Thus says the Lord: “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”
Jeremiah 6:16

 Recommended Reading: Luke 6:46-49

An American Old Testament scholar spent a summer studying in Jerusalem. He once listened to a Jewish rabbi recite the entire book of Psalms in Hebrew from memory. The rabbi didn’t miss a single word. In one sense, the rabbi knew the Bible, but in another sense he didn’t because he couldn’t see the Messiah—Jesus.

Likewise, there is a difference between knowing the way and walking in the way—a common biblical metaphor for the path one chooses to take. Jeremiah encouraged his hearers to seek the old, settled paths and “walk in [them].” And Jesus did the same: “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46) He went on to illustrate: The one who hears God’s words but doesn’t put them into practice is building a life without a foundation—destined to collapse (Luke 6:46-49).

Know the Bible? Yes! But the purpose of knowing is to discover the way in which to walk.

Apply yourself to the whole text, and apply the whole text to yourself.
J. A. Bengel

https://www.davidjeremiah.org

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Matthew 11:28-29

 Recommended Reading: 1 John 5:1-3

When the prophet Jeremiah warned Judah and Jerusalem that God was about to submit them to the “yoke” of Babylon in judgment, he actually wore a heavy wooden yoke around his own neck to illustrate his words (Jeremiah 28:10-13). A yoke connected two oxen for plowing, but it came to symbolize submission and oppression.

Jesus pictured the religious oppression of the Jews as “heavy burdens, hard to bear, [laid] on men’s shoulders” like a yoke laid on the shoulders of oxen (Matthew 23:4). God’s commandments “are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3), but the religious leaders had made them a burden by adding their own traditions to them (Mark 7:13). So Jesus invited people to come to Him and take His yoke upon them and learn the ways of God and “find rest for [their] souls,” for His yoke—His way—is easy and light (Matthew 11:29-30). 

The key to taking Jesus’ yoke is “come to Me.” Rest is not in religious requirements but in a relationship with Jesus.

Faith is reason at rest in God. 
Charles Spurgeon

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Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.
2 Corinthians 5:9

 Recommended Reading: Psalm 69:29-33

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said about his father and namesake, the famous NASCAR driver, “You wanted to please him all the time, make him happy.” That’s the way most of us feel about someone we admire. But sometimes we forget that our greatest satisfaction in life comes from pleasing our Heavenly Savior.

Just as Jesus focused on pleasing His Father, we should strive to please Him by living with virtue. Peter told us to add to our faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge (2 Peter 1:5). That involves having the attitudes and actions that please the Lord. Ephesians 5:10 says: “And find out what pleases the Lord” (NIV). Colossians 1:10 tells us to “live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God” (NIV).

Ask the Lord today to enable you to please Him in every thought, deed, habit, and word.

Every Christian should have a passion to please God. We are to delight in honoring Him. It is our greatest pleasure to please our Redeemer.
R. C. Sproul

https://www.davidjeremiah.org

The Lord will work out his plans for my life—for your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever.
Psalm 138:8, NLT

 Recommended Reading: Philippians 2:12-13

What are spiritual gifts, you ask? They are simply aspects of the work of Jesus Christ that the Holy Spirit wants to empower you to do. Henry Blackaby wrote, “Everyone who believes God’s good news of salvation and commits his life to Jesus Christ will receive the same Holy Spirit who indwelt the Son of God…. The Holy Spirit is the gift. He Himself is the indispensable gift of God to your life.”¹

When the apostle Paul told us to “work out” our salvation with “fear and trembling” in Philippians 2:12, he was thinking, in part, of our spiritual gifts. The Holy Spirit works into us the life of Jesus Christ, and we need to work out what the Spirit is working into us. How important to do our best to use our gifts actively and diligently for the glory of God. 

How does the Lord want to use you today? Thank Him in advance as you work out your spiritual gifts for His glory.

If you do not walk in the Spirit, you do not have a spiritual gift. Apart from the Spirit, whatever “gifts” we display can only be our natural talents, drawing attention to self.
Henry Blackaby

1. Henry Blackaby, What’s So Spiritual About Your Gifts? (Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah Books, 2004), 17-18.

