Daily Team Bible Reading and Commentary Thoughts for August 2025
Welcome Back Team
We will continue on with our Bible Reading and Commentary Thoughts in Various Themes.
Hope you will join me with Reading and commentating with your Thoughts from your Daily Reading of the Scriptures!
August 1, 2025 Theme: Finding The Right Motivation!
Bible Reading
2 Corinthians 9:14-15
2 Corinthians 9:8
Commentary Thoughts
Grace
In 2 Corinthians 9:8 we discover the root of the biblical motivation for kingdom stewardship.
The root rests in God’s grace.
We read, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.”
Read that verse again. It’s one of my favorites because that verse contains all you need to know to fully live out God’s calling on your life and to experience His goodness.
Friend, God does not want you to be manipulated into serving Him or to be motivated by selfish gain. God wants you to be a wise steward of all He has given to you because of a heartfelt response to His grace.
Grace can be defined as God’s inexhaustible supply of goodness that He does for you.
It involves those things you cannot do for yourself.
Grace comes to you as unmerited favor.
It’s something you can never earn, would never be able to repay, and can never run out of.
Living your life as a true kingdom steward means living your life as the hands and feet of Jesus.
This is one of God’s means for accessing and experiencing more of His grace.
You will unleash your fullest potential when you apply this principle to all that you do with your time, talents and treasures in His name.
Replies
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August 2, 2025
Bible Reading
2 Corinthians 9:10
Commentary Thoughts
Seed
If you really want to understand how grace operates in relation to stewarding your life’s resources, you must think agriculturally. You must think like a farmer.
Second Corinthians 9:10 sets this up for us, “Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.”
Within this verse lies the quintessential understanding of how to access grace. Grace is built into the seed itself.
When the farmer plants a seed of corn, a stalk forms and grows to bear ears of corn itself later on. All of this came from the seed.
In the new corn that has grown are new seeds for more corn.
In this way, using the seed enables the farmer to gain access to even more seeds.
The way this translates into our understanding of accessing God’s grace is that God has placed within grace the seed of grace itself. It’s built in.
Since grace is built into the seed, the way you gain access to greater grace is through the sowing of a seed of grace.
When you plant a pear seed, you get a pear tree. When you plant an apple seed, you get an apple tree. You will never plant a watermelon seed and grow squash.
This is true simply because God established replication to occur after each seed’s own kind.
Whatever it is that you plant is what you will get
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August 2, 2025
Bible Reading
2 Corinthians 9:10
Commentary Thoughts
Seed
If you really want to understand how grace operates in relation to stewarding your life’s resources, you must think agriculturally. You must think like a farmer.
Second Corinthians 9:10 sets this up for us, “Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.”
Within this verse lies the quintessential understanding of how to access grace. Grace is built into the seed itself.
When the farmer plants a seed of corn, a stalk forms and grows to bear ears of corn itself later on. All of this came from the seed.
In the new corn that has grown are new seeds for more corn.
In this way, using the seed enables the farmer to gain access to even more seeds.
The way this translates into our understanding of accessing God’s grace is that God has placed within grace the seed of grace itself. It’s built in.
Since grace is built into the seed, the way you gain access to greater grace is through the sowing of a seed of grace.
When you plant a pear seed, you get a pear tree. When you plant an apple seed, you get an apple tree. You will never plant a watermelon seed and grow squash.
This is true simply because God established replication to occur after each seed’s own kind.
Whatever it is that you plant is what you will get
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Sunday August 3, 2025
Bible Reading
Luke 6:38
Commentary Thoughts
Giving
What serves as a principle for creation is broadened into a principle for life in Luke 6:38. Jesus said, “Give, and it will be given to you.” By this principle, the thing you give is also the thing you will receive. This is critical to understanding how to fully live as a kingdom steward. If you have a need, make sure you sow a seed in the life of someone else in the same area as your own personal need. Don’t just ask God to meet your need without making sure you plant the seed.
Based on this principle, you can get very specific with God. If you are facing a financial need, look around you and see how you can help someone else financially, even if it’s with a minimal amount. Do you have an emotional need for comfort? Then see how you can comfort someone else. In this passage we discover a powerful tool for accessing the graces of God on a greater, more tangible level. This is when your need is actually in the seed.
The problem today is people want God to manufacture a miracle when they’re unwilling to give what they have to anyone else around them, which usually means they’re not exercising any faith at all, or their motivation has no connection to the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom. But when God sees faith through our actions and not just our words, He responds.
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Monday August 4, 2025
Bible Reading
Romans 12:12
Psalm 37:7
Commentary Thoughts
Isaiah 40:31 tells us that “those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength.”
Waiting is a common theme throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.
Sarah had to wait for a baby.
Noah waited for the flood.
Joseph spent years waiting in prison.
Jesus waited thirty years for His ministry to begin.
