Daily Bible Verse

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Psalm 62:8 KJV
Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.


Longing for a Home

Anne, the lead character in the Anne of Green Gables stories, longed for a family. Orphaned, she had lost hope of ever finding a place to call home. But then she learned that an older man named Matthew and his sister Marilla would take her in. On the buggy ride to their home, Anne apologized for chattering on and on, but Matthew, a quiet man, said, “You can talk as much as you like. I don’t mind.” This was music to Anne’s ears. She felt no one had ever wanted her around, much less wanted to hear her chatter. After arriving, her hopes were dashed when she learned the siblings had thought they were getting a boy to help as a farmhand. She feared being returned, but Anne’s longing for a loving home was met when they made her a part of their family.

We’ve all had times when we felt unwanted or alone. But when we become a part of God’s family through salvation in Jesus, He becomes for us a secure home (Psalm 62:2). He delights in us and invites us to talk with Him about everything: our worries, temptations, sorrows, and hopes. The psalmist tells us we can “find rest in God” and “pour out [our] hearts to him” (vv. 5, 8).

Don’t hesitate. Talk to God as much as you like. He won’t mind. He delights in our hearts. In Him you’ll find a home.


Reflect & Pray
What circumstances have caused you to make God your home? What do you want to talk to Him about?

Help me, God, not to hold back in talking with You when I’ve got something on my heart. Thank You for Your listening ear.


Insight
David uses four different words in Psalm 62 to describe God’s protective power: rock, salvation, fortress, and refuge. While these words all evoke the idea of defense and deliverance, their specific meanings create a much fuller picture. The main meaning of the Hebrew word tsur, translated “rock,” is that of a rocky wall or cliff, a place that’s difficult to access. The word for salvation is yeshuah. Jesus (Iēsous in Greek, Yeshua in Hebrew) means “the Lord is salvation” (see Matthew 1:21). While yeshuah is most often translated “salvation,” it can also be translated “deliverance,” which makes God the one who brings us out of threats, which, for the psalmist, were both physical and spiritual. “Fortress” translates the word misgav and refers to a place of retreat; God offers us a safe place when trouble threatens. Finally, machseh is translated “refuge” and refers to a place of hope and trust.
 

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2 Corinthians 9:13 KJV
Whiles by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them, and unto all men;


A Heart for Service

A ministry in Carlsbad, New Mexico, supports their community by offering more than 24,000 pounds of free food each month to local residents. The leader of the ministry shared, “People can come here, and we will accept them and meet them right where they are. Our goal is . . . to meet their practical needs to get to their spiritual needs.” As believers in Christ, God desires for us to use what we’ve been given to bless others, drawing our communities closer to Him. How can we develop a heart for service that brings glory to God?

We develop a heart for service by asking God to show us how to use the gifts He’s given us to benefit others (1 Peter 4:10). In this way, we offer “many expressions of thanks to God” for the abundance He’s blessed us with (2 Corinthians 9:12).

Serving others was an important part of Jesus’ ministry. When He healed the sick and fed the hungry, many were introduced to God’s goodness and love. By caring for our communities, we’re following His model of discipleship. God’s wisdom reminds us that when we demonstrate God’s love through our actions, “others will praise God” (v. 13). Service isn’t about self-gratification but about showing others the extent of God’s love and the miraculous ways He works through those who are called by His name.


Reflect & Pray
What’s motivated your service to the community? How might you be more intentional about using your gifts to bring glory to God?

Heavenly Father, I desire to make a difference in the lives of others. Please give me a heart for service. May it be an act of praise and gratitude to You.


Insight
In 2 Corinthians 9, Paul’s encouragement to the Corinthian believers to serve wasn’t merely an empty platitude; Paul knew the cost of serving. As proof, the apostle outlined the things he’d done and what he’d endured in Jesus’ name and for the welfare of the people of God (11:16–33). In addition, in Paul’s three missionary journeys he traveled more than ten thousand miles (most of that, no doubt, on foot), planting at least fourteen churches, including the church at Corinth to whom he wrote. Like Jesus, Paul not only talked about service and sacrifice, he practiced it as well—although his sacrifices were of a drastically different nature than those of Christ.
 

