Daily Bible Reading and Thoughts Shared
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Commentary with Scripture reading from Joshua chapter 1
Joshua chapter one also shows us how powerful meditation is. Joshua had a big challenge ahead of him. He had to conquer the Promised Land with its walled cities and giants. He was getting ready to face a formidable foe. Did God give Joshua a surefire military plan? No, He told him:
This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. (Joshua 1:8)
The power of meditation is that it gives you success in your life. Does that mean a BMW in every believer’s driveway? You and I know better than that. For us as Christians, success is fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives, whether or not that includes driving a nice car.
God told Joshua in my Tony Evans' paraphrase, “If you are going to accomplish the goal for which I am sending you into the Promised Land, you will need to meditate on My Word until it is part of your very being, until it guides every step you take and every decision you make.”
If meditation is that important, we’d better find out what it means to meditate on Scripture day and night. The word “meditate” makes me think of the activity of a cow in chewing its cud.
A cow will eat grass and swallow it. But later, the cow wants the taste of that grass in its mouth again, so it regurgitates the grass and chews on it some more. The cow keeps doing this until the cud is thoroughly chewed and ready to be swallowed for a final time and taken into the digestive system to nourish the cow.
That’s the picture of what God wants us to do with His Word. We may chew on it on Sunday and swallow it. But then on Monday, we bring the Word back to our minds and think about it some more, turning it over and over until we absorb more of it.
Or we read and swallow the Word on Tuesday, but then something happens on Thursday that causes us to bring the Word back up to meditate on it again. If we do that often enough, the Word will become so much a part of us that it infiltrates our entire being. Then we begin to act and react with a kingdom mindset as a way of life.
You say, “Tony, how will I know when to meditate?” You won’t have to worry about that. If you are consciously aware of trying to please God through your life, whenever God teaches you something from His Word, He’s going to give you a chance to bring it back up again and apply it, meditate on it, and gain insight from it.
The reason many Christians don’t experience this process is that they aren’t looking for it. They aren’t sensitive to the working of the Holy Spirit. They have forgotten most of what they once “ate” from the Word. Meditation is the second step in understanding and applying God's Word.1 -
Bible Reading
Matthew 28:19
Hebrews 5:1-10
Hebrews 5:11-12
Commentary
Here’s the third step to help make sure you have heard the Word in the biblical sense of grasping it and letting it do its work. Teach the Word to someone else. Yes, you!
If you are going to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, that means you are going to become a teacher of His Word. You say, “Wait a minute, Tony. I haven’t been called to preach. I haven’t been called to hold a teaching position in the church.”
That may be true, but God has called all of His people to be proclaimers of His Word. A disciple is first of all a learner, but a disciple is also one who teaches what he or she has learned to someone else. All of us are called to “make disciples” (Matthew 28:19).
This is hard, but I need to say it because the Word says it. If you are unable to teach someone else the basics of the Christian faith, it is because you are an immature believer.
That’s what the author of Hebrews says.
In Hebrews 5:1–10, the writer was going deep with his readers. He was teaching them about the Melchizedek priesthood of Jesus Christ. This is not the stuff you teach new Christians the first week after they are saved. This is part of the deep things of Christ.
So the writer was putting all this down, but then he stopped in verse 11. He had more good things to share about Melchizedek and how he illustrated Christ, but he realized his readers weren’t ready to receive them because they had a maturity problem:
Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. (vv. 11–12)
The problem was that these Jewish Christians had become “mule-headed,” the literal meaning of the phrase “dull of hearing.” These were everyday believers, ordinary Christians. But the writer says they had been saved long enough to be teaching others. Instead, they were still in spiritual kindergarten playing with the little ABC blocks.
If a new believer came to you and said, “I need help understanding the Bible,” could you help? If your child came to you with her Bible and said, “Daddy, Momma, what does this mean?” could you explain it, or at least know where to go to find an answer?
You need a growing, working knowledge of the Scripture so you can help someone else who comes along.
It’s like everything else you learn. If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. Every time you learn something from the Word, find somebody to share it with. Talk to a family member, friend or co-worker, but find a way to teach what you are learning to someone else.
When you apply these three steps to your study of God's Word, you will be amazed at how much faster you grow as a kingdom disciple.1 -
New Devotional Entitled: Jehovah Shalom
Bible Reading:
Judges 6:1-24
Commentary: Thoughts from Tony Evans
In Judges, the people of Israel had entered the Promised Land; however, as a result of their rebellion against God, they found themselves perpetually under the rule of other tribes.
In the midst of one of these periods of judgment, God called out a man named Gideon to deliver Israel from the rule of the Midianites (Judge 6:1-24). Gideon faced tremendous odds in leading a rebellious people against an overwhelming enemy—an enemy described as
“Like locusts for number; both they and their camels were innumerable” (Judges 6:5).
Like Gideon, we can rest assured that even in the face of incredible turmoil, God can still be known as Jehovah Shalom (the Lord is peace) when the ultimate source of turmoil and the true source of peace are understood.1 -
Bible Reading is included with the Commentary
I Israel’s ultimate source of turmoil was the sin of idolatry.
The Hebrew word shalom (peace) can be defined as a life put together, a life characterized by a sense of wholeness and well-being.
Certainly, this term could not be applied to the Israelites who were cowering in the caves of their land under the oppressive power of the Midianites (Judges 6:1-6). When the angel of the Lord came to Gideon to commission him to fight the Midianites, Gideon gave voice to Israel’s sense of turmoil and desperation:
“O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’” (Judges 6:13).
