But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.—Romans 5:8 (NIV)
Have you ever taken a moment to dwell on the profound depth of God’s love for you? It’s a love that reaches you even when you are at your lowest. Allow this truth to seep into the core of your being: You are cherished.
Heavenly Father, I will bask in the fullness of Your love.
Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment. Romans 12:3
Today’s Scripture
Romans 12:3-8
Listen to Today’s Devotional
Today’s Devotional
Do you ever feel like a fraud? You aren’t alone! In the late 1970s, two researchers identified “imposter syndrome” as the condition of doubting one’s skills, talents, or abilities and interpreting oneself as a fraud. Even successful and brilliant people struggle with inadequacy, worrying that if anyone peeked behind the curtain of their lives, they’d see how much they don’t know.
Paul exhorts the people of the first-century church in Rome to be humble: “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment” (Romans 12:3). We understand the importance of not elevating our abilities. But when we doubt our own value, we go too far, robbing others of the gifts God wants us to use to serve Him. To think of ourselves with “sober judgment” (v. 3) is to have a sane estimation—a realistic regard—for what we offer. Paul nudges us to overcome our hesitancies, to embrace who we are “in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of [us]” (v. 3). In this way, God’s body of believers may be built up (vv. 4-8).
Rather than degrading our offerings with imposter syndrome, let’s embrace God’s giftings within us. By gratefully accepting His grace, we can think neither too highly nor too lowly of ourselves. In doing so, we please our Father and build up Christ’s body of believers.
Reflect & Pray
Where do you struggle with imposter syndrome? How can God offer you faith to overcome?
Dear God, please help me to see myself the way You see me, in accordance with the measure of faith You give.
For further study, read For When I Am Weak, Then I Am Strong.
Today’s Insights
Paul’s call for us to have “sober judgment” (Romans 12:3) regarding our abilities and giftings comes just before he compares Christ’s church to “one body with many members” (v. 4). Everything we have is a gift, including our faith (v. 3) and our talents (vv. 6-8). A proper self-awareness recognizes that we’re neither worthless nor indispensable. We’re not worthless because we’re created in God’s image and redeemed by His Son who died for us. And we’re not indispensable because all our gifts and abilities come from Him in the first place. He equips all who believe in Him to serve Him and others. But it’s essential that believers do this work together, as one body. Such interdependency requires love, which the apostle highlights in the next section. “Love must be sincere,” he wrote (v. 9). When we accept God’s grace, we’ll see ourselves as He sees us and “be devoted to one another in love [and] honor one another above [ourselves]” (v. 10).
But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out].
Hebrews 11:6 (AMPC)
Seeking God is central to our walk with Him; it is vital for spiritual progress. But what exactly does it mean to seek God?
One way we seek God is to think about Him—thinking about His Word, His ways, what He has done for us, how good He is, and how much we love Him. Thinking about His goodness will cause us to desire a better relationship with Him simply because of Who He is, not because of what He can do for us. As you seek Him regularly, you will come to know Him more intimately and realize that He is your loving Father, Who cares about every aspect of your life.
Prayer of the Day: Father, help me seek You daily—not just for what You can do, but because of Who You are. Deepen my love for You and my trust in Your care.
Two very disparate stories are headlining the news this morning.
First, President Trump stated on social media last night that he has signed the bill that directs the Department of Justice (DOJ) to publicly release all its Jeffrey Epstein-related files. Senators from both parties said the DOJ must now release the files within thirty days.
Second, the Associated Press is reporting that “the House voted overwhelmingly yesterday to repeal part of a new law that gives senators the ability to sue the federal government for millions of dollars if their personal or office data is accessed without their knowledge.”
The Senate included such a provision in the funding bill that ended the recent government shutdown. This was in response to reports that the FBI analyzed phone records of as many as ten senators in 2023 as part of an investigation into President Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The House was “blindsided” by the provision and has voted to overturn it. Now the Senate must decide how to respond.
“The definition and axioms of free society”
I have the greatest admiration for Abraham Lincoln. I have visited his birthplace in Kentucky, stood near where he stood at Gettysburg, and been in the theater where he was shot and the home where he died.
I have enormous respect for Thomas Jefferson as well. While I grieve his failures and hypocrisy concerning slavery, I am grateful for his brilliant intellect and revelatory wisdom so foundational to America’s birth. I have visited his Virginia home and burial site and stood in awe beside the room in Philadelphia where he wrote the Declaration of Independence.