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Matthew 6:9 KJV
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.


Our Father

Most mornings I recite the Lord’s Prayer. I’m not worth much for the new day until I’ve grounded myself in those words. Recently I’d said only the first two words—“Our Father”—when my phone rang. It startled me as it was 5:43 a.m. Guess who? The phone display read “Dad.” Before I had a chance to answer, the call quickly ended. I guessed my dad had called by mistake. Sure enough, he had. Random coincidence? Maybe, but I believe we live in a world awash in the mercy of God. That particular day I needed that reassurance of our Father’s presence.

Think about that for a minute. Of all the ways Jesus could have taught His disciples to begin their prayers, He chose those two words—“Our Father” (Matthew 6:9) as the starting point. Random? No, Jesus was never less than intentional with His words. We all have different relationships with our earthly fathers—some good, some far less than that. However, praying in the way we should is not addressing “my” father or “your” father, but “our” Father, the One who sees us and hears us, and who knows what we need before we even ask Him (v. 8).

What an amazing reassurance, especially on those days when we might feel forgotten, alone, abandoned, or simply just not worth much. Remember, regardless of where we are and what time of day or night it might be, our Father in heaven is always near.


Reflect & Pray
How can you make the Lord’s Prayer a part of your prayer life? What feelings do those two words—“Our Father”—stir in you?

Father, thank You for Your promise to hear me when I pray, regardless of where I may be.


Insight
A shorter version of what we call the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9–13) appears in Luke 11:2–4. The Matthew account doesn’t include the disciples’ request: “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). Yet it’s clear in Matthew that Jesus is doing just that: teaching His disciples (then and now) how to pray. Matthew 6 is in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount (chs. 5–7), the discourse Jesus gave as He sat down on a mountainside and taught His disciples and the vast crowd following Him (4:25) what it meant to be His disciple. Along with Jesus’ instructions on prayer are the Beatitudes (5:3–12) and teachings on anger, lust, divorce, oaths, loving one’s enemies, giving, fasting, judging others, and not being anxious. When He was finished speaking, “the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority” (7:28–29).
 

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1 Thessalonians 2:7-8

7 But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children:

8 So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us.


Love Like Mom

Juanita told her nephew about growing up during the Great Depression. Her poor family only had apples to eat, plus whatever wild game her dad might provide. Whenever he bagged a squirrel for dinner, her mom would say, “Give me that squirrel head. That’s all I want to eat. It’s the best piece of meat.” Years later Juanita realized there wasn’t any meat on a squirrel’s head. Her mom didn’t eat it. She only pretended it was a delicacy “so us kids could get more to eat and we wouldn’t worry about her.”

As we celebrate Mother’s Day tomorrow, may we also recount stories of our mothers’ devotion. We thank God for them and strive to love more like them.

Paul served the Thessalonian church “as a nursing mother cares for her children” (1 Thessalonians 2:7). He loved fiercely, fighting through “strong opposition” to tell them about Jesus and to share his own life with them (vv. 2, 8). He “worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while [he] preached the gospel of God to [them]” (v. 9). Just like Mom.

Few can resist a mother’s love, and Paul modestly said his efforts were “not without results” (v. 1). We can’t control how others respond, but we can choose to show up, day after day, to serve them in a sacrificial way. Mom would be proud, and so will our heavenly Father.


Reflect & Pray
Who has loved you sacrificially? Who are you loving as your heavenly Father loves you?

Father, no one could love me more than You.


Insight
First Thessalonians was most likely the earliest of Paul’s letters, written about ad 50 to the church formed in Thessalonica during Paul’s second missionary journey (Acts 17). In response to a mob protesting Paul and Silas’ claim that Jesus—not Caesar—is the true king (v. 7), Paul and Silas were forced to leave the city to protect the church from being persecuted. Leaving the young faith community was so painful that Paul describes his separation as being “orphaned . . . for a short time” (1 Thessalonians 2:17). Later, Timothy was sent to minister to the community of new believers there (3:1–5). After hearing Timothy’s good report of their faith growing and thriving (v. 6), Paul reconnected with and encouraged the Thessalonian believers through this letter.
 

