to be guarded against. But it is things which are right in their places but which are allowed to sidetrack prayer and shut the closet door, often with the self-comforting plea that “we are too busy to pray.” The apostles drove directly at this point and determined that even church business should not affect their praying habits. Prayer must come first.
Devotional Title: The Essentials of Prayer (9/19/25)
Holiness is wholeness, and so God wants holy men, men whole-hearted and true, for His service and for the work of praying. These are the sort of men God wants for leaders of the hosts of Israel, and these are the kind out of which the praying class is formed.
Man is a trinity in one, and yet man is neither a trinity nor a dual creature when he prays, but a unit. Man is one in all the essentials and acts and attitudes of piety. Soul, spirit, and body are to unite in all things pertaining to life and godliness. The body, first of all, engages in prayer, since it assumes the praying attitude in prayer. Prostration of the body becomes us in praying as well as prostration of the soul. The attitude of the body counts much in prayer, although it is true that the heart may be haughty and lifted up, and the mind listless and wandering, and the praying a mere form, even while the knees are bent in prayer.
Daniel kneeled upon his knees three times a day in prayer. Solomon kneeled in prayer at the dedication of the temple. Our Lord in Gethsemane prostrated Himself in that memorable season of praying just before His betrayal. Where there is earnest and faithful praying the body always takes on the form most suited to the state of the soul at the time. The body joins the soul in praying. The entire man must pray. The whole man—life, heart, temper, and mind—is in it. Each and all join in the prayer exercise.
Today, be intentional and humble in devotion. To be too busy with God’s work to commune with God, to be busy doing church work without taking time to talk to God about His work, is the highway to backsliding, and many people have walked therein to the hurt of their immortal souls.
Devotional Title: The Necessity of Prayer (9/18/25)
In any study of the principles and the procedure of prayer, of its activities and enterprises, the first place must of necessity be given to faith. It is the initial quality in the heart of any man who essays to talk to the Unseen. He must, out of sheer helplessness, stretch forth hands of faith. He must believe, where he cannot prove. In the ultimate issue, prayer is simply faith, claiming its natural yet marvelous prerogatives—faith taking possession of its illimitable inheritance.
True godliness is just as true, steady, and persevering in the realm of faith as it is in the province of prayer. Moreover, when faith ceases to pray, it ceases to live.
Faith is called upon, and that right often, to wait in patience before God, and is prepared for God’s seeming delays in answering prayer. Faith does not grow disheartened because prayer is not immediately honored; it takes God at His Word and lets Him take what time He chooses in fulfilling His purposes and in carrying on His work. There is bound to be much delay and long days of waiting for true faith, but faith accepts the conditions—knows there will be delays in answering prayer, and regards such delays as times of testing, in which it is privileged to show its mettle and the stern stuff of which it is made.
Meanwhile, as every day demands its bread, so every day demands its prayer. No amount of praying done today will suffice for tomorrow’s praying. On the other hand, no praying for tomorrow is of any great value to us today. Today’s manna is what we need; tomorrow God will see that our needs are supplied. This is the faith which God seeks to inspire. So leave tomorrow, with its cares, its needs, its troubles, in God’s hands. There is no storing of tomorrow’s grace or tomorrow’s praying; neither is there any laying up of today’s grace to meet tomorrow’s necessities. We cannot have tomorrow’s grace, we cannot eat tomorrow’s bread, and we cannot do tomorrow’s praying.
Devotional Title: Power through Prayer (9/17/25)
We are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new methods, plans, and organizations to advance the church and secure efficiency for the gospel. This trend of the day has a tendency to lose sight of the man or sink the man in the plan or organization. God’s plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than anything else. Men are God’s method. The church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men.
What the church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use—men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men—men of prayer.
The men who have most fully illustrated Christ in their character, and have most powerfully affected the world for Him, have been men who have spent so much time with God as to make it a notable feature in their lives.
Charles Simeon—devoted the hours from four to eight in the morning to God.
John Wesley—spent two hours daily in prayer. He began at four in the morning. Of him, one who knew him well wrote: “He thought prayer to be his business more than anything else, and I have seen him come out of his closet with a serenity of face next to shining.”
John Fletcher—stained the walls of his room by the breath of his prayers. Sometimes he would pray all night; always, frequently, and with great earnestness. His whole life was a life of prayer. “I would not rise from my seat,” he said, “without lifting my heart to God.” His greeting to a friend was always; “Do I meet you praying?”
Like these men, be resolute in His cause. Make all practicable sacrifices to maintain it. Consider that thy time is short, and that business and company must not be allowed to rob thee of thy God.
Devotional Title: Purpose in Prayer (9/16/25)
The possibilities and necessity of prayer, its power and results, are manifested in arresting and changing the purposes of God and in relieving the stroke of His power. Pharaoh himself was a firm believer in the possibilities and its ability to relieve. When staggering under the woeful curses of God, he pleaded with Moses to intercede for him. “Entreat the Lord for me,” was his pathetic appeal four times repeated when the plagues were scourging Egypt. Four times were these urgent appeals made to Moses, and four times did prayer lift the dread curse from the hard king and his doomed land.
The blasphemy and idolatry of Israel in making the golden calf and declaring their devotions to it was a fearful crime. The anger of God waxed hot, and He declared that He would destroy the offending people.
The Lord was very wroth with Aaron also, and to Moses He said, “Let me alone that I may destroy them.” But Moses prayed and kept on praying; day and night he prayed, forty days. He makes the record of his prayer struggle. “I fell down,” he says, “before the Lord at the first forty days and nights; I did neither eat bread nor drink water because of your sins which … provoke him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure wherewith the Lord was hot against you to destroy you. But the Lord hearkened to me at this time also. And the Lord was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him, and I prayed for him also at the same time.” Men like Moses knew how to pray and to prevail in prayer. Their faith in prayer was no passing attitude that changed with the wind or with their own feelings and circumstances; it was a fact that God heard and answered, and that the power to do what was asked of Him was commensurate with His willingness. And thus these men, strong in faith and in prayer, “subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, waxed mighty in war, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.”
Everything then, as now, was possible to the men and women who knew how to pray.
Devotional Title:The Reality of Prayer (9/15/25)
Prayer, in the moral government of God, is as strong and far reaching as the law of gravitation in the material world, and it is as necessary as gravitation to hold things in their proper atmosphere and in life.
Therefore, we ought to thoroughly understand ourselves and understand also this great business of prayer.
Prayer is not a mere habit, riveted by custom and memory, something which must be gone through with, its value depending upon the decency and perfection of the performance. Prayer is not a duty which must be performed to ease obligation and to quiet conscience.
Prayer is not mere privilege, a sacred indulgence to be taken advantage of, at leisure, at pleasure, at will, and no serious loss attending its omission.
Prayer is a solemn service due to God, an adoration, a worship, an approach to God for some request, the presenting of some desire, the expression of some need to Him, who supplies all need, and who satisfies all desires; who, as a father, finds His greatest pleasure in relieving the wants and granting the desires of His children.
Prayer is the child’s request, not to the winds, nor to the world, but to the Father.
Prayer is the outstretched arms of the child for the Father’s help.
Prayer is the child’s cry calling to the Father’s ear, the Father’s heart, and to the Father’s ability, which the Father is to hear, the Father is to feel, and which the Father is to relieve.
Prayer is the seeking of God’s great and greatest good, which will not come if we do not pray.
Prayer is an ardent and believing cry to God for some specific thing. God’s rule is to answer prayer by giving the specific thing asked for. With it may come much of other gifts and graces.
Strength, serenity, sweetness, and faith may come as the bearers of the gifts. But even they come because God hears and answers prayer.
Devotional (9/9/25)
Bitterness often blocks blessing. It also kills joy and corrupts hearts. And it is one of the things that “above all else” we must guard our hearts from receiving.
Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many. (Heb. 12:15 NLT)
To corrupt means to “rot, spoil” or “to alter from the original or correct form or version.” Bitterness doesn’t spoil the ones who hurt us. Note: it spoils us. Might we have a bitter root?
Do we hate people who have things better than us?
Do we hold back from praying for blessings for others?
Do we covet things and harbor resentment about what we didn’t get?
Do we feel ripped off?
Do we have a hard time praying for certain people?
Do we put people down in our minds?
Negative and condemning thoughts can point to bitter roots. Our root-life determines our fruit-life. A bitter root will create bad fruit. We can’t go around with a bitter root and expect to walk in joy and life. Bad roots do not make good fruit. Nor do they make good disciples of Jesus that shine His light to unbelievers. “For each tree is known by its own fruit” (Luke 6:44 ESV). The only way to handle a bitter root is to yank out the whole underground root system. It can be a lot to pull out at one time (I should know). But the entire root must be plucked up—accompanying thoughts and all.
To think as Christ thinks, to love as He loves, and to act as He acts, we cannot act from roots of bitterness. How do we have an attitude that God can bless? Where do we start? We start with forgiveness and release. “But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matt. 6:15). Forgiveness immediately removes the stronghold of bitterness.
Entitlement is another major source of bitter roots: I deserve this. I should have this. I should be treated better. Things are unfair. No one appreciates me. What can we do to destroy entitled attitudes? What is another major antidote to bitterness? Thankfulness. Thankfulness leads us into the healing presence of God.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations. (Ps. 100:4–5 NKJV)
While bitter roots thrive in dry and parched ground where we figure “God never shows up,” thankfulness recounts the goodness of God and rejoices in the splendor of all He’s about to do. Do you remember the ten lepers who went to Jesus for healing (Luke 17:11–19)? Nine didn’t come back and say thank you. One did. That one got a deeper healing. Gratitude heals deeply. What bitterness might you need to repent of, and what gratefulness can take its place?
If bitterness pops up, root it out like the warrior you are. Then give thanks; God has a better plan for you. Thanksgiving builds hope. Go and hope again! Hope as you believe the best in others. Hope as you trust God has a good plan. Hope as you rely on God to handle the other person’s problems with them.
It is written in Scripture that there are three things that last: faith, hope, and love (1 Cor. 13:13). When you operate with these three front and center in your mind instead of anger, bitterness, and judgment, you build into what is eternal instead of temporal. And, even more, you think like Christ, who is always full of faith, hope, and love.
Let these three things be the foundation of your mind, and you will have a good mind to love others well, influence them with hope, and offer them faith for impossible situations. You won’t just find your mind renewed but filled with walk-on-water faith too.
Devotional (9/8/25)
“Dwell in Me,” Jesus says, “and I will dwell in you. . . . However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing” (John 15:4–5 AMPC). Without connection to Christ, we should not expect to see real fruit. Apart from Christ, we can do nothing. In this state we are cut off. Our prayer line to God is down.
Without dwelling in Him we are out of alignment and will miss God-assignments. Only via connection is there great reception to our prayers. How many of us are not seeing answered prayers because, rather than being filled with the Spirit, we are living by the flesh and reacting with anger, fear, irritation, worry, or a sense of being overwhelmed?
It is not what happens that dictates our lives, it is how we respond to it. Do we respond united to Christ’s heart (what He has said, what fruits He is leading us to release, what hope He brings), or do we act on impulse?
Jesus says, “When you bear (produce) much fruit, My Father is honored and glorified, and you show and prove yourselves to be true followers of Mine” (v. 8 AMPC).
If people know us by our fruit, it is fruit that shines Jesus out of us. I should know; I’ve tried to tell people about Jesus ad nauseum, but nothing speaks louder than a simple four-letter word: love. Especially when it is sacrificial love, moving out in action.
What does all this mean?
It means that if we want to stay connected to the mind of Christ, we must, at all costs—no matter what force is coming against us, no matter how violent a person’s words or how horribly our house has been burned to the ground—choose to:
Stay calm in order to pray and decipher the Lord’s encouragement and path.
Remain at peace to reach people with Him who is the Prince of Peace.
Remain in His love by pondering His Word, feeling His love, and receiving the truth in our hearts even more than in our minds.
Hear His heart by being still and by listening (John 10:27).