However, I must audaciously disagree with something Mr. Lincoln said about Mr. Jefferson.
In Jon Meacham’s magisterial biography, And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle, we find a statement in which Mr. Lincoln praises Mr. Jefferson: “The principles of Jefferson are the definition and axioms of free society.” Meacham adds that “chief among [them] was that all men were created equal.”
Mr. Lincoln elaborated:
All honor to Jefferson—to the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so to embalm it there that today, and in all coming days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling block to the very harbingers of re-appearing tyranny and oppression.
If only it were true.
Why are there 49,000 federal laws?
In the partisan political furor over the Epstein files, with each side looking for ways to attack the other, the victims of Epstein’s sexual abuse and sex trafficking are all too easily overlooked. Even senators, occupying one of the highest echelons of political power in the land, can reportedly be victimized by the government they lead.
From Cain and Abel to crimes generating headlines today, fallen humans have consistently and often emphatically rejected Thomas Jefferson’s assertion that “all men are created equal.” Pornography objectifies people made in the image of God; sex trafficking commercializes souls for whom Jesus died; crime victimizes people loved infinitely by their Creator.
The beating heart of our fallen nature is the will to power: our quest to be our own god (Genesis 3:5) at the expense of everyone else. All the while, they are doing the same at our expense. Is it any wonder that the US has enacted over forty-nine thousand federal laws across our history? Or that they consistently fail to restrict our behavior or reform our character?
And yet, despite all our failed attempts to legislate morality, we persist in the effort. In large part, this is because abandoning the effort obviously would lead to anarchy and chaos. But also, this quest for a just society reveals something transcendent about our souls.
“The echo of a tune we have not heard”
This week, we have been focusing on the transforming power of intimacy with Jesus. Today, let’s add a very different dimension to the conversation.
In “The Weight of Glory,” C. S. Lewis identifies “a desire for something that has never actually appeared in our experience.” He speaks of books or music, for example, in which we experience beauty but never quite attain the deeper beauty to which they point. As he notes, “They are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.”
I myself have had this experience many times. Sitting on my favorite bench beside my favorite lake; watching the sun rise or set over the ocean; hiking in the woods amid blossoming dogwoods and azaleas on a glorious spring morning. I have been privileged to visit places that will remain fixed in my memory to the end of my life—the sunrise over the Sea of Galilee, the hushed beauty of the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem, the majesty of the Acropolis in Athens, and the wonder of the Pantheon in Rome spring to mind.
But each and every time, without exception, there was a nagging sense in the back of my soul that this is not “it.” There is something more, something beyond this, something more perfect of which this is a beautiful but ethereal imitation. Plato was right in calling this world a “shadow” of the ideal. We legislate against our immorality and strive for beauty and joy with all our hearts, but we never actually attain what we seek. Even when it seems we do, the moment passes and the shadows envelop us once more.
Lewis had the explanation to which I am pointing us today:
If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.
“When I am weak, then I am strong”
If nothing in this fallen world can satisfy our souls, let’s use the temporal to experience the eternal, the material to unite with the spiritual, the mundane to seek the transcendent. Aristotle corrected Plato by claiming that the ideal is found in the material, and in a sense he was right.
If God is truly omnipresent, we can meet him in every moment and place. If he is truly omnibenevolent, we can experience his love even in the most loveless moments. If he is truly omniscient, we can find his wisdom and follow his guidance even in the darkest valleys. If he is truly omnipotent, we can experience his transforming strength even in our greatest weakness.
In fact, it is likely that it is in just such moments that such revelations will come. When Paul trusted his “thorn in the flesh” to God’s providence, he discovered that he could say, “When I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).
What is your “thorn” today? Where are you most disappointed or frustrated with life? Conversely, if your circumstances happen to be joyful this morning, are they enough for your soul?
The Bible assures us, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8). In just the moment where you find yourself today, can I invite you to seek “with all your heart” the Father who is seeking you (Jeremiah 29:13)?
Quote for the day:
“You can’t truly rest until every area of your life rests in God.” —A. W. Tozer
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by Henry M. Morris III, D.Min.
“Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house.” (Colossians 4:15)
Some Pauline epistles, which included the letter to the church at Colossae, were written during Paul’s imprisonment in Rome, approximately from AD 60 to 62. Three cities (Ephesus, Philippi, and Colossae) were close together and were near Laodicea. Paul instructs Nymphas to read the Colossians letter to the church at Laodicea.
There is a group labeled “fellow workers” (Colossians 4:11)—Tychicus, Onesimus, Aristarchus, Marcus, and Justus. They were the men who ministered to Paul in Rome. There were also friends from the third missionary journey: Epaphras, Demas, Nymphas, and Archippus from the cities around Colossae who kept in close contact and probably supported Paul financially. Luke, the “beloved physician,” apparently joined Paul on the second missionary journey on the trip to Rome (Acts 16—the “we” passages).
Several godly attributes are identified with these men. “Beloved brother” is used to emphasize the intense relationship that Paul had with some of these men. “Faithful minister” (a “deacon”), along with “fellow servant” and “fellow worker,” stresses the service Paul enjoyed with them. “Fellow prisoner” is an obvious identification.
“Labouring fervently” (the Greek word agonizomai) is used to speak of Epaphras (Colossians 4:12), who was always praying for the church at Colossae with great zeal. This and other lists such as the sixteenth chapter of Romans give us precious insight into the lives of godly men and women who shared the lives of key leaders and made their ministry more effective.
May it please the Lord Jesus to have us so named in “the books” of eternity (Revelation 20:12). HMM III
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace. — Ephesians 1:7
Beware of the pleasant view of the fatherhood of God, the view that says the reason God forgives us is that he is so kind and loving. This idea has no place in the New Testament. The only ground on which God can forgive us and reinstate us in his favor is the tremendous tragedy of the cross of Christ. It is “through his blood” that our sins are forgiven. To put forgiveness on any other ground is blasphemy.
Forgiveness is easy for us to accept, but it wasn’t easily won. Forgiveness cost God the agony of Calvary. It’s possible for us to forget this and to take everything God gives us with the simplicity of faith—to take forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit and our sanctification without recalling the enormous price he paid to make them ours. Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace, a miracle wrought in the atonement. Never accept a view of the fatherhood of God that erases the atonement. The revelation of God is that he cannot forgive without the cross of Jesus Christ. If he did, he would compromise his holiness and contradict his nature. God’s forgiveness is natural only in the supernatural domain.
Compared with the miracle of the forgiveness of sin, the experience of sanctification is slight. Sanctification is simply the expression of the forgiveness of sins in a human life. The thing that awakens the deepest well of gratitude in a human being is that God has forgiven sin. The apostle Paul had this well awakened in him, and he never got away from it. When you, like Paul, realize what it cost to forgive you, you will be held as he was: in an iron grip, constrained by the love of God.
Wisdom from Oswald
The main characteristic which is the proof of the indwelling Spirit is an amazing tenderness in personal dealing, and a blazing truthfulness with regard to God’s Word.Disciples Indeed, 386 R
The one who is the true Light arrived to shine on everyone coming into the world.
—John 1:9 (TLB)
The world is stumbling in darkness from one crisis to another. The crises are getting worse and worse, and are coming closer and closer to home. Inflation, population explosion, hunger, dominate vast areas of the world. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. You follow me and give your life to me and I’ll take you out of the darkness of this world, out of this confusion, out of this mess that you’re in, and I’ll give you peace and joy. A light will burn in your heart and mind that you never had before. I will command the light to come on in your life.”
Prayer for the day
Your light shines in the darkest place and gives me hope, Lord Jesus.
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.—Luke 6:35 (ESV)
Let kindness be the language you speak today as a silent yet profound testament to God’s presence in your life. As you walk in kindness, you uplift others and draw closer to Him by experiencing the joy and peace that comes from acting in love.
Lord, I draw nearer to You with every act of compassion.
The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer. Psalm 6:9
Today’s Scripture
Psalm 6:4-10
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Today’s Devotional
The freelance project wasn’t working out well. The clients were demanding what seemed to be the impossible, and I was stressed and discouraged. My first reaction was just to walk away from it, which would mean not getting paid for the work I’d done—and also eliminating the possibility of future projects with them. Then the thought came to me: Have you prayed to God yet?
Mentally slapping my forehead, I realized that I’d neglected to ask God for help! And so I prayed . . . and immediately felt better. Nothing had changed—the project remained challenging—but I felt peace wash over me. Now I knew I could rest in God: I’d just do whatever I could and leave the outcome to Him.
