March 21, 2025

Philippians 1:6

6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

As soon as something godly starts to happen in your life, watch out. If you’re like me, a little increase in discipline or patience, even love, is often followed by a big flop. Maybe you finally see some growth in boldness and share about Jesus with a coworker. It feels like you’re walking on air as you sing praise to God! Then you get home and start yelling at your kids. How are we supposed to grow when it seems like failure and sin are constantly with us?

Remember who is right beside us helping us. The God who spoke and saw worlds jump into existence has promised that He will finish what He started. Life is littered with projects begun and abandoned, but not for God. Dunked in grace, covered in love, forgiven because of Jesus, we will keep walking and He will bring His good work in us to completion.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I will keep walking because I know you will finish what you start.

March 20, 2025

1 John 4:18

18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

Is fear a good thing or a bad thing? Like pain or anxiety, God has given us fear as a natural reaction to something we should watch out for. While we don’t want to feel fear, it would be far worse if we didn’t have the capacity. Driving, skiing, and all-you-can-eat buffets are all much safer with a healthy sense of fear.

In this verse, we see how fear and love interact. Think of God’s love, the love that came down to earth, then went down to death, to bring us from death up to His presence. While it is wisdom to feel God’s holiness and grandeur as beyond our understanding, His love should stop us from feeling a fear to approach Him every minute of everyday. Enjoy His perfect love today!

Prayer prompt: Lord, bring me into the bliss of trembling at your majesty and still walking with confidence into your presence.

March 19, 2025

2 Corinthians 9:8

8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

I often think about the room in Willy Wonka’s Factory that is made completely from the most delicious sweets. If you think too long, it gets a little gross. I’m sure you would get sticky and the sweets would get dusty or dirty or people would sweat on them. But if you just let it exist as an ideal, it’s magical and attractive. Why doesn’t an all powerful God give us goodies like that?

Each word in this verse should shatter that question to pieces. Grace from God will abound, pour out, roll over like a wave, so that being totally sufficient, having everything you need, at all times, you can really get to work. Not only has He, the Supreme God, rolled all our needs to dust under His overwhelming provision, He’s also given us a wonderful task and purpose! What more could we want?

Prayer prompt: Lord, please make me always dependent on and expectant of Your abounding Grace!

March 18, 2025

Joshua 1:6

6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.

Is Christianity a manly religion? I think it may have entered into some people’s heads to regard the faith as something women teach to children. Some see it like a nursery rhyme to instruct good boys and girls on the benefits of cleanliness or obedience. Helpful, maybe, but many see Christianity as something we set down when we get old enough to become our own people.

But of course not. Our faith has conquered nations and the hearts of people small and great. Our faith is one that slays dragons and upends unjust social systems. Your faith will compel you to walk endless distances and climb mountains to the clouds in order to remake the world in the way God wants it. Are you ready to be strong and courageous?

Prayer prompt: Lord, equip me with courage and strength to work for Your Kingdom today.

March 17, 2025

Zephaniah 3:17

17 The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

I understand that God loves me, but does He like me? Every Christian starts by trusting His grace then quickly moves back to trying to earn His favor. In grace we trust that God gives us His love, but with works, we try to earn it. Inevitably, we fail and want to hide from God. Why turn to God if He is going to greet me with frowns and whips?

Look again at Zephaniah 3:17. How is it possible that any God would treat His creation like that? God is with you, in your midst. He is mighty to save you. He will rejoice over you with gladness and quiet your excuses and your self-justification with His love. He will make the universe ring with His loud singing. God loves you because He is so so good.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I want to turn from my sin and embrace the love you have for me.

March 15, 2025

Psalm 50:1-2

1 The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. 2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.

Lord Byron, a British poet, said the world has two types of people: the boring and the bored. The bored would be the worldly-wise who, having experienced much, are never surprised or delighted by anything. The boring are the simple folks who see a miracle in even the mundane like the sun rising or a child laughing. I know which I’d rather be, and which the Psalmist is. Which are you?

Are you able to look up at something as common as the sky and worship its maker? There is a lie that being regularly near something makes it less valuable, or at least less exciting. Feel the sun on your face, spilling its rays from millions of miles away, and pray again to your God. Commit to the brief time it takes to be amazed and sing praise to a God who loves you like that.

Prayer prompt: Lord, wake me up to the wonder of the ordinary.

March 14, 2025

Ephesians 3:17-19a

17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge…

It’s hard to believe we will receive more than we ask or imagine. We can imagine so much! How can God outdo all the delights, the wild fantasy worlds, we try to imagine for ourselves? In these verses, we begin to find out.

God’s love is so intense, He has to strengthen us to endure it. He can’t tell us how great His love for us is because our experiences to this point just aren’t big enough to create the categories. How can He describe the depth of oceans to people who have only stomped in parking lot puddles? How can He make you feel the heat of the sun when you have only seen birthday candles? Pray that God would make you strong enough to see just how big His love is.