Step away, do something else, and give ourselves space before speaking mean words or making the wrong decision.
Think upon Jesus’s grace, love, power, and ability to help us in all things, in all ways, and at all times.
Without doing these things, we drop our connectivity with God. And when we drop our connection, we also lose our union with the indwelling Holy Spirit. This is a sad state of affairs. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ (Phil. 1:19), is trying to lead us in all things, at all times, in all ways, in all reactions, in all words, and in all actions by the very mind of Christ.
No matter the onslaught, the distraction, the problem, the person—do not allow yourself to be cut off from the Vine. Connection is soul harmony and solidarity.
Our goal is to stay connected to the Spirit of God. To live united versus divided from Him. To remain vitally linked to the very mind of Christ. Only then can we—in partnership with conviction, consolation, and direction of the Holy Spirit—effectively take every thought captive. By doing this, we sidestep our fear of failure, demise, embarrassment, shame, or humiliation, or our people-pleasing tendencies.
When we remain in Christ, thinking as He thinks, overflowing with His love, and rising above our issues, we look different from everyone else. Christ in us, the hope of all glory, shines! Our relationship with God rises to a new level. And it is an encouraging place to be, because we know that we are—more and more—becoming and thinking like Him.
Devotional (9/26/25)
Would you want to be an abiding guest at a house in which you are unwelcome? Where someone shuts the door on you? I can’t help but feel that, for some of us, Jesus has been trying to knock on the door of our hearts. He wants in. He wants greater access. He wants to take us deeper, but our fascination with other things, our distractions with busyness, our affections regarding who we think we have to be, or our declarations and feelings about who we are not have shut down our attention to Jesus.
We cannot afford to take our eyes off Jesus. Without experiencing Him, we will not receive the expanding and exploding fullness of Him in our hearts. We will get busy with many things. We will get scared when God starts to lead us into the depths of His love, and we’ll shut down our welcome to God and shut a door in His face.
This is how a heart goes from deceptive to receptive: experience, surpassing mere knowledge, changes the thoughts of the heart, which changes the mind. The Greek word ginosko, used many times in the Bible, is all about knowing through experience. Ginosko translates as “to learn, to know, to perceive, to feel, to become known, to understand, to become acquainted.”
Through experiential, ginosko knowing, we come to truly know God and ourselves—beyond what we thought we knew. Ginosko knowing transcends what we thought we had to believe, what doubts held us back, what people demanded we think, and what assumptions we made up in our minds. It makes a theory into a reality. It makes truth solid. It makes the Word of God alive. All this transfigures us from who we thought we were into who God says we are.
We don’t just seek to know God to gain Bible knowledge, learn some trivia, or look religious. We know God to be changed into His image. We are after a ginosko knowing of God that’s true and deep. Experiential knowing brings about the transformation that make us become more like Him. Think more like Him. Talk more like Him. Walk more like Him. Love more like Him. Reach the devil-oppressed more like Him. Heal more like Him. See more like Him. Lay down our lives more like Him.
All of it is in Him, through Him, and by Him—by knowing Him. Really, deeply, intimately, relationally knowing Him in every part of our lives. Take a look at how God encourages us to experience Him:
May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love, that you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God’s devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it]. (Eph. 3:17–18 AMPC)
Let’s pause here. Did you hear what I heard? Through Christ’s residential indwelling, we become founded securely in His love. This is how separating ourselves from the world happens. We become so established in God’s love—we gain so much experience of it—that we get disconnected from everything else. Our minds cannot be left the same in the wake of experiencing God’s love. When we are filled to overflowing by the power of the Holy Spirit, streams of living water flow everywhere, out of us.
This power is not a figurative power; it is transforming power. But notice what is needed—what we are required to carry—to access this love-power. FAITH. We have to have faith to enter God’s love, to receive His love, to believe His love, and to radically experience His love.
So, do you believe God wants to meet you?
8/8/25 Devotional
Opposing God’s way for our own way is foolish.
When we think thoughts of self, we cheat ourselves. When we think we are wise, we are actually fools. If we insist on our own story and opinions, the “Author and Perfecter of faith” (Heb. 12:2 AMP) may as well write His story somewhere else.
Jesus asked the lame man, “Do you want to be healed?” (John 5:6 ESV). Many of us should confront that same question today: Do we want to be healed?
Ever noticed? God doesn’t force Himself on people who don’t want Him. We must decide if we want His healing—if we want the mind of Christ. We cannot come opinionated, full of our own thinking—our rights, our formula, our way, our plan of what should happen—and name it God’s. We must have God’s thinking so that even our best thinking doesn’t become tainted with self-righteousness, self-promotion, or self-pity.
God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord” (Isa. 55:8). What if our whole breakthrough is less about what we think and more about what God thinks? What if He cares less about our rights and more about His glory, His thoughts, and His intentions working through us?
To let go of our own minds is to walk by the mind of Christ.
What is this elusive mind of Christ we keep talking about? First Corinthians 2 tells us:
We have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. . . . But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. For,
“Who can know the Lord’s thoughts?
Who knows enough to teach him?”
But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. (vv. 12, 14–16 NLT)
The mind of Christ:
- Searches out things.
- Reveals things to us by His Spirit.
- Shows us God’s deep secrets.
- Knows God’s deep thoughts and tells them to us.
- Makes known to us the great things of God.
- Gives us words from the Spirit.
- Offers us the Spirit’s words to speak spiritual truths.
- Offers words and wisdom that sound foolish to the world.
- Speaks our language by giving us understanding.
- Teaches us the Lord’s thoughts.
If we were to think like Christ, imagine the immense potential of how much we could do and how we could love just like Christ.
As you begin your journey, don’t come hardened, already knowing everything, assuming your thoughts are correct. Don’t come deciding you’ve already read the Bible and know its stories, verses, and doctrines. Come as a blank slate. Come humble. Come hungry. Come needy. Come ready. Come believing. Come willing. Come expecting God’s Word to meet you and renew you. Come anticipating a transformation by God.
8/7/25 Devotional
Are you in a battle? You may be waiting and, mentally, that wait is excruciating. You may be hoping that a person will change, and worry is torturing you. You may be on social media facing mounting pressure to be who the world says you should be. You may feel ridiculed by unmet expectations that seem to point a finger at God.
We are all in different types of battles. And Jesus has given us what we need to win. Supernatural victory is not achieved by human, natural means, but by God’s way and God’s power. Likewise, it is not our vast intellect, history, appearance, reputation, material goods, or good feelings about ourselves that will make us win but rather God’s way and God’s power behind us, under us, and around us.
But we must act to take thoughts captive. Who does the fighting work belong to? Us. This is not a passive fight; be prepared, my friend. It is an active one.
Many of us talk to ourselves like this: I am the least. I am not capable, not able, too poor, not smart enough. I am this. I am that. I have issues. My past proves I can’t. How many of us disqualify ourselves and run away afraid? How many of us look in the mirror and doubt what we see? How many of us believe our future is based on what we have or don’t have in the natural?
We need to help to release all the worries,burdens, and lies we keep deep within our minds.
Jesus saves. And He will save you, because that is His business. He is better than any human at setting people free. You don’t have to shape up to receive from Him. He died for sinners. So go ahead and trash the self-berating and self-condemning, bullying thoughts that demand you Do better! Shape up! Get it together! The pressure and burdens don’t belong to you anymore. Let Jesus help you. He is good at carrying hard loads.
It’s okay to be clueless about how you will do it, to wonder how you will come out the other side. It’s okay to sit there with your hands up in the air saying, “I have nothing, God.” This reliance is where God advances and helps. Sometimes the best fight is to give up the fight—then God supernaturally fights on our behalf. He did that with Jesus, who gave up His life on the cross and surrendered to God’s redemptive plan—and was resurrected. Giving up is a victory strategy. When we trust God, we make way for Him to move, and He takes over.
Absolutely one of the most powerful things a person can do is to let Jesus’s thoughts become their thoughts. The mind of Christ is radically assuring. It whispers things like, The storm is conquerable, through Me.
In this, rather than believing God’s Word cerebrally, truth is owned wholeheartedly and entirely. Doubt goes and faith comes. Hopelessness vanishes and hope comes. Taking every thought captive is the avenue by which the mind of Christ fills our minds. It is where His thoughts become ours. It is where we don’t strive for faith but walk by His faith.
By taking every thought captive, we will be able to live out God’s purposes and intents for our lives—lives that are honoring to God. We can build a mental arsenal to see us through a life that is honoring to God. We can become like Christ, thinking as He thinks, acting as He acts, and loving like He loves.
There is no sinking sand when we stand with Jesus’s thoughts in us.
The mind of Christ can change everything, if you let it. Never doubt the supernatural arming power of an armed-up God. He, Himself, in all His glory, might, strength, and power—working from the inside out of you—is enough to take any beast, wall, or stronghold down. Take courage! The size of your God far outweighs any issues in your mind.
Devotional Title: The Reality of God’s Love
Devotional Title: When We Feel Helpless (5/20/25)
Devotional Title: Count My Life As Nothing (5/6/25)
Devotional Title:The Power of Christ (5/5/25)
Devotional Title: Not Seeing The Lord ?! (4/25/25)
Key Bible: Hebrew 12:14
The literal definition of the word sanctification (from the Greek) means holiness. Therefore it is not possible to move through the journey of sanctification, without doing what is needed to become more holy. As our anchor scripture today says, without holiness, no one will see the Lord. This verse also tells us one thing we can do to live a life that is holy, by making every effort to live in peace with everyone. Now this is no easy feat, but that’s why the author of Hebrews tells us to make every effort. Sanctification is based on the ongoing works on us of the indwelling Spirit within us. We need to be motivated by the fact that without holiness, no one will see the Lord because it means that with holiness, one WILL see the Lord. That means we need to be open and receptive to, and allow for, the work of the Holy Spirit in us, because we by ourselves do not know what we should do to become more Holy because as Jeremiah tells us, the heart is deceitful above all things. This is actually why fasting is so important because during our fast we learn to starve the flesh so that we may feed the Spirit. Because the desires of the flesh and the desires of the Spirit can never be aligned.
Can you imagine going through life and never seeing the Lord? Maybe, up till now in our Christian life, we have not seen or heard from the Lord. Maybe this could be one of the reasons why. Because we need to take that next step in our walk of sanctification. We have given our life to Christ and therefore already have justification, but how far along our walk of sanctification are we? We were not saved by Jesus to remain the way we are, we were saved so that we would be given the opportunity to “Be Holy for I (God) am Holy” (Leviticus 11:44). For God, emulating a life that reflects His holiness is so important that Jesus taught on this in His Sermon on the Mount when He said “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). The pure in heart are those who are holy and are always moving forward on their road of sanctification and it is these people that (Jesus says) will see God. In Exodus 33, God told Moses that no one can see God and live. Why? Because of sin, we know that the result of sin is death and destruction, and God being a Holy God cannot have sin in His presence. Sanctification leads to holiness, and holiness rids us of the disease of sin. As we are being sanctified and being made holy we now get to see God and stand in His presence. We should reflect on whether the barrier that we feel when trying to access the secret place is because of our resistance to the process of sanctification. The journey of sanctification and becoming more holy, has been beautifully summarised in Ephesians 4: 22-24 where it says: You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness”.
So let us put off our old self and put on our new self on a daily basis. This is how we become more holy and ultimately experience more of God.
Devotional Title: The Role of the Wicked (4/22/25)
Devotional Title: Lamb of God (4/21/25)
Devotional Title: Cross in Prayer (4/17/25)
Key Bible Passage: John 16:26
We too often think of the Cross of Christ as something we have to get through, yet we get through for the purpose of getting into it. The Cross represents only one thing for us— complete, entire, absolute identification with the Lord Jesus Christ— and there is nothing in which this identification is more real to us than in prayer.
“Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8). Then why should we ask? The point of prayer is not to get answers from God, but to have perfect and complete oneness with Him. If we pray only because we want answers, we will become irritated and angry with God. We receive an answer every time we pray, but it does not always come in the way we expect, and our spiritual irritation shows our refusal to identify ourselves truly with our Lord in prayer. We are not here to prove that God answers prayer, but to be living trophies of God’s grace.
