Daily Devotions

Grace Invader Your life is not good because it is easy or predictable, but because the I Am has invaded your existence by his grace.  Read Mark 6:45–52 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+6%3A45%E2%80%9352&version=NIV Mark 6:45–52 is a very instructive section for us in the life of Jesus and his disciples.  Jesus has sent his disciples across the Sea of Galilee to Bethsaida. They have encountered an impossible headwind and angry seas. If you look at the time clues in the larger passage, you can see they have been rowing for about eight hours. They are in a situation that seems impossible, exhausting, frustrating, and potentially dangerous. They are far beyond their strength and ability.  As you read the passage, you have to ask yourself why Jesus would ever want his disciples in this kind of difficulty. It’s clear that they’re not in this mess because they’ve been disobedient, arrogant, or unwise, but because they have obeyed Jesus.  Jesus sees...

Success You’re going to hunger for some success in life. May you hunger for the complete success of the gospel in your heart.  Read Matthew 6:25–34 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+6%3A25%E2%80%9334&version=NIV You and I don’t live by instinct. We are value-oriented, goal-oriented, purpose-oriented, and importance-oriented human beings. We are constantly rating everything in our lives. We all have things that are important to us and things that are not, things that mean a lot to us and things that mean very little. We willingly make sacrifices for one thing and refuse to sacrifice for another. We grieve the loss of one thing and celebrate the loss of another. We love what another person hates and we see as a treasure something that another person thinks is trash. We look at something and see beauty while the person next to us sees no beauty in it at all. Some things are so important to us that they shape the decisions that we make and the actions that w...

Grace every day Admit it, we’re all still a bit of a mess; that’s why we need God’s grace today as much as we needed it the first day we believed. Read Psalm 32 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+32&version=NIV You and I need to say it to ourselves again and again. We need to look in the mirror and make the confession as part of our morning routine. Here’s what we all need to say: “I am not a grace graduate.” It is so tempting to mount arguments for your own righteousness: “That really wasn’t lust. I’m just a man who enjoys beauty.” “That really wasn’t gossip. It was just a very detailed, very personal prayer request.” “I wasn’t angry at my kids. I was just acting as one of God’s prophets. ‘Thus says the Lord . . .’” “I’m not on an ugly quest for personal power. No, I’m just exercising God-given leadership gifts.” “I’m not coldhearted and stingy. I’m just trying to be a good steward of what God has given me.” “I wasn’t being proud. I just thought someone needed to t...

Grace and Law Why do we say we place our hope in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and yet practically ask the law to do what only grace can accomplish? Read Romans 5:12–21 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+5%3A12%E2%80%9321&version=NIV It’s done every day in Christian homes around the world. Well-meaning parents, zealous to see their children doing what is right, ask the law to do in the lives of their children what only grace can accomplish. They think that if they have the right set of rules, the right threat of punishment, and consistent enforcement, their children will be okay. In ways these parents fail to understand, they have reduced parenting to being a law-giver, a prosecutor, a jury, and a jailer. They think that their job is to do anything they can to shape, control, and regulate the behavior of their children. And in their zeal to control behavior, they look to the tools of threat (“I’ll make you afraid enough that you’ll never do this again.”), mani...

Grace and Envy Envy denies grace. The assumption of envy is that we deserve what another has been given, when, in fact, you and I deserve nothing. Read James 3:13–18 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+3%3A13%E2%80%9318&version=NIV Envy is self-focused and self-righteous. It inserts you into the center of your world. It makes it all about you. It tells you that you deserve what you don’t deserve. Envy is expectant and demanding. Envy tells you that you are someone you aren’t and you are entitled to what is not rightfully yours. Envy cannot celebrate the blessing of another because it tells you that you are more deserving. Envy tells you that you have earned what you could never earn. The world of envy no more mixes with the world of grace than oil does with water. Envy forgets who you are, forgets who God is, and is confused about what life is all about. Yet, having said all of that, the fact is that all of us struggle with envy somehow, some way, and at some time. W...