Prayer prompt: Lord, please strengthen me to comprehend a little more of Your amazing love.

March 13, 2025

Luke 8:49-50

49 While he was still speaking, someone from the ruler's house came and said, “Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the Teacher any more.” 50 But Jesus on hearing this answered him, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well.”

What do you do when you’re afraid? A specific fear can be stomped out, like a spider. If it can be addressed quickly, great, but most of the fears that we deal with go deeper. Most of our fears are less defined and more persistent. How do we deal with that nagging, constant fear that what we most want or love will go away?

The man Jesus was speaking to in these verses just lost his only daughter. Yet, when he was sure that what he most loved was gone, Jesus told him not to fear. Jesus assures the man that there is still a solution, a grand solution, to the most awful of problems. Address your fear by looking up to the one who defeated even death.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I hate being afraid. Teach me to believe.

March 12, 2025

In Tim Keller’s new book, Hope in Times of Fear, readers get a long look at how the Resurrection changes our lives. God has come to turn us upside down, even in ways we don’t really think we need.

“Before we become Christians, most of us also think of ourselves as sincere seekers after the truth. We feel like we’re pretty good people. But most Christians, like Paul, look back on their lives and see that they had never really been sincere seekers after truth at all. They had wanted a truth and a God that fit their desire to be in charge of their own lives. And yet God came after them, found them, and graciously helped them see their own blindness and their unwarranted distrust of him. This is what happened to Paul. He thought he knew who God was and who Jesus was, and he got it all wrong.”

Check out Keller’s book to find reasons to believe the Resurrection happened, and a million more reasons to Hope it did.

Prayer prompt: Lord, help me to see my pride so I can turn and embrace real joy.

March 11, 2025

Luke 4:18-21

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”

Jesus came to bring good news to those who need it. Isaiah 61 tells of the Lord coming to captive, brokenhearted, mourning people. The Lord picks them up, frees them, cleans them, and fills them with joy. What does that mean for us?

Jesus said He fulfilled that prophecy. That meant he was looking at people who were dirty, captive, broken, and sad and He came to make them sing. Jesus has come to forgive you and bring you into the Lord’s favor where joy overflows constantly. Ask Him to forgive you, see your captivity to sin and come to Jesus to be cleaned. He will do it, and you will be free!

Prayer prompt: Lord, make me part of your work to bring people back to you!

March 10, 2025

Matthew 15:32

32 Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.”

Ever gotten cash for Christmas? It’s the kind of gift you might expect from a generous if distant uncle. We probably expect a more personal touch from a spouse or parent. We expect the people who say they love us to know something about us. When you get gifts you really want and need, even if they’re less expensive, they mean the world.

God keeps up with the details of your life. Jesus saw how these people were hungry because He looked and cared enough to know. Love does that. Follow Jesus; He knows you enough to give you what you really need.

Prayer prompt: Lord, thank You for knowing me and loving me.

March 8, 2025

Luke 7:13-15

13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14 Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” 15 And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

Does God really hear me when I pray? I’ve asked that question more than a pastor probably should. God is so high above us, so shrouded in glory and majesty, would He really see us? If He did, would He really care for us?

Jesus, the Lord, Yahweh in the flesh, saw the woman in Nain who had lost her only son. He didn’t just know about it or read it in the obituaries, He saw her and felt compassion for her. Then, and this is almost too much to hope, He fixed it. The cross, the grave, and then the empty grave are enough to know forever that God hears you.

Prayer prompt: Lord, kill all my doubts by turning my eyes to the glorious gospel of Jesus!

March 7, 2025

1 Corinthians 7:29a, 31b

29 This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. …31 … For the present form of this world is passing away.

It seems like God is saying, “Live as though the world is about to end.” Well what does that mean? If the news came that a world-ending meteor was about to hit, what would you do? Steve Carell was in a movie where some people gave themselves up to pleasure, some just wept, and some, like Steve, fell in love. In other words, they tried, in a sad way, to do as much normal stuff as possible before the meteor hit. But what does God expect of us?

It’s not a meteor that’s coming, it’s God Himself. When He comes, it won’t just be annihilation, but judgment. With time so short, our priority must be to introduce as many people to Jesus as we possibly can! We can ache for Jesus to return, but we must work flat-out to get as many ready as we can. Who can you tell about Jesus?

Prayer prompt: Lord, please motivate me to work hard for Your glory!

March 6, 2025

Isaiah 40:30-31

30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

These verses hinge on one word: wait. Before the waiting, the strongest and most healthy are falling over in exhaustion. After the waiting, even weak or old or flabby folks are flying, running, and walking without fatigue. So how do we wait for the Lord? Are we supposed to just hold still? I don’t think so.

Reading these verses along with the rest of Scripture, waiting on the Lord looks like working while trusting that the Lord will do something amazing if we will just continue. ‘Wait’ is closer to ‘hold on’. Wherever you’re at as you read these verses, if you’ve left behind what God has given you to do, or if you’ve continued but it’s getting really difficult: hold on. He will renew your strength.