The answer to Gideon’s question, however, had already been given in Judges 6:8-10 through the mouth of an anonymous prophet sent to Israel:
“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘It was I who brought you up from Egypt and brought you out from the house of slavery…’ I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But you have not obeyed me.’”
In other words, Israel’s turmoil was self-inflicted. Instead of following the one true God into the victory that He had promised them and had already miraculously displayed in leading them from slavery in Egypt, they turned aside to worship other idols, the gods of the tribes and nations that they were supposed to conquer.
Idolatry is defined as the act of looking to anything other than God as our true source. Today, we are constantly assaulted with this same temptation to remove God as our true source and to give our hearts and our attention to other sources such as our jobs, our education, our relationships, and other things of this world. In so doing, we find, like Israel, that our lives are opened up to the chaotic, churning turmoil that comes from following other masters and other lords. The prophet Isaiah similarly noted that “the wicked”—those that reject God—are
“Like the tossing sea, for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up refuse and mud. ‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked’” (Isaiah 57:20-21).0 -
Commentary with Bible Reading included
Gideon and Israel had to learn that the true source of shalom or peace is the experience of the presence of God.
When God summoned Gideon to deliver Israel from the Midianites, Gideon stared into the reality of the chaos and turmoil of his people and confessed,
“O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house” (Judges 6:15).
God’s response to Gideon’s confession of inadequacy was not the promise of great personal power or wisdom to lead, nor did God assure Gideon that there would be unlimited military resources or a strategic plan against his enemy. Rather, God simply promised Gideon that regardless of the overwhelming odds that he was facing, He would be with Gideon:
“But the Lord said to him, ‘Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man’” (Judges 6:16).
Gideon and the people of Israel had to learn that God’s promise of His presence was sufficient to face whatever challenges, including the Midianites, they would encounter. Israel’s idolatry was fundamentally a lack of trust in God, and as they looked to other gods, masters, and lords to supply their needs and win their battles, they found themselves returning to the bondage and slavery from which they had been redeemed in Egypt. To find peace in the midst of their turmoil, Gideon and Israel needed to return to the promise that God would be with His people and learn, like the prophet Isaiah, that
“The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace because He trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for in God the Lord, we have an everlasting Rock” (Isaiah 26:3-4).
For Gideon, this reaffirmation of God’s presence with him and the trust that this promise evoked led him to build an altar as a memorial, a visible witness to all of Israel; the inscription of that altar read, “The Lord is Peace” (Judges 6:24)0 -
Commentary with Bible Reading
Today is a reminder to you that we, as believers, can always rely on Jesus’s promise in the Gospel of John that states,
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful” (John 14:27).
Because of Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross, we are reconciled to God and have ultimate peace with Him:
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).
This does not mean that we will not face troubles or tribulation but that we will know peace in the midst of turmoil because God is with us:
“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world,” (John 16:33).
As we learn, like Gideon, to smash our idols and find true shalom in the presence of our God, we will find that the peace of God that surpasses all comprehension will guard our hearts and minds through Jesus (Philippians 4:7).
In obedience, we will trust God even in the midst of our turmoil, and we will learn to call Him Jehovah Shalom.1 -
Bible Reading:
Matthew 6:33-34
Lamentations 3:22-23
Commentary:
Instead of worrying, Jesus said, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” In other words, if you will spend your time and energy getting on board with what God is doing in the world, He has your back in terms of the other stuff.
Jesus said: “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (v. 34).
God gives you grace one day at a time. He will not give you tomorrow’s grace today, and you don’t need it. Why? “His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23). So if you are worried about what’s going to happen tomorrow, you have missed the point. To worry about tomorrow is to lose your joy today.
You may say, “Tony, you don’t know what I have to face tomorrow.” No, I don’t, but I can tell you that when tomorrow comes, God’s grace will be sufficient for you. So should you stay up all night worrying about something? There’s no need, because your Daddy in heaven is staying up to look after it.
How does God’s promise of daily grace change your perspective on life?0 -
Bible Reading:
Matthew 6
Isaiah 40:31
Psalm 94:19
Commentary:
Jesus began His teaching on worry in Matthew 6 by saying, “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life” (v. 25). This takes us back to verse 24, where Jesus said you cannot serve two masters, God and money. If God is your Master, then He is also your Father, as Jesus went on to point out in the rest of the passage. And if God is your good and perfect Father, He will love you and care for you.
In other words, if you are being eaten up by excessive worry, your focus is not on your heavenly Father. You’ve got your eyes on the wrong authority.
Jesus drew an example from nature, that of the birds. He did not say the birds’ Creator feeds them, but “your heavenly Father.” The birds of the air eat because your Daddy feeds them.
So if God takes care of birds, what does this say about His care for us? And what are we implying about God’s care when we worry whether He will bother to feed and clothe us? When we worry, we show that we have forgotten who our Daddy is.
What difference does it make when you remember that God is your Daddy?1 -
Bible Reading
Proverbs 10:27
Psalm 147:11
Commentary:
Being in a covenant relationship with God means taking Him seriously.
Have you ever stopped to think of the power that is contained in your car? Without going into the minutia of physics, let me give a fairly simple example. Someone has found that if you crash your car while driving at 65 miles per hour, it is the same force as if you drove your car off a twelve-story building.
Now, if you were actually driving our car on top of a twelve-story building, you would be extremely careful. Yet because we are used to driving at 65 miles per hour, many of us don’t consider how dangerous it could be. If you take your attention off the road, it could be “game over.”
