Devotionals

“Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. . . . the world was not worthy of them” (Hebrews 11:36, 38). Courage is one of the greatest manifestations of faith. Courageous faith is confident that God cannot and will not make a mistake. Courageous faith knows that God cannot be wrong. Courageous faith is confident that God can never be defeated. n Hebrews 11:30-40 we are told of several Biblical heroes who demonstrated great courage: . . . who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. (Hebrews 11:33-34) Sometimes courageous faith leads to dangerous situations. The people listed in this passage did not always conquer the enemy without any injuries: Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and […]

“[Moses] regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward” (Hebrews 11:26). God’s Word is filled with the stories of His saints suffering greatly for their faith. But far from discouraging believers today, these lives lived out in enduring faith emit a sweetness that draws us to the Lord Jesus each day. The author of Hebrews wrote: I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. . . . There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better […]

“But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness” (Hebrews 3:13). Goodness grows out of righteous integrity. The person who manifests God’s goodness thinks good thoughts, speaks good words, and performs good deeds. What the person thinks lines up with what he speaks, and what he speaks lines up with what he does. He is consistent in the integrity of his life. Through self-justification and excuse-making, Satan attacks our integrity and tempts us to disguise our sins so that we fool ourselves about what is truly good. Whether it is the woman who justifies leaving her husband because she is unhappy or the alcoholic who explains away his drinking as stress relief, these people are not experiencing goodness—they are living a lie. The problem is that our flesh prefers the lie—but this is the way to destruction. Writing to the Galatians in the middle of the […]

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Exodus 20:17). Are you content with how your life has turned out? Are you happy with the career path, spouse, or home you have chosen? Are you enjoying this stage of your life for the blessings you have, or do you compare yourself to others and succumb to envy and self-pity? Most everyone experiences discontentment on occasion—that wistful wishing that life was different. Unfortunately, discontentment often leads to sin as we begin to crave something that does not belong to us and become dominated by covetousness, greed, and envy. Covetousness says, “If only I were him or her and had his or her career, spouse, and lifestyle, then I would finally be happy. If only, if only, if only . . .” But these desires only lead to self-pity […]

“Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them” (Mark 4:15). In Middle Eastern farming, there is a pathway between two fields. It is the boundary. It is the place where hard-packed earth is found. It is the strip in the field where the soil is not prepared for receiving the seed. The parable of the sower in Matthew 13 tells us that Jesus is the sower and your heart is the soil. Satan seeks to ruin the soil on which the seed of the Word is planted. If he can, he will harden the soil of your life. Often, he does this by getting you to substitute human wisdom for God’s Word. Then he succeeds in snatching away the good seed of the Gospel before it can seep into the soil and bring life. To keep the […]

“They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for ‘people are slaves to whatever has mastered them'” (2 Peter 2:19). Satan will entice you to use your freedom to sin. But true freedom means we are free from sin—free to serve Christ and live holy lives. Read 2 Peter 2:17-22. One of Satan’s cleverest tactics is to entice us into slavery by giving it a new name: freedom. Schooled in the art of seduction, he will keep at it until he overpowers the voice of the Holy Spirit—if we let him. In verse 19, Peter warns us that false teachers will promote a false, unbiblical ‘freedom’ that actually gives us license to sin. They will twist the Truth, saying we are free to sin because God’s grace will cover it. If Christian freedom is not properly understood, it can be easy for us to fall into this trap. But here is the Truth: When the Bible speaks about […]

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:3). Power for Christian living does not lie in hard-to-attain experiences. It comes from realizing God has already given us everything we need. Read 2 Peter 1:3-4. Have you ever been frustrated trying to chase the next spiritual experience? Or felt that something was missing in your life with God? If so, you are not alone. Many of us have been there. Truthfully, our problem is not that we lack what we need—it is that we have not fully appropriated all that He has already given us. When we first receive Christ, we receive everything we need to live a godly life (2 Peter 1:3). We are filled with the Holy Spirit and become recipients of every covenantal promise of God—promises like: “[T]hose who hope in the Lord will renew their […]

“Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (Hebrews 12:3). In 538 BC, the Persian emperor Cyrus issued a decree that God’s people could return to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon. Of the hundreds of thousands of Jews who had been exiled, only 50,000 returned. The rest were still enjoying life in Babylon, caught up in the empty distractions of the pagan lifestyle. Nevertheless, the 50,000 returned to Jerusalem to rebuild their faith. Once the Jews returned to their homeland and began to rebuild the temple of God, they experienced massive resistance. After spending two years rebuilding the foundation of the temple, opposition from other tribes and nations led them to cease their efforts for another 16 years (see Ezra 4). The faithful remnant of Israel was doing the right work for the right reasons until discouragement brought their work to a halt. Read Haggai 1-2. God responded to […]

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). The Truth of Christ has not changed since before time began. God is constant and true; He does not change. Yet throughout history, humanity has tried to transform God into its own image. When people do not like something in God’s Word, they try to twist it to fit their own needs and agendas. When people try to understand God through their worldly views instead of through the Holy Spirit’s discernment, they are easily fooled by Satan’s lies. All around us we see the consequences of our deceitful hearts and judgment errors. We see the Gospel watered down for the sake of appeasing the culture. We see Christians allow the name of Christ to be trampled and ridiculed. We allow false teaching into our churches and homes. But how […]

“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be” (James 3:9-10). Despite all the things we are now able to control through modern science and technology, there is still one thing we have not yet mastered control over—and that’s the power of our tongue. James uses a few fitting metaphors to illustrate the power of the tongue: “Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, [ships] are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark” (James 3:4-5). Perhaps the most common forms of sin in the church today are the sins of the tongue. […]

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance” (James 1:2-3). The Christians at Thessalonica were experiencing tremendous hardship when Paul sent a second letter to them. They were undergoing trials that threatened to break their faith. But despite these pressures, their commitment to Christ remained strong. That’s why Paul could say, “We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more” (2 Thessalonians 1:3). These Christians were going through the most unbelievable, most intense persecution, and yet their incredible faith caused the apostle Paul to use a word that he never used anywhere else in all of his letters. It’s a Greek word that means “bound, compelled, obligated.” That’s how strongly the apostle felt about giving thanks to God for the Thessalonians. Paul was saying, in effect, “Your faith has […]

“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:17). Today’s me-centered culture has created a comfortable brand of Christianity that is becoming a hindrance for so many believers in the race of faith. This kind of faith is producing greenhouse Christians—believers who are daily nourished inside the walls of the church building, only to wilt under the heat of tests, trials, and persecution once they leave their protective environments. The New Testament epistle James says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance” (James 1:2-3). How is spiritual endurance cultivated? Through the testing of our faith! In order to truly flourish, we must face, rather than avoid, the spiritual challenges that come before us. Instead of allowing trials to turn us away from the Lord, trials can teach us to […]