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Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.
Romans 12:11

 Recommended Reading: 2 Peter 1:5-11

The word diligent means to pursue something with keen attention and effort. It’s a word that often appears in God’s Word. We’re to “diligently” heed Scripture and do what’s right in His sight (Exodus 15:26); we must keep His precepts diligently (Psalm 119:4). Paul wrote, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed” (2 Timothy 2:15). Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”

Peter used this word twice in the first chapter of his second letter. In verse 5, he told us to diligently add virtue to our faith, and knowledge to our virtue. And in verse 10, he said, “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure.”

God has a purpose for us, and He’s given us all we need to achieve it. We must therefore be diligent. Can you think of an area of your spiritual life that needs extra diligence today? Let’s pursue Christlikeness with keen attention and effort.

Patience and diligence, like faith, remove mountains. 
William Penn

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And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
2 Corinthians 9:8

 Recommended Reading: Romans 5:20-21

Most Christians know the story of the hymn “Amazing Grace.” The author was John Newton who was converted to Christ while engaged in the British slave trade in the eighteenth century. He went on to become a pastor and worked energetically to abolish the slave trade in England. Though his memory began to fail him in his final years, he was always clear about two things: “That I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior.”

Newton’s conviction—that God’s grace is greater than our sin—was probably based on Paul’s words in Romans 5:20: “Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.” As he wrote in “Amazing Grace,” Newton considered himself a “wretch” for having trafficked in the buying and selling of fellow human beings. But he found God’s grace and forgiveness to be greater than his sin.

Regardless of what you may have done, never wonder if God’s grace is sufficient for you. God makes “all grace abound toward you” in “all things,” qualifying you for “every good work.”

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!
John Newton

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His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life.
2 Peter 1:3, NIV

 Recommended Reading: Psalm 23

In 1943, Abraham Maslow, the son of Jewish immigrants to America, published his famous diagram illustrating the hierarchy of human needs. It was a triangle that explained our physical needs, our need for safety and love, and our need for esteem and for self-actualization. But Maslow was a humanist who neglected to mention our spiritual needs as described in the Bible.

Instead of devoting ourselves to trying to meet all our needs, the Bible tells us to devote ourselves to Him who can and will meet all our needs—physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, relationally, and eternally. His divine power has given us all we need for a life pleasing to Him.

The patriarch Jacob said, “God has been gracious to me and I have all I need” (Genesis 33:11, NIV).  Can you say the same thing today? Yes! With the psalmist we can all say in a moment of clarity, “Because the Lord is my Shepherd, I have everything I need!” (Psalm 23:1, TLB)

Be thankful for that today! Praise the Lord for His abundant provisions!

Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind; sight, riches, healing of the mind; yea, all I need in Thee to find, O Lamb of God, I come, I come! 
Charlotte Elliott

https://www.davidjeremiah.org

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:1

 Recommended Reading: John 14:27

The road to personal peace is a multilane highway in today’s world. There is a lane for peace through prosperity, peace through prestige, peace through possessions, peace through personal achievements, and more. But all those lanes to peace omit the one lane that is necessary before all others: peace with God. Once we have peace with God, it doesn’t matter what things happen in our life. In God, we can have a clear conscience and true contentment knowing that we are secure and protected in Him.

That raises the question: How do we find peace with God? In his letter to the Romans (chapter 4), after Paul explained how Abraham gained a relationship with God (by believing God—Genesis 15:6), he said that we find peace with God the same way: by being “justified by faith…through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Abraham was declared righteous by God, not by his deeds or works but by simply believing in Him. And we are declared righteous the same way (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Before you look for peace anywhere else, make sure you have peace with God through faith in Christ.

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.
C.S. Lewis

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Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16

 Recommended Reading: Luke 11:9-13

Jesus commended little children to His disciples, saying they should be like them (Matthew 18:3). In what way? Perhaps in their shamelessness—their willingness to ask for what they want or need without feeling guilty or embarrassed.

