Daily Devotion - February 21, 2025

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. (Psalm 32:8-9)

God’s precautions often come as practical advice that will keep us on the path of his blessing. And the principles of grace do not negate the importance of knowing how to avoid temptations.

Because we are human, we need practical instruction that helps us steer clear of dangers, avoiding moral pitfalls and heartache. Such guidance is not arbitrary legalism, but resistance to such guidance is just plain dumb. Ignoring the instruction of an infinitely holy, loving, and wise God is like being a stubborn mule that needs a bit to keep it on a productive path – the Bible said that, not I! 

Why does God give such tough talk? Because we have wandering hearts that may need some stern guidance. Since God’s love is not as fragile as our resolve to walk his path, he can be as practical and insistent as he needs to be: “Do not enter the path of the wicked … Avoid it.  Do not go on it. Turn away from it and pass on” (Prov. 4:14-15).

When we know that God’s love is behind such practical advice, our love for him grows and our willingness to follow his advice strengthens. We learn to trust the divine arms that guide us, and to return to those outstretched arms when our stubbornness has taken us down a wicked path.

Prayer: Father, help me today to follow the practical advice and wise counsel you have given in your Word. May your truth guide me from, and enable me to overcome, whatever temptations are in my path.

Daily Devotion - February 20, 2025

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. (Heb. 13:4)

My wife, Kathy, and I witnessed the honor of long-lasting marital joy during a Valentine’s Day social of a church filled with young couples. Despite the youth of the church, an older couple sang to entertain us. 

The couple sang their own version of “Do You Love Me?” from the musical Fiddler on the Roof. The characters in the original musical sing, “After twenty-five years, it’s nice to know you love me.” But this couple looked into one another’s eyes and sang, “After forty-eight years, it’s nice to know....” 

When they hit the last notes of the song, the room exploded in a standing ovation. The crowd of young couples cheered an enduring love that had so powerfully encouraged us all. 

Kathy and I looked around the room with tears in our eyes, knowing the hopes and struggles of so many of the young people who were cheering. Their cheers for the long marriage were a longing and a prayer for similar grace in their own lives.

The reaction of the Valentine crowd echoed the words of the writer of Hebrews, who said, “Let marriage be held in honor among all.” He also speaks of the beauty and purity of the marriage bed that blesses Christian marriage, reminding us that God’s grace always blesses by leading us in the paths that honor him and one another. 

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of marriage! May I honor your blessing by honoring my spouse, and by honoring your intention for others’ marital purity also. 

Daily Devotion - February 19, 2025

God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Eph. 2:4-6)

There is a chemistry of the heart that is activated when we grasp the magnitude of God’s love for us. It’s that love that causes us to desire him, and it’s that desire that makes us want to walk with him.

What sparks that “want to?” It’s not faith in what we do, but in what Christ has done on our behalf.

The great Puritan writer John Bunyan was accused of encouraging disobedience by talking too much about the assurance of God’s love. Accusers said, “If you keep assuring people of God’s love, they will do whatever they want.” 

Bunyan wisely replied, “No. If we keep assuring God’s people of God’s love, they’ll do what he wants.”

We love because God first loved us (1 Jn. 4:19), and such love is the chemistry of the Spirit that compels us to live for God (Jn. 14:15). We need not fear that grace will always lead to license. The grace that stirs in the hearts of God’s people will change their “want to” into what He wants!

Prayer: Father, your Word tells us that we love you because you first loved us. May your love stir in my heart so much that I want to walk with you and to live the kind of life that you want.

Daily Devotion - February 18, 2025

Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them. The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple. (Psalm 119:129-30)

If our reason for reading our Bibles is to keep God from being mad at us, then we’re reading to earn points that we can use to barter with God for his mercy. That’s not how he desires for us to use his Word.

God wants a relationship with us. He doesn’t want us to read a few verses every day just to get them checked off our “to-do” list – or to keep him off our backs. 

Attempts to convert Bible reading (or prayer, or church attendance, etc.) to obedience nickels that we can plug into a celestial vending machine dispensing heaven’s blessings, always fall apart when we remember that our best works are filthy rags to God. 

The only way we can have a loving relationship with him is not to view any spiritual discipline as a holy bribe, but as bread – God’s gracious provision to nourish and strengthen our faith in his heart.

So, the next time you’re reading your Bible, let the message of his love satisfy you, rather than trying to manipulate him!

Prayer: Father, help me to relish my daily bread of your care through your Word. Make our relationship sweeter, richer and stronger by the grace you reveal that nourishes my faith and binds my heart to yours.

Daily Devotion - February 17, 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 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.