Perhaps David felt the same way when he submitted his fears and worries to God. In Psalm 6, he starts off describing his anguish at being hounded by his enemies (vv. 3, 7). But as he continued turning to God for help, he felt reassured: “The Lord has heard my cry . . . the Lord accepts my prayer” (v. 9).
That truth came with the hope that he would be delivered, in God’s time and way (v. 10). Prayer isn’t some feel-good technique, but it’s a direct connection with the all-seeing, all-powerful One who will help us in His time and way. Feeling down or discouraged? Just pray—God hears.
Reflect & Pray
What troubles or worries are you facing now? How can you remind yourself to keep bringing them to God?
Dear God, thank You for hearing my prayers for help. Please grant me peace, for I know I can leave my troubles in Your mighty, loving hands.
For further study, listen to Praying with God.
Today’s Insights
Though the occasion isn’t identified, David’s calamity in Psalm 6 is clear: “Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint; heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony. My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord, how long?” (vv. 2-3). The weightiness of the situation also comes through in verses 6-7: “I am worn out from my groaning. . . . My eyes grow weak with sorrow.” From the aches and ashes of his distress, David’s prayers arose (vv. 4-5), and God heard them (vv. 8-9). The same principle is in play in 1 Samuel 1. Hannah, who was childless and oppressed with grief, cried out to God (v. 10). He answered her (vv. 17, 20), and she responded in praise to His goodness (2:1-10). When we’re in trouble, discouraged, or worried, we can come to God in prayer and be assured that He hears us and will answer according to His will.
Listen to how God’s peace replaces worry when we draw near in prayer.
Samuel said, Has the Lord as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice….
1 Samuel 15:22 (AMPC)
Whenever Christians are faced with God’s Word, and it calls them to action, but they refuse to obey, their own human reasoning is often the cause. They have deceived themselves into believing something other than the truth.
It is amazing how quickly we can talk ourselves out of doing something when deep down inside we really don’t want to do it. James 1:22 (AMPC) is very clear when it says: But be doers of the Word [obey the message], and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves [into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth].
When the Bible speaks about obeying the Lord, it is not a suggestion. God commands us to take action by being a doer of His Word, and when we are obedient, He promises we will be blessed.
Prayer of the Day: Lord, help me think ahead with wisdom and live each day with calmness and purpose. Teach me to respond thoughtfully and gratefully, remembering that every day is Your gift, amen.
A chatbot is a “program or application that users can converse with using voice or text.” The bots simulate human conversation by using natural language processing to understand users and respond to their questions.
I suppose it was inevitable that chatbots would come not only to customer service, e-commerce, entertainment, and media but also to the church. Here are some examples:
And there’s even Text With Jesus, an AI-powered chatbot billed as “a divine connection in your pocket.” It invites you to “embark on a spiritual journey and engage in enlightening conversations with Jesus Christ, the apostles, and a multitude of other revered figures from the Bible.”
Of course, chatbots creating the illusion that we are talking directly with Jesus are just that—illusions. However, many of us who would never use an app to talk to Christ nonetheless have a “chatbot” relationship with the real Jesus.
I know. For many years, I was one of them.
God with a massive set of scales
As I have often recounted, I grew up in a family that never attended church services. I believed there was a God but had no concept of a personal relationship with him.
In my theological worldview, he was a divine judge with a massive set of scales, balancing the good I did on one side against the bad on the other. Whichever way the scale tipped determined where I went when I died. Since I thought I was basically a good person, I assumed I had all of God I needed in my life.
As a teenager, I was invited to attend a local Baptist church, where I heard the gospel and eventually made a commitment to trust in Christ as my Savior and Lord. I then began practicing what I understood the Christian life to be—praying, reading the Bible, attending church services, serving others, and sharing my faith. Over time, I sensed a call into vocational ministry (another story for another day). Theological degrees followed, as did service on a seminary faculty and pastoral ministry in three churches.
Then came a day that changed everything.
