Daily Team Devotions for August 2025
Friday, August 1
Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”
Luke 11:1
Bible Reading:
There is a general perception among Christians that prayer is a topic for the New Testament rather than the Old.
But prayer was not an unknown subject among the Jews as evidenced by the fact that John the Baptist had instructed his disciples how to pray.
That makes Jesus’ disciples’ request to Him a little unusual: “Lord, teach us to pray.”
Perhaps they had learned from Jesus that prayer could be a very personal discipline instead of just a religious practice.
Their request to Jesus suggests a newfound dimension to an ancient practice: prayer to a personal Father rather than only to the God of the nation (Matthew 6:9; Luke 11:2).
And perhaps the disciples had done what we often do—taking conversation with our Heavenly Father for granted rather than entering into it as life’s greatest privilege.
If prayer for you has become more of a formality than an adventure, consider using the prayer Jesus taught His disciples as a model for your own prayers (Matthew 6:9-13).
Prayer is the key of heaven; faith is the hand that turns it. Thomas Watson
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Rousing Send-Offs: The Great Commission
Saturday, August 2Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. Matthew 28:19-20
Bible Reading:
According to Nations Outreach, 31 percent of the world identifies as Christian, 23 percent as Muslim, and 16 percent as atheists, agnostics, or people who do not identify with any religion.
Forty-two percent of the world’s population has heard the Gospel.
But the most unreached nations are still largely in darkness: India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, China, Japan, Iran, and Turkey.
Turning Point and many other groups are working around the clock to spread the message of Jesus. Sometimes the work is dangerous, especially in restrictive nations.
Persecution is widespread. Yet God is moving, the Gospel is spreading, and we’re still taking the Great Commission of Christ seriously.
The One who sent off His disciples two thousand years ago is still sending you and me in our day. Let’s take our job seriously!
God forbid that I should travel with anybody a quarter of an hour without speaking of Christ to them. George Whitefield
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Sunday, August 3, 2025
Wisdom from the Psalms
August 3
Psalms 98:7
Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.Paul's nerves were shot. Everywhere he turned there were crowds of people. Cars sped by on all the streets, and the noise of the city was deafening. He was beginning to feel like there was nowhere to go to find peace and quiet. A little silence was all he was looking for. Nothing more.
If this world of noise and confusion, where can we find a place of peace and tranquillity? If Christ is the Lord of our hearts, then we can turn inward. Christ is the giver of peace. He transforms our hearts into refuges, where the clamor of the outside world cannot enter in. Call upon the Lord, and He will surely grant you peace.
Prayer: Father, I am tired of the furious pace of the world. Sometimes I just want to run and hide. Allow me to run to You. Be the source of my peace, Lord. Amen.
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A Penny for Your Prayers
Monday, August 4And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. Matthew 6:5
Bible Reading:
Visitors to the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago saw a machine that took a penny and pressed a design of the Lord’s Prayer into it.
The coin would no longer be round but oval-shaped. In the mid-1900s, self-service machines like this showed up at vacation spots and amusement parks.
Some machines would also press nickels, dimes, quarters, and half-dollars into Lord’s Prayer tokens.
These are collector’s items now, but we all know that a prayer on a smashed coin isn’t the same as a prayer from a sincere heart.
The Lord’s Prayer shows us that we are not to pray like the heathen.
While there are many ways to pray—using written prayers, singing hymns addressed to God, using memorized prayers—it’s important that we pray sincerely and thoughtfully.
The Lord wants to hear our heartfelt cries of praise and petition.
The Lord hears every single sigh and syllable of our heartfelt prayers, and He goes to work providing the answers we need.
Trust Him, and make sure your heart and mind are working together in approaching the throne of grace.
In prayer, it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart. John Bunyan
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Preparation for Prayer
Tuesday, August 5Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. Psalm 100:4
Bible Reading:
The final editors of the book of Psalms appear to have grouped Psalms 93–100 together because of their consistent theme: the greatness of God over all creation (Psalm 95:3). Psalm 100 serves as a summary of the section, instructing the reader to “enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.”
Why is praise the proper introduction to prayer? Because praise recognizes that God is greater than everything, including what is happening in our life.
When we come to God with our petitions and requests, if we have first spent time in praise of Him, we are prepared to receive from Him that which is His will.
Praise says, “You are sovereign, O Lord, and You are good. Therefore, I can trust You with the concerns of my life. However You answer my prayers, I know that Your answers will be best for me.” Praise is the perfect way to prepare for prayer—the perfect way to acknowledge that God’s will is our greatest desire.
Practice incorporating praise into your prayer life and anticipate the peace that will result as you make your requests known to God (Philippians 4:6-7).
The best atmosphere for prayer is praise.
Peter Anderson1 -
Abba, Father
Wednesday, August 6And [Jesus] said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You.” Mark 14:36
Bible Reading:
One of the most obvious differences between the Old Testament and New Testament is how God is referred to. In the Old Testament, God is called the Father of the nation of Israel or of certain individuals 15 times (although father imagery is sometimes used). But in the Gospels, God is referred to as Father some 165 times! And the apostle Paul refers to God as Father some 40 different times in his epistles.