There are boundaries around the use of a high-powered vehicle. We take driving seriously.
Yet many have no clue how to do the same with God. They want the benefits of God without the boundaries that are created by a proper fear and awe. They treat God like the cop they see in the rearview mirror. He affects what you do when He’s in visible proximity—perhaps in church or a small-group setting. But get outside of cultural Christianity, and the foot presses hard on the accelerator once again.
What happens when we don’t take God seriously?1 -
Bible Reading:
Matthew 28:18-20
John 16:33
Commentary
The Missing Key:
Devotional Thoughts by Tony Evans
There is a missing key in our churches today—discipleship. Today begins your journey to become a full-fledged disciple of our King.
Kingdom disciples are in short supply these days.
The result has been a bevy of powerless Christians who attend powerless churches that embody a powerless presence in the world.
Until we return to lives of discipleship, we’ll continue to fail in our calling to live as heaven’s representatives on earth.
This is because the power, authority, abundance, victory, and impact promised in God’s Word to His people is ours only when we align ourselves under Him as His disciples.
Until then we can anticipate that chaos and crisis will continue to reign supreme in spite of all the Christian activities we engage in, the Christian books we read, the Christian songs we sing, and the small groups we join.
Discipleship is a very personal decision. It starts when a person commits himself or herself to God as His follower and allows the results of that commitment to overflow into everything else in life.
Surrender to Christ’s lordship and obedience to His rule of love unlock God’s power to bring heaven to bear on earth. A kingdom disciple lives out this divine power and influence.
I define kingdom disciple this way: A believer in Christ who takes part in the spiritual-developmental process of progressively learning to live all of life under the lordship of Jesus.
The goal of kingdom disciples is to live transformed lives that transfer the values of the kingdom of God to earth so that they replicate themselves in the lives of others.
The result of such replication is God’s exercising His rule and His authority from heaven to history through His kingdom disciples.
The word translated as authority in the English version of this verse essentially means “power, right, liberty, jurisdiction, and strength.”
When Jesus said all authority was His in heaven and on earth, He was saying that He possesses the legal right to use that power.
When you understand the importance of authority, you’ll grow as a kingdom disciple to the point that you can not only resist the devil but also call on heaven, as Jesus did, to bear in your earthly endeavors.
Jesus offers you complete authority in Him when you live as His disciple. Many powers are coming against you that are stronger than you could ever be on your own, but He has overcome the world
(see John 16:33).
Consider the comfort and peace that come from knowing you have access to the authority of the Creator of the universe.
Let that reality motivate you to grow as a disciple of the King.1 -
Bible Reading:
Matthew 6:33-34
Lamentations 3:22-23
Commentary by Tony Evans
Instead of worrying, Jesus said, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” In other words, if you will spend your time and energy getting on board with what God is doing in the world, He has your back in terms of the other stuff.
Jesus said: “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (v. 34).
God gives you grace one day at a time. He will not give you tomorrow’s grace today, and you don’t need it. Why? “His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23).
So if you are worried about what’s going to happen tomorrow, you have missed the point. To worry about tomorrow is to lose your joy today.
You may say, “Tony, you don’t know what I have to face tomorrow.” No, I don’t, but I can tell you that when tomorrow comes, God’s grace will be sufficient for you. So should you stay up all night worrying about something?
There’s no need, because your Daddy in heaven is staying up to look after it.
How does God’s promise of daily grace change your perspective on life?1 -
This new Devotional Is Entitled: Kingdom Disciples
Bible Reading
Matthew 28:18-20
John 16:33
Commentary: by Tony Evans
The Missing Key
There is a missing key in our churches today—discipleship. Today begins your journey to become a full-fledged disciple of our King. Kingdom disciples are in short supply these days. The result has been a bevy of powerless Christians who attend powerless churches that embody a powerless presence in the world.
Until we return to lives of discipleship, we’ll continue to fail in our calling to live as heaven’s representatives on earth. This is because the power, authority, abundance, victory, and impact promised in God’s Word to His people is ours only when we align ourselves under Him as His disciples.
Until then we can anticipate that chaos and crisis will continue to reign supreme in spite of all the Christian activities we engage in, the Christian books we read, the Christian songs we sing, and the small groups we join.
Discipleship is a very personal decision. It starts when a person commits himself or herself to God as His follower and allows the results of that commitment to overflow into everything else in life.
Surrender to Christ’s lordship and obedience to His rule of love unlock God’s power to bring heaven to bear on earth. A kingdom disciple lives out this divine power and influence.
I define kingdom disciple this way: A believer in Christ who takes part in the spiritual-developmental process of progressively learning to live all of life under the lordship of Jesus.
The goal of kingdom disciples is to live transformed lives that transfer the values of the kingdom of God to earth so that they replicate themselves in the lives of others.
The result of such replication is God’s exercising His rule and His authority from heaven to history through His kingdom disciples.
The word translated as authority in the English version of this verse essentially means “power, right, liberty, jurisdiction, and strength.”
“ When Jesus said all authority was His in heaven and on earth, He was saying that He possesses the legal right to use that power.
When you understand the importance of authority, you’ll grow as a kingdom disciple to the point that you can not only resist the devil but also call on heaven, as Jesus did, to bear in your earthly endeavors.
Jesus offers you complete authority in Him when you live as His disciple. Many powers are coming against you that are stronger than you could ever be on your own, but He has overcome the world (see John 16:33).