“…I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you…” (John 16:26-27). Have you reached such a level of intimacy with God that the only thing that can account for your prayer life is that it has become one with the prayer life of Jesus Christ? Has our Lord exchanged your life with His vital life? If so, then “in that day” you will be so closely identified with Jesus that there will be no distinction.
When prayer seems to be unanswered, beware of trying to place the blame on someone else. That is always a trap of Satan. When you seem to have no answer, there is always a reason— God uses these times to give you deep personal instruction, and it is not for anyone else but you.
Devotional Title :The Cross: Grace Displayed (4/16/25)
Key Bible Passage: Matthew 20:13
Human nature bends toward meritocracy (to deserve; to earn by service), but God brings believers to Himself by grace. And, grace is His method of reward. Jesus illustrates grace-based living with the parable of the vineyard. As the story unfolds, workers throughout the day are hired by the landowner and given responsibilities to labor in his vineyard. Each worker gratefully agrees on his wage and goes to work. But at the end of the day, when wages were paid, the ones hired last are paid the same as the ones hired first. Grumbling ensued, as the ones hired first expected to be compensated more than the ones hired last… a demanding, ungrateful spirit.
Jesus goes on to explain that there is an agreement, gratitude and contentment at the beginning of the relationship of the worker with the landowner (a picture of God and His beloved child). But when the generous grace of the Lord indiscriminately blesses another beyond what seems fair or right… resentment builds…motives are exposed. Just as salvation is a gift of God, so a life of blessings is a gift from God. Jesus Christ rewards those who serve out of grateful humility, not in demanding pride to be first in His kingdom. There is a labor of love that celebrates God’s favor on the life of others blessed beyond merit. Grace promotes one who is grateful to be last and demotes one who demands to be first. Yes!…Seek first the Kingdom to be first in the Kingdom.
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).
You may be a mom quietly laboring out of love, rarely recognized, but in God’s eyes you are first in His kingdom. You may be a faithful employee behind the scenes, you or your work rarely mentioned by others. Yet, your heavenly Father sees and smiles at your service and celebrates you first in His kingdom. Jarringly, you may be surprised to discover that your self-promoting successful life on earth is your scant reward. And, furthermore, God the giver of grace, success and favor has assigned you last in His kingdom. C.S. Lewis insightfully quips about earthbound results, “Aim for earth, and one day all you will have gained is earth, but aim for heaven and one day you will have gained heaven and earth.” The grateful move up—the demanding move back.
Seek first God’s kingdom. In silence, love God and be loved by God, so you can love and be loved for God. Spurgeon earnestly explains the work of keeping Jesus top of mind and abiding in your heart, “I think, dear friends, that God will measure our work very much by our thought of Him in it. If we did it all to Him; if we did it all for Him; if He was always on our mind in the doing of it, and we do not think of our friends [approval], nor of our own reputation, God would be more likely to honor us, for He will put those who think much of Him among the first, and others among the last. ‘Them that honor Me’, says the Lord, ‘I will honor.” A demanding spirit fails to submit to the Spirit, but a grateful spirit is ever surrendering to the Spirit’s direction.
This scripture in Isaiah talks about a form of idol worship that stems from pride. In our attempt to provide for ourselves we can easily fall into idolatry. The scripture says this man cuts down trees for wood, for himself. He lets it grow strong, for himself. He burns it for warmth, for himself. He uses the fire to make bread, for himself. Notice the trend here? We need to be extra vigilant when ‘self’ is always the motive. The pride that comes with a self-made or selfsufficient mindset is idolatry. In this man’s self sufficiency, he used the same resources that he believes has provided for himself to make a god to worship. He never acknowledges the giver of the resources. Sometimes we can be like this. We may even acknowledge God as the giver of our resources with our words but neglect ascribing glory to God with our actions. There is no point of saying God is my provider but our actions prioritise the provisions over the Provider. What could this look like practically? We busy ourselves with the work of our hands because we have bills to pay but we sit on our hands when it comes to God’s work. We give more dedication to jobs/businesses because that provides our monthly check but we show a fraction of that dedication to the things of God. Ask yourself a sincere question. Who is providing for you? Who is providing for your family? Who is causing you to succeed? God wants us to worship Him. It is also possible that we are so busy that we forget that we need to worship Him.
Mary and Martha’s story highlights this aptly. Martha was serving Jesus and the disciples but she was too busy to worship and appreciate the God she was serving. In our lives, that wood may represent anything that you are taking the credit for. Anything that takes you away from acknowledging and prioritising God. If you are not worshipping God (acknowledging God with your actions), you are worshipping wood. It is idol worship. Matthew 6:24 (NIV) puts it like this “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” What have you made a god to worship? You may even find that you are serving God at church but outside the walls of the building, serving wood in other aspects of your life. In Jeremiah 22:8-9, this is what God says about those who worship idols. “People from many nations will pass by this city and will ask one another, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this great city?’ And the answer will be: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and have worshipped and served other gods.” This year, let us not fall into the snare of worshipping self made gods.
Repent from idol worship.
Devotional Title: Repent and Live (4/7/25)
God is calling us to repent and live. He does not want us to sin and die, He takes no pleasure in that. To understand the importance of turning away from sin and being reconciled to God, we need to understand God’s original plan and how sin interferes with it. When we trace the genealogy of sin, we arrive at the creation story. Where God creates the heavens, the earth and everything in between. He then creates all the living things that occupy the land and sea. And finally, He creates man, His masterpiece, male and female He created them in His own image. We were created to have a relationship with God, to honour and obey Him. In the accounts in Genesis we read that God communed with man and gave him power and dominion over the earth and living things. All that God creates is good and pleasing to Him. Nowhere do we read that God creates sin. However, sin comes in through disobedience. “but [only] from the tree of the knowledge (recognition) of good and evil you shall not eat, otherwise on the day that you eat from it, you shall most certainly die [because of your disobedience]” (Genesis 2:17). We see that the absence of living according to God’s instructions (sin) leads to death and so, we are also introduced to the relationship between sin and death. To fully appreciate the dynamic between sin and death we must look at some key elements of the nature of God. Firstly God is pure. The prophet Habakkuk describes God as having ‘eyes that are too pure to look on evil’ and that God ‘cannot tolerate wrongdoing’ (Habakkuk 1:13 NIV). Evil or wrongdoing also has to be understood from the perspective of God our creator. It is God who sets what is evil or wrong, not whether something feels or looks wrong from our personal perspective.
In the creation story we read that God was pleased with his creation. But what happens when God is not pleased with what He has created? God explains this to the prophet Jeremiah (18:3-8 ESV) in a vision; “So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it”. So secondly God, the creator of everything, is well within his rights to destroy what which is not pleasing to him. This is the relationship between sin and death. God is also principled – He is the God of justice. “The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty” (Nahum 1:3 ESV). Those found guilty of sin face the consequence of sin which is death. However, with all this in mind, God in His mercy and His steadfast love has given us a lifeline. Repentance through Jesus. God had been calling the people of Israel to repentance long before Jesus’ sacrifice. The truth is, mankind is too flawed to pursue a repentant life without the help of the Holy Spirit. Jesus provides the only real means to turn away from sin and it is the power of grace that enables us to live a godly life.
So rely on Jesus. Repent and live!
Key Bible Passage: Matthew 14:20
The disciples scratched their heads. They clearly had a crisis on their hands: A crowd of thousands followed Jesus by foot to a faraway location and no food to give them. To their credit, their first response to this crisis and need was to bring it to Jesus, but their suggestion was simply, “Send these people away.” Such is the thinking of humans. There just isn’t enough. We see the problem, but not the possibility. We see the shortage rather than abundance.
Then Jesus shows up to bring abundance from nothingness.
Have you ever noticed that when Jesus gives, he doesn’t just give the bare minimum? Think about the first miracle he did when he turned water into wine. The wedding couple had run out of wine, but instead of just providing enough to skate through the celebration, Jesus changed brimming jars of water into enough wine that could fill 600-900 bottles!
We love hearing stories like them! The truth they share is clear as day: Jesus always provides in just the right way. We know it, we love it! So why do we have such a hard time trusting it? Do we tell ourselves, things are so different now? Like the disciples, do we think through and explain to Jesus all the ways this can’t possibly work? Sure, there’s food on the table, but it’s hardly gourmet cuisine. Think about your prayers. What do you ask God for? Better sport skills? Better health? Better grades? And then do you get upset when you don’t get what you want? Here’s the root problem: We think we see a way out of it, if only Jesus would start providing for us the way we think he should! We’re more interested in telling Jesus how he should be doing things than we are in trusting his love and care for us.
God knew this would be a problem. Today’s story about the feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle of Jesus recorded in all four gospels. Maybe it’s the Holy Spirit’s way of teaching us to trust that there is no need too great for Jesus tohandsets Think of our greatest need of all—the solution for our sin. Rather than wring his handse at the sinners in a sinful world, Jesus opened his hand and satisfied the greatest desire of every living thing—the desire to be loved, to be forgiven. Jesus takes care of all our needs, great and small. There is no nothingness from which Jesus cannot bring his perfect abundance!
Here is a quarrel between Barnabas and Paul which has fascinated many. They could not agree whether or not to take young John Mark with them again. Barnabas was his cousin and wanted to give the young man another chance. But Paul did not want to take the chance because the work was both important and dangerous, and he did not think it wise to take someone they could not count on.
So we read the sad note: there arose a sharp disagreement between them. Many have said, Which of these men was right? There have been a lot of disagreements over that, so that many people have had sharp disagreement over whether Paul or Barnabas was right! But that is really not the point. Both of these men were right. One was looking at the work and the other at the person. As Paul looked at the work he was perfectly right to say, We don’t want somebody who is apt to cop out on us. That is exactly what he said. And he probably quoted the words of Jesus, No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62) That is right. Christian service is demanding, and those who undertake it should be prepared to go through with it and stick with it to the end, for God’s cause is injured by those who quit in the middle.
On the other hand, Barnabas, though I am sure he would have agreed as to the importance of the work, was looking at the young man. He knew Mark was gifted. Sure, he had failed, but who doesn’t? Who of us does not need a second chance, does not need to have a forgiving spirit exercised toward us, and the opportunity to try again? So Barnabas was willing to give Mark a second chance.
This indicates a very normal and proper procedure by which we may know the mind of the Spirit. There are times when there are differences of viewpoint which require a separation. The will of God was that Barnabas should take Mark and go to Cyprus, because Cyprus, his birthplace, had not been visited since the churches there had been founded. And it was the will of God for Paul to take Silas and go into Syria and Cilicia, because the churches there needed his particular ministry. But it was not the will of God that they should be sharp in their contention. Their quarreling was not right. It was the will of God to separate; it was not the will of God to quarrel. There are times when the Spirit of God does lead Christians to go separate ways. But they should do so with joy and with an agreeable understanding that the mind of the Spirit has been expressed in their divergent viewpoints.
Pax Romana was fragile, pounded precariously together with cross nails and oppressive taxation. But one night, angels shattered the repressed silence with joyful songs of “Peace on Earth!” They announced a different kind of peace to a weary people: The long-awaited Prince of Peace had broken into history in the shape of a poor working-class baby in an insignificant corner, far from the seats of Roman and temple power.
Once he went public, Jesus’ rule was not marked by military or economic might. Instead, he gave himself away, granting sight to the blind, feeding the hungry, liberating the oppressed, and affirming the dignity of women, children, and others who were marginalized in Jewish society.
Rather than imposing security by repression and death, Jesus took on the scornful cross in loving sacrifice. In so doing, he unveiled as deceitful the powers of death that held humanity estranged from God, from one another and from the rest of creation. Christ, our peace, effected salvation, giving new life to the dead. He reconciled our relationship with God, healed from enmity to a broken humanity, and restored the entire created order. This is surely Good News of true peace, Pax Christi. Jesus is our peace.