“Trying to prove to yourself that you are loved”
I was pastoring a church in Atlanta, Georgia, when our staff participated in a silent retreat at Ignatius House, a Jesuit retreat center on the Chattahoochee River. During the retreat, we were given an essay by the writer Mike Yaconelli in which he recounted a remarkable experience at a spiritual retreat of his own. He testified:
God had been trying to shout over the noisiness of my life, and I couldn’t hear him. But in the stillness and solitude, his whispers shouted from my soul, “Michael, I am here. I have been calling you. I have been loving you, but you haven’t been listening. Can you hear me, Michael? I love you. I have always loved you. And I have been waiting for you to hear me say that to you. But you have been so busy trying to prove to yourself that you are loved that you have not heard me.”
What God said to Mike, he said to me. In those days, my Father showed me that he wants a personal, intimate relationship with me above all else. He wants to be as real, alive, and active in my life as any other living person. More so, in fact, since he and I can commune directly any time, any place.
By contrast, I was relating to him as transactionally as I would to a chatbot: asking questions and deriving answers and advice. I prayed when I needed forgiveness or guidance, read his word to prepare sermons and Bible studies, and worshiped as part of my pastoral responsibilities. But I could not remember the last time I spent an hour with Jesus just to be with Jesus. I could not remember the last time I read the Bible for no reason except to hear his voice.
And this broke my heart: I could not remember the last time I told Jesus from my heart that I loved him.
“So shall your God rejoice over you”
Yesterday, we focused on life-changing intimacy with God. The day before, we discussed the private sins that imperil such intimacy. Today, let’s add one more fact: sins no one else sees are just as effective in blocking the Holy Spirit as those that are obvious. Such sins are even more nefarious in a way, since we think we can commit them, confess them, and face no consequences for them.
In truth, they are bricks in a wall separating us from the personal, transforming presence of Jesus.
By contrast, seeking true intimacy with Jesus is the path to experiencing his best and reflecting his transforming character to a broken culture. Our Lord says of his people, “As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you” (Isaiah 62:5). He is already “living among you” as your “mighty savior” (Zephaniah 3:17a NLT). As a result, “He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs” (v. 17b NLT).
If you want to experience his delight, gladness, love, calm, and joy, ask his Spirit to lead you into greater intimacy with Jesus than you have ever known, then follow his lead. There will be things to do and stop doing, steps to take as you journey further into his transforming presence. He promises: “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).
Dr. Duane Brooks noted in a recent devotional,
“We cannot go with God and stay where we are.”
Will you “go with God” today?
Quote for the day:
“To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him the greatest achievement.” —St. Augustine
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by Henry M. Morris III, D.Min.
“Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.” (Colossians 4:5-6)
Time is the most precious resource available to us. Obviously, it becomes available moment by moment, and there is absolutely no way to recapture what has moved into the past. “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).
Our lifestyle should be recognizable from the wisdom that comes from the “fear of the LORD” (Psalm 111:10), so much so that our everyday conversation should not be “in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:13).
“Every idle word that men shall speak” will one day be evaluated “in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36). It is clear that “God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:14).
That is why we are to “redeem the time.” The Greek term is exagoradzo, meaning to buy up or to make the most of time “because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16). Our speech must be consciously planned to “answer every man” in such a way that it is “alway with grace, seasoned with salt”—two apparently opposite characteristics.
Our words should be “as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones” (Proverbs 16:24), “but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it?” (Mark 9:50). It is the combined power that is important; “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15). HMM III
When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin. —John 16:8
Very few of us know anything about the conviction of sin. We know what it feels like to be disturbed at having done something wrong, but we don’t know conviction. To be convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit is to have every earthly relationship blotted out and to stand alone with the heavenly Father, knowing fully whom we have wronged: “Against you, you only, have I sinned” (Psalm 51:4).
When we are convicted of sin in this way, we know with every power of our conscience that God dare not forgive us—not without a price being paid. If he did, it would mean that we have a stronger sense of justice than God. God’s forgiveness is the great miracle of his grace, but it cost him the breaking of his heart in the death of Christ. Only through this death is the divine nature able to forgive while remaining true to itself. It’s shallow nonsense to say that the reason God forgives us is that God is love. Once we’ve been convicted of sin, we’ll never say this again. The love of God means Calvary and nothing less. The love of God is written on the cross and nowhere else. Only on the cross is God’s conscience satisfied.
Forgiveness doesn’t mean only that I am saved from hell and made right for heaven. It means that I am forgiven into a new relationship; I am re-created and identified with God in Christ. The miracle of redemption is that God turns me, an unholy being, into the standard of himself, the Holy One. He does this by giving me a new disposition, the disposition of his Son, Jesus Christ.