When Jesus taught His disciples about prayer, He used the example of a child who asked his father for bread, fish, or an egg (Matthew 7:9-11; Luke 11:11-13). He said that no child would expect to receive a stone, serpent, or scorpion instead! What father would treat a child that way? Jesus’ point: If imperfect human fathers will grant their children’s requests, how much more will a perfect Heavenly Father do the same for His children? The problem, Jesus said, is that we fail to ask, seek, and knock on heaven’s door; we give up too soon. He wanted the disciples to learn not to give up when it came to prayer (Luke 18:1). The original language says we are to keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking (Luke 11:9-10).

Go boldly today to God’s throne of grace. He is ready to meet your needs.

Believing prayer takes its stand upon the faithfulness of God.
D. Edmond Hiebert

https://www.davidjeremiah.org

But when you pray, go away by yourself, all alone, and shut the door behind you and pray to your Father secretly.
Matthew 6:6, TLB

 Recommended Reading: Matthew 6:5-8

The renowned Scottish minister Andrew Bonar wrote, “I should count the days, not by what I have of new instances of usefulness, but by the times I have been enabled to pray in faith, and to take hold upon God…. Prayer should make time for itself.”

Every part of modern life thwarts the needed habit of secret prayer. Our schedules are too busy, our phones are too engaging, our world is too noisy, and our fatigue is too great. Yet without prayer—systematic, secret, sacred prayer—we cannot manage our schedules, control our phones, quiet our world, or counteract our fatigue. Secret prayer brings us into the presence of the energizing God who stills and strengthens us, who teaches us the way to Himself and the paths to avoid, and who fills us with the confidence of His own infinite power.

Make time for daily secret prayer. If we live with an attitude of prayer, we’re always in His presence. Pray today that your whole life might be a prayer as you walk day by day with Him.

The Lord…made me feel that I must be as much with Him alone as with souls in public.
Andrew Bonar

https://www.davidjeremiah.org

Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath.
Romans 12:19, NIV

 Recommended Reading: Romans 12:14-21

Revenge is such an ugly word that perhaps you think you’re removed from it. But even as children, we schemed to “get even” when we thought someone did us wrong. As adults, we often have trouble knowing the difference between being hurt, becoming bitter, and evening the score. It’s human nature to defend our honor and seek vindication when attacked.

In facing conflict or oppression from the wicked, we must never let our hearts grow hardened. There may be just ways of solving the problem, but in the end it comes back to trusting God to vindicate us. Our Lord Jesus was abused, but He answered His critics, not with ten legions of angels, but with the most shocking event in history—His resurrection.

Pray that when times of conflict come, you will turn to Him and to His Word. Let Him give you wisdom to respond well, and trust Him to be your Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend.

May the gospel keep me humble and patient…. I don’t want to waste one more self-absorbed moment rehearsing things that hurt me and relishing personal revenge.
Scotty Smith

https://www.davidjeremiah.org

I am convinced that I will remain alive so I can continue to help all of you grow and experience the joy of your faith.
Philippians 1:25, NLT

 Recommended Reading: 2 Thessalonians 1:3-10

In 1991, NBA Lakers player Magic Johnson announced he had AIDS. In the years since, Magic and his wife, Cookie, have given their lives to Jesus Christ. In a social media post a couple of years ago, Magic said, “Today marks 30 years living with HIV…. Through it all I learned to trust in Jesus and I learned to trust in God!”¹

Notice the verb he used: learned.

Songwriter Andraé Crouch said the same thing: “Through it all, I’ve learned to trust in Jesus, I’ve learned to trust in God.” Trusting the Lord is a learning experience as we grow in faith. When we trust the Lord with today’s load, we see His faithfulness and learn to trust Him even more for tomorrow’s uncertainties. Paul told the Thessalonians, “We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly” (2 Thessalonians 1:3).

Whenever you face a crisis, turn to the Lord and find the needed promises in His Word. Pray today that God will help you trust Him more and more with every passing day.

Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, O for grace to trust Him more!
Louisa Stead

1. Nicole Alcindor, “ ‘I Learned to Trust in Jesus,’” The Christian Post, November 21, 2021.

https://www.davidjeremiah.org

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Romans 10:17

 Recommended Reading: Psalm 107:19-20

In the famous and epic movie The Ten Commandments, whenever Pharaoh would make a decision or issue an edict, he would say authoritatively, “So let it be written; so let it be done!” The royal scribes would dutifully record the Pharaoh’s words for posterity. The message was clear: Pharaoh’s words were powerful; they were the guiding force in Egypt.

In an even more authoritative way, the words of God are alive and powerful (Hebrews 4:12). By His words, God spoke into existence the earth and everything in it. Jesus is called the Word of God—the incarnation of the will and words of God (John 1:1-2). And Peter says that by God’s words—His “great and precious promises”—we become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). And Paul writes that our faith comes by hearing “the word of God” (Romans 10:17).

We gain power and maturity in our spiritual life as the Spirit of God illuminates the Word of God on a daily basis. Make God’s Word a priority in your life.

I hold one single sentence out of God’s word to be of more certainty, and of more power, than all the discoveries of all the learned men of all the ages.
Charles Spurgeon

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His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.
2 Peter 1:3

 Recommended Reading: Acts 1:8

Perhaps it happened to someone you know: a radical transformation after meeting Jesus Christ. Every life changes, but sometimes the change is so dramatic that it’s like the person was, well, born again—like the apostle Paul who went from murderous persecutor to missionary apostle. Nowhere was that change more evident than in the band of Christ’s disciples. Before Pentecost they were fearful; after Pentecost they were fearless.

What happened at Pentecost? The fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to them: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me…to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The Holy Spirit filled the disciples and empowered them to live as bold witnesses for Christ. One of those disciples, Peter, later wrote that God’s “divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness” through Christ.

If you are Christ’s today, you have power by the Spirit. You can do all things through Him (Philippians 4:13).

Christianity is not merely a program of conduct; it is the power of a new life.
Benjamin B. Warfield

https://www.davidjeremiah.org

So Samuel said: “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.”
1 Samuel 15:22

 Recommended Reading: Jeremiah 7:22-23

Sovereign authority is not an easy concept to grasp immediately. From a young age, children find creative ways not to obey a parent’s instructions, complete with rationalizations. Adults can do the same—like explaining to a police officer why we were exceeding the speed limit. But sovereign means sovereign, even when we don’t agree or understand.

Israel’s first king, Saul, learned obedience the hard way—twice. Once he performed sacrificial offerings instead of waiting for Samuel as he had been instructed and lost the promise of his kingship as a result (1 Samuel 13:8-14). Then he failed to totally destroy the Amalekites as he had been instructed and was removed as king (1 Samuel 15:12-34). In both cases, Saul had excuses and reasons for his disobedience. He learned that “to obey is better” when it comes to honoring God. Sadly, Saul learned that man’s ways are not God’s ways. He learned that God desires obedience above all.

Settle in your heart today that you will obey our sovereign God in all things, big or small.

Let us beware of being wiser than God.
John Blanchard

https://www.davidjeremiah.org

The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all.
Psalm 103:19

 Recommended Reading: Revelation 5:13

Sovereign of the Seas, a seventeenth-century British warship, was ordered by Charles I of England in 1634 and launched in 1637. Not only was Sovereign the most beautiful ship in the British navy, but she was also the most powerful, boasting 102 cannons. The goal for Sovereign was to manifest her name: to rule the oceans. She did that until 1696 when she caught fire and burned down to the waterline.

Temporary, partial sovereignty is not really sovereignty at all; one is either sovereign or not. When the Bible speaks of God’s sovereignty, it makes clear that He is sovereign over all. “Then 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 the one which shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7:14). God’s sovereignty is complete and never-ending.

Never let the troubles of this world, or your life, cause you to worry. Put your faith in the One who has all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18).