Jesus also made peace through his death. When he died, the temple curtain, separating off the Holy of Holies, ripped in half (Matt. 27:51). Now access to God was no longer restricted to certain people or certain times!
Christ has abolished “the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility” (Eph. 2:15–16, ESV). Thanks to Christ’s peacemaking life, death, and ongoing ministry through the Spirit, Jesus followers are now one.
The cross of Christ has sometimes been compared to the electric chair or other forms of execution, meaning we are wise to remember that it was an instrument of death in the ancient world. The cross is also often used to prompt us to give ourselves sacrificially for him and others. But comparisons to other forms of execution can miss the deeper biblical teaching about the cross. And the cross is much more than an object lesson in how we should live.
To get at the deeper meaning, we can turn to the great Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. The lead character Rodion Raskolnikov had brutally murdered an elderly woman, Lizaveta, and her sister. Raskolnikov later meets a young woman, Sonia, who has become a prostitute. He is immediately drawn to her, and after he learns that Sonia had been friends with Lizaveta, he feels compelled to confess the murders to her. Dostoyevsky wrote,
“What have you done—what have you done to yourself?” [Sonia] said in despair, and, jumping up, she flung herself on his neck, threw her arms round him, and held him tightly. . . . “There is no one—no one in the whole world now so unhappy as you!” she cried in a frenzy . . . and she suddenly broke into violent hysterical weeping.
There we see the meaning of the Cross and the revelation of the deepest nature of God. Jesus did not consider that the glory of divinity as something to exalt in, but decided to bear the yoke of human nature. He showed himself not only to be a man of sorrows, but also a God who has borne our griefs; not merely a man wounded for our transgression, but also a God bruised for our iniquities (Isa. 53). He saw the grievous sin of humankind, and the cross is the sign of his “violent, hysterical weeping” for us.
Jesus calls us to take up our cross (Mark 8:34), but the full weight of the cross-beamed yoke is born by him, the God who sorrows for our sins, the man who bears our griefs. This is the Lord and Savior who promises to never leave or forsake us (Matt. 28:20) and actually helps shoulder the burdens that life with him invariably entails, even when our journey takes us to the most desolate of places.
Suffering is inevitable and unavoidable. Surrounded by cancer, mental illness, infertility, depression, loss, and ultimately death, we ask how God’s glory could shine through such tragic circumstances. For most of us, glory and suffering seem incompatible, just like something cannot be simultaneously hot and cold, wet and dry. But Christ’s journey from the cradle to the grave reveals a pattern that is stitched throughout the fabric of Scripture. For Christ, Christians, and all creation, the way of glory is the way of the Cross.
As Jesus approached his death, he said, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32). At first, it seems that Jesus is talking about his coming entrance into heaven. But the following verse explains that Jesus is referring to his crucifixion: “He said this to show what kind of death he was going to die.” John’s gospel builds toward the climactic hour when Jesus’ being “lifted up” on the cross is the moment he is enthroned in glory (John 12:23–32; 3:14; 8:28). From the bruised heel of Genesis 3:15 to the reigning lamb of Revelation 22, the Bible tells the story of a crucified Messiah who is glorified through suffering.
As Jonathan Edwards taught, glory is not merely another one of God’s attributes or characteristics (along with his holiness, love, power, and so forth). Rather, it is the “admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies.” Glory is the dazzling, jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring showcase of God’s character to a world darkened by sin. It is the explosive radiance produced by his holiness, love, mercy, justice, wisdom, and power—all of which come together in the most fitting way in the death of Christ.
At the Cross, we see God’s justice through the judgment of sin, God’s love through the forgiveness of sinners, God’s power through his defeat of Satan, and God’s wisdom in his upholding of holiness yet making a way for sinners. Christ’s death is the ultimate, “Thus sayeth the Lord.” It reveals the glorious harmony of God’s multifaceted character. The Cross is the crossroads of everything we know about God.
Let’s consider today what “Lent” and “Ash Wednesday” mean?
Lent is a time of moderation, self-denial, and fasting. Traditionally observed by the Catholic Church and some Protestant churches, it begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Easter Sunday.
In the 4th century AD, the Lenten period was set at 46 days (40 days, not counting Sundays). During Lent, the fasting person fasts and gives up bad habits. It is a 6-week period of self-discipline or asceticism. Lent was introduced in the Catholic Church to emphasize the importance and necessity of repentance. The simplicity of Lent is paralleled by the Old Testament people who fasted and repented in sackcloth and ashes. For references in the Old Testament, see Esther 4:1-3a; Jeremiah 6:26a; Daniel 9:3a.
Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. It is officially called “Ash Wednesday” because the sign of the cross is made on the forehead with ashes. Since it falls exactly 40 days before Easter (not counting Sundays), it always falls on a Wednesday. It is never Ash Thursday or Ash Wednesday. The Bible makes no mention of ashes or Lent anywhere.
Although the Bible does not mention the Holy Ash Wednesday, it does mention people who symbolically used ashes and dust to express repentance or sorrow. For references, see 2 Samuel 13:19a; Esther 4:1a; Job 2:8a; Daniel 9:3a. The modern custom of applying ashes to the forehead in the form of a cross is believed to give a person a likeness to Christ.
Over time, or over the centuries, the practice of Lent has taken on the status of a sacrament. Many Catholics believe that if they give up something during Lent, they can receive God’s blessing. But the Bible teaches us that God’s grace cannot be bought. Grace is actually “the gift of righteousness,” as Romans 5:17a says. Lent should not be a time to boast about one’s sacrifices or to try to gain God’s favor or to demand more of His love. God’s love for us could never be greater than He does for us now.
So the question arises: Should a Christian participate in Lenten observances? Should a Christian fast during Lent?
Since the Bible neither specifically emphasizes nor specifically opposes fasting during Lent, Christians are free to make a personal decision about fasting during Lent through prayer.
Now a further question arises: Should a Christian observe Ash Wednesday, that is, wear ashes on his forehead?
From the Bible’s perspective, we should not make a show of our fasting. Matthew 6:16-18a says, “And when you fast, do not look sad like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so that others may see them fasting. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not be seen by others as fasting, but by your Father who is in secret. Then your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” Jesus’ command to wash your face when you fast is in contrast to putting ashes on your forehead. The Pharisees used to put ashes on their faces while fasting, which the Lord Jesus Christ warned against and forbade. We must not let spiritual discipline become spiritual pride.
Fasting can be a good practice, and God is pleased when we repent of our sins. There is nothing wrong with setting aside time to meditate on the death and resurrection of Christ. But we need to repent of our sins every day of the year, not just during the 46 days of Lent.
It is good to maintain our Christian identity, but it should be maintained every day, not just during Lent. And it is also important and beneficial to remember that no religious ritual can turn your heart to God.
Key Bible Passage: Psalm 23:1–3
Let us meditate the remaining two Points as today’s Devotion.
Second—like a shepherd, He protects us.Sheep are so vulnerable—to disease, to weather, to predators, and to thieves that come to steal them. In the same way, the enemy of our souls would terrorize us, harm us, steal our focus, and tempt us to chart our own course, but our Shepherd protects us. It’s just as Jesus says in John 10:9–10: “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”Your Shepherd protects you and wants what’s best for you.
Third—like a shepherd, He feeds us. For sheep, it’s green pastures and still waters. For us, our Shepherd provides both physical food and spiritual nourishment. Devotionals and sermons are a sampling of God’s feeding, and we can feast every day on God’s Word: “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16).
How desperately we need the Shepherd’s care! With David, we can confidently say, “The LORD is my shepherd,” trusting that He will lead, protect, and feed us today.
Let’s pray
Father, we praise You for the many ways You show Yourself to us as a Shepherd. Thank You that in Your leading, protecting, and feeding, You have never failed. Your faithfulness has never faltered. There hasn’t been, nor will there ever be, a circumstance or danger You can’t handle. We set our life in Your good care and we pray this with thanksgiving. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Hope you a have blessed weekend. Love you and lifting you up in prayer weekly.
When David said, “The LORD is my shepherd,” he knew something about the word picture he was using.
The first time we ever meet David, he is introduced as the youngest, all-but-forgotten son—out doing the chore none of his seven older brothers wanted to do. “Then Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Are all your sons here?’ And he said, ‘There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep’” (1 Samuel 16:11).
When David volunteered to face off with Goliath, he claimed his work as a shepherd—warding off lions and bears from the flock—had prepared him for the fight (1 Samuel 17:34–37).
Because he knew shepherding and he knew the Lord, David found it easy to put the two together—as if to say, “The way the Lord treats me is as a shepherd would treat me.”
Our inexperience as shepherds begs this question of David, “How is the Lord like a shepherd?”
First—like a shepherd, God leads us. We need to be led, don’t we? A good shepherd leads the sheep from out in front of them, not from behind. There isn’t a place where the lambs put their feet that the shepherd hasn’t already walked. There isn’t a valley the sheep go through that the shepherd hasn’t gone through first.
There is no terrain on the horizon of your life that the Shepherd hasn’t already surveyed and approved—including the rocky ground, the most difficult times. If God doesn’t want to allow it, He will lead you on a different path, and you will not experience that hard time. But when you do—and the Bible clearly tells us, “in the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33)—don’t ever forget that the Shepherd leads you through that ground. God will use it for your good and bring you through it to the place He has planned.
This topic will continue tomorrow with remaining two points.
Devotional Title: Godly Choices (2/17/25)
Key Bible Passage: Ecclesiastes 1:3
The quest of the writer of Ecclesiastes is for a fixed value (“profit”) in this life that can serve as a foundation. He examines and discards as bankrupt of real value one item after another. The meaning of life is not to be found in human wisdom, in pleasure, in wealth, in great accomplishments or in materialism. Even human life itself, in any secular, humanistic sense, cannot be the “profit” which Solomon seeks.
Are we then doomed to despair when we look for meaning in life? No. Underneath his entire quest is the conviction that meaning in life must be found not “under the sun,” but “above the sun,” in the fear and obedience of God (Eccl. 12:13).
As with the writer of Ecclesiastes, the challenge to us who live in this age of greed and materialism is to not seek “real value” in earthly things and comfortable lifestyles, but to concentrate on those things which are above (Col. 3:1). We will find our fulfillment in God alone.
Devotional Title: The Shield of Faith (2/3/25)
Devotional Title: Simple But Sacred (1/30/25)
Devotional Title: The Gift of Boundaries (1/29/25)
Key Bible Passage: Psalm 16:6
Early in life, we are confronted with our limitations. For me, they were athletic. No matter how much I might have wanted it to be otherwise, I couldn’t change the fact that I was six feet tall by age twelve, giving me a great height advantage over my peers, but severely limiting my coordination and athletic abilities!
As we age, our limitations shift and evolve. We realize our life is not an ever-broadening horizon with limitless opportunities, but is instead an invitation to celebrate our boundaries and limitations and learn to flourish with the people God has given to us, in the places that we call home.
For the psalmist, limitations, whether physical, relational, or spiritual, are not seen as a burden but are a gift, falling in “pleasant places.” Are you able to see your limitations as a gift from God? When you cannot have an infinite number of friendships, you find the freedom to invest in life-long relational intimacy and depth with a few select people. When you cannot pursue every career you could possibly imagine, you are liberated to gain expertise and wisdom in your given field. And as Christians, when the Lord gives us commands and limitations on what he says is best for us, we can receive them with joy rather than anger.
The boundary lines of the Lord are given for our flourishing not our failure. His commands are meant to liberate us from lesser loves and empty pursuits. The narrow path we walk in his Kingdom keeps us away from passions and pursuits that bring us heartache and harm. It is pleasant indeed to have clarity on who God is and who we are in Christ. May he give us the courage and strength to embrace our limitations as a gift. May you trust in his goodness and provision, believing that he is leading you faithfully to a delightful inheritance.
“For I delight in your commands because I love them. I reach out for your commands, which I love, that I may meditate on your decrees” (Psalm 119:47-48).