Wisdom from Oswald
We all have the trick of saying—If only I were not where I am!—If only I had not got the kind of people I have to live with! If our faith or our religion does not help us in the conditions we are in, we have either a further struggle to go through, or we had better abandon that faith and religion. The Shadow of an Agony, 1178 L
Keep a close watch on all you do and think. Stay true to what is right …
—1 Timothy 4:16 (TLB)
In searching for ways to bridge the generation gap, there is no doubt that we, as parents, will have to practice what we preach, by striving more and more to bring our conduct into line with our code of beliefs.
No mother can demand that her daughter abstain from sleeping around when she herself is flirting and on occasion compromising her own moral conduct. No father, who wavers between heavy social drinking and occasional binges to the edge of alcoholism, and who can’t speak a pleasant word in the morning until he has had a cigarette, can yell incessantly at his son to get off marijuana, the route that often leads to hard drugs.
Consistency, constancy, and undeviating diligence to maintain Christian character are a must if the older generation is to command respect, or even a hearing, from the young.
Prayer for the day
Younger eyes see my errant behavior, Lord. Help me to be the right example—one which will draw them to You.
If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.—James 1:5 (NIV)
Faced with decisions, large or small, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Yet this verse offers a powerful solution: Ask God for wisdom. Share your choices before Him, seeking not just answers but the wisdom to understand His guidance.
Lord, I trust Your generous guidance to lead me according to Your will.
If we died with him, we will also live with him. 2 Timothy 2:11
Today’s Scripture
2 Timothy 2:8-13
Listen to Today’s Devotional
Today’s Devotional
Physician Christian Ntizimira sensed God’s calling to provide end-of-life care in under-resourced areas of his home country of Rwanda. Colleagues often didn’t see the value of such care because “these patients were already considered hopeless.” But Ntizimira found that for patients and their families, his “presence offered a rekindling of hope when all seemed lost.” Ntizimira is grounded in his work by the conviction that Jesus’ death and life can transform how we approach death because “the death of Christ is the source of life.”
In 2 Timothy, the apostle Paul testified to how the reality that Jesus “destroyed death and . . . brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (1:10) changed how he understood his suffering. Though Paul was a prisoner facing possible execution (2:9), Jesus’ resurrection grounded him in his calling—to point others to salvation through Christ (v. 10). For “if we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him” (vv. 11-12).
Dying with Jesus doesn’t just mean what happens at believers’ literal deaths. In his letter to the Romans, Paul explained that, as symbolized in baptism, believers are united with Christ’s Spirit in His death and resurrection life (Romans 6:4-8).
Because Christ lives in us, even when we face death’s terrors, we can live for and witness to Him.
Reflect & Pray
When have you unexpectedly witnessed hope? How can believers witness to Christ’s resurrection?
Merciful God, please help me witness to the love and hope of Jesus.
Learn more about being a witness by reading Faithful to the Gospel.
Today’s Insights
Paul encourages Timothy to endure hardship for the sake of the gospel (2 Timothy 2:3) and reminds him to “remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead” (v. 8). The faith of believers in Jesus is anchored in Christ’s death and resurrection. The apostle reminds us that those who endure suffering for Jesus’ sake will reign with Him, but those who reject Him in the face of persecution will be rejected by Him (v. 12; see Matthew 10:22, 32-33; Hebrews 10:38-39). We can endure suffering because of the faithfulness of Christ. And even when our commitment isn’t as consistent or strong as it should be, He’ll still be faithful: “If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). In the face of death, we can witness for Jesus because “the one who calls [us] is faithful” (1 Thessalonians 5:24).
You, therefore, must be perfect [growing into complete maturity of godliness in mind and character, having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity], as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48 (AMPC)
We have a command (or perhaps it is a promise) in Matthew 5:48: Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect (NIV). Because God is perfect and is working in us, we can also look forward to sharing in His perfection.
The apostle Paul said although he had not already been made perfect, he pressed on toward the goal. He then said those of us who are imperfect should be thus minded, to let go of what was behind us (mistakes) and press on. In essence, he was saying that in God’s eyes, by faith in Jesus Christ, he was perfect, yet he was not totally perfected (Phil. 3:12–15).
