Daily Devotion - February 14, 2025

One will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:7-8)

Are you okay with God? Do you know God loves you? The question about whether or not a person is secure in God’s love is typically answered by an internal series of questions that range from, “How am I doing?” “Am I better than so and so?” “Was I good today?” and “What about yesterday?”

But none of these questions get to the heart of the matter. They simply show someone’s personal evaluation of their own performance or competency.

While everyone should be concerned about whether or not our behavior pleases God, the Bible makes it clear that our behavior doesn’t determine his acceptance—his mercy does. And that’s the good news of God’s unlimited grace! 

Prayer: Lord, thank you for accepting me in Christ—not because of what I have done but rather because of what Jesus did on the cross.

Daily Devotion - February 13, 2025

We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Rom 8:28)

Paul tells is in Romans 8:28 that God works all things together for the good of those who know him. Paul knows we live in a fallen world. We’re going to face hard things. But God is working all those things for an eternal good. The Good Shepherd will carry us through whatever we encounter, because God is always working the end game. He’s concerned about your spiritual eternity and mine.

When we say to someone, “I want you to know that God is dealing with you according to your identity in Christ and not your performance,” those words have the power to free—not just from guilt but from whatever trials we may face.

Prayer: Father, I know I can have confidence in you in the midst of all of life’s circumstances, because you love me and use everything to accomplish your good goals. Help me to trust you no matter what I

Daily Devotion - February 12, 2025

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. (Mt 6:9-13)

Have you heard the tale of the two monks and the horse? The first monk thought of a challenge for his companion. He offered him a horse if he could recite the Lord’s Prayer even once without his thoughts straying. The second monk took the bet and began to recite the prayer, but he stopped after two sentences. “You win,” he said. “Because even as I was praying, I began to wonder if the horse came with a saddle.”

I know that kind of distraction, and I bet you do, too! But I also know the grace and the mercy of the God. He forgives my wayward thoughts and gives me his prayer to help keep my mind and heart riveted to him.   

Prayer: Jesus, thank you for teaching me to pray! Help me to avoid distractions and to be riveted on you as I say your prayer.

Daily Devotion - February 11, 2025

You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. (Rom. 8:15-16)

Long ago I read the account of a Christian who did not fully grasp the meaning of this verse until visiting a busy market in Israel. There a lost child ran through the crowd seeking his father by crying out, “Abba, Abba.” 

The account echoed sweetly for my own heart years later, as I followed Jesus’ route to the cross through the streets of Jerusalem. As the crowds pressed upon our tour group, an Israeli child pushed past me at knee level calling to the father who had gone ahead of us, “Abba, Abba.”

The ancient endearment for “Daddy” is as used today as it was in Christ’s, and it signals the same kind of love. When our hearts cry out with such longing and love for our Heavenly Father, it not only signals our affection but the work of the Holy Spirit in us. 

Our love and longing for God is the evidence that he has gone before us in life with the work of the Holy Spirit, transforming our affections. Our seeking him is the Spirit’s witness that we are already the children of his care and that he is ready to receive us. 

God not only provides his Holy Spirit to align the desires of our thoughts and prayers with his purposes, but also to confirm his love by our longing. We can only love him because he first loved us. Loving him confirms his love for us. 

Prayer: Heavenly Father, confirm that I am a child of yours by the love that I have for you as my Abba. May this love granted me by the Holy Spirit be a powerful witness that I am your child whom your heart is always ready to receive.

Daily Devotion - February 10, 2025

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Heb 12:11)

When you’re traveling down the highway and you see a sign that says, “Don’t go this way,” you don’t get think to yourself, what cruel, hard-hearted person put that sign up there? You feel thankful that somebody cared enough to instruct you on the way to go!

The same is true with God. He doesn’t just train us, teach us, and then send us on our merry way! God provides signs through his correction and reproof that get our attention. That’s how we know we’ve gotten off the path. God corrects us because he loves us and because the path is the place where we are safe and cared for!

When you recognize God’s correction, be glad, knowing that he’s leading you back because he cares!

Prayer: Lord, help me to walk in the righteous path you have set in front of me and to notice your warning signs when I’m tempted to leave that path.

Daily Devotion - February 7, 2025

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain onthe land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.(James 5:16-18 NIV)

One summer, our friend Joan took her disabled husband, Tom, for a walk down the path of a nearby park. Tom, despite his wife’s support, floundered halfway through their walk. His strength evaporated, and he simply could go no further. With no other alternatives, Joan prepared to leave him in order to get some help.

In her desperation, she paused to pray. When Joan lifted her head, a motorcycle officer came down the path. “What made you come down this way?” she asked. The officer replied that the city council had requested greater police presence in the park, and today was the first day of this assignment. Joan knew that this police presence was actually coming from a higher authority. Heaven was honoring a Christian wife and extending grace to her husband.