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Psalm 111:2 KJV
The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.


How Great Is Our God!

Fingerprints have long been used to identify people, but they can be faked by creating copies. Similarly, the pattern of the iris in the human eye is a reliable source for ID—until someone alters the pattern with a contact lens to skew the results. The use of biometrics to identify individuals can be defeated. So, what qualifies as a unique identifying characteristic? It turns out that everyone’s blood-vessel patterns are unique and virtually impossible to counterfeit. Your own personal “vein map” is a one-of-a-kind identifier, setting you apart from everyone else on the planet.

Pondering such complexities of human beings should prompt a sense of worship and wonder for the Creator who made us. David reminded us that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14), and that is certainly worth celebrating. In fact, Psalm 111:2 reminds us, “Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them.”

Even more worthy of our attention is the divine Maker Himself. While celebrating God’s great deeds, we also must celebrate Him! His deeds are great, but He’s even greater, prompting the psalmist to pray, “For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God” (86:10).

Today, as we consider the greatness of what God does, may we also marvel at the greatness of who He is.


Reflect & Pray
What things instill a sense of awe and wonder in you? How will you make time to praise God for His marvelous works today?

Father, I can easily be sidetracked into thinking too much about creation without truly considering You—the One who made all of creation. Help me to marvel at You.


Insight
Psalms 111 and 112 are written in a similar poetic form. As alphabetical acrostics, each subsequent line begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The care with which the structure is developed seems to have been designed not only for its poetic beauty but to make it easier to memorize and to be remembered for its “A to Z” completeness of thought.

In Psalm 111, the reader is called to remember the description of God’s nature and works. In Psalm 112, the focus is on the hearts and actions of those who believe in such a God. Psalm 111 focuses on what God has done for His people in power and compassion. Psalm 112 offers a poetic description of how the people of such a God live, so that in ways from “A to Z” they reflect the power, goodness, and mercy of Him.
 
 

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Colossians 2:10 KJV
And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:


The Sunflower Battle

The deer in our neighborhood and I have two different opinions about sunflowers. When I plant sunflowers each spring, I’m looking forward to the beauty of their blooms. My deer friends, however, don’t care about the finished product. They simply want to chew the stems and leaves until there’s nothing left. It’s an annual summertime battle as I try to see the sunflowers to maturity before my four-hoofed neighbors devour them. Sometimes I win; sometimes they win.

When we think about our lives as believers in Jesus, it’s easy to see a similar battle being waged between us and our enemy—Satan. Our goal is continual growth leading to spiritual maturity that helps our lives stand out for God’s honor. The devil wants to devour our faith and keep us from growing. But Jesus has dominion over “every power” and can bring us “to fullness” (Colossians 2:10), which means He makes us “complete.” Christ’s victory on the cross allows us to stand out in the world like those beautiful sunflowers.

When Jesus nailed the “record of the charges against us” (the penalty for our sins) to the cross (v. 14 nlt), He destroyed the powers that controlled us. We became “rooted and built up” (v. 7) and made “alive with Christ” (v. 13). In Him we have the power (v. 10) to resist the enemy’s spiritual attacks and to flourish in Jesus—displaying a life of true beauty.


Reflect & Pray
In what areas does the enemy try to nibble away at your growing spiritual maturity? Why is it vital for you to call out to God when you experience spiritual attacks?

Loving God, make my life beautiful for You. Help me to resist the enemy through Your power because I can’t do it on my own. Thank You for Jesus’ death and resurrection—my source of hope, power, and courage.


Insight
In Colossians 2:6–13, Paul highlights the idea of fullness. In verse 9, he uses the word plērōma, which refers to filling to capacity, to describe the extent to which Christ exemplifies and demonstrates deity. There’s no part of Jesus in which God doesn’t dwell; He’s fully God (see Colossians 1:15–20; Hebrews 1:3).

