September 25, 2026

Psalm 17:15

15 As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

To grow as a Christian, we need to become people who want God more than anything else. When we spend time with God in the Word and in prayer, or take the news of Jesus to the world, or see God reflected in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Church that activity should have one motivation. We should really be seeking to see His Face.

In this verse, that is all the Psalmist wants. The verses before Psalm 17:15 talk about the worldly man who wants lots of kids and possessions. But this person wants to see God’s face more than anything else. True bliss is to stand before that face and see Him looking back at you with love. You have to have your sin dealt with, which is another huge reason we must have Jesus. But if you stand in righteousness before God then you see the Holy Smile. That’s what true satisfaction looks like.

Prayer prompt: Lord, today I desire just one thing, show me Your Smile through Jesus.

September 24, 2026

Ephesians 2:7

7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

When I think about my growth in Jesus, it is incredibly slow. The same sins trip me up and the same coldness has to be overcome when I begin my time with the Lord. There is progress, but it is so discouraging to look back at a year or two and see how small it is. It’s here that Heaven becomes so encouraging.

My progress may be slow, but if I keep heaven before me, I know I’m headed the right direction. Speed and distance can be slow and small but if I’m headed in the right direction, I will get there. In Jesus, I know I will get there. Commit to walking toward Heaven today and trust in Jesus to get you there.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I am walking towards the coming ages of Your immeasurable grace and kindness. Please help me to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

September 23, 2026

Psalm 17:6-7

6 I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me; hear my words. 7 Wondrously show your steadfast love, O Savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand.

God has made a strange deal. He has decided to display the extent of His love and the quality and grandeur of His grace by heaping it on our heads. It is exactly like one of the unimaginably rich tech billionaires adopting an orphan and then building palaces with perfectly manicured gardens and legions of servants just to please the little one. Take a moment to imagine the wild decadence God would have to use to really express the magnitude of His love.

God isn’t just going to give you what you need. He is wondrously showing His steadfast love. If you see the waterfall of God’s grace, the jaw-dropping, size-of-the-cosmos love that He has then you will seek refuge at His right hand. He can and will protect you for His Name’s Sake.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I look to You for my protection and provision!

September 22, 2026

Ephesians 2:6

6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

An absolutely wonderful young lady at Hope Church went on a trip to Italy to support a church in Rome. I jealously asked her about the food, expecting crazy her to gush over “real” pizza and pasta but no. She hated it. She just wanted Olive Garden. Say what you will about her palate, she is an American girl with American appetites. Where you’re from matters. 

The first part of Ephesians 2 talked about what we were. When Paul describes our passionate desire to work against God and how we followed the Enemy, he uses the past tense. We were like that, but we are now raised up and seated with Jesus in the heavenly places. We now have access to a new country, we have a seat at a new table. It may take some time to acclimate your appetites to Italy, but let me tell you, it’s better than Olive Garden.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I am now Yours forever. Help me to right now, desire Jesus more than the world.

September 21, 2026

Ephesians 2:1-2

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—

It’s really hard to go against the current. The constant pressure sweeps you away unless you actively row or swim against it. Believers spend a shockingly small amount of time with the Father because there is a current pulling them away all the time. As soon as I let my guard slip, as soon as I stop putting oar to water, away I go.

That current is what the Scripture calls the world. People all around you continually express their love of things other than God. The art and music, the entertainment and almost uniform attitudes form a constant flow away from a God-centered heart. There is amazing truth in the world, but the love of the Father is missing. We have to fight the world’s influence to find the better joy of His presence.

Prayer prompt: Lord, You are better than all the options the world gives. Today, I choose You.

September 19, 2026

1 Peter 5:8

8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

In the beginning of the Bible, we had a pretty sweet thing going. Man and wife lived in a pleasure garden built by God with unfiltered access to God Himself. Now we live with pain, death, fear, anxiety, and a gap between us and God that allows millions to deny He even exists. What happened? What crept into our world and broke it? And another question we should ask, is that chaotic force still breaking things today?

In the Garden, we only got what we deserved. We did sin. But there was another there who crafted a lie to entice us from bliss to bedlam. He hates us because he hates the God we reflect. He hurts us because he knows how much that hurts the Father. Be sober-minded. Be watchful. Stay close to the Lord and stay clean because there is an enemy hunting you.

Prayer prompt: Lord, help me to see Your hand of protection and be wary of my enemy.

September 18, 2026

Daniel 7:14

14 "And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

Instability, painful memories, and concern for the future can sneak up on us when we think about the world our kids will grow up in. We pray for our leaders and hope for a better tomorrow, but the Christian can also look at stories in Scripture. The book of Daniel takes place when the whole of Israel had been broken and burned with the people taken into captivity in Babylon. In the night, God gives captive Daniel a vision.