Devotional Title: The Indwelling Christ (1/26/25)
“To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)
The fact that Jesus Christ is actually in each believer is both a great mystery and rich in glory. In fact, it is our very hope and assurance of glory in the age to come.
How Christ may be both seated at “the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3) and yet living in us is surely a mystery, yet it is fully true. He Himself told His disciples: “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him….Abide in me, and I in you….He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” (John 14:23; 15:4-5).
The apostle Paul also confirmed this great truth: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20). One of his prayers for the Ephesians was “that Christ [might] dwell in [their] hearts by faith” (Ephesians 3:17).
The mystery as to how Christ can live in us is resolved by yet another mystery—that of the triunity of the Godhead. Christ, the Second Person, is present in His people through the Holy Spirit, the Third Person. Christ said: “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter….Even the Spirit of truth;…for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:16-17).
In fact, as our text says, His indwelling presence is our very hope of glory, for “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8:9).
Thus, where we go, He goes; whatever we say, He hears; even what we think, He knows. Christ, by the Holy Spirit, is our ever-present comforter and guide and counselor. This is, indeed, a glorious mystery
| Devotional Title: The Mission of Christ (1/24/25) |
Devotional Title: Developing Convictions (1/22/25)
Devotional Title: The Gift of Trials (1/21/25)
Key Bible Passage: Peter 4-12
The two men conquered human flight, but the Wright brothers’ journey to success was never easy. Despite countless failures, ridicule, money woes, and serious injury to one of them, the brothers weren’t stopped by the trials they faced. As Orville Wright observed, “No bird soars in a calm.” The idea, according to biographer David McCullough, means that adversity can “often be exactly what you need to give you a lift higher.” Said McCullough, “Their joy was not getting to the top of the mountain. Their joy was climbing the mountain.”
The apostle Peter taught a similar spiritual principle to the persecuted early church. He told them, “Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you” (1 Peter 4:12). This wasn’t a denial of suffering’s pain. Peter knew that hope in Christ grows our trust in God.
This is especially true when we suffer for being a believer in Jesus, as those early Christians did. Peter wrote to them, “Rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed” (v. 13). He went on, “If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you” (v. 14).
As the Wright brothers’ character was hailed by their biographer, may others see God’s loving character at work in us. He uses our adversity to raise us to new heights.
By Patricia Raybon
Devotional Title: Thoughts of the Heart (1/20/25)
“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.” (Genesis 6:5-6)
These two verses, describing the incurable wickedness of the antediluvian world that finally brought on the global Flood, contain the first two of over a thousand occurrences of the word “heart” in the Bible. Note the contrast: man’s heart was evil; God’s heart was grieved.
Both the Hebrew and Greek languages treated the heart as the center of a person’s being, the seat of all feelings and thoughts, and we do the same in English. The writers knew that the heart is a physical organ that circulates the blood as a basic to physical life. Leviticus 17:11, among other Scriptures, notes that “the life of the flesh is in the blood,” but only rarely was the word used thus in Scripture. Nearly always the word is used symbolically in reference to the deep essence of a person’s being. It is also used occasionally to refer to the innermost part of physical objects (e.g., “the heart of the earth,” Matthew 12:40).
In this first occurrence, it refers to the “thoughts” of the heart. Somehow, before one thinks with his mind, he thinks with his heart, and these deep, unspoken thoughts will determine the way he reasons with his brain. Jesus confirmed this in Mark 7:21: “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts.”
How important it is, then, to maintain a heart that is pure. In fact, in sharp contrast to the first occurrence of “heart” in the Old Testament referring to man’s evil thoughts, the first occurrence in the New Testament is in the gracious promise of Christ: “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).
Devotional Title: Wholly Available (1/15/25)
Devotional Title: Learning to Pray the Bible Way (1/14/25)
Jesus tells us to ask, seek, and knock when we pray.
Key Bible Passage: Matthew 7:7-11
Prayer has many benefits. For one thing, God delights in giving, so He wants His children to speak with Him regularly and ask for what’s on their heart. He also desires to fellowship with us, which happens when we spend time alone with Him. And, of course, communing with God is a way we discover wisdom for living and find “fullness of joy” in His presence (Ps. 16:11).
The privilege of prayer belongs to all who have a relationship with the Father through faith in His Son (John 1:12). God has also pledged to answer the sinner who asks for forgiveness and receives Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord (Rom. 10:9).
In today’s passage, Jesus uses three verbs to describe prayer: ask, seek,and knock. Notice the progression in intensity from a request to a search and then to action. Prayer is more than giving God a list of wants. It involves seeking His will to guide our requests. It means “knocking on doors” by exploring different solutions and obtaining godly counsel. Jesus assured us that we will receive, we will find, and God will open the door.
Prayer is simple, yet at times we find it hard to practice. Ask the Lord to teach you more about what happens when you speak to Him. Put into practice what you learn and wait confidently for His answers!
Devotional Title: Our Great High Priest (12/5/24)
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Key Bible Passage: I Timothy 1:17 The second verse of “And Can It Be That I Should Gain?” poses and solves a great mystery: ’Tis mystery all! the immortal dies! Our text reminds us that God is immortal. And yet, “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3) to bring us salvation. If this astounds us (and it should), we can take solace in that we are not alone. “Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things…which things the angels desire to look into” (1 Peter 1:10-12). Think of it! The Creator, the Author of life, died to offer eternal life to His creation, for “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23), and the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). He died so that we don’t have to die! This grand plan remains beyond our full grasp, as it always was to the prophets and the angels. The motive behind His plan is God’s mercy. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us;…which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour” (Titus 3:5-6). “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out” (Romans 11:33).
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Devotional Title: Trust God’s Plan (12/3/24)
Devotional Title: Know Your God (12/2/24)
Devotional Title: Our Incomparable Companion (11/26/24)
Devotional Title: Purpose In Every Step (11/25/24)
Devotional Title: How to Apply God’s Principles (11/19/24)
Living the Word rather than just reading it is how we’re able to see God work.
Key Bible Passage: Psalm 119:17-24
The process for applying scriptural principles is often misunderstood. It’s not simply three steps: hear, believe, apply. We must also explore and discover before we take action.
To explore a biblical principle means studying Scripture to understand what the surrounding context is, what its lesson means for your life, and what it reveals about God. Furthermore, we must consider how all this relates to the rest of the Bible. Digging into the Word softens our hearts and minds so that the new doctrine gets planted deeply.
As we journey further into Scripture to explore, the new concept rises off the page and becomes real to us. We discover how the principle works and how to apply it to our life. As we do, God’s rich truth becomes our own. The more we take into our heart and mind, the better they can impact us from the inside out.
A believer who has little to say about God’s work in his life is probably not applying Scripture. Simply hearing and believing doesn’t make a concept yours (James 1:22-25). A principle is yours when you explore the truth, discover its place in your life, and apply the concept so that God can make it work.
Devotional Title: Inviting God’s Presence (11/11/24)
To Obey is Better Than Sacrifice (Samuel 15:22)
Samuel gives a fearful order to Saul: 1 Samuel 15:2-3 ‘Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.’ When God says ‘all,’ He means all. As awful as His order may seem to us, His divine justice must overrule our judgment.
That was Saul’s problem. He decided to disobey God’s order. 1 Samuel 15:9 ‘But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.’ Agag was the Amalekite king. What part of God’s ‘all’ did Saul not understand?
It gets worse. Samuel asks Saul about all the bleating sheep he hears. Samuel knows where they came from. So does God. We cannot read Saul’s mind, but he has been put on the spot for disobeying God: 1 Samuel 15:15 ‘And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.’ Saul tries to deflect blame onto the people. They took the animals; it was their fault. This betrays Saul’s weakness as a leader.
Samuel won’t let Saul off the hook: 1 Samuel 15:19 ‘Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD?’ Please note disobedience to God’s instructions is doing ‘evil in the sight of the Lord.’ Saul and people try to backtrack, and make up for it by sacrificing the animals, but God has not ordered that. They should not have taken livestock in the first place. Saul repeats his excuses for disobedience in verses twenty and twenty-one, but Samuel prophesies: 1 Samuel 15:22 ‘And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.’
This incident begins a theme in the Old Testament. The issue is obedience. Trying to make up for disobedience by doing something we think appeases God will not work. God desires right conduct and behavior, not going through the motions of false or hypocritical worship as though God will wink at our sin as long as we look ‘religious.’ How many bow and scrape to God on Sunday, and dishonor Him the rest of the week? How many take the elements of Communion only to dishonor Christ’s sacrifice by continuing in sin? How many fill the collection plate on Sunday with ill-gotten gains thinking it will appease God for the way the money was made? This attitude is no different from that of Saul’s and the Hebrews. People protest God set up the sacrificial system. He did, but He did not set it up so it could become another way for the people to disobey Him.
Isaiah 1:11 ‘To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.’ Jeremiah 6:20 ‘To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.’ Amos 5:21-22 ‘I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.’ God was teaching mortal sinners (including us) no matter how many self-serving sacrifices we make, they will always fall short of God’s expectations. God was teaching we are sinners, always have been, always will be. God was teaching us the only One who could make the proper sacrifice was God.
Christ obeyed God for our sakes. If that does not sink in, then consider who deserves the punishment Jesus received on the Cross had Jesus not been there? God must be obeyed. We worship Jesus for His obedience. How do we worship Him? By being hypocrites, or by striving by the power of the Holy Spirit to honor Christ by our faithful obedience?
By David Anthony
Devotional Title: Steps of Obedience (11/7/24)
Devotional Title: Guard Your Heart (10/30/24)
Key Bible Passage: Proverbs 4:23
Today’s verse from Proverbs is not a lesson on self-protection. It’s not a how-to manual on protecting yourself from broken-heartedness, and it’s not a fool-proof method for guarding against vulnerability. Rather, Proverbs 4:23 and the entire passage, is emphasizing the importance of guarding our hearts from the sin and evil that wants to take up residence within us.
In English the “heart” is where we experience emotion and through which we express things like love and commitment. In Hebrew “heart” refers to our mind, will, intentions, understanding, and emotions. The “heart” thus encompasses all of our inner selves, not just our emotions. That’s why we must guard our hearts. “Everything you do flows from it,” says Solomon in verse 23. In Matthew 15:18, Jesus pointed to the dangerous “spill over” of what’s in our heart. He said it was “the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.”
Since the Fall, our hearts have been prone to sin; we naturally veer toward folly and wickedness, allowing sin to enter our lives and grow. Since we know that our tendency is to allow sin, we must actively guard our hearts, filling them instead with righteousness and holiness.
What ways can we guard our hearts? Consider the things you allow to enter and set up residence in your life. Ask God to reveal anything you have let into the gates of your life that should be removed. In addition, ask Him to protect your heart.
Key Bible Passage: Job 27:20
Devotional (10/9/24)
Devotional Title: Living Worry-Free (10/08/24)
When we fill our minds with righteous thoughts and trust God’s provision, we worry less.
Key Bible Passage: Philippians 4:4-9
We live in a culture inundated with anxiety and fear, where people make a habit of worrying because it provides a false sense of control. But Christians don’t have to give in to these feelings, as we have a Savior who has promised us His peace, “which surpasses all comprehension” (Phil. 4:7). Thankfully, there are a couple of practices we can employ to guard against worry.
First, we must be careful about what we allow to fill our mind—listening to the many purveyors of doom and gloom can easily lead to fear, anxiety, or panic. If you become agitated after hearing the news, listening to podcasts, or reading social media, it’s time to take a break. Instead, do what Paul encourages in today’s passage: Think about whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, commendable, and praiseworthy (Phil. 4:8).
Another source of worry is materialism. The more we have, the more we fret about what might happen to our possessions and financial security. But Jesus warned against storing up treasure on earth (Matt. 6:19-20). Instead, we should seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness and trust Him to provide for our needs (Matt. 6:33). If we’ll put Him first, worry won’t gain a foothold in our lives.
Devotional Title: The Purpose of Life (10/07/24)
God created each person with a thirst that is satisfied only in knowing Him.