Consider the comfort and peace that come from knowing you have access to the authority of the Creator of the universe.
Let that reality motivate you to grow as a disciple of the King.1 -
Being in a covenant relationship with God means taking Him seriously.
Bible Reading:
Psalm 147:11
Proverbs 10:27
Commentary:
Have you ever stopped to think of the power that is contained in your car? Without going into the minutia of physics, let me give a fairly simple example. Someone has found that if you crash your car while driving at 65 miles per hour, it is the same force as if you drove your car off a twelve-story building.
Now, if you were actually driving our car on top of a twelve-story building, you would be extremely careful. Yet because we are used to driving at 65 miles per hour, many of us don’t consider how dangerous it could be. If you take your attention off the road, it could be “game over.”
There are boundaries around the use of a high-powered vehicle. We take driving seriously.
Yet many have no clue how to do the same with God. They want the benefits of God without the boundaries that are created by a proper fear and awe. They treat God like the cop they see in the rearview mirror. He affects what you do when He’s in visible proximity—perhaps in church or a small-group setting. But get outside of cultural Christianity, and the foot presses hard on the accelerator once again.
What happens when we don’t take God seriously?1 -
Bible Reading:
1 Peter 5:8
Romans 12:2
Commentary by Tony Evans
God looks at your future, while the enemy tries to keep you in your past.
God says, “You can, in spite of what has been done!” The enemy says, “You can’t, because of what you have done!” God will never define you by your past issues, but the enemy will try to confine you by them. Whether it is the good, bad, or ugly that dominates your life up until now, it is Satan’s goal to keep you chained there.
Never let your yesterday keep you from your tomorrow. Learn from yesterday, but don’t live in it. Your victory comes through learning and then applying what you’ve learned. Becoming who God wants you to be starts with your thoughts.
Always remember that Satan’s number one strategy is to plant unhealthy thoughts in your mind, repeating them over and over until you start to think they are your own thoughts. When Satan told Eve she would be like God if she ate of the fruit, whose thought was that? That thought came straight from Satan himself.
In fact, he’d had the same thought before, as we read in Isaiah 14:14: “I will make myself like the Most High.” It was Satan’s thought, but he planted it in Eve’s mind.
So, be mindful of the devil. Don’t let him have free reign in your mind.
Who are you going to listen to?1 -
Bible Reading:
Hebrews 3:1
Matthew 16:22-23
John 8:44
Commentary:
When you tell yourself, I can’t overcome this addiction, whose thought is that?
Or when you think, I have to have this drink, whose thought is that?
Or when you entertain such thoughts as, I am nothing. I have no value. I don’t have power over my emotions of lust or anger, who is doing the talking?
We know these thoughts come from Satan because they are all lies, and he is the father of lies (John 8:44).
Satan makes quick work of planting thoughts and directing them. But his thoughts do not have to have the last word. You have the power to control your own thoughts.
So, how should you respond to Satan’s suggestions?
The same way Jesus did when Peter tried to keep Him from going to the cross. Peter told Jesus, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.”
To which Jesus replied, “Get behind Me, Satan!” (Matthew 16:22-23).
Jesus knew that the words came from Peter, but the thoughts came from Satan. And when Satan gets into your mind, he gets into your actions.
The key to overcoming him is to take your thoughts captive.
How can a believer discern between thoughts planted by Satan and the believer’s own thoughts?1 -
Bible Reading:
2 Corinthians 10:5
John 8:32
Commentary:
One reason Satan’s strongholds are so powerful is that they become entrenched. This happens when Satan can get you to buy into the lie that your situation is hopeless. His goal is to get you to believe that by nature you are a drug addict or a manipulator or a negative person, that you are controlled by fear or shame, that nothing will ever change, and so on. Once you give in to and adopt this line of thinking, these fortresses become difficult to remove. Your behavior deteriorates even more since all of us act according to who we believe we are.
The only solution is to tear down these fortresses by “taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Reprogram your mind and release yourself from captivity. This is how you unleash your full potential and free yourself up to then help other men rise to do the same.
The solution is twofold but straightforward. First, identify Christ’s thoughts on a matter, and secondly, align your own thinking under the rule of His truth.
Then the truth will set you free (John 8:32).
In what areas of your life do you need to take your thoughts captive?1 -
Bible Reading
Hebrews 11
James 2:14-17
Genesis 6:9
Commentary
By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.” (Hebrews 11:7)
Many of us fail to live our lives as kingdom heroes simply because our faith has dried up. We go
through the motions only to discover that our Christian walk has gone flat. We lack that which transforms the heart of faith to the next level of heroic fruition.
James explains this:
What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself (James 2:14-17).
James lets us know how to reactivate faith—by combining what we do with what we believe. The work of obedience ignites the reality of faith so we see the invisible spiritual power enter into the visible reality around us.
Noah arguably gives us the greatest illustration of faith at work in humanity. His story highlights a man of incredible conviction. He didn’t strive for popular acceptance. He knew God and chose to follow Him closely: “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.” Genesis 6:9
Noah lived to please God. He walked with God, similar to the many others who also wound up in the Hall of Heroes. On top of that, Noah was a blameless man. He had integrity with both people and God. As a result, he found favor with God. And God’s favor can do more than bring blessing; it can bring peace.
Today, we’re facing an epidemic of indecisiveness in our culture. So many people are simply afraid to make a decision. And the concept of groupthink has become a chokehold. As a result, more often than ever, we as believers fail to move forward based on what God has directed us to do.