It is thought by scholars that Jesus, and most of His contemporaries, spoke Aramaic, a dialect of Hebrew. The word they would have used for “father” was the Aramaic word abba, a personal and intimate word. When the New Testament was recorded in Greek, most occurrences of abba were translated with the Greek word pater—but abba is preserved in three instances: Mark 14:36, Romans 8:15-16, and Galatians 4:6. Each of these verses reflects a level of personal intimacy which abbaconveys. It has been suggested that abba is the equivalent of the modern word “daddy”—the way a child addresses his father.
When you address God as Father in prayer, reflect on the fact that you are His child, adopted into His forever family (Galatians 4:4-7).
A Christian is one who has God as his Father. J. I. Packer
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The Plural Prayer
Thursday, August 7Our Father…. Give us…. Forgive us…. Deliver us. Matthew 6:9-13
Bible Reading:
Two of the best-known passages in the Bible are the Twenty-Third Psalm and the Lord’s Prayer. They are similar in several ways, but there is one major difference between them.
Psalm 23 is personal and singular: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want” (verse 1).
The writer didn’t say, “The Lord is ourshepherd.” He was writing for himself.
The Lord’s Prayer, on the other hand, is plural throughout. Jesus didn’t tell us to pray, “My Father in heaven” but “Our Father in heaven.” We’re to pray, “Give us…. Forgive us…. Deliver us” (Matthew 6:9-13). We are praying for ourselves and for others.
God is our Heavenly Father; we must remember our brothers and sisters in Christ.
We are part of a family, and we need to make sure to take care of those relationships.
When you offer the Lord’s Prayer, think not only of yourself but also of others. You can make this a prayer that includes your children, your pastor, your fellow church members, and the family of Christ around the world. Here’s an idea to get started.
Offer the Lord’s prayer now, and emphasize with your voice all the plural pronouns.
It will be a blessing for you.
The Lord’s Prayer is a family prayer Unknown
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Hallowed Be Your Name
Friday, August 8Hallowed be Your name. Luke 11:2
Bible Reading:
When vandals painted graffiti on large stones at Gettysburg National Military Park last year, the park's preservation staff restored the sites in short order.
The park superintendent called them, “The heroes of this hallowed ground!”
The word hallow means “holy, sacred, honored, and revered.”
When we pray, “Hallowed be Your name,” we acknowledge the Lord’s sacred and holy presence.
And nothing is more hallowed than the presence of the God who hears our prayers.
One of the ways we can increase our appreciation for God’s hallowed name is by looking at the various names and titles given to Him in Scripture.
He is the Ancient of Days, the Everlasting Father, the Great King, and the Lord Yahweh.
He is the Maker of heaven and earth, our Rock of refuge, and our Hiding Place.
His various names and titles tell us we need Him in different ways at different times.
Make a conscious effort today to ponder some aspect of God’s person, purpose, or power.
Each of God’s names means something so significant that it gives you a glimpse of His magnificent character and the way He acts.
Dick Purnell
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Wisdom from the Psalms
August 9
Psalms 102:4
My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.Sarah couldn't eat. She couldn't sleep. She hadn't ever meant to hurt anyone, but now there was a little girl in the hospital because of an accident she was responsible for.
The guilt that raged within her made it impossible to get on with normal, everyday life. No matter how much she wrestled with herself, there was no peace. She had prayed to God for forgiveness, but even that felt empty.
Sarah could remember no time in her life when she had felt so horrible.
There will be times in our lives when we find ourselves unable to function normally because of our emotional upheaval.
When we are sensitive to what is right and good, we instinctively rebel at wrong and evil.
The Psalms are full of David's own struggles with times when he felt alone and wretched.
Those times were necessary for David to grow and mature. He learned to accept guilt and go on, knowing that God's love for him endured and that His forgiveness was without bounds.
God loves us just as much. He suffers when we suffer, and He stands with us, even in our darkest hours.
Prayer: Lord, be with me when I am so low that I don't even feel like eating or sleeping. Grant me peace and comfort in Your love, and if that is slow in coming, help me to learn all I can from my despair. Amen.
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Wisdom from the Psalms
August 10
Psalms 103:2
I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations.Everyone said it was such a tragedy. Doug was a funny, bright young man, and he had so much to look forward to. He wasn't even through college yet. The accident had been senseless, and so had his death. Why would God allow such a thing to happen?
We ask ourselves that question a lot. Why does God allow some things to happen? We always look at the question from our own, earthly, human perspective.
We forget that death is a part of life and that it is a necessary passage in existence.
To God, death is not a bad thing, but merely a part of the way things are.
Death isn't a cruelty or a punishment.
Our days on earth are a gift, and we should live them as fully as we can.
If we die, we are in the Lord's hands, and everything will work out just fine.
Faith is the key. We must learn to know that God has everything under control, and that He will turn all situations to good.
Even death is a wonderful thing in the hands of God.
Prayer: Lord, I do not understand the way things work sometimes, and I do not like to experience pain and suffering. Help me to see Your hand in all things. Grant me understanding. Amen.
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