Prayer: Lord, throughout this day, help me to turn to you in prayer, knowing that you hear me and delight to answer my prayers.

Daily Devotion - February 6, 2025

For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it … because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief. (2 Cor 7:8-9)

The Apostle Paul tells us in Second Corinthians 7:10 that “godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” There is a difference between simply feeling bad that we have sinned and living a changed life after repenting of our sin.

Remorse means we apologize for failing to obey God, and repentance means actually turning away from sin. When we acknowledge that this turning away is something we cannot do by our own human effort, we receive God’s power to change, the power found in his grace.

So, take heart in the grace of God and his love for you. Turn your life around!

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I know that I sin in many ways. Help me to feel a godly sorrow for my sin that results in true repentance.

Daily Devotion - February 5, 2025

Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. (Luke 22:31-32)

Sometimes we make decisions that damage us and those around us. And my pastor friend was one such person. He began viewing the Bible as just some cultural document—nothing more. And this damaged him and his marriage, and when his life fell apart, he left the ministry.

But God was not done with him, and he’s not done with you! When we’ve hit rock bottom and think there’s no hope for us, God says to us, “You’re hurting. You’re incomplete. The darkness may be closing in, but you’re not alone. I have given you my voice and my hand, and here’s my heart. In it, you’ll find the way to be complete again through Jesus Christ.”

If this is you today, may God lead you to his Word and back to knowing him yet again!

Prayer: Father, when I feel hopeless and far from you, please help me to find strength and comfort in your Word and in your presence.

Daily Devotion - February 4, 2025

You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. (James 4:2-3)

Faithful prayer hinges on how well we understand the terms belief and doubt. And sometimes we get confused when well-meaning people bombard us with examples of people who prayed for something to happen—displayed unwavering confidence that it would happen—and then sat back and watched as it came about.

But our trouble comes when we make God subject to the whims of our human expectations and desires. We need to reconsider a philosophy that requires God to provide all our wants, because in our finite wisdom we may not want what an infinitely wise God wants for us!

So, remember, God always answers our prayers. But if you’re not getting what you’re praying for, take heart knowing that God is probably doing something better!

Prayer: Heavenly Father, teach me to pray for the things you desire. Help me to trust that your answers are far better than what I think I want.

Daily Devotion - February 3, 2025

I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord. (Hosea 2:19-20)

From the outside their life seems ideal. The house is beautiful, the kids are sweet, and they are an attractive pair. But inside, things are far from ideal. The wife has an addiction, and nothing seems to help. Like the biblical prophet Hosea, this husband continues to love his wife despite her failures.

He loves her because his priorities are not focused on the temporal but the eternal. So, he entrusts her with responsibilities that boost her self-image. And he ensures they attend church regularly. But most of all he treats his wife with love and respect.

With these loving acts the husband fulfills his biblical responsibility as the head of his home, sacrificing himself for the good of another! He loves his wife as Christ loves his church.

Prayer: Lord, even though I have been unfaithful to you in many ways, you keep on loving me! Help me to respond in gratitude and obedience.

Daily Devotion - January 31, 2025

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? (Rom. 6:1-2)

Here, the Apostle Paul strongly cautions against using the grace of God to continue to sin by figuring, “all will be forgiven.” This is not because there isn’t enough of God’s grace to forgive mounting sins.

Instead, Paul reminds believers that grace has destroyed the sinful life that once enslaved us. No one should want to go back to living in slavery. If we truly understand how powerful and profound is the grace of God that has made our slavery a thing of the past – an existence that is dead to us now – then we will never want to go back to that life.

Yes, God will always forgive those who confess their sin and need of him. But, once we understand how incredibly gracious, generous, and loving is his pardon, then we increasingly desire to turn from the sin that grieves him and enslaves us!

Resting on God’s grace does not relieve our obligation to honor him but powerfully stimulates our love to live for God’s glory and in our freedom!

Prayer: Father, thank you for setting me free in Christ from the slavery of sin. Keep me today from returning to sin’s slavery as I live to glorify you and to rejoice in the freedom from sin’s guilt and power that Jesus provides!

Daily Devotion - January 30, 2025

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (John 14:27)

What is the peace that the world gives? It is a slice of time without pressure, problem, or threat. We can know such times but, in a fallen world, such peace never lasts. Knowing that, our hearts are never really at peace amidst the world’s inevitable troubles.

Christ’s peace can be distinguished from that of the world by paintings produced for an art competition. The prize was promised to the artist who best depicted peace.  

One artist painted a pastoral scene: sheep in a rich pasture of green, a flowing stream, and a cloudless sky on a beautiful sunny day. 