Just think about what would have happened if Noah had waited for consensus on building the ark. But thankfully, Noah’s faith had been activated. He had a living faith that showed up in what he did, not just in what he said. As a result, his legacy is on display in the Hall of Heroes. His impact has gone down in history as one of the bravest, most courageous to have ever been lived out.0 -
Bible Reading:
Hebrews Chapter 11
Key Verse: Hebrews 11:8-9
1 Peter 2;11-12
Commentary:
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” (Hebrews 11:8)
Your life of faith as a kingdom hero will also
involve how you choose to live.
We read in Hebrews 11:9 that “by faith [Abraham] lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise.” Abraham made it to the area promised to him, but it was not yet his.
Perhaps no discipline in the kingdom hero’s toolbox of faith is greater than the discipline of waiting well. While you’re waiting, God is doing two things related to your life at once. First, He’s preparing the promise for you, and second, He’s preparing you for the promise. Most people delay the promise they’re waiting for because they choose not to cooperate with the learning of the lessons and the spiritual growth God has for them in the interim.
That’s what happened to Abraham. He ended up in the Hall of Heroes, but not every decision he made was heroic. He delayed his breakthrough to his first promise by some 25 years. Abraham wasn’t ready.
He was still lying, cheating, and even sleeping with his wife’s handmaiden, resulting in a baby born outside God’s will. Before he got his inheritance, Abraham first needed to come to his senses, grow in his faith, and trust God fully—even when it didn’t look like anything was happening.
God never wants to give someone a destiny that will cause them to forget Him when they get it.
When God delivers on those promises, we often praise Him and then just as quickly forget He did.
We forget because we lack the kind of commitment that’s tied to more than what we see and what we get.
Like Abraham, we are also to live as foreigners in a strange land. 1 Peter 2:11-12 puts it like this:
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.
God doesn’t want any of us to get too attached to the world we live in now. We aren’t to adopt the culture so much that our behavior begins to reflect the common behaviors of the culture.
Not only that, but remaining mobile frees us to pursue His plan more fully. If you’re going to walk by faith, you better have on loafers or comfortable shoes, because God can take you on some long and winding paths. Staying tied too closely to your comfort zone will limit what God is able to do both in and through you.0 -
Bible Reading:
Hebrews 11
Key Verse: verse 23
Exodus 2:6
Exodus 2:5-10
Commentary:
By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.” (Hebrews 11:23)
Not afraid. Those two words sum up how Moses grew to express such greatness. The parents who gave him life were “not afraid.” They lived with faith over fear. The DNA passed down to their son through this genetic transfer was that of belief.
But even more than that, Moses’ parents’ lack of fear in the face of an evil culture and evil king spared his life. They chose to hide him so he would not be killed, as the king of Egypt had mandated for all male Hebrew newborns. Then, when Moses had grown too old to hide, they came up with an elaborate scheme to position him in a safe and secure place.
The strategy involved placing Moses in a basket in the Nile River near the place where Pharaoh’s daughter bathed, accompanied by her maids. Knowing he was a beautiful baby, they assumed the best of her feminine instincts. And they were right. With one look at this crying infant, she “had pity on him and said, ‘This is one of the Hebrews’ children’ ” (Exodus 2:6).
Moses’ parents knew Pharaoh’s daughter would not be in a position to raise a child on her own.
Those types of roles were for servants in that cultural time period. So they’d also placed Moses’ sister, Miriam, where she could keep an eye on the basket and present herself when it was retrieved.
The plan went according to their hopes, and when Miriam offered to find someone to help nurse the boy and care for him in the palace, Pharaoh’s daughter agreed. Miriam was more than willing to offer her mother to do just that.
As we near the end of the murals on the hallway walls, we see the baby being drawn from the basket, we hear the water dropping off the basket as it’s lifted from the river, and from a loudspeaker, we hear the Bible passage that describes the rest of the scene:
Pharaoh’s daughter said to [Moses’ mother], “Take this child away and nurse him for me and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son.
And she named him Moses, and said, “Because I drew him out of the water” (Exodus 2:5-10).
Not only was Moses’ life spared from certain death in the violent culture he’d been born into, but his mother was paid to nurse him and raise him in the palace. This truth reminds us that we will never discover what God can do until we trust Him to do it. He can do things that blow our
minds.
Moses’ parents had decided they would not be controlled by the culture, so their decisions reflected alignment under the one, true God.
Living by faith means choosing God’s plan over the culture’s plan, then watching Him work it out for your good and others’ benefit.
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Bible Reading:
Hebrews chapter 11
Key Verse: verse 11
Genesis 17:15-16
Commentary:
“And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.” (Hebrews 11:11)
Our next exhibit in the Hall of Heroes illustrates this truth in a dramatic fashion. This hero’s name is Sarah. She started life as Sarai, and she married Abraham, who, again, began life as Abram.
God promised both Sarah and Abraham a son. God did this the same time he changed Sarah’s name:
As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and indeed I will give you a son by her (Genesis 17:15-16).
Not only was Sarah 90, but she’d been barren her entire life. She’d never conceived or given birth to a child. Her physical capacity to do so was absent, and time was no longer on her side. So this promise from God simply didn’t fit the facts of her life. It wasn’t practical.
It’s possible that Sarah’s story resembles your own but in a different way. You could be barren in other forms. Your capacity to experience what God has for you just doesn’t seem to be there. You’re not producing what you thought you would be at this stage in your life. You’re not delivering on the destiny you believed to be yours. You’ve heard Jesus’ promise in John 10:10, when He declared, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” But you don’t see the results of that promise in your everyday life.
