Max Lucado Daily: PRAYER IN IT’S PUREST FORM - June 5, 2026
Mark 1:35 says, “Jesus went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.”
This dialogue must have been common among His friends: “Has anyone seen Jesus?” “Oh, you know. He’s up to the same thing.” “Praying again?” “Yep. He’s been gone since sunrise.”
Jesus would even disappear for an entire night of prayer. Prayer for most of us, isn’t a matter of a month-long retreat or even an hour of meditation. It’s a conversation with God while driving to work or waiting for an appointment. God will teach you to pray. We speak. He listens. He speaks. We listen. It’s prayer in its purest form. God changes His people through such moments.
Here’s my challenge for you! Every day for four weeks, pray four minutes. Then get ready to connect with God like never before!
Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer
2 Samuel 17
Next Ahithophel advised Absalom, “Let me handpick twelve thousand men and go after David tonight. I’ll come on him when he’s bone tired and take him by complete surprise. The whole army will run off and I’ll kill only David. Then I’ll bring the army back to you—a bride brought back to her husband! You’re only after one man, after all. Then everyone will be together in peace!”
4 Absalom thought it was an excellent strategy, and all the elders of Israel agreed.
5 But then Absalom said, “Call in Hushai the Arkite—let’s hear what he has to say.”
6 So Hushai came and Absalom put it to him, “This is what Ahithophel advised. Should we do it? What do you say?”
7–10 Hushai said, “The counsel that Ahithophel has given in this instance is not good. You know your father and his men, brave and bitterly angry—like a bear robbed of her cubs. And your father is an experienced fighter; you can be sure he won’t be caught napping at a time like this. Even while we’re talking, he’s probably holed up in some cave or other. If he jumps your men from ambush, word will soon get back, ‘A slaughter of Absalom’s army!’ Even if your men are valiant with hearts of lions, they’ll fall apart at such news, for everyone in Israel knows the kind of fighting stuff your father’s made of, and also the men with him.
11–13 “Here’s what I’d advise: Muster the whole country, from Dan to Beer-sheba, an army like the sand of the sea, and you personally lead them. We’ll smoke him out wherever he is, fall on him like dew falls on the earth, and, believe me, there won’t be a single survivor. If he hides out in a city, then the whole army will bring ropes to that city and pull it down and into a gully—not so much as a pebble left of it!”
14 Absalom and all his company agreed that the counsel of Hushai the Arkite was better than the counsel of Ahithophel. (God had determined to discredit the counsel of Ahithophel so as to bring ruin on Absalom.)
15–16 Then Hushai told the priests Zadok and Abiathar, “Ahithophel advised Absalom and the elders of Israel thus and thus, and I advised them thus and thus. Now send this message as quickly as possible to David: ‘Don’t spend the night on this side of the river; cross immediately or the king and everyone with him will be swallowed up alive.’ ”
17–20 Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting around at En Rogel. A servant girl would come and give them messages and then they would go and tell King David, for it wasn’t safe to be seen coming into the city. But a soldier spotted them and told Absalom, so the two of them got out of there fast and went to a man’s house in Bahurim. He had a well in his yard and they climbed into it. The wife took a rug and covered the well, then spread grain on it so no one would notice anything out of the ordinary. Shortly, Absalom’s servants came to the woman’s house and asked her, “Have you seen Ahimaaz and Jonathan?”
The woman said, “They were headed toward the river.”
They looked but didn’t find them, and then went back to Jerusalem.
21 When the coast was clear, Ahimaaz and Jonathan climbed out of the well and went on to make their report to King David, “Get up and cross the river quickly; Ahithophel has given counsel against you!”
22 David and his whole army were soon up and moving and crossed the Jordan. As morning broke there was not a single person who had not made it across the Jordan.
23 When Ahithophel realized that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey and left for his hometown. After making out his will and putting his house in order, he hanged himself and died. He was buried in the family tomb.
24–26 About the time David arrived at Mahanaim, Absalom crossed the Jordan, and the whole army of Israel with him. Absalom had made Amasa head of the army, replacing Joab. (Amasa was the son of a man named Ithra, an Ishmaelite who had married Abigail, daughter of Nahash and sister of Zeruiah, the mother of Joab.) Israel and Absalom set camp in Gilead.