The other artist painted a storm at sea, with waves crashing, winds blowing, and the sea foaming. Yet, in the middle of the raging sea was a pelican calmly riding the waves through the storm.

Who won the competition? The one representing what Jesus promised: Real peace is not the absence of trouble, but confidence in the midst of trouble. 

True peace in this world will never come through the perfection of our circumstances, but through confidence in the eternal security our Savior graciously provides.

Prayer: Father, when the storms of life surround me, may I experience the peace that passes understanding through confidence in my Savior’s gracious provision of eternal care.

Daily Devotion - January 29, 2025

We have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. (Heb. 12:9-10)

Obedience to God’s standards is not a condition of his love for us, though it does affect our daily experience of his joy and peace. If we walk off his path of spiritual safety, we shouldn’t be surprised that there are consequences. Those consequences are actually an indication of his love rather than the absence of it.

If God didn’t love us, he would simply let us wander off and face even greater harm. In discipline, the divine hand is simply turning us back to the arms that embrace and protect us eternally.

So, remember that even when we are in the throes of the harshest correction, God is showing his grace towards us and turning us toward a great love that would shield us from the dangers and consequences of our sin!

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I know that you discipline me not out of arbitrary anger but rather out of love that only intends good and never damage to my soul. Help me today not to mistake a severe mercy for a capricious hand, and to grow in my desire and ability to follow your loving will.

Daily Devotion - January 28, 2025

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. (Isa. 61:1) 

Imagine a man in jail, sitting there with men who are far more hardened than he is. This man is middle-aged but mentally on the level of a frightened and confused eight-year-old.

And now imagine another man in that same cell who sees this man weeping in terror. So, he gets up, goes over, and quietly whispers to him: “I don’t know what you are facing, but whatever it is, Jesus will help you through it if you trust him.”  

Soon after, that middle-aged man with an eight-year-old mind comes to Christ and is changed forever. That man is my brother. He’s still in jail for now, but his soul is free forever from God’s condemnation.

Prison bars did not keep God’s grace from reaching him. They also will not keep him from freedom – from any impairment of mind, any limitation of body, or any guilt of sin in his ultimate heavenly home with Jesus. 

Jesus promises the same freedoms to you, when you bind your heart to him by faith, claiming the exhilarating liberty of his provisions for this life and the life to come. Trusting Jesus for pardon from our sins, liberates our souls from guilt on earth and liberates soul, mind, and body from all this world’s pain in eternity!

Prayer: Lord, I know that I was in spiritual prison because of my sins, but you set me free! Thank you. Now please help me to live in the freedoms that are mine forever no matter the prisons of guilt or sin that beset me now.

Daily Devotion - January 27, 2025

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. (Phil. 2:5-7)

Hearts open to the message of Scripture soon recognize that God never commends nor commands selfishness. Instead, he uses the example of his Son’s willingness to empty himself of heaven’s glory to serve our needs as a way of calling us to serve others’ needs sacrificially.

That can sound like a dreary calling and a sad life until we remember that Jesus also said, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mt. 10:39).

Living a life with a willingness to serve to others, frees us from the bondage of our self-serving appetites and selfish ambitions. In this new freedom, our lives become more fulfilling, less driven; more purposeful, less self-absorbed; more glorifying to the God we love, less a burden to those we love – and more a delight to live!

Prayer: Lord, as your glory was fulfilled and your joy was made full when you were willing to become a servant to humanity, please help me to find the glory and joy of serving you by serving others.

Daily Devotion - January 24, 2025

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers…. Little children, let us not love with words or talk but in deed and in truth (1 John 3:16-18)

Local news reported on two brothers who decided to play on mounded sandbanks formed by the dredging that keeps our local river channel clear. When the young boys were late for dinner, a search began. 

Searchers found the younger brother unconscious — buried up to his shoulders in sand. He had stepped on a crust of sand hiding a large void formed by the dredging of wet sand from the river bottom. When the crust gave way, the boy fell in the void with its sand walls collapsing upon him. 

When he was roused to consciousness, rescuers frantically asked, “Where is your brother? The child replied: “I’m standing on his shoulders.”

With the sacrifice of his own life, the older brother had saved the life of the younger. With similar selflessness, Jesus, who is not ashamed to call himself our brother, saved us. We were rescued from the pit of our sin by standing on the sacrifice of our Brother — who gave his life that we might live!

He now calls us to honor his love by sharing it with others, not just with words but with deeds as selfless as his own.

Prayer: Lord, as I consider again what it means for you to have laid down your life for me, give me a fresh appreciation of your love. Then, fill my heart with your love to give me a renewed desire to tell and show the world your grace.