If that describes your current state of mind, know that Sarah was right where you are. Five times God had told her she was going to have a son. Not only that, but He’d gone on to tell Abraham and her that, through this son, a whole nation would be birthed. Sarah had a vision for a great future. Yet the clock kept taunting her, tempting her to give up and doubt God. If we were to look closely, we’d see that many of our lives look like this—like our ability to be what God wants us to be, to do what God wants us to do, and to achieve what God wants us to achieve no longer exists.
Whatever the case, if you feel like too much time has passed to get to experience the fulfillment of Christ’s promise of an abundant and fulfilling life, I
encourage you to never let the facts get in the
way of your faith.
Don’t deny the facts—facts are facts—but just know that faith is never limited to facts alone.
Facts always involve what you see. Faith involves what you don’t see.0 -
Bible Reading: Psalm 37
Key Verses: Psalm 37:4-5
Commentary:
Praying the Heart’s Desires
“It is a safe thing to trust him to fulfill the desire that he creates,” Amy Carmichael once said of God’s willingness to respond to human longings. And because he stirred compassion in her heart, she spent 55 years of her life in India, most of those years rescuing children from temple prostitution and slavery. Her work infuriated temple authorities.
She endured accusations and legal prosecution, and she had to overcome the resistance of other missionaries who thought she was wasting her time or becoming too focused on what they saw as a relatively minor issue.
But Carmichael knew what happened behind temple doors—she had stained her skin with teabags, covered herself in a sari, and entered in at times.
Amy had a passion for the children who had been dedicated to temple priests by their parents or had otherwise been drawn into captivity.
By faith, she simply went where she was led, ministered where her heart was drawn, and fulfilled the vision and desires God had given her.
The ministry she began in the early 1900s continues today.
Carmichael wasn’t driven by an overarching vision—at least not at first.
She had sensed a call to missions in general and worked in several ministry fields, but she followed God’s leading step-by-step into the type of ministry for which she eventually became known.
She responded to needs, and those responses built certain interests and desires in her heart.
She pursued the passions she had been given by faith in order to help a segment of the population that had few, if any, advocates.
Amy understood the workings of God in her heart and wrote about them prolifically. She dedicated her life to the moment-by-moment calling God had given her.
Sometimes God fills our hearts with faith for a big vision or a specific calling, and sometimes he unfolds the vision only a day or a season at a time.
He knows when we need the whole blueprint and when it’s better to have it in stages; usually our faith involves elements of both.
No matter how big and coherent your vision seems, the response of faith is always for today. Faith embraces God-given desires and takes the next step toward them.0 -
Bible Reading
Psalm 37
Proverbs 19:22
Commentary:
Saying “yes” in the face of God’s “no” is a breaking process, and it is very painful. But it is also the place where God begins a new thing. Rarely do we understand it at the time. The Lord does not ask that we be okay with being broken. He only asks that we submit to the breaking and trust Him with it.
The apex of obedience to God is to faithfully say, “Lord, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done,” to release what is behind and press on to what lies ahead, to surrender, to let God close the door, regardless of how much it hurts.
Let Abraham testify. He was commanded to surrender his will and lay his son, Isaac, on the altar of sacrifice. Isaac was Abraham’s miracle baby, born when his father was one hundred years old.
And yet God called Abraham to lay his miracle on the altar at Mount Moriah. Facing the biggest loss in his life also led to Abraham’s biggest miracle, becoming not just Isaac’s father but the father of many nations.
How is obedience related to the discovery of God’s will for your life?0 -
Bible Reading
John 16:23-24
Commentary:
A Model for Asking
James O. Fraser, missionary to the Lisu of China in the early twentieth century, developed much of his prayer life from a fascinating contemporary illustration.
At the time, the Canadian government offered incentives for British citizens to emigrate to Canada and claim territory in the West.
Plenty of territory was waiting to be cultivated; all that was needed were people who would boldly come, accept the conditions of the government, claim as much land as they could reasonably cultivate, commit to care for the land, and then be faithful to work it.
It was an open invitation to spread out and steward resources for the benefit of the realm.
That’s a lot like prayer. We have an open invitation from God to ask and receive—to claim territory for his Kingdom.
But sometimes there are conditions, especially when we are praying for fruitful Kingdom lives.
We ask specifically, we commit to steward the gift faithfully, we enter into what we’ve been promised, and then we cultivate what we’ve been given.
We receive it as a gift of grace, but we also participate in the process and continue to partner with God in managing it, just as in the original commission to humanity (Genesis 1:26-28).
This is how God has chosen to expand his Kingdom—entrusting it to the hands of those who represent him well.
That’s what we really want, isn’t it? We search for purpose and meaning, and we want our work to last. Some people may end up passing their days frivolously, but nearly every human being has longed for lasting fruit, for a life that matters in the long run, for truth and love to operate effectively in us.
Jesus promises that to his followers, and he urges us to pray toward that end.
So pray with definition and commitment.
Understand the terms of God’s promises—that his gifts are free, but once given, they must be handled with care.
Develop a vision for the territory of your calling, and ask God for it.
Then, take definite steps, by faith, to enter in.1 -
Bible Reading:
Joshua 3:9-17
Commentary:
The Feet of Faith
Welsh missionary Rees Howells once left for his mission field without the funds to even catch the next train. He and his wife were headed to Africa in 1915. They had been given money to get them to London, where they would receive more money for the journey. But they had also been directed by
God, as a general policy, to spend available funds on immediate expenses and trust him for later ones—“first need, first claim.”