Daniel sees the Son of Man standing before God to receive the Kingdom that will never end. This King is becoming the King over an everlasting realm. Daniel woke up from that dream still a captive, but knew he wouldn’t be forever. You too live under that King and that Kingdom. Walk out in that confidence today.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I trust You have all of this world, with all of its pain, under complete control.

September 17, 2026

1 Corinthians 13:7-8a

7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  8 Love never ends.

Endurance isn’t an easy thing to find. Some rare folks have a natural tenacity, but most of us don’t. The Greeks told of Sisyphus having to push a rock up a mountain forever, never reaching the top, never allowed to stop. That monotony and lack of progress perfectly sums up most of our relationships, certainly our sanctification. How do we keep working to become more like Jesus?

It’s not easy to define love, but the quality of valuing someone even when they aren’t particularly useful is a great place to start. Only love can continue to push a rock up a hill with no sign of a finish line. Only love can continue to endure all things, believing the best, hoping for real change. Only love never ends. When we see the gospel message, is it any wonder that the Bible says God is love?

Prayer prompt: Lord, I love You and I am forever amazed that You love me.

September 16, 2026

Luke 15:20

20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

So what is Heaven really? Americans are uniquely able to ask that question as we live, even now, in unprecedented wealth. You have more access to pleasure than almost any other group in history. Like so many who are really wealthy, we have to ask what the perfect situation is. If we are going to make the perfect moment, the perfect life, what would it entail?

Love truly is the only answer. Heaven is love without the restrictions of our sin, love from the only One who can really love. Heaven is that hug from the Father that bestows a name, an acceptance, and a joy that overwhelms us. One day we will know that love fully, but even now we can know it in part. Heaven is reaching out to you right now. Stop and enjoy His love this morning.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I love You. Help me to experience Your love today.

September 15, 2026

Luke 6:35-36

35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. 36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

I want to be like my dad. He’s a generous soul who desperately cares for others. He may see wickedness and hate it, but when the wicked come close, his heart fills with compassion. When he does this, my normal dad models our Father, the Lord.

God is influencing us all the time. Our love for Him is going to end up molding our actions and the way we react to even the enemies around us. In a world filling with enemies, this is no easy task! Are you prepared to be kind to the ungrateful and the evil? If you need a model, be merciful even as your Father is merciful.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I’m so thankful for the way You loved an enemy like me and made me into a son. Teach me to love like You love.

September 14, 2026

Jeremiah 29:11

11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Have you read this verse before? It is super encouraging. It’s the kind of verse a grandpa would write on the card of a graduating senior. They look forward to big things with a blazing optimism, the kind of optimism that sours in most people. If you don’t know the story with this verse, you can get pretty upset when your life looks more like evil than welfare.

This isn’t God’s promise to a young man or woman with the world at their fingertips. This was spoken by God to the nation of Israel as Jerusalem burned and Babylon conquered. Everything they hoped for was just taken apart, brutally, before their eyes. God’s wrath was being poured out on their sin. And even there, God’s steadfast love continued. Even in ashes and smoke, God’s promise continued. Whatever your life looks like, look up and see God’s steadfast unconditional love. 

Prayer prompt: Lord, I know You will never leave me or forsake me.

September 12, 2026

Proverbs 5:3-5

3 For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil, 4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death her steps follow the path to Sheol;

If an enemy were going to poison me, where would he hide the poison? If he put it in many healthy foods, I’d continue to enjoy a long, happy life. But if he hid it in the kettle corn, or the Ruby Snap cookies, I’d be dead in 5 minutes time. The sweet can hide the bitter. Our enemy knows this very well.

Temptation doesn’t have to be sexual to fit into the verses above. Anything God warns us against will be used by the enemy to entice us down to death. Look away from these poison injected cookies to Christ!. He too stands with open arms, ready to embrace you as friend, son, and co-heir to God’s pleasures forever more.

Prayer prompt: Lord, help me to see through the bait to the hook and hate sin so that I may much more love the good pleasures you give.

September 11, 2026

Luke 16:26

26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’

Are Christians happy about people being separated from God forever in Hell? Some think we look down on those far from God as being inferior to us and are snickering behind our Bibles at their eventual destruction. If any church person feels that way, and I’m not sure who does, they don’t have Christ’s love for the lost.

If we begin to have a heart like Jesus, we will be willing to go anywhere, even terrible places, to bring the lost to God. A great evidence is this verse from Jesus’ teaching on the rich man and Lazarus. Abraham tells the rich man that a chasm exists between Heaven and Hell to stop traffic in either direction. Are we willing to take steps today, when no chasm exists, to find people far from God and bring them to His grace?

Prayer prompt: Lord, send me a love like You have and send me to the world.

September 10, 2026

Luke 16:25

25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.