We must learn to see ourselves in Christ, not in ourselves. Corrie ten Boom taught that if you look at the world, you will be oppressed; if you look at yourself, you will be depressed; but if you look at Jesus, you will be at rest. How true it is that if we look at ourselves—at what we are in our own abilities—we cannot be anything except depressed and totally discouraged. But when we look to Christ, the Author and Finisher (perfecter) of our faith, we can enter His rest and believe He is continually working in us (Heb. 12:2 NIV).
We always say, “Nobody is perfect.” What we mean is that nobody manifests perfect behavior, and that is a correct statement. Our behavior, however, is quite different from our identities.
The Bible says that faith in Jesus makes us righteous, but in our actions, we don’t always do the right thing. I have said for years, Our who is different than our do. We don’t do everything right, but God always loves us. He always sees us “in Christ,” through our faith in Him, and He views us as perfect in Christ while we are still being changed by His power.
Prayer of the Day: Father, thank You that in Christ I am made righteous. Help me press forward in faith, trusting You to transform me day by day.
Late last night, President Trump wrote on social media that House Republicans should vote to release all files in the Jeffrey Epstein case. His statement comes ahead of an expected House vote this week, after the House Oversight Committee released more than twenty thousand pages of documents related to Epstein last week. They include communications between the convicted sex offender and numerous high-profile people in politics, media, Hollywood, and foreign affairs.
The issue has come to dominate headlines and popular culture in recent days. Saturday Night Live, for example, made numerous jokes about it too vulgar for me to repeat or reference. My purpose today is not to sort through the entire story, but to speak to an issue it illustrates that directly affects you and me every day.
Divorcing character from leadership
Ours is largely a two-party political system. Since the creation of the modern-day Republican and Democratic parties in the nineteenth century, no third-party candidate has been elected to the presidency.
As a result, voters are typically obligated to choose the candidate they believe will best lead the country, whether they have significant issues with that candidate’s personal character or not. In this scenario, some choose not to vote, or they vote for a third party or write-in candidate. Others respond that this approach renders the person’s vote null and takes a vote from the major party candidate they would have otherwise supported, essentially helping elect the other candidate. This is a debate for another time.
Here’s my point: Whatever our partisan political views, we must not divorce character from leadership.
Some believe that so long as a person does the job they’re elected to do, their personal character issues are less relevant. Many will therefore view whatever comes of the Epstein files through the same partisan lens they view all other news.
I recognize that we elect a president, governor, mayor, and so on, not a pastor or Sunday school teacher. We don’t typically care much about the personal morality of a CEO whose company’s products we buy.
But we should.
And we should not view elected leaders merely as corporate CEOs and ourselves as the consumers of their “products.”
Three reasons character matters
Let me explain why.
One: Personal character matters to the person.
According to Heraclitus, “A man’s character is his fate.” This is more true than the ancient philosopher knew.
The Bible states, “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). This is true for believers as well: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Corinthians 5:10). It is therefore vital that we pray for the spiritual health of our leaders, for their sake (1 Timothy 2:1–2).
Two: Personal character matters to the public.
King Manasseh “did what was evil in the sight of the Lᴏʀᴅ” and “led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the Lᴏʀᴅ destroyed before the people of Israel” (2 Chronicles 33:2, 9). As a result, God judged the nation and it fell into captivity (v. 11).
It is often said that we get the government we deserve, but we need leaders who appeal to the “better angels of our nature” and inspire us to the consensual morality upon which our democracy depends.
Three: Personal character matters to God.
Personal sin keeps Christians from experiencing the abundant life of Christ. We manifest the horrific “works of the flesh” rather than the life-giving “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:19–23). And our so-called “private” sin keeps the Holy Spirit from using us fully.
As Oswald Chambers noted in today’s My Utmost for His Highest reading, “God’s revelation of himself to me is determined by my character, not by God’s character.”
We can confess our sins and be forgiven (1 John 1:9), but their consequences persist. We remain spiritually stunted and miss the joy of the Lord that is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10) and our most compelling witness to a joyless world.
A word to Christian leaders
I’ll close today with a word to those of us who are privileged to be in spiritual leadership.
Satan wants us to believe (though we would never put this into words) that because of our calling, we are above the normal temptations of life. Of course this is tragically untrue, as the ongoing clergy abuse scandals show. The devil also wants us to think that we are somehow less susceptible to his wiles than others, hoping to draw us into a conversation over an issue that soon turns into a temptation and then into sin (cf. Genesis 3:1–7; James 1:14–15).