When an expense came up before his train trip to London, Howells followed his normal procedure.
He emptied his pockets on the prior claim. He and his wife had only enough to get to the next station and wait.
So that’s what they did. They traveled the first leg of the journey and then waited. Howells even stood in line at the ticket counter because, as he put it,
God’s promises were as good as money in his pocket.
As the line moved forward, Howells wondered what he would say at that potentially awkward moment when he arrived at the counter without any money.
But as that moment neared, a man in line got tired of waiting, inexplicably handed his fare to Howells, and walked away.
God had provided as Howells stood expectantly in line, trusting in a promise.
That’s a great picture of how God’s provision works—in response to faith and not a moment too soon. He also works in partnership with those who believe.
Some step of faith, some indication that we are expecting an answer, some movement in the direction of our vision—like that first step of the priests into the Jordan before its waters parted—is enough to send the Father rushing toward us in response.
Faith begins in the heart, but it does not remain there. Immobile faith is often a sign of no faith at all.
Not every story ends exactly the way Howells’ example did—
God has a variety of responses to our trust—but many do.
One way or another, trust is always rewarded.
Faith that banks on God’s Word will always find him faithful.1 -
Bible Reading
Romans 11:34
1 Corinthians 2:11
Luke 5:1-3
Commentary:
DAY 1 - THINK DIFFERENT
Comebacks are God’s specialty. He loves turning around impossible circumstances. Joseph was taken from prison to the palace, and Christ was taken from the grave to resurrected glory. Our God relishes the chance to make the impossible possible.
Consider the story of Jesus teaching at the beach. He climbed into a boat belonging to Peter, pushed it out from the land and began to teach the people (Luke 5:1-3).
But afterward, Jesus said to Peter, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch” (verse 4).
What follows demonstrates how unconventional our Lord can be! The fisherman had caught nothing all day, and while Jesus was a good teacher, what did he really know about fishing? But they did as he instructed and were surprised to find the catch of a lifetime in their nets.
So many of us want to experience the same thrill; we want Jesus to fill our own empty nets with a mighty bounty. In order to receive Christ’s blessing, we too will have to embrace the unusual. God does things different because He wants to show us who He is, who we are in Him, what our purpose is and most importantly, how to follow Him.
If we’re willing to do things differently and follow Him no matter what, we can experience a real comeback in our lives.
But we also must remember, God blesses us so we can serve Him more, not less. He doesn’t desire to bless you so you will have less time to pray. He wants to bless you so you will have more time for Him and know the power of prayer.
He wants you to realize that when you obey His Word and your comeback occurs, you need to spend all the more time in Scripture. God blesses us with comebacks in our lives so we can follow Him more.0 -
Bible Reading
2 Chronicles 20:15
Exodus 14:14
Psalms 27:1
Commentary
DAY 2 – EMBRACE THE UNUSUAL
God is always with us, but sometimes we don’t sense His presence in our lives because we’re so busy with our own decisions, solutions and plans. That’s why it often takes a crisis to get us face-to-face with God. In order to experience the living God, we often need an experience that calls for that living God to show up.
Here’s how you know when you are really in a crisis—you reach a point of powerlessness that is reflected in your words. How many times have you said, “I can’t do this, Lord. It’s hopeless?” You are in a crisis when you feel helpless, hopeless and powerless. You do not have the wherewithal to change things, reverse them or correct them at all.
But, my friend, that is when God does some of His best work! Did you know that God often brings us to a place of helplessness because He wants us to let go and let God? He wants to be our hero who comes in and saves the day. All we have to do is let Him do what He does so well.
Yet, that scenario is difficult for many of us. That’s why many people don’t get to witness the impossible comebacks God has to offer. His plan seems too easy or too unusual to trust, so we hold on to the issue with our own hands. We try to figure a way to solve it ourselves.
Heaven rules in spite of the situation you face. The problem is not yours. The battle is the Lord’s.
So, let me offer you some hope today: whatever crisis you are facing, God is waiting in the wings to deliver you from that crisis. His solution probably won’t look anything like yours, but He will bring you the comeback you’ve been waiting for.1 -
Bible Reading
Romans chapter 8
Key Verse Romans 8: 28
Commentary
Have you ever gone to your refrigerator in search for a stick of butter to eat? You felt the hunger knowing at the inside of your stomach and so you thought, “If I could only get a bite of butter I would be fine.”
Probably not. This is because butter by itself
doesn’t taste very good. Neither does flour. Salt.
Baking soda. Or most cooking ingredients, actually.
Yet when a master gathers them all together and blends them, she mixes them toward an intended purpose. After that, she puts them in the heat of the oven and the scent of a freshly baked cake lures one and all into the kitchen.
An often quoted Scripture is Romans 8:28 where we read, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
However, the part of the passage that is most often quoted is simply, “All things work together for good.” The problem is that all things do not work together for good. To only quote half the verse is to miss the whole meaning. The things that work together for good are those things in connection with those people who love God and are called according to His purpose. God has a purpose for you and the first step in discovering it is surrender to that truth.
Only when you are living your life according to His purpose – rather than your own, will He cause all the things in your life to blend together for your good and His glory. Otherwise, the “all” things may still happen to you, they just won’t be intentionally connected and caused to work toward His good for you.