What are your good things? It may seem like an odd question, but that one question distinguishes Lazarus from the rich man. It will determine Heaven or Hell. It is what the Old Testament Law was built to show you. In the end, God’s judgment will include what you loved. As Jesus said, the whole law rests on the command to love God and loving God, to love others.

So, what are your good things? If God is not it, you’re missing out on Heaven. You will miss out on Heaven in the ultimate sense of where your soul goes, but more than that. Heaven isn’t primarily a gold-plated city without disease. Heaven is the place where God is and where we are with Him forever. If you can know Him now, Heaven will invade your life even now.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I want You more than anything else.

September 9, 2026

Isaiah 55:8-9

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Our kids are still young, but I already dread the teenage years. It won’t be easy to lead them when they are only sure of one thing: They know more than their parents. While there is a moment when teenagers come back around and gain a small amount of humility in dealing with mom and dad, most people struggle to have that humility toward God. We are extremely quick to call Him a tyrant, cold, or even to insist He can’t exist.

We need a reality check. God’s ways are infinitely higher than our ways. We should fall on our knees in gratitude that we don’t understand everything He does. If we could, it would mean He is no greater, wiser, or smarter than we are.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I submit my will to Yours knowing You know better than me.

September 8, 2026

Isaiah 49:14-16

14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.” 15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. 16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

Early in my marriage, I had a nightmare that Rachael had just forgotten me. I had to remind her of who I was and that we were married. It wasn’t dementia, she forgot me like you might misplace your keys. That nightmare is a real fear for many Christians, especially when we suffer. Has God forgotten us?

Isaiah is clear: more sure than a mom remembering her infant, God remembers us. He has proved it by carving us into His hands. More permanent than any tattoo, Jesus could show doubting Thomas the holes that the nails had made. Those scars preach a sermon to our fearful hearts every time we remember them.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I trust that You will never forget me, even when the enemies surround me or dark depression comes.

September 7, 2026

1 Corinthians 4:5

5 Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.

We don’t judge other people because Jesus commanded it and because we use such vastly different standards for others and ourselves (Matthew 7:3-5). We don’t judge ourselves because God is our judge and the Gospel is our identity. In 1 Corinthians 4:5 we get one more reason to withhold our judgment on others: we just don’t know enough.

“Don’t judge my story based on the chapter you walked in on.” We don’t know other people’s history, the set of gifts and intelligences they were given, or the motivations in their hearts as they act. How can we be so quick to assume we know all this and can therefore stand in God’s place? We can tell people what God has said. Sin is still sin, but we should always be aiming to restore others with gentleness.

Prayer prompt: Lord, I resign as a judge over the Universe. Thank You for correcting my thinking.

September 5, 2026

1 Corinthians 4:4

4 For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.

As hard as it would be, I do see the appeal in something like Islam. In that rigid religion if you do the right things someone will pronounce you Good. No matter how nagging your insecurities, if you follow all the commands all the time then you can walk around with your head held high. Of course, everyone who tries such a thing ends up lying to themselves or decimated by the attempt. It’s just not possible to stand up under God’s judgment.

Our inability to obey well is why we need the gospel so much. We can’t stand before God’s judgment, but Jesus can. We have to stand in Him. If you know that you can live the kind of life that religion promised but never delivered. You can pursue good things and hate wicked things while still able to quiet shame and guilt with assurance of God’s acceptance in Jesus. Is that how you think?

Prayer prompt: Lord, teach me to live in a gospel way not in a religious way.

September 4, 2026

1 Corinthians 4:3

3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.

In 1 Corinthians we are told not to be judged by people and our culture gives a surprised “Amen!” Culturally, we’ve been told to follow our heart, to make our own right and wrong for ourselves for generations. But then, the Scripture checks us by saying we don’t judge ourselves either. Let this light shine over your identity: you are not who people around you say you are, or even who the shame and insecurity in your own head say you are. You are who God says you are.

As we’ll see as we dig into the scriptures further, God goes way further than we would in the way He judges and in the way He loves. You are both way worse than you thought and infinitely more loved than you ever dreamed. If you can start trusting God’s picture of who you are then Heaven itself will open up to you.

Prayer prompt: Lord, thank You for loving me despite all my sin!

September 3, 2026

Romans 5:1

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Competition reality shows leverage the moment of judgment. Talent shows squeeze every last ounce of tension from the moment before a judge allows a contestant to continue or sends them home crying. Imagine being in a more serious version, in a real courtroom. The presiding juror hands the decision to the judge to read, then gets it back as everyone sweats with anticipation. Your freedom, maybe your very life, hangs on that judgment.

The gospel tells us a different story. We have been, in the past, justified by faith. It has already happened. The judgment has already come and you are declared innocent. Even now, right now, you have peace with God through Jesus Christ. It isn’t a hope for the future but a present reality. Live in the incredibly free joy of that most lovely truth!

Prayer prompt: Lord, thank you so much for giving me certainty of my future in Jesus.