Daily Devotion - January 23, 2025

Thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. (Rom. 6:17-18)

There is a math of the mind that reasons, “If God will forgive all my sin, and substitute Christ’s good work for my bad behavior, then I might as well keep sinning!” But that’s not the only way our thoughts can function. 

The Apostle Paul counters the shady math of such thinking with a leading question: “Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? By no means!”

Why? Because, as Paul explains, no one wants to be “enslaved to sin.” Does anyone who has been “set free” from slavery really want to go back to it? 

Paul makes clear the enslaving power of sin in our lives to caution us against any mental math that would try to take advantage of God’s grace to subject our lives and loved ones to sin’s ravages. 

The Apostle never waters down the gospel of God’s grace to turn us away from the horrors of sin. Nothing could be clearer than him saying, “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Rom. 5:20). But as a preacher said long ago, “Grace is not sweet, if sin is not bitter.” So, Paul makes us face the reality of enslavement to the guilt and power of sin, so that we will treasure our freedom from its chains and embrace the life secured by the grace of Christ.

Prayer: Father, thank you for freeing me from the slavery of sin and making me a servant of righteousness. May I never presume on your grace but rather respond in gratitude and obedience to the life without chains secured by your grace.

Daily Devotion - January 22, 2025

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Pet. 2:9)

I have a friend who traverses the world helping corporations turn around their company culture. One day, he let me in on the secret of his success: to effect healthy transformation, the most important words you can say to another are I am proud of you.

It’s often much easier to see flaws and point out messes when someone hasn’t measured up to our standards. Honest critiques have their place but saying that you’re proud and thankful for others is spiritual fuel without which positive energy dies.

The Apostle Peter knew that as he addressed oppressed and distressed Christians. Despite their struggles, he described them in precious terms made possible by the realities of God’s grace toward them. 

The apostle put on his gospel glasses to tell people how he saw them through the lens of God’s love. He could have cited many failures and shortcomings – and would offer correction in his letters – but affirmation came first. 

After telling me his secret, my friend paused and then made his own confession: “I haven’t told my struggling son that I am proud of him in years.” The confession transformed his family relationships and helped change his son.

If you can withhold your criticism long enough to extend God’s grace — life-transforming power you’ve been given is yours to give to another.

Prayer: Lord, I pray that you will enable me to look beyond human flaws and see people as you see them, extending to them such grace as you have lavished upon me.

Daily Devotion - January 21, 2025

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15 NIV)

There are not many places in the Bible where God addresses Satan, and this one is crucial. If we’re going to understand how grace unfolds throughout Scripture to culminate in Christ’s work, we must grasp the power of this first prophecy of Jesus. It is God’s earliest war cry declaring Satan’s ruin. 

After Satan’s temptation resulted in sin that corrupted our world, God immediately revealed his rescue plan. He promised to send an offspring of Eve who would ultimately crush the power of Satan. That offspring is Jesus!

God also tells us that the offspring of Eve will suffer injury from battling Satan, but Jesus’ victory is sure. Satan will be destroyed, and many people will be made righteous (Is. 53:11). So, God tells us from the beginning, “You are not your Redeemer, but I will send him to suffer and save you.”

Not all subsequent texts teach this grace in the same way. Sometimes the Bible reveals aspects of grace through prophecies like this, but also through poetry, history, proverbs, and inspired letters.

As different as these Bible passages are, they have a common denominator: they show how God provides for those who cannot provide for themselves. The many facets of the diamond of grace are polished on every page of Scripture until we can see and treasure the jewel that Jesus is. 

Through this jewel of grace, we not only understand how God’s plan of salvation unfolds but how we should live in response to Christ’s victory.

Prayer: Father, thank you for promising the victorious grace of Jesus and revealing it with the divine patience needed for my heart. May the grace you unfold throughout Scripture capture my heart and change my life for his glory.

Daily Devotion - January 20, 2025

He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” (Heb. 13:5-6)

Leaving home for the first time can be an exciting but overwhelming experience. My own trip to college was such. At first, I was bubbling with excitement as my father drove me to the school I had never visited, in a town I did not know. Then, anxiety crept over me.

As my bubbling conversation ceased, my father read the anxiety signaled by my silence. He pulled the car off the road, looked me in the eye, and said, “I don’t know if you will do well or if you’ll do poorly at this school, but you are my son, and that will never change. There’s always a place for you in my home.”

Such are the assurances of the gospel of grace that God has given to you. His love will not be determined by what you do — but by whose you are.

We are children of our Heavenly Father, and because we are his children, his love will never leave or forsake us. There will always be a place for us in his heart. That doesn’t make all earthly challenges go away, but we face them without crippling anxiety, knowing nothing can sever us from his eternal care!

Prayer: Father, thank you for the promise that you will never leave me or forsake me! Give me courage to face every trial by remembering that earthly challenges are no match for my eternal security in your heart.