Our enemy does this because he knows that character failures by Christian leaders are especially devastating to the cause of Christ. Our sins can cause greater harm to more people. And our secularized culture will quickly seize on our faults as proof that our message is irrelevant or even dangerous, and that joining the Christian movement is dangerous as well.
So, Christians urgently need to reject the bifurcation of character and leadership so prevalent today. To this end, if you’re a Christian leader, let me urge you to take a moment for a spiritual inventory. Ask the Spirit to identify any area of your life that displeases God, then confess all that comes to your thoughts. Do this regularly. Make it your ambition to honor your Lord in “spirit and soul and body” (1 Thessalonians 5:23) today.
If you’re not in Christian leadership, let me urge you to pray daily for those who are. Intercede for your pastor, Bible teachers, and other leaders by name. Ask God to protect them from the enemy and empower their faithfulness to his glory.
And whatever your role in the body of Christ, I invite you to submit to the Spirit right now (Ephesians 5:18), asking him to empower you against temptation and produce his holiness in your heart. You and I cannot sanctify ourselves, but the Spirit of Jesus will make anyone more like our Lord, if only we are willing.
Andrew Murray assured us,
“God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to him.”
Are you “wholly yielded to him” today?
Quote for the day:
“The destined end of man is not happiness, nor health, but holiness. God’s one aim is the production of saints.” —Oswald Chambers
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by Henry M. Morris III, D.Min.
“Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds.” (Colossians 4:2-3)
This strong command is composed of the Greek term gregoreuo, meaning “vigilant” or “alert.” A similar emphasis is at the end of the classic passage identifying the armor of God: “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching [agrupneo, “be awake”] thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints” (Ephesians 6:18).
Our watching must also be with a conscious attitude of thanksgiving during “every remembrance” of each other (Philippians 1:3), particularly since the intercessory request should be focused on asking our Lord Jesus to provide an open door (Revelation 3:8). The Lord is indeed the One who opens the door, but the process for obtaining His action is recorded in Luke 11:9-11. We must ask for the gift of the open door, seek to find the door that He is opening, and then knock once we are at the door that He is ready to open for us.
However, as Paul notes, when the Lord opens a “door of utterance,” the spoken Word of God conveys the power of God, and that message and its power will bring the attention of the enemy. “For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries” (1 Corinthians 16:9).
Any fear that might lurk in our minds should be overridden by the necessity to be spokespeople for this wonderful “mystery of Christ.” There is no “salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). HMM III
If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. —John 8:36
After we are born again, any selfish individuality remaining inside us will always say “I can’t” when God calls. We have to leave off our individuality and develop our personality instead. The full meaning of the word personality is a being, created by God, who has lived on this earth and formed a godly character. The majority of us are not personalities yet. We are beginning to be, but we haven’t yet rid ourselves of our individuality.
Personality never says, “I can’t.” When it comes into contact with God, it absorbs and absorbs and always wants more. This is the way we are built. We are designed with a great capacity for God, but sin and individuality keep us from him. God delivers us from sin, but we have to deliver ourselves from individuality. We do this by offering our natural life to him and by sacrificing that life, through obedience, until it’s transformed into a spiritual life.
God doesn’t pay attention to our natural individuality in the development of our spiritual lives, but he does expect us to pay attention to it. His order is present in every facet of our natural lives, and we have to make sure that we help that order along, not stand against it, saying, “I can’t.” God won’t discipline us; he won’t bring our thoughts into captivity. We have to do it.
Don’t go to God and say, “Oh, Lord, I suffer from wandering thoughts.” Don’t suffer from wandering thoughts. Stop listening to the tyranny of your individuality and get emancipated into personality.
“If the Son sets you free . . .” Don’t substitute “Savior” for “Son.” The Savior sets us free from sin; the Son sets us free from individuality. It is what Paul means in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” Paul’s individuality has been broken, and his personality is united with his Lord’s. He is “free indeed”—free from the inside out, free in the very essence of his being.
Wisdom from Oswald
For the past three hundred years men have been pointing out how similar Jesus Christ’s teachings are to other good teachings. We have to remember that Christianity, if it is not a supernatural miracle, is a sham. The Highest Good, 548 L
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