Key Bible Passage: John 17:1-3
Believers do many wonderful things for God. Sometimes, though, service can seem more important than the Master Himself. Hosea 6:6 makes God’s priorities clear: “I desire loyalty rather than sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” He wants our attention more than any gifts or works.
Unfortunately, many of us don’t press beyond an occasional good work or Bible reading. We ignore the Holy Spirit’s nudges about spending time in prayer. We worship out of a sense of duty. Does this sound familiar? If so, remember that your relationship with the Lord requires time and commitment but is immensely rewarding.
God instilled a thirst in us that won’t be satisfied except through Him (John 4:14). Paul made this passion clear when he wrote, “Whatever things were gain to me, these things I have counted as loss because of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them mere rubbish, so that I may gain Christ” (Phil. 3:7-8).
We were created to have a relationship with God and to bring Him glory. Service and good works are a natural extension of that, but our foremost responsibility is to spend time with Him.
Devotional Title: A Prayer For Rich Harvest (9/30/24)
Devotional Title: The Ups and Downs of Life (9/23/24)
Key Bible Passage: Joh. 16:31-33
A Facebook memory popped up, showing me a picture of my triumphant five-year-old when she’d won a fun and competitive game of Chutes and Ladders. I’d tagged my brother and sister in the post because we’d often played this board game when we were kids. Chutes and Ladders is based on a game that’s been played for centuries, helping people learn to count and providing the thrill of being able to climb a ladder and win the game by getting to 100 the fastest. But watch out! If you land on spot 98, you slide far down the chute, delaying—or even prohibiting—victory.
Isn’t that just like life? Jesus lovingly prepared us for the ups and downs of our days. He said we’d experience “trouble” (John 16:33), but He also shared a message of peace. We don’t have to be shaken by the trials we face. Why? Christ has overcome the world! Nothing is greater than His power, so we too can face whatever comes our way with “the mighty strength” He’s made available to us (Ephesians 1:19).
Just like in Chutes and Ladders, sometimes life presents a ladder allowing us to happily ascend, and other times we tumble down a slippery slide. But we don’t have to play the game of life without hope. We have the power of Jesus to help us overcome it all.
Devotional Title: A Gushing Spring Of Living Water (9/20/24)
Key Bible Passages: John 4:10,13,14
A person who has felt the guilt of a specific sin or ongoing struggle with temptation may say or at least think, “If people really knew me, how could they love me?” Maybe something like that ran through the Samaritan woman’s mind as she first encountered Jesus, but then she discovered that Jesus really did know her. The truth was out in the open!
But then Jesus flips that thought and says, “If you really knew me… If you knew who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” A guilt-ridden soul thinks, “If people really knew me, they’d run in the other direction.” Jesus, true God, really does know us to the core, but he doesn’t run away! He offers living water—the kind that quenches the deepest spiritual thirst caused by guilt and shame. This water doesn’t dry up or just keep you going for the day. This water gives eternal life.
Picture a desert where water is scarce. You have to dig down deep to find water that is essential for physical life. Now picture a gushing spring of water. It bubbles up and spills over; there’s an endless supply. That’s the picture Jesus paints for a spiritually thirsty soul beside a well. This living water that Jesus gives is not a shallow pool or babbling brook. It’s gushing over in an endless supply.
Jesus gives us more than just a sip of this living water, more than a drop on a thirsty tongue. It’s an endless fountain of God’s love and forgiveness, gushing over. That fountain never runs dry because the living water that Jesus gives is eternal life.
Devotional Title: Motivated for Commitment (9/19/24)
Devotional Title: A Right View of Repentance (9/18/24)
Devotional Title: Failure is on the Menu (9/17:24)
Key Bible Passage: 2 Corinthians 12:10
We, children of God, often just wrong about failure. It seems we’ve all decided that if we ever experience failure, we’re then failures. It’s not true. Failure is integral to human life, the way God designed it. Look at Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Peter—all experienced failure, because they were mere humans. Mere humans fail every so often . . . and it’s good that we do.
Failure refines us. We mature through failures because we learn from them—much more than from successes. Through failures our character is formed (Romans 5:3-5). No one can become who he’s supposed to become without experiencing some failure in his life. Failure also fuels us . . . or, rather, the potential for failure. While we may not like failure, we like to face its potential. We like to be tested. It’s why we like competition. It’s why we like risk. It’s often the excitement of uncertain outcomes that drives us to learn from failures and improve, in the hope of avoiding more. But the potential for failure must be real. And when it is real, we will sometimes fail.
The danger, of course, is in getting stuck—in the shame of failures past or the fear of failures future, or maybe both. When we do, failure defeats us: we live dull lives, devoid of daring. But we need not get stuck. We can, instead, reject the shame of failure and learn to deal with it—by acknowledging fault; confessing and repenting (if sin was involved); facing any consequences; allowing God to teach us what we need to learn . . . and then moving on.
Okay, so what do we do?
What are one or two big risks you’d like to take in the coming weeks and months? Write them down, commit to them, and tell some friends about them—so they can spur you on.
Devotional Title: Regeneration (9/16/24)
Key Bible Passage: Titus 3:5
Paul is advising Titus about right living in a heathen society: Titus 3:3 ‘For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.’ Paul is even more blunt in Romans 1:18-32. We are just as sinful as anyone else. We have nothing to brag about when it comes to us.
What happened to us? Did we change ourselves? Was it just us turning our lives around? Titus 3:4-5 ‘But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;’ No, it was ‘not by works of righteousness which we have done.’ Romans 3:10 ‘As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:’
God revealed His kindness and love to us through the Savior. It His sacrifice saves us. Paul calls it ‘the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. ‘Regeneration’ translates a Greek word meaning rebirth or renovation. This is a point missed by many. Regeneration implies there was a time when man was not burdened by sin. Adam in the Garden was sinless until he chose to sin. We have inherited that condition of sin, and God’s intention through the Son is to ‘regenerate’ us, make us whole like Adam was in the Garden before He sinned.
Adam could not redeem himself. We can’t either. God renovates us just like someone takes an old, worn-out house and renovates it to make it good as new. That sense of the word is reinforced in Titus 3:5 by the expression ‘renewing of the Holy Ghost.’ The Greek word translated ‘renewing’ means renovation. A broken object is repaired good as new. I think of my stepson’s hobby of restoring old furniture. He can make objects look like they just came out of the original maker’s shop.
Paul used the latter word translated as ‘renewing’ in: Romans 12:2 ‘And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.’ Praise God, He has sent the Holy Spirit to empower us not to conform to a world of sin and death. We are broken people living in a broken world until the Holy Spirit comes. Then we have God’s power to renovate us living in our hearts.
The word translated ‘regeneration’ appears in only one other verse in the New Testament. Jesus uses it in His conversation with a rich young man about achieving eternal life: Matthew 19:28 ‘And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.’ Jesus’ use of the word points toward the resurrection of God’s Elect. Those regenerated by the indwelling Holy Spirit have eternal life. Regeneration is a process leading to resurrection.
Does regeneration mean the same thing as resurrection? No, but if a person is not regenerated by the coming of the indwelling Holy Spirit, then they are not equipped to be resurrected.
It goes back to Titus 3:3. We cannot achieve eternal life by ourselves. Eternal life is given to the Elect by the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Devotional Title: Lord will help us (9/13/24)
Key Bible Passage: 1 Samuel 7:12
The Ark of the Covenant had been returned to Israel, but the people knew God was not pleased with them. It was a time of national repentance. The nation gathered at the city of Mizpah to fast and pray. The Philistines saw this as an opportunity to attack them again. The Israelites cried out for Samuel to intercede for them.
The LORD thundered a mighty sound and threw the Philistines into a state of confusion. Israel soundly defeated them and took back the cities the Philistines had captured. Samuel took a stone and stood it up as a marker and reminder that the LORD had helped them. He called the stone, Ebenezer, which means stone of help. During the life of Samuel, the Israelites would be free from Philistine invasions.
In the classic hymn, “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” the second verse begins, “Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I’ve come.” The song writer and all who sing the hymn are acknowledging that they came this far in life by the help of God. We can all put up a stone to remind ourselves of the ways God has blessed and helped us. Where would we be without His grace drawing us to Him and His word to renew our minds?
Consider: Take some time right now to give thanks for God’s continual intervention in your life. Count your blessings. Praise the Lord.
Devotional Title: Our Source of Comfort (9/12/24)
Devotional Title:.Our Help in Weakness (9/10/24)
God has provided us with an inexhaustible source of strength.
Key Bible Passage: John 14:16-17
Following the Last Supper, Jesus took time to teach the disciples more about His mission and what would happen after He left the earth. He knew their darkest times were ahead. So in today’s passage, He promised a Helper who would stand alongside them in the coming trials.
We often face life with a stiff upper lip, trusting our own abilities to get us through. Choosing to follow the Lord, however, involves a totally different mindset: We’re weaker than we could have imagined, but through the Holy Spirit, we are stronger than we dared to hope.
Whether our struggle is spiritual, emotional, or physical, we can rely on the Holy Spirit to help us. Paul shows us what this looks like. The apostle prayed that the Lord would take away what he referred to as a “thorn in the flesh.” Instead, God said His power would be “perfected in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).
Too many Christians operate under the misconception that God helps us only when we have gone as far as we can go. In reality, His Spirit doesn’t simply add to our strength; rather, He is its inexhaustible source! When we admit we are powerless to help ourselves, the Holy Spirit gives us the strength we need to face any challenge with absolute confidence in God.
Key Bible Passage: Luke 9:23
You do not make your own cross, although unbelief is a master carpenter at cross-making; neither are you permitted to choose your own cross, although self-will wants to be lord and master. But your cross is prepared and appointed for you by divine love, and you must cheerfully accept it; you are to take up the cross as your chosen badge and burden, and not to stand complaining.
This night Jesus bids you submit your shoulder to His easy yoke. Do not kick at it in petulance, or trample on it in pride, or fall under it in despair, or run away from it in fear, but take it up like a true follower of Jesus.
Jesus was a cross-bearer; He leads the way in the path of sorrow. Surely you could not desire a better guide! And if He carried a cross, what nobler burden would you desire? The Via Crucis is the way of safety; fear not to tread its thorny paths. Beloved, the cross is not made of feathers or lined with velvet; it is heavy and galling to disobedient shoulders; but it is not an iron cross, though your fears have painted it with iron colors; it is a wooden cross, and a man can carry it, for the Man of Sorrows tried the load.
Take up your cross, and by the power of the Spirit of God you will soon be so in love with it that like Moses you would not exchange the reproach of Christ for all the treasures of Egypt. Remember that Jesus carried it; remember that it will soon be followed by the crown, and the thought of the coming weight of glory will greatly lighten the present heaviness of trouble.
May the Lord help you bow your spirit in submission to the divine will before you fall asleep tonight, so that waking with tomorrow’s sun, you may go forth to the day’s cross with the holy and submissive spirit that is fitting for a follower of the Crucified.
—Charles Sprugeon
In the Bible, red denotes royalty, and it also signifies sin and shame. Further, it’s the color of blood. When soldiers “stripped [Jesus] and put a scarlet robe on him” (Matthew 27:28), these three symbolisms merged into one heartbreaking image of red: Jesus was ridiculed as would-be royalty, He was cloaked in shame, and He was robed in the color of the blood He would soon shed. But Isaiah’s words foretell the promise of this crimsoned Jesus to deliver us from the red that stains us: “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (1:18).
One other thing about those cochineal insects used for red dye—they are actually milky white on the outside. Only when they are crushed do they release their red blood. That little fact echoes for us other words from Isaiah: “[Jesus] was crushed for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5).
Jesus, who knew no sin, is here to save us who are red with sin. You see, in His crushing death, Jesus endured a whole lot of red so you could be white as snow.
When we are weak and cannot pray, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us.
Key Bible Passage: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-19
One of the most painful human emotions is loneliness. Of course, there are times when being alone is unavoidable. But since God has sent His Spirit to live within us, we are never truly on our own. The Holy Spirit—whom Jesus referred to as our “Helper” (John 14:26)—is with us every second of every day.