Martha and Mary waited for resurrection.
And the disciples had to wait for the Holy Spirit.
Even as I write these words, you and I eagerly await the return of Christ.
Waiting can be difficult. I sometimes say, “make me work but please do not make me wait.”
But waiting, as described in the Bible, is a different process than what we think.
The Hebrew word for “wait” is quavah,which means to plait, like the intertwining of hair or a rope.
Waiting on the Lord is not a passive thing. It means to intertwine our lives with Him.
Every circumstance, every decision, every facet of our life becomes wrapped so tightly together with the Lord that we are one.
You have to press in tight, walking so close to God that every breath is prayer and praise, sunrise to sunset, all through the night, weaving Jesus into every piece and portion of your life.
That is the kind of waiting that brings new strength.
Why is waiting so hard for us? How is waiting related to trust?
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Tuesday August 5, 2025
Bible Reading
Isaiah 40:31
Psalm 25:5
Commentary Thoughts
Here’s what Isaiah 40:31 says about the ones who “wait upon the Lord”:
1. “THEY WILL MOUNT UP WITH WINGS LIKE EAGLES.” When a mama eagle kicks her baby out of the nest, she’s trying to teach it to fly. This rarely works the first time. The eaglet flails and flaps and falls until the mama eagle swoops down to catch her baby and bring it back to the nest. One way God gives us new strength is by diving down into our situation and lifting us out of it.
2. “THEY WILL RUN AND NOT GET TIRED.” Sometimes God doesn’t swoop from the sky to lift us out of trouble. Instead, He gives us a second wind to run through it. God says that if we focus on Him, even though we’re running, He will give us a second wind so we can go through this pain and beyond the problem we face.
3. “THEY WILL WALK AND NOT BECOME WEARY.” If you can no longer run, start walking. Limp if you have to. Crawl even. Just keep moving forward. When life wears you down, don’t give up. You can keep pressing on because a strength greater than your own is there to help you keep going.
Sometimes God will fix our problems, but sometimes He gives us the strength and grace to get through them.
What have you experienced when you sincerely waited on God?
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Wednesday August 6, 2025
Bible Reading
Psalm 5:3
Psalm 130:5
Commentary ThoughtsI would love to tell you that God always swoops down to rescue us from every struggle, but that isn’t true. He does, however, promise to be with us in our troubles. So don’t give up. Catastrophe is the time to run into God’s arms, not away from them.
Those are not just words from a preacher in the pulpit. They are from me—a man who became an orphan and a widower in the same year. I lost some of the most important people in my life in a very short period of time. It has sometimes been a struggle to rise above the pain and heartbreak.
But each day, I wait upon the Lord for new strength, trusting in His mercy, weaving the pieces of my life together with Him. Sometimes I get tired and I can’t run. All I can bring myself to do is walk. But as long as He walks with me, I will not faint. I will trust Him for new strength to carry on, fulfill the call, finish well and meet Jesus in the place where there is no more loss, no more struggle, no more tears.
How can you learn to wait upon God?
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Thursday August 7, 2025
Bible Reading
2 Corinthians 4:7
Matthew 6:21
Commentary Thoughts
I’m sure that in many of our homes we have expensive things in cheap containers.
You might, for example, have rings that cost you a fortune to purchase but are now being stored in a cheap little box.
Similarly, inside of each of us is a treasure of unlimited value.
As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:7, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.”
In biblical times, an “earthen vessel” referred to a clay pot or jar. Inside of that humble pot you could place something extremely valuable.
Through this example, Paul was pointing out that what is inside of us—our soul and our eternal spirit—is far more valuable than the body that contains us.
Far too often we focus on the container and forget about the value and eternal nature of who we truly are.
Pain, hurt and loss can shift our focus from the external to the internal, so Paul reminds us to make the most of our difficulties and hurts so that we benefit from them rather than simply endure them.
What kind of priority do you give to the treasure within you?
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Friday August 8, 2025
Bible Reading
Matthew 13:44
2 Corinthians 4:7
Commentary Thoughts
Paul tells us more clearly what this treasure inside is in the verse right before his reference to the earthen vessel.
We read in 2 Corinthians 4:6, “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
Located inside of each of us is the knowledge of God.
This knowledge isn’t simply information.
It is an experience of God—His presence inside of us.
If you could have a conversation with Him, face to face, wouldn’t that be considered a treasure—something of inestimable value?
Each of us has this ability. Within our earthen vessels is a treasure consisting of the love and light of God.
This treasure just needs to be unwrapped to be accessed more fully.
Hardships, difficulties and brokenness often help us to unwrap that treasure as we take our eyes off ourselves and turn our focus toward Jesus.
To put it another way, the closer you get to Christ, the more of God you get to experience.
How are you accessing that treasure within you?