Prayer Prompt: Ask for strength to wait on the Lord, to do things His way.

March 5, 2025

If there is a lie at the heart of every single sin, it has to be the one going all the way back to the Garden. There, Satan tempted Adam and Eve to believe God was holding out on them. He tempted them to break God’s law with the lure of pleasure. If we are going to fight that same temptation, we have to see the lie for what it is. The quote below is from CS Lewis’ book The Srewtape Letters. Screwtape, a demon and tempter, gives demonic advice to another tempter:

“Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy’s ground. I know we have won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is His invention, not ours. He made the pleasures: all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one. All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our Enemy has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He has forbidden. Hence we always try to work away from the natural condition of any pleasure to that in which it is least natural, least redolent of its Maker, and least pleasurable.”

Never forget that pleasure, ALL PLEASURE, comes from God! If we stop believing the lie of the enemy, “at [God’s] right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11b).

Prayer prompt: Lord, I don’t know why You would include me in the pleasure of Your presence, but thank You!

March 4, 2025

Psalm 23:5

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Where will my happiness come from if God forbids so much? He forbids me from even the fantasy of more than one lady (Matthew 5:27-28), from more than a little drink (Proverbs 23:29-35), even from the very American pleasure of wanting what my neighbor has (Exodus 20:17). How do I get pleasure when He outlaws almost everything the people around me love?

Remember where every pleasure comes from. The enemy has tempted us to abuse God’s pleasures but he can’t make pleasure for us. God gives us what we need for life. He promises to load a table with food in the presence of our enemies. He makes our skin and hair soft with oil, He gives us blessings until they fill us up then overflow! We will have to trust Him while we adjust to the pleasures as they were meant to be, but when we do we’ll feel a little bit of Heaven even here on earth.

Prayer prompt: Lord, remind me about all the good gifts You’ve already given.

March 3, 2025

Psalm 3:3

3 But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.

I want to be strong. I want my kids to see me as invincible and the one they can run to in any trouble. I want to be Captain America, but I’m not. Really, I’m more like the scared kid than the invincible dad. That’s why this verse means so much to me.

I am the scared kid, but I have an invincible Dad. God is a shield about me, total protection. He reminds me that He has made me His child. God lifts up my head when it droops from fatigue and discouragement. That’s just how good He is when I go to Him. Commit today to look to Him for your security, your satisfaction, and your identity.

Prayer prompt: Lord, let me look to you to lift my head, to be a strong shield around me.

March 1, 2025

Today, read a quote from James KA Smith’s book You Are What You Love. The whole of God’s law to us is summed up in that word love. Take a hard look at your heart and life and ask yourself, what do you love most?

“Jesus doesn’t encounter Matthew and John—or you and me—and ask, “What do you know?” He doesn’t even ask, “What do you believe?” He asks, “What do you want?” This is the most incisive, piercing question Jesus can ask of us precisely because we are what we want. Our wants and longings and desires are at the core of our identity, the wellspring from which our actions and behavior flow. Our wants reverberate from our heart, the epicenter of the human person. Thus Scripture counsels, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Prov. 4:23). Discipleship, we might say, is a way to curate your heart, to be attentive to and intentional about what you love. So discipleship is more a matter of hungering and thirsting than of knowing and believing.”

Prayer prompt: Lord, bring my heart again and again back to You.

February 28, 2025

Psalm 16:11

11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

What do you expect to happen when you talk to God or open your Bible? What do you hope will happen when you attend a church service and spend time with Christians? If it is anything less than real joy, joy that fills you up and satisfies you all the way down, you are missing out.

We have to walk a path of life, a path that includes understanding our sin before God and coming to Him to save us by faith in Jesus. But once we have received God’s forgiveness, at the moment we ask Him with faith in Jesus, He walks with us. He leads us into His presence, full of joy, with pleasures forevermore. Pursue God today with joy as an expectation, maybe only a little now though increasing, and full-volume joy forevermore.

Prayer prompt: Lord, please teach me to feel an ever increasing joy in You.

February 27, 2025

John 4:16

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

When Jesus says His followers have to take up their cross daily to follow Him, it sounds like He only accepts followers who are ready to die for Him. Who could ever match up to that? Does God only accept martyr-level applicants? It will certainly be the case that many will be called upon to die for Christ, but to become a Christian, giving your life is much more like the conversation Jesus had with the Samaritan woman.

When she finally asks for the water He is promising, Jesus tells her to bring her husband. He knew she sought life and happiness in her relationships only to fail again and again. In taking the conversation to that awful sore spot at the core of her identity, Jesus told her to trade in her failed life for the true life He offers. It always comes back to worship. Will you lay down your life to find it in Him?

Prayer prompt: Lord, I trust You to be the One I put my hope in and the One I get my joy from today.