Today, if you feel like you have a butter kind of life, or that you have a flour kind of life, or even a salt kind of life – the first step toward turning that into something savory is surrendering to God’s will and seeking His purpose for you. When you are committed to Him, above all else, He will mix all of the things in your life – the good, bad and the bitter – and turn them into something divine.
Prayer:
Lord, open my eyes to see Your purpose in my life. Help me to surrender anything to You that I have not done so yet and reveal to me the goodness that comes when You merge my life experiences together in order to bring me to my destiny.
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Bible Reading:
Psalms chapter 138
Key Verse Focus: Verse 8
Being prepared for your calling is like going to a pizzeria. I’m talking about a real pizza place where they make the pies on the spot. It all starts with a ball of dough. They roll the dough, pressing and mashing it. Then they start pounding on it.
After banging it around for a while, they start throwing it up in the air and twirling it.
That dough goes through a whole lot so that you and I can have the pleasure of eating it.
But when you go to a pizzeria, you don’t ask for dough. You want the good stuff. You want the sauce, the cheese, and maybe some meat or veggies on top.
Everyone wants the good stuff, but you can’t get the good stuff until the dough has been prepared.
In the same way, one has to be prepared for their calling. Sometimes, our preparation starts with some pressing and some mashing.
Sometimes it means being tossed around or banged up for a little while. But this is only in preparation for the good stuff.
Throughout life’s bumps and bruises, God is preparing you for the perfect destiny He has created you to live out.
Yet how well you respond to those bumps and bruises may have an impact on how quickly you reach your destiny.
It’s easy to give up, throw in the towel and walk away when life’s challenges seem pointless or too painful.
But if you will keep your eyes focused on the purpose, not the pain, God will use it for your good and His glory.
He works all things together for good when you love Him and live according to your calling.
There is no such thing as wasted pain or experiences when you are a child of the King.
Keep your eyes focused on the destination – the end result – and you will find the strength for the journey that takes you there.
You have a glorious destiny to discover and live out.
Prayer:
Father in heaven, remind me in those moments, hours, days, weeks, months or even years of preparation that You have a good plan and purpose for my life. Give me the grace to trust You in it all so that I do not waste time in learning and re-learning the same lessons I need to know in order to fully carry out my destiny.0 -
Bible Reading
Acts 24:24-/7
Genesis 15:12-16
Commentary
Moses was on a detour for forty years as God developed him for his destiny. He knew what God wanted him to do. God wanted him to deliver his people from slavery. Yet it took forty years in the wilderness to develop Moses into the humble and trusting servant that he needed to be in order to have the mindset, faith and abilities to carry out the plan.
Abraham was on a twenty-five-year detour. At one point God had told him His plan for him – that He would bless nations through Abraham and make his name great. The vision and the proclamation from God to Abraham were real and vivid. It would have been odd for Abraham to believe at that point that it would be nearly three decades before he would witness the literal birth of it. But it was.
The greatest apostle in the New Testament, Paul, went on a three-year detour to a desert where God removed him from the front page of culture and life in order to strengthen him, teach him, and develop him for his calling.
Detours are often a regular part of God’s plan in guiding us to our destinies. He uses these periods in our lives to develop us so that we can affectively carry out our destinies when we reach them.
God will often give us a glimpse of our destiny long before we are prepared to actualize it, as He did when He told Abraham that there would be a 400-year detour in Egypt before they would reach their promised destination (Genesis 15:12-16).
Friend, don't become so discouraged in the delays that you give up on the pursuit of your purpose. Trust the process. God is developing you for the plan He has created you to live out.1 -
Bible Reading
Romans 5:3-5
Commentary
Personal development is not an event. Neither is it a one-size-fits-all experience. Development takes time, tests, failure and overcoming. God knows each one of us individually. He knows what we each need in order to develop and strengthen our spiritual muscles and sharpen our spiritual insight and wisdom. More often than not, this requires detours in life to allow us the opportunity to learn, grow and develop.
God has a destiny for you. He has a purpose and a place He wants you to live out. But it may not happen tomorrow. You probably won’t get there by going in a straight line. Patience is a preeminent virtue needed in order to reach your destiny.
But even though life and the process of development may come with personal disappointments as you wished you were further along, remember that hope does not disappoint.
Detours disappoint, momentarily. But when we allow them to produce hope – God promises that hope will not disappoint.
But in order to arrive at an authentic hope in your spirit – accepting your detours is necessary.
Just like your muscles will not grow simply by wishing them to grow stronger. The pain through the process of strengthening your hope comes in detours, tribulations, afflictions and trials.
Show me someone with an indomitable hope and I will show you someone who has had his or her share of detours. This is because authentic hope is a learned trait.
Authentic hope is that level of hope which stays steady despite the storm and circumstances. It is the hope that enables you to keep going on faith alone.
A large part of your personal development focuses on growing your ability to hope (like Abraham) against all hope. To believe when nothing looks like it is happening.
And to continue to walk in faith, despite the delays.
As you develop personally, these things will come more naturally for you and you will witness God usher you into the fulfillment of your destiny. Use this guided prayer as a catalyst for your own prayer or feel free to pray it in its entirety.
Prayer:
Loving Heavenly Father, thank You for your gift of detours. Thank You for loving me enough to want me to grow, develop and mature. Thank You for not giving me my destiny or dream too soon,
before I am able to handle it – because then,
Lord, I may waste it, lose it or even ruin it. God – You know what is best. And You are a gracious Lord to patiently develop me to reach that place of ultimate purpose and destiny. I am thanking You in advance for all You have in mind – in Christ’s name, Amen.0