27–29 When David arrived at Mahanaim, Shobi son of Nahash from Ammonite Rabbah, and Makir son of Ammiel from Lo Debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim brought beds and blankets, bowls and jugs filled with wheat, barley, flour, roasted grain, beans and lentils, honey, and curds and cheese from the flocks and herds. They presented all this to David and his army to eat, “because,” they said, “the army must be starved and exhausted and thirsty out in this wilderness.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, June 05, 2026
by Nancy Gavilanes
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Jonah 2:1-10
At the Bottom of the Sea
1–9 2 Then Jonah prayed to his God from the belly of the fish.
He prayed:
“In trouble, deep trouble, I prayed to God.
He answered me.
From the belly of the grave I cried, ‘Help!’
You heard my cry.
You threw me into ocean’s depths,
into a watery grave,
With ocean waves, ocean breakers
crashing over me.
I said, ‘I’ve been thrown away,
thrown out, out of your sight.
I’ll never again lay eyes
on your Holy Temple.’
Ocean gripped me by the throat.
The ancient Abyss grabbed me and held tight.
My head was all tangled in seaweed
at the bottom of the sea where the mountains take root.
I was as far down as a body can go,
and the gates were slamming shut behind me forever—
Yet you pulled me up from that grave alive,
O God, my God!
When my life was slipping away,
I remembered God,
And my prayer got through to you,
made it all the way to your Holy Temple.
Those who worship hollow gods, god-frauds,
walk away from their only true love.
But I’m worshiping you, God,
calling out in thanksgiving!
And I’ll do what I promised I’d do!
Salvation belongs to God!”
10 Then God spoke to the fish, and it vomited up Jonah on the seashore.
Today's Insights
The Bible records various places where people cried out to God. Samson prayed while chained in a pagan temple (Judges 16:28), Jesus prayed from a cross (Luke 23:46), and Paul frequently prayed while in prison (Philippians 1). One of the most unusual places of prayer was in the belly of “a huge fish” (Jonah 1:17; 2:1-9). Imagine how different his story might have been had Jonah prayed while still at home, rather than after God had pursued him to the depths of the sea. When Jonah cried out to God in prayer, He delivered him and gave him a second chance to fulfill his mission (3:1-2). Running from God only makes our problems worse. But when we walk in obedience to Him and cry out to Him in prayer, He’ll hear us and do what’s best within His perfect plans.
Running to God in Prayer
From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. Jonah 2:1
One moment Adrián Simancas was kayaking in the Strait of Magellan in Chile with his father. The next, the twenty-four-year-old was engulfed in the mouth of a humpback whale. “I thought I was dead,” Adrián told a news outlet. After a few seconds, the whale released Adrián into the frigid waters. His life vest caused him to float to the water’s surface, and his father helped him to safety.
The Old Testament prophet Jonah also had an encounter with a large sea creature. Jonah refused to follow God’s directive to preach a message of repentance to the Israelites’ enemies, the Ninevites, so he boarded a ship in the opposite direction of Nineveh. When the ship got caught in a storm, Jonah convinced the crew to throw him overboard (Jonah 1:11-12, 15). “Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights” (v. 17). Jonah went from fleeing from God to crying out to Him: “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God” (2:1).
God heard Jonah and rescued him (v. 10). Then Jonah preached to the Ninevites, and they repented (3:8-10).
If God could hear Jonah’s plea from inside a big fish, He can hear us and rescue us from wherever we are. Instead of running from God, let’s run to Him in prayer, knowing that He will answer us when we cry out to Him.
Reflect & Pray
Why do you sometimes run from God? How can you run to Him today?
Dear God, thank You for the rescue You alone provide.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, June 05, 2026
God’s Promise
God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.” — Hebrews 13:5-6
“Never will I leave you.” God’s promise allows me to go through life without being haunted by fear. This doesn’t mean I won’t be tempted to fear; rather, in the midst of temptation, I will remember what God has said and so be full of courage—just like a child who picks himself up and dusts himself off in order to please his father.
So many of us stumble in our faith when fear sets in. We forget the power of God’s promise; we forget to take a deep breath spiritually. We become filled with dread, convinced that nothing and no one can help us.
What are you dreading? You are not a coward; whatever it is, you’re going to face it. Yet you still have a feeling of dread. Build on God’s promise. Say with confidence, “In this moment, in my present mind- set, the Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.”