Conversely, in Colossians 2:10, Paul uses the verb plēroō to describe our being brought to fullness in Christ. Rather than fullness being something we have, it’s something that’s done to us and in us; we’re completed in Jesus. This word is often used to describe the fulfillment of prophecies about Christ—they were fulfilled—giving the word the sense of completion or accomplishment.
 

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Job 19:23-24 KJV

23 Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!

24 That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!


Engraved Grief

After receiving the devastating diagnosis of a rare and incurable brain cancer, Caroline found renewed hope and purpose through providing a unique service: volunteering photography services for critically ill children and their families. Through this service, families could capture the precious moments shared with their children, both in grief and “the moments of grace and beauty we assume don’t exist in those desperate places.” She observed that “in the hardest moments imaginable, those families . . . choose to love, despite and because of it all.”

There’s something unspeakably powerful about capturing the truth of grief—both the devastating reality of it and the ways in which we experience beauty and hope in the midst of it.

Much of the book of Job is like a photograph of grief—capturing honestly Job’s journey through devastating loss (1:18–19). After sitting with Job for several days, his friends wearied of his grief, resorting to minimizing it or explaining it away as God’s judgment. But Job would have none of it, insisting that what he was going through mattered, and wishing that the testimony of his experience would be “engraved in rock forever!” (19:24).

Through the book of Job, it was “engraved”—in a way that points us in our grief to the living God (vv. 26–27), who meets us in our pain, carrying us through death into resurrection life.  


Reflect & Pray
How can facing pain honestly bring healing? When have you experienced unexpected grace and beauty within great grief?

Compassionate God, help me to witness honestly to those who are experiencing pain and offer the hope You provide.


Insight
Who was Job? We can glean from his writings that he was well-traveled and could draw on extensive experience and knowledge. He was no doubt knowledgeable of the constellations (9:9; 38:31), plants (8:11–19), weather and precipitation, and various animals (chs. 39–41) mentioned in the book.   

Scholars can’t pinpoint the exact time the book was written. Yet Job has a patriarchal setting, which has led some to suggest a date as early as the time of Abraham. But Job also alludes to (or quotes) Scripture (Job 7:17–18 [Psalm 8:4]; 12:21, 24 [Psalm 107:40]), which suggests that the writer had access to these writings and therefore would indicate a much later date. The book’s setting is the land of Uz, which scholars say is probably ancient Edom or Aram/Syria (Job 1:1). Uz was near a desert (v. 19) and the land was suitable for raising livestock (v. 3).    

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2 Corinthians 2:14  KJV
Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.


Always Worth Sharing

After I became a believer in Jesus, I shared the gospel with my mother. Instead of making a decision to trust Jesus, as I expected, she stopped speaking to me for a year. Her bad experiences with people who claimed to follow Jesus made her distrust believers in Christ. I prayed for her and reached out to her weekly. The Holy Spirit comforted me and continued working on my heart as my mom gave me the silent treatment. When she finally answered my phone call, I committed to loving her and sharing God’s truth with her whenever I had the opportunity. Months after our reconciliation, she said I’d changed. Almost a year later, she received Jesus as her Savior, and, as a result, our relationship deepened.
Believers in Jesus have access to the greatest gift given to humanity—Christ. The apostle Paul says we’re to “spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere” (2 Corinthians 2:14). He refers to those who share the gospel as “the pleasing aroma of Christ” to those who believe, but acknowledges we reek of death to those who reject Jesus (vv. 15–16).After we receive Christ as our Savior, we have the privilege of using our limited time on earth to spread His life-changing truth while loving others. Even during our hardest and loneliest moments, we can trust He’ll provide what we need. No matter what the personal cost, God’s good news is always worth sharing.


Reflect & PrayHow has God encouraged you to not give up after you shared the gospel with someone who reacted in a negative way? How did God bring you close to someone after you both connected as believers in Jesus?Help me share Your good news wherever You send me, God!