Let’s think about ways that the Spirit of God helps us in our prayer life. First, He prods us to pray. Have you ever felt a strong sense that you needed to spend time with the Lord—perhaps without even knowing why? That is the Spirit convicting you. He has many reasons for doing this: He knows when we need strength because of an imminent difficulty. Or He sometimes encourages us to confess sin so our fellowship with the Father isn’t hindered.
Second, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. There are times when we do not know how to pray—for example, when sorrow or helplessness overwhelms us to the point that words are impossible to speak, even to the Lord. Thankfully, when all we can do is cry to Jesus, the Spirit will lead on our behalf.
What a privilege to have God’s Spirit dwelling in your heart. Do you recognize His power and love throughout your day? He longs to comfort, enable, and guide you each and every moment.
Relying on past success is a recipe for destruction—just ask the city of Sardis.
Strategically located on the banks of the gold-laden Pactolus River, Sardis was once the prosperous capital of Lydia’s empire. At its peak, history suggests Sardis’s king Croesus financed the construction of the Temple of Artemis—one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Croesus’s father, King Alyattes, who reigned from about 610 to 560 B.C., minted the world’s first coins from Sardis’s resources.
However, Sardis had a fatal flaw: its lower city lacked a defensive wall. Rather than fortifying his city, Croesus had fortified his political favor with the Greek world.
Sardis fell to Cyrus the Great of Persia in 547 B.C., Alexander the Great in 334 B.C., Rome in 133 B.C., and a succession of massive earthquakes. Its citizens trusted the towering rock cliffs surrounding them for protection, but this casual arrogance left them unprepared when disaster struck. You see, there was a cleft in the rock that allowed invaders to assail them, and in the wake of earthquakes, those towering rocks became their tomb. Somehow, despite all this, the city was repeatedly rebuilt and was prosperous at the time of Paul’s writing.
The same indifference that characterized the city of Sardis was also evident in the church at Sardis. Its believers grew content, complacent, and self-satisfied. They had created a name for themselves, but a spirit of smugness left them open to sin’s assault. Sardis’s church drifted into spiritual unconsciousness and died.
Christ wastes no time confronting their sin. Here is what He says in Revelation 3:1: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.”
Sardis was perhaps the first church in history with what we would call nominal Christians—people who claim to be Christians but are not. The church was full of people who made professions of faith, but it was clear the Holy Spirit was not present—they were not bearing the fruit of genuine faith. While the church appeared outwardly alive, it was inwardly dead, and the Lord was frank in His rebuke.
Jesus detected the same defective faith in the Pharisees when He was on earth. They gave alms, prayed, and fasted in dramatic fashion so that other men would notice how spiritual they were. Jesus confronted them in Matthew 23:27-28 saying, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
God is never fooled by outward appearances, yet He is ever patient— “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Therefore, He graciously provided four instructions to the Sardis believers for correcting their ways. We, the modern Church, need to heed these four instructions as well. We must not allow our beautiful church buildings, bustling with activity, to disguise spiritual stagnation.
Step 1: Be Sensitive to Sin
First, Christ warns the church to “be watchful” (Revelation 3:2). This warning conveys the idea of chasing away sleep. In other words, stay alert! Or as the apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:14, “Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”
Jesus is not suggesting insomnia as some sort of spiritual solution. His point is to be watchful, to be perpetually on guard against sin. As the Lord instructed Cain, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it” (Genesis 4:7, NIV). We must stand guard, remaining sober-minded and alert.
Step 2: Be Submissive to the Holy Spirit
In verse three, Jesus charges the church to, “Remember therefore how you have received and heard.” He is referring to the importance of the Holy Spirit. It is the power of the Holy Spirit that enables us to engage our sinful culture from a position of redemption and receive the Word of God in a life-changing way.
Failing to live in the power of the Holy Spirit while continuing sinful habits quenches God’s Spirit and separates us from our life source. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians puts it this way: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30). Sin is personal to God; it pains Him deeply. Activities that grieve the Spirit include bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, evil speaking or slander, and all types of sinful behavior. These are to be replaced with kindness, tenderheartedness, and Christlike forgiveness.
So, living in the Holy Spirit’s power will transform our relationships. Living in the Holy Spirit’s power will also transform the manner of our worship.
Consider your attitude toward worship. Do you worship through music, giving, service, etc., out of ritual and duty? Or do you worship out of love and joy and excitement?
Scripture is clear that God values the spirit of our giving, not the substance of our giving (see 2 Corinthians 9:7, Luke 21:1-4). No matter what styles of worship we practice or how much we give, the power of the Holy Spirit should be evident in our lives.
Step 3: Be Subject to the Authority of God’s Word
The next instruction given to Sardis is to “hold fast” (Revelation 3:3), which means “to keep.” It is used four other times in the book of Revelation in reference to keeping the Word of God (Revelation 1:3; 3:8; 12:17; 22:7). I believe the greatest threat to biblical soundness today is the removal of God’s Word from the pulpits. The death of the church at Sardis bears testimony to this truth.
Jesus charges His people to know the Word of God and obey it. We must allow it to govern our corporate and personal lives, by this I mean the lives of our churches and the lives of individuals within our churches. Hiding God’s Word in our hearts is the key to avoiding temptation. It should form the foundation for our choices and actions.
Step 4: Repent
Finally, the church in Sardis is instructed to repent. This same instruction had been given to the church in Ephesus that had abandoned its first love, and the church in Pergamos that had been corrupted by their pursuit of immorality and idolatry. Recognizing that sin grieves God’s Spirit, we, too, are called to repent of our sins.
God’s method of recovery never changes. For those of us in the process of spiritual decay, the only remedy is repentance. We must ask God to forgive us for abandoning His Word as we turn away from our sin and move in a new direction. We are called to love the Lord with all our hearts, souls, and minds (Matthew 22:37). There is no room for unrepented sin.
The church at Sardis lost its focus. Instead of viewing each day as an opportunity to serve the Lord, they were content with their past achievements. Even so, it was not too late for them to admit their sin, submit to their Savior and His Word, and repent. The same is true for us today. We need to be alert and guard ourselves against the inroads of sin in our lives. If we are diligent to live the truth we claim to believe, we will experience newness of life through Jesus (Romans 6:4). When we find ourselves drifting from the rock of our salvation, we can sharpen our focus by turning to this four-principled pattern found in Revelation 3, and we can trust God to restore us and equip us for new work.
Devotional Title: Sanctified and Special (7/18/24)
The Holy Spirit wants to guide you away from crippling anxieties to the freedom that is yours in Christ.
Key Bible Passage: Luke 1:68-75
The Scriptures distinguish between two kinds of fear: healthy and unhealthy. The healthy kind is beneficial. One example is the wise caution that keeps us from touching a hot stove. Another is the proper fear of God (Eccl. 12:13), which includes a sense of awe because of who the Lord is. It also involves a lifestyle of respectful obedience that honors Him.
Unhealthy fear, on the other hand, causes us to feel tense, uncomfortable, or threatened. Even when there’s no longer any basis for apprehension, it may continue to thwart us.
The imagination can generate this type of fear by getting us caught up in “what if” thinking. Habitual worries like What if something goes wrong? or What if the outcome I want doesn’t happen? can block God’s best. His purposes—such as learning new skills, changing jobs, or trying a different way of ministering to others—often require that we move beyond what feels most comfortable. Challenges of this sort present the opportunity to trust the Lord and obey Him.
Remember that unhealthy fear isn’t from God (2 Tim. 1:7). So, let the Holy Spirit guide you from a place of disquiet into the freedom that is ours in Christ (Gal. 5:1). There you will discover the ability to follow His plan without being hindered by undue alarm.
Wait for the Lord—He is working for your good.
Key Bible Passage: Genesis 16:1-6
Has God given you a vision that is as yet unfulfilled? Has He assigned you a task that remains incomplete, though you’ve done everything you know to do?
The “gaps” the Lord creates in our life are designed for His specific purposes. Sometimes they are meant to prepare us for His preordained answer. It’s also possible He first wants to take care of some other necessary component of His plan. Perhaps a delay is intended to test our faith so He can prove Himself trustworthy. Or He may be using a pause as an occasion for correction.
It is always wise to wait on the Lord while He prepares us for His answers. We should pray and trust God, not acting until we’re certain that we have heard from Him and Him alone. Even people with godly intentions can be wrong—look at Abram’s poor decisions after listening to the seemingly solid logic of his wife. The result was that Sarai’s handmaiden Hagar conceived Abram’s child, which was not part of the Lord’s preferred plan.
Anything other than God’s plan carried out God’s way amounts to self-reliance. Depend on His Spirit when deciding how to proceed; any other course of action can lead to serious and lasting repercussions.
Devotional Title: Heart of Service (6/18/24)
Devotional Title: The Father’s Protection (6/17/24)
Devotional Title: Beyond Our Grasp
Love motivates us to move toward others—even when there are obstacles.
Key Bible Passage: Philippians 2:5-8
Jesus was the perfect model of servanthood. He “emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant … He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death” (Phil. 2:7-8). In other words, Jesus laid aside His divine nature to redeem us and save us from our sins.
In verse 5, Paul tells us that we, too, should have this attitude. But we aren’t called to sacrifice ourselves for mankind’s salvation, so is this same kind of humility even possible for us? Yes, by refusing to let our need for certainty and security keep us from approaching and, more importantly, loving and accepting those around us.
As Christians, we know that others have not yet embraced the reality and promise of the gospel. Ask yourself, How would Jesus approach them? Today’s passage tells us: He was God, but He emptied Himself. He humbly reached out in love and humility to meet others exactly where they were.
Like Jesus, we can move toward others in love and mercy. It’s a self-sacrificial way of being. Though our obedience won’t lead to physical death, we must die to old ways of living so others can know Christ and experience the abundant life He offers.
Devotional Title: In the Interest of Others (6/14/24)
Devotional Title: Fellowship in the Spirit (6/12/24)
Are you experiencing deep connection with other believers and participating in God’s work on earth?
Key Bible Passage: 1 John 1:1-4
Most churches have a fellowship hall—a space where members gather for all kinds of events other than worship services. Getting out of the pew and interacting with our brothers and sisters in Christ fosters a deep sense of community.
Paul describes this kind of togetherness as “being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose” (Phil. 2:2). Our Bibles usually translate it as “fellowship of the Spirit” (Phil. 2:1).
But today, the word fellowship has lost some of its original impact. To recapture what it was meant to convey, let’s examine the word Paul uses in that verse. The Greek term koinonia means what we use the English word fellowship to express—that is, connection and camaraderie with others.
What’s more, koinonia carries a sense of participation in what God is doing. This seems reasonable, given that the church and its members are Christ’s body (Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:27). Together, we enjoy His life and love in certain ways that we understand—and in others we don’t fully grasp yet. Remembering our fellowship in the Spirit can help bring about unity in the family of faith. How can you foster this kind of fellowship in your own church and friendships?
Devotional Title: The Blessings of Inadequacy (6/11/24)
Devotional Title: Encouraged by Christ (6/10/24)
Devotional Title: A Race to the Back of the Line (6/5/24)
Devotional Title: Cleansed by Christ (6/4/24)
Key Bible Passage: I John 1:5-10
My first short-term missions trip was to the Amazon jungle in Brazil to help build a church by the river. One afternoon, we visited one of the few homes in the area that had a water filter. When our host poured murky well water into the top of the contraption, within minutes all the impurities were removed, and clean, clear drinking water appeared. Right there in the man’s living room, I saw a reflection of what it means to be cleansed by Christ.
When we first come to Jesus with our guilt and shame and ask Him to forgive us and we receive Him as our Savior, He cleanses us from our sins and makes us new. We’re purified just like the murky water was transformed into clean drinking water. What a joy it is to know we are in right standing with God because of Jesus’ sacrifice ( 2 Corinthians 5:21) and to know God removes our sins as far as the east is from the west ( Psalms 103:12).