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Saturday August 9, 2025
Bible Reading
Jeremiah 23:9
Psalm 51:16-17
Commentary Thoughts
You’ve probably witnessed the majesty of a wild stallion running free. He runs with strength and power.
But the only way to bring that power into submission is through a process called breaking.
To break in a horse is to work with it until it learns that you are not going to let up until it surrenders to you.
Once a horse is broken, the power and majesty within it can be guided and directed with ease. Its power is under control.
God longs for us to maximize the majesty and power He’s given to us and not just let it exist with no direction from Him.
Brokenness often ushers in a humility that will enable us to surrender to Him.
In this way, His power is made greater in us, and is displayed in us through the destiny He has in store for us—in the treasure He’s given each of us.
You need to look within. Don’t get hung up on the external package of this life. It is not in the external world, or even made up of our bodies. The treasure is inside.
What does brokenness look like in your life? How will you cooperate with letting God “break” you?
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Sunday August 10, 2025
Bible Reading
Zechariah 1:1-6
Commentary Thoughts
Theme: The Coming Messiah!
What does it say?
The Lord Almighty said, “Return to me and I will return to you.” Their forefathers did not listen to the prophets, so the Lord did to them just as their actions deserved.
What does it mean?
Like his older counterpart Haggai, Zechariah was among those whom Cyrus the Great allowed to return from captivity to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. The foundation was laid, but the rebuilding had stalled for about 16 years. Although they had physically returned to Jerusalem, their hearts had not ultimately returned to God. As young Zechariah began his prophetic ministry, the Lord pointed out the consequences of their parents’ stubborn disobedience. As a result of the captivity, many of those listening had been born in Babylon. Now they had to choose whether they would follow their parents’ rebellious example or heed Haggai and Zechariah’s words. If this generation returned to the Lord, they would experience the blessings of their spiritual heritage.
How should I respond?
You’ve likely experienced the ripple effects of your parents’ choice to follow or reject Jesus as Savior and Lord. What kind of spiritual heritage do you have? Has your family encouraged your faith, discouraged your walk with the Lord, or been indifferent? Like each generation of Israelites, you have to decide whether you’ll follow Jesus and pay attention to what God says in His Word. How might you be rebelling against something God says is wrong? Will you “return to the Lord” by submitting that part of your heart and mind to Christ right now? That kind of daily submission will help you pass down a heritage of blessings instead of the consequences of disobedience.
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Monday August 11, 2025
Bible Reading
Zechariah 1:1-21
Commentary Thoughts
What does it say?
The Lord explained to Zechariah through a vision that He would show mercy and comfort to Jerusalem again.
What does it mean?
The world was at peace, but Israel was still in great distress. The predetermined time of discipline was over, and God’s people needed to experience renewed fellowship with Him.
God’s reason for judgment was His deep love for Israel. He went to great lengths to preserve a remnant and protect His covenant.
They would again experience His presence and flourish as a nation. God’s discipline would be replaced by His mercy, comfort, and favor.
Even though the Gentile nations acted as God’s hand of judgment, they would answer for the extreme cruelty with which they treated His chosen people.
How should I respond?
Parents, teachers, and employers can benefit from God’s pattern of discipline.
Start with a warning and clearly state the consequences if the unacceptable behavior continues.
Do not make idle threats, be careful that the punishment fits the crime.
Keeping your accountability to God will help you avoid being overly harsh.
The motivation for disciplinary action should be love and concern for the relationships and people involved.
Children need to be protected from the devastating consequences of foolish actions.
Don’t dwell on past behavior when the time of discipline is over.
Offer words and actions of comfort and move on.
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Tuesday August 12, 2025
Bible Reading
Zechariah 2:1-13
Commentary Thoughts
What does it say?
The Lord Himself will be a wall of fire around Jerusalem and its glory within.
What does it mean?
Zechariah’s third vision was a preview of Jerusalem’s glorious future. Just think of how encouraging his words would have been at the time. Seventy years of captivity and 16 years of opposition to the rebuilding could easily have caused a defeatist mindset among this small group. God gave them a view of their city without rubble or strife.
When the Lord lives among His people during the millennial reign of Christ, Jerusalem will not need to fortify her walls. His presence will be Israel’s protection and glory. The city boundaries they knew won’t be able to contain the blessings God would pour out.
How should I respond?
Scripture promises that the Christian’s eternal future is wonderful beyond description (1 Cor. 2:9).
In the meantime, we live in a world full of temptation and opposition. If you shut out the world and wait for Christ’s return, you risk being so heavenly-minded that you’re of no earthly good. On the other hand, if all you see is the here and now, your days will be filled with dread.
God’s promises encourage us to serve Him here, knowing that life will not always include heartache.
As a believer, your eternal future starts by living daily in His presence now. Then one day, all strife will be replaced with unimaginable peace and joy.
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