“God has said. … So we say…” Are you learning to speak only after you’ve listened to what God has said? Or are you trying to make his words fit into what you already believe? The only way to move past dread is to grasp the full meaning of God’s promise. “Never will I forsake you”—no matter what kind of evil or challenge is in your way.
Another thing that gets in the way of God’s promise is our own weakness. When we realize how frail we are in facing difficulties, the difficulties become like giants, we become like grasshoppers, and God becomes a nonentity (Numbers 13:33). Have we learned to sing after hearing God’s melody? Are we finding the courage to say, “The Lord is my helper”? Or are we succumbing to the weak side of our nature?
2 Chronicles 23-24; John 15
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Seeing is never believing: we interpret what we see in the light of what we believe. Faith is confidence in God before you see God emerging; therefore the nature of faith is that it must be tried.
He Shall Glorify Me, 494 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, June 05, 2026
When You're Lost in the Fog - #10279
June 4, 2026
Scripture: Luke 19:10
When I say this man is a veteran test pilot, I mean he’s easily old enough to be comfortably retired. Instead, he’s still blasting through the skies at these mind-boggling speeds, testing some of America’s most advanced aircraft. He told his amazing life story on a national television program. It’s a story of a lifelong adventure in the skies and a long spiritual search here on earth that ended, well, with the pilot of the universe piloting his life. As he concluded his story, he told about an incident where he was sent up in a state-of-the-art aircraft to help a pilot who was in distress.
The fog was thick; the weather was dangerous for flying, and a rookie pilot was lost in that fog and unable to get through the weather in a plane that really wasn’t equipped for it. Well, Mr. Test Pilot flew close to that imperiled aircraft until he was actually positioned right at its left wing. And then he radioed the desperate pilot and he simply said, “Look to your left.” Then he said, “Now stick with me. Turn when I turn.” Then in a plane so advanced that the veteran said it can make a game out of bad weather, he led his frightened fellow pilot to that glorious point where they broke through the fog and saw the bright lights of that landing strip below them. When they landed safely, well, you can guess. The rookie got out of his plane, he ran to his rescuer, and hugged him as if he had saved his life. Well, he probably had.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “When You're Lost in the Fog.”
A pilot lost, in a potentially fatal predicament. His only hope was someone who was equipped with everything needed to bring him safely home. We all need somebody like that. Because we are all, in the words the Bible uses to describe our spiritual condition, “lost.”
If we’re honest, we know that we really don’t know how life’s supposed to work, no matter how cool and how together we look on the outside. When it comes to knowing why we’re here, which way to go, and most importantly, how to land safely when we die, we’re all lost. Our only hope is someone who’s equipped with everything needed to lead us safely home; someone who will come beside us and take us the rest of the way through this life and on into the life to come.
His name is Jesus, and He came here for all of us lost pilots. He said so in His personal mission statement, which is recorded in Luke 19:10, our word for today from the Word of God. Here's what Jesus said about Himself, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
Notice, He didn’t come to start a religion called Christianity or just give us a nice morality to live by. No, He came to rescue us from a spiritual predicament that will be eternally fatal unless we let Him lead us home. We’re lost because we took over the pilot’s seat that God was supposed to occupy.
In the Bible’s words, we're “sheep who have gone astray.” And you know what? Lost sheep just don’t find their way home. Their only hope is if the Shepherd comes looking for the one who’s lost. And Jesus did. He, in His own words, came to “lay down My life for the sheep” (John 10:15). The only person who is equipped to lead you out of the guilt and the death penalty for your sin is the one who took all that guilt; who took all that dying on Himself. That’s what Jesus did when He was on that cross. And then, He walked out of His grave under His own power! He’s alive right now, and He’s pulled up next to you today.
That tug you feel in your heart—that’s Jesus seeking you so He can save you. He’s your only hope, but you've got to admit that. You have to tell Him that and start following where He leads you. Right now you could begin your personal relationship with Him. Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours."
Listen, would you get to our website the rest of the information; everything you need to know from God's Word about getting home to Jesus is right there - ANewStory.com.
You don’t have to fly in the fog one more day. You don’t have to be lost anymore. Jesus has come close to you today, and He’s saying, “Look to Me. I’ll get you safely home.” Follow Him.
