Daily Devotional 3-5-2022
Rom 15:13 CSB Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. So Paul closes this section with a gracious benediction, praying that the God who gives good hope through grace will fill the saints with all joy and peace as they believe on Him. Perhaps he is thinking especially of Gentile believers here, but the prayer is suitable for all. And it is true that those who abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit have no time to quarrel over nonessentials. Our common hope is a powerful unifying force in the Christian life.
Daily Devotional 03-01-2022
1Pe 4:19 CSB So then, let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator while doing what is good. Believers could be sure that they were being called on to suffer according to God’s will if, having committed no crimes, they were suffering solely because they bore Christ’s name. Peter encouraged suffering saints to endure through the exercise of Christlike faith. Just as Christ trusted Himself to His Father who judges justly, so should believers themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
Daily Devotional 11-28-2021
Heb 3:15 As it is said: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. Now the writer concludes the personal application of Israel’s sad experience by repeating the words of Psa_95:7-8 : “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” This poignant appeal, once directed to Israel, is now directed to any who might be tempted to forsake the good news and return to the law.
Daily Devotional 11-25-2021
Heb 11:17-19 NIV By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, (18) even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” (19) Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death. he theme of testing emerges here as the writer returned to Abraham. The readers can learn from that supreme test in which the patriarch was called on to sacrifice his… son. Though this seemed to contradict the divine promise, Abraham was able to rise above the trial and trust in the resurrecting power of God. So also Christian readers must sometimes look beyond the experiences of life, in which Gods promises do not seem to be fulfilled, and…
Daily Devotional 10-29-2021
Php 1:6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. As the apostle thinks of the good start the believers have made in the Christian life, he is confident that God will finish the good work He has begun. Good work may refer to their salvation, or it may mean their active financial participation in the furtherance of the gospel. The day of Jesus Christ refers to the time of His coming again to take His people home to heaven and probably also includes the Judgment Seat of Christ, when service for Him will be reviewed and rewarded.
Daily Devotional 10-7-2021
Jas 4:2-3 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. (3) When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. The sad fact is that there are wars and fights among Christians. To suggest that this paragraph does not apply to believers is unrealistic, and it robs the passage of all its value for us. What causes all this fighting? It arises from the strong desires within us which are constantly struggling to be satisfied. There is the lust to accumulate material possessions. There is the drive for prestige. There is the craving for pleasure, for the gratification of bodily appetites. These powerful forces are at work within us. We are…
Daily Devotional 9-9-2021
Rom 15:14 My brothers and sisters, I myself am convinced about you that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another. Though he has never met the Roman Christians, he is confident that they will welcome his admonitions. This confidence is based on what he has heard of their goodness. In addition, he is assured of their knowledge of Christian doctrine, which qualifies them to admonish others.
Daily Devotional 8-14-2021
Jas 1:6-8 But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. (7) That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, (8) being double-minded and unstable in all his ways. However, God’s provision has some prerequisites. To receive God’s wisdom in trials, the believer must be wise in asking. First, he must ask in faith. He must believe and not doubt. He dare not come to God like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. God is not pleased with a double-minded man who is unstable in all he does, like an unsteady, staggering drunk. The answer from God depends on assurance in God.
Daily Devotional 8-11-2021
1Co 15:58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. The Corinthians were urged to stand firm in the apostles’ teaching, unmoved by the denials of false teachers. This certainty, especially concerning the Resurrection, provided an impetus to faithful service since labor in the resurrected Lord is not futile.
Daily Devotional 8-4-2021
2Ti 3:16-17 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, (17) so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Paul had just noted that the Scriptures are able to make one wise with regard to salvation, a lesson Timothy had learned long before. But now Paul wanted to reemphasize to Timothy the crucial role of God’s inscripturated revelation in his present ministry. Thus Paul reminded Timothy that all Scripture is God-breathed (“inspired”), that is, God’s words were given through men superintended by the Holy Spirit so that their writings are without error. This fact was virtually taken for granted by the Jews. Then Paul asserted the “usefulness” of the Word. For each aspect of Timothy’s ministry, whatever it might be – teaching (instructing believers in God’s truths), rebuking those in sin, correcting those…