InsightBelievers in Jesus have been rescued from death by faith in Him. But another way to view believers in Christ is as “commissioned captives” in that they’ve also been tasked with sharing with others the same good news that has brought them from darkness to light, from death to life. When Paul notes that “God . . . leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere” (2 Corinthians 2:14), he uses images from military conquests of the ancient world. After significant victories, Roman military commanders would lead those who’d been captured in procession. Some of the processionals included the use of fragrant spices, perfumes, and incense. This is what Paul is likely referring to in these verses. Believers in Jesus are His “sanctified spoils,” crucial and now useful for His mission in the world. 
 

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Isaiah 48:18 KJV
O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:


Walking by a Blessing

In 1799, twelve-year-old Conrad Reed found a large, glittering rock in the stream that ran through his family’s small farm in North Carolina. He carried it home to show his father, a poor immigrant farmer. His father didn’t understand the rock’s potential value and used it as a doorstop. The family walked by it for years.

Eventually Conrad’s rock—actually a seventeen-pound gold nugget—caught the eye of a local jeweler. Soon the Reed family became wealthy, and their property became the site of the first major gold strike in the United States.

Sometimes we walk past a blessing, intent on our own plans and ways. After Israel was exiled to Babylon for disobeying God, He proclaimed freedom for them once again. But He also reminded them of what they’d missed. “I am the Lord your God,” He told them, “who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea.” God then encouraged them to follow Him away from old ways into a new life: “Leave Babylon . . . ! Announce this with shouts of joy” (Isaiah 48:17–18, 20).

Leaving Babylon, perhaps now as much as then, means leaving sinful ways and “coming home” to a God who longs to do us good—if only we’ll obey and follow Him!


Reflect & Pray
What aspect of God do you look forward to as you walk with Him today? What can you do to gently lead others to His love?

Loving God, there’s no one like You! Help me embrace the opportunity to walk with You and discover the blessings You alone provide.


Insight
The people’s return from Babylon (Isaiah 48:12–20) was significant because Israel needed to be in the promised land for Messiah Jesus to come and be born in Bethlehem as prophesied (Micah 5:2). But perhaps the greatest importance of deliverance for Israel was that in this rescue, God had once again fulfilled His promises to His chosen people. The promises found in Jeremiah 25:11–12 motivated Daniel to pray for his displaced people (Daniel 9:2–3) that they’d be ready for rescue when the time came.
 

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Acts 20:24 KJV
But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.


Finish Strong

As I enter the final few minutes of my forty-minute workout, I can almost guarantee that my instructor will yell out, “Finish strong!” Every personal trainer or group fitness leader I’ve known uses the phrase a few minutes before cool down. They know that the end of the workout is just as important as showing up for it. And they know that the human body has a tendency to want to slow down or slack off when it’s been in motion for a while.

The same is true in our journey with Jesus. Paul told the elders of the church at Ephesus that he needed to finish strong as he headed to Jerusalem, where he was certain to face more persecution as an apostle of Christ (Acts 20:17–24). Paul, however, was undeterred. He had a mission and that was to finish the journey he’d begun and to do what God called him to do. He had one job—to tell “the good news of God’s grace” (v. 24). And he wanted to finish strong. Even if hardship awaited him (v. 23), he continued to run toward his finish line—focused and determined to remain steadfast in his journey.

Whether we’re exercising our physical muscles or working out our God-given abilities through actions, words, and deeds, we too can be encouraged by the reminder to finish strong. Don’t “become weary” (Galatians 6:9). Don’t give up. God will provide what you need to finish strong.


Reflect & Pray
What do you do when you get tired and feel like giving up? What’s the benefit of finishing strong?

Help me keep going on this journey, Father. I want to finish strong so You get the glory for my life and journey.


Insight
Paul tells the leaders of the Ephesian church that he never hesitated to preach anything that would be “helpful” (Acts 20:20). This word is a translation of the Greek root word sympherō, which here means “to be for the better of, to confer benefit, or be profitable.” Darrell Bock, in the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Acts, describes this beneficial message as “the same to Jews and Greeks: repentance to God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 1:9–10; 1 Corinthians 9:20–23; 10:32–33). This combination (repentance and faith) is an excellent summary of Paul’s mission. Repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin.” For Paul, what’s profitable is a life dedicated to faith and growth in God. This is the message he preached and that he gave to others to preach.