But the apostle John reminds us that this doesn’t mean we’ll never sin again. When we do sin, we can be assured by the image of a water filter and be comforted by knowing that as “we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9).
Let’s live confidently knowing that we’re continually being cleansed by Christ.
Devotional Title: From Holey to Holy (6/3/24)
2 Timothy 1:6-10
As a child, my daughter loved playing with her Swiss cheese at lunch. She’d place the pastel yellow square on her face like a mask, saying, “Look, Mom,” her sparkly green eyes peeking out from two holes in the cheese. As a young mom, that Swiss-cheese mask summed up my feelings about my efforts—genuinely offered, full of love, but so very imperfect. Holey, not holy.
Oh, how we long to live a holy life—a life set apart for God and characterized by being like Jesus. But day after day, holiness seems out of reach. In its place, our “holeyness” remains.
In 2 Timothy 1:6-7 , Paul writes to his protégé Timothy, urging him to live up to his holy calling. The apostle then clarified that “[God] has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace” (v. 9). This life is possible not because of our character, but because of God’s grace. Paul continues, “This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time” (v. 9). Can we accept God’s grace and live from the platform of power it provides?
Whether in parenting, marriage, work, or loving our neighbor, God calls us to a holy life—made possible not because of our efforts to be perfect but because of His grace.
By: Elisa Morgan
Devotional Title: A Race to the Back of the Line (5/31/24)
Are you choosing to see and meet the needs of those God has given you to serve?
Key Bible Passage: Romans 12:10-13
Have you ever met people who were famous or highly esteemed? How did you treat them? You likely spoke with deep respect, deferred to them, and considered their needs as greater than your own. That’s the natural response when we feel we’re in the presence of someone “important.”
When Paul says to “give preference to one another in honor” (Rom.12:10), he is essentially telling us to treat others as if they are the most important people in the room—not because they are, but because they’ve been created in God’s image. We are called to consider others as greater than ourselves (Phil. 2:3), loving and honoring them the way the Lord does.
Loving as God loves includes a willingness to lay down the need to be first, the need to be right, and the need to have things our own way. Instead, we choose the way of the cross, humbly leveraging who we are and what’s been given to us for the benefit of those around us.
Let’s continually race each other to the back of the line. When we do this well, our friendships, families, churches, and communities will be filled with people intent on showing honor by deferring to one another. As a result, we’ll be honoring the One who created us all.
Devotional Title: Sorrow in Rejoicing (5/30/24)
Devotional Title: A Guidebook for Life (5/28/24)
Devotional Title : Protection Within The Fire (5/24/24)
The story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the Book of Daniel came to mind this morning. They were thrown into a fiery furnace. Why they were thrown in was not what caught my attention, but what happened to them while in the furnace.
First, Daniel 3:19 ‘Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated.’ The ‘form of his visage’ refers to the level of rage Nechadnezzar had against the three men. How furious was Nebuchadnezzar? The furnace was not just heated, rather heated to seven times its normal temperature. It was not heated to 6 or 8 times its normal temperature, but a temperature meant to tell us something was going to be accomplished or fulfilled in the heating.
Nebuchadnezzar no doubt thought he was going to burn the men to cinders. That was his intention, but Nebuchadnezzar was about to find out he was not in charge and heating the furnace to seven times its normal temperature is going to say something about God.
Daniel 3:21 ‘Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their othergarments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.’ It seems like a minor detail, but what happens is magnified by the fact the men are fully clothed. The following verse says the furnace was so hot the soldiers who threw the three men in the furnace were killed by the heat.
Then God reveals Himself. Nebuchadnezzar leaps to his feet asking if they threw three men into the furnace. Those present confirm it was three men. Then Nebuchadnezzar says, Daniel 3:25 ‘He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.’ A fourth person is in the furnace. God has Nebuchadnezzar called him the Son of God. The person was not an angel, but the Son of God. The Son walks around with the other three men in the furnace. Not even the clothes of the men are singed by the heat.
Daniel 3:26 ‘Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, andspake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth of the midst of the fire.’ Who ordered the three men taken out of the furnace? God? No, God was with the three men in the furnace. God sustained them in the furnace; He did not deliver from the furnace.
Why does that matter? What would people have said if God had spared the three men the heat of the furnace? Would some not question whether God had the power to save them in the furnace? Was not God glorified even more by being with the three men in their time of awful trial and adversity? He was not only with them, not even their clothes were harmed. What more powerful witness to the majesty of the sovereign God than to be with men in the worst they can face, and see them through it?
Believers sometimes give in to the temptation to think God will spare them from trials and adversity. They are selling God short. They are really saying God may not be big enough to give them strength and endurance in times of adversity. Jesus said, John 16:33 ‘These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.’ Tribulation is not a ‘maybe’ or a ‘might.’ It is a certainty for everyone. However, praise God, Jesus has not left us in the furnace alone. He has sent the Holy Spirit to strengthen and sustain us in the fiery heat of life. He glorifies Himself every day in how we respond to His presence in us.
That should be the question on a believer’s heart each day. How do I witness to the presence of God in me? Matthew 28:19-20 ‘Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.’ Jesus did not say hunker down until I come to pull you out of the furnace. He said He will be with us in the furnace, ‘I am with you always, even unto the end world.’ The ‘amen’ is not a benediction. It means ‘so be it.;’ it is a decree. Jesus decrees this is the way it is until He comes again, and we will serve Him unto the end, because we are not here for ourselves, but here to serve, reveal and glorify Him.
The most effective and powerful antidote for anxiety is thanksgiving and praise. When we feel it coming on or even begin to think about the possibility of it coming on we want to nip it in the bud. We want to immediately stop and “BOW.” Here are three things to help us find the calm when we are encountering the overwhelming waves of anxiety.
BOW
Bow before Him. Bring all of your cares to Him! Lay them at His feet. Humble yourself before Him. Honor Him as God. He knows all. He can handle it all. Bring Him your heartache, your children, your spouse, your finances, your day, your future, your life — all of your concerns. He knows what is best, and He works all things according to His wise and loving will. Cast all of your cares upon Him believing that He cares for you. He is able. You are not. He is God. You are not!
Offload your angst. Humbly hold each thought up to the Word of God. Take your worry, your anxiety, your fear, your unbelief, your anger — all of the sin that is weighing down your little water craft — and confess them to the Lord. Throw each and every one overboard, and let them fall to the bottom of the sea of His grace.
Worship the Lord. Fix your eyes upon Him. Take your eyes off of yourself and off of your circumstances and set them securely upon your Lord. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and come into His courts with praise. Thank Him from the bottom of your heart following the example of the psalmists. Humbly acknowledge that you can’t see all things, but He can. Worship Him in the spirit of holiness, praising and thanking God because He knows what is best. He is all powerful. He is in control. He knows what He is doing. No one can stay His hand. And He has you in the palm of that mighty hand.
Take a moment to practice taking these truths to heart. Turn to Psalm 96 in your Bible and bow before God. If you are not able to bow literally, humbly bow before Him in your heart. He is God. He loves you with a love that knows no bounds. He is good, and He is working on your behalf even as you pray. BOW before Him now
Thoughts and feelings will come like waves on the sea and seek to capsize us. When these thoughts and feelings flood our hearts and minds like water into a boat, we are barely able to stay float.
You may be afraid to face a new day troubled with thoughts and feelings like:
- A strange sense that there is an abominable sea monster lurking beneath the surface, circling and waiting for an opportune moment to emerge from the depths and ruin your day.
- The feeling that since you struggle with anxiety there must be something “wrong” with you. If you were a good Christian you wouldn’t have this problem, right? You struggle with the idea that having anxious feelings or thoughts means that you are failing or that you are a failure.
- A subtle dread of what seems to be inevitable and the temptation to do whatever you need to do to avoid dealing with it. This avoidance can take the form of keeping distracted with social media, projects, tasks, to-do lists, shopping, self-medicating, etc.
Jesus taught us that we would have trouble in this world. Each day would have trouble enough of its own. Not only will the world bring us trouble, but we have trouble residing within. Even when we have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and accepted Him as our Lord and Savior, our sinful nature remains, and that nature is at enmity with the Spirit of God. So we don’t have to go anywhere to find trouble. Trouble is within and without. This is enough to make anyone anxious! Is there any hope?! YES! If you are in Christ, He is in you and you are in Him. Because He lives inside of you, there can be calm within.
The truth of God and His Word is not only our anchor in the storm. In Christ, we can actually find calm in the storm. In Psalm 103 David sets a good example for us as he instructs his soul to praise the LORD and bless His name. He reminds himself who he is and reminds himself not to forget who God is. Although he is aware of his sin and his weakness, rather than fret and worry, we see him worship. We can learn from his example how to train our hearts and minds in the storm. In fact, the way to care for our hearts is by caring for our minds. We must keep our minds fixed on the truth of God’s Word. When we do, we will begin to experience the calm of Christ.
Many of us spend numerous hours of the day worrying and fretting over things we have little or no control over. Our stomachs churn, our minds spin, and our hearts hurt. We can’t enjoy a beautiful spring morning, a walk in the park, working at a job we love, or being with the people we love because of the anxiety we are experiencing or the angst we are anticipating. What is it that we are afraid of?
Rather than peacefully walking forward through the day confident in God, resting in His character, trusting in His power, and believing in His Word, we are overcome with worry and fear instead.
Some of us may be so accustomed to feeling this way that we don’t even realize how much it impedes our boldness, our energy, and our focus. We don’t see how much it impacts our earthly relationships and ultimately our relationship with God. We live tossed to and fro by the waves of our flesh which hampers our ability to live fully in the Spirit of Christ and enjoy communion with our heavenly Father each day.
I can hear Jesus lovingly say, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” It was after He said these words to the disciples that “he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.”
The Calm
Can we learn to find calm by faith amidst the waves of sin and the storms of emotion within our hearts? It may seem impossible, but there is hope, and there is comfort to be found. First, know that you are not alone and that this is not any surprise to your Lord. He is with you in it all, and He loves you. Second, know that you are not a failure in His sight because you struggle with this. It is an age-old challenge for all of God’s people. Even the great. The Lord told Joshua, a valiant leader in Israel who followed the Lord fully, to not be afraid. Finally, remember that with Christ nothing is impossible. He is able. When we understand that we are weak and learn how to look to Christ and cling to Him, we will begin to experience Christ as our calm.
Life is uncertain, but if we listen to the Lord, He’ll guide us and give us His strength for the road ahead.
Key Bible Passage: Psalm 25:1-22
The future is an untraveled trail with complex twists and turns. Appealing activities can be detours that lead away from the Lord, and engaging philosophies are paths that often end in a mire of muddled thinking. Even the best route isn’t all sun-dappled meadows and quiet riverside lanes. At times we’ll journey over rugged terrain or through dark valleys. The only way to be sure we’re walking on the right path is to follow one who knows the way.
God is your perfect Guide for life, who lovingly and intentionally created you for this time and place. He watches over your steps and teaches you His paths as revealed in His Word. What’s more, He is the Comforter, who promises to walk by your side so you never face life’s challenges alone.
The Lord knows the path before you, and if you’ll humble yourself and reverence Him, He will give instructions about the way you should choose. Because He sees every discouraging obstacle and entrapping temptation, He wants to guard your steps so you won’t stumble off course. Decide to trust Him and pursue His will rather than what might feel good or look right. Then you’ll be on your way to the destination of blessing.
“When it’s all said and done and I’m standing before God, I want to be there bloodied and exhausted, worn from the fight. I want to place at Christ’s feet a notched but sill razor sharp sword, a battered shield with the heraldic emblem faded and dull, a breastplate with deep scratch marks where the enemies darts marred it when my shield of faith dropped low, a helmet of salvation marked by turning a blow from the mace of doubt, boots of the gospel resoled many times and lastly, a belt of truth that is as strong as it was when I received it. All to be turned in for a shining crown of gold, robes of white and a new name shared only with the King.”
~ author unknown