God's goodness and our doubts Read James 1:12-18 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+1%3A12-18&version=NIV When hardship comes your way, will you tell yourself it’s a tool of God’s grace and a sign of his love, or will you give in to doubting his goodness?  If you are not on God’s redemptive agenda page, you will end up doubting his goodness. One of the most important questions you could ask is: “What is God doing in the here and now?” The follow-up question is also important: “How should I respond to it?” It is nearly impossible to think about life properly and to live appropriately if you are fundamentally confused about what God is doing. If someone were to ask you the first of those two questions, how would you respond? Are you tracking with God’s agenda? Are you after what God’s after? Are you living in a way that is consistent with what God is doing? Do you struggle with questions of God’s love, faithfulness, wisdom, and goodness? Do you ever envy the ...

Rest in Christ Read Psalm 139 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+139&version=NIV Today you’ll look to find rest by trying to understand your life, or you’ll rest in the One who understands everything, including your life. Yes, it’s true, we’re all theologians, scientists, archaeologists, and philosophers. We’re created by God to be meaning makers. We never leave our lives alone. We pick through them all the time, trying to make sense out of the civilization that they comprise. We do forensic investigations of our past, we leaf through the layers of our present, and we try our best to figure out the future. Made in the image of God, we live our lives based not on the facts of our experiences, but on our unique interpretations of those facts. That’s why the little girl asks that seemingly endless list of “why” questions; she has an inner drive to know. That’s why the teenager seems a bit lost; he is trying to figure his life out. That’s why the bride is a bit nervous ...

Strength in Christ Read Psalm 27 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+27&version=NIV Don’t fear your weaknesses—God supplies all the strength you need. Be afraid of those moments when you think you’re independently strong. Admit it, you don’t like being weak. It’s not fun being the last one chosen to play on the team. It’s embarrassing to be asked a question you can’t answer. It’s frustrating not to be able to figure out the directions for assembling the furniture you just bought. It’s mortifying to forget that important appointment or the name of a good friend. It’s humbling to fail at a task, to drop the ball, or to make a promise and not be able to keep it. We don’t like getting lost or forgetting a phone number. We all hate those moments when we feel unqualified or unprepared. We don’t like being confused or not knowing. We covet the muscles and the brains of others. We all hate being afraid and wish we had more courage. In the face of heroes, we feel anything bu...

Peace in Christ Read Ephesians 2:11-22 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+2%3A11-22+&version=NIV In Christ, you have everything you need to live in peace with God and the people he has placed in your life. Grace produces what you and I desperately need but have no power to produce on our own—vertical and horizontal peace. Jesus really is the Prince of Peace! Sin alienates us from God and one another. Sin makes us the enemies of God and casts us into constant conflict with other people. Sin cuts us off from the two communities of love that we were created to live in—loving and worshipful community with God and loving community with others. Sin makes us better fighters than lovers. Sin is antisocial; it is fundamentally destructive to the relationships that are to shape our lives.  We desperately need peace, but it often seems as if there is no peace to be found. This is why Isaiah’s Old Testament prophecy of a Prince of Peace who was to come was so impor...

Freedom in Christ Read Genesis 3 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis+3&version=NIV We will never get the freedom and long-term satisfaction we thought self-rule would bring. Ignoring God is never a pathway to blessing. There are two lies that tempt each of us somehow, some way. They are the lies that fueled the disastrous choice of Adam and Eve in that moment of temptation in the garden. Yes, it is true, these lies have as much power today as they did then.  The first is the lie of autonomy. This lie says that you are an independent human being with the right to live as you wish. Now, if you’re a parent, you know that your children fall into embracing that lie. That’s why they don’t hunger for more of your correction and don’t esteem your authority. From day one, our children want to believe that their lives belong to them and that they are the only authority that they need. But we don’t belong to ourselves. If God created us—and he did—then we belong to him. I...