If God is not sovereign, then God is not God.
R.  C. Sproul

https://www.davidjeremiah.org

He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5

 Recommended Reading: Deuteronomy 31:7-8

It’s easy to say to a lonely person: “But remember, you have the Lord with you all the time!” That’s true, but it’s not what God said to Adam in the Garden of Eden: “It is not good that man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18). We’re created with an intense need for fellowship with both our Lord and with other people. We need both! Psalm 68:6 says, “God sets the solitary in families.”

If you feel alone, work specifically on cultivating your daily walk with the Lord and enjoy His fellowship. Then, in that context, ask Him to bring into your life a person or group of people who can be a family for you. Of course, we can’t be passive in the process. We need to find someone to whom we can minister and a church in which we can become involved.

The Lord knows all our needs, and He has promised to meet them. Don’t give up and don’t despair. Lean on Him who will never leave or forsake you.

God [is] at work, ready to transform our loneliness into a positive experience that…draws us into the very thing we long for: a closer, deeper, more satisfying relationship with Him and others.
Ruth Graham

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I cry out to the Lord with my voice; with my voice to the Lord I make my supplication.
Psalm 142:1

 Recommended Reading: John 15:14-15

Those who have a best friend are blessed with a relationship of transparency and acceptance. For some, it is a sibling, for others, a non-family member. That may be what Proverbs 18:24 refers to as “a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

A friend is a person to whom you can pour out your heart, a person who will not judge you for the feelings you express. For David the psalmist that friend was God Himself. When David found himself alone and oppressed by those who opposed him, he cried out to the Lord. That is, he used his voice to tell God what he was experiencing and how he was feeling (Psalm 142). He didn’t hold back; he trusted his covenant friendship with God was strong enough to withstand his flood of words and emotions. In John 15, Jesus introduced a new relationship with His disciples: He called them His friends (John 15:14-15). Their relationship changed from Master/servant to Friend/friend. And so it is with us.

When you are lonely, discouraged, or confused, tell Jesus. He invites you as a friend to come unto Him (Matthew 11:28-30).

What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
Joseph M. Scriven

https://www.davidjeremiah.org

Then beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage
Deuteronomy 6:12

 Recommended Reading: Joshua 4:19-24

Philosopher George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” That usually refers to remembering the mistakes of the past—if we don’t remember them, we are likely to make them again. But the same could be said about blessings. If we fail to remember the blessings of the past, we are more likely to fear the future.

When Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land, he had a stone memorial built after they crossed the Jordan River. It was to remind future generations that God not only dried up the Jordan so they could cross, but He also parted the Red Sea so they could escape the Egyptian army (Joshua 4:19-24). Before Jesus returned to heaven, He instituted a memorial meal by which, when celebrated, future generations of believers could remember His death for them. Remembering the blessings of the past is a powerful motivation for facing the future.

Do you keep a journal or diary in which you record what God has done in your life? It is a helpful way never to forget.

How worthy it is to remember former benefits when we come to beg for new.
Stephen Charnock

https://www.davidjeremiah.org

For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy.
Psalm 61:3

 Recommended Reading: 2 Samuel 22:2-3

In ancient walled cities a tower was often erected at a corner of the walls or over a city gate. It served as a refuge—a place from which to defend the city from attacks and to protect inhabitants. (See Judges 9:50-55.) A strong tower became a metaphor for God as a place of refuge and protection: “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe” (Proverbs 18:10).

Today, our cities don’t have walls or towers. Our enemies are spiritual and circumstantial more than physical. So where do we run when we feel we are under attack or experiencing trouble? We do spiritually what people did physically in the Old Testament—we flee to our spiritual tower which is God Himself. In due course, the Israelites began to refer to God as their “strong tower” and “fortress.” His covenant promises and love were what they depended on for protection and comfort. The same is true for us today.

The strength and protection of God are found in His promises to us. Embrace God and His Word; put your faith in Him by trusting His promises.

A sovereign Protector I have, unseen, yet forever at hand.
Augustus M. Toplady

https://www.davidjeremiah.org