Max Lucado Daily: GOD WILL NEVER LET YOU GO - January 9, 2026
Satan tried to write his own story in which he was the hero and God is an afterthought. He admitted as much: “I will ascend to the heavens…I will make myself like the Most High” as quoted in Isaiah 14:13-14. Satan wanted to take God’s place, but God wasn’t—and isn’t—moving. Satan wants to win you to his side, but God will never let you go. You have his word!
Even more, you have his help. Scripture says, “For our high priest (Jesus) is able to understand our weaknesses…he was tempted in every way that we are, but he did not sin. Let us then…come before God’s throne where there is grace…to help us when we need it” (Hebrews 4:15-16). You don’t have to face Satan alone. We shout, and God runs—at the right moment.
God's Story, Your Story
Joshua 11
When Jabin king of Hazor heard of all this, he sent word to Jobab king of Madon; to the king of Shimron; to the king of Acshaph; to all the kings in the northern mountains; to the kings in the valley south of Kinnereth; to the kings in the western foothills and Naphoth Dor; to the Canaanites both east and west; to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, and Jebusites in the hill country; and to the Hivites below Hermon in the region of Mizpah.
4–5 They came out in full force, all their troops massed together—a huge army, in number like sand on an ocean beach—to say nothing of all the horses and chariots. All these kings met and set up camp together at the Waters of Merom, ready to fight against Israel.
6 God said to Joshua: “Don’t worry about them. This time tomorrow I’ll hand them over to Israel, all dead. You’ll hamstring their horses. You’ll set fire to their chariots.”
7–9 Joshua, his entire army with him, took them by surprise, falling on them at the Waters of Merom. God gave them to Israel, who struck and chased them all the way to Greater Sidon, to Misrephoth Maim, and then to the Valley of Mizpah on the east. No survivors. Joshua treated them following God’s instructions: he hamstrung their horses; he burned up their chariots.
10–11 Then Joshua came back and took Hazor, killing its king. Early on Hazor had been head of all these kingdoms. They killed every person there, carrying out the holy curse—not a breath of life left anywhere. Then he burned down Hazor.
12–14 Joshua captured and massacred all the royal towns with their kings, the holy curse commanded by Moses the servant of God. But Israel didn’t burn the cities that were built on mounds, except for Hazor—Joshua did burn down Hazor. The People of Israel plundered all the loot, including the cattle, from these towns for themselves. But they killed the people—total destruction. They left nothing human that breathed.
15 Just as God commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua did it. He didn’t leave incomplete one thing that God had commanded Moses.
16–20 Joshua took the whole country: the mountains, the southern desert, all of Goshen, the foothills, the valley (the Arabah), and the Israel mountains with their foothills, from Mount Halak, which towers over the region of Seir, all the way to Baal Gad in the Valley of Lebanon in the shadows of Mount Hermon. He captured their kings and then killed them. Joshua fought against these kings for a long time. Not one town made peace with the People of Israel, with the one exception of the Hivites who lived in Gibeon. Israel fought and took all the rest. It was God’s idea that they all would stubbornly fight the Israelites so he could put them under the holy curse without mercy. That way he could destroy them just as God had commanded Moses.
21–22 Joshua came out at that time also to root out the Anakim from the hills, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, from the mountains of Judah, from the mountains of Israel. Joshua carried out the holy curse on them and their cities. No Anakim were left in the land of the People of Israel, except in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod—there were a few left there.
23 Joshua took the whole region. He did everything that God had told Moses. Then he parceled it out as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribes.
And Israel had rest from war.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, January 09, 2026
by Marvin Williams
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Isaiah 43:16-21
This is what God says,
the God who builds a road right through the ocean,
who carves a path through pounding waves,
The God who summons horses and chariots and armies—
they lie down and then can’t get up;
they’re snuffed out like so many candles:
“Forget about what’s happened;
don’t keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.
It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?
There it is! I’m making a road through the desert,
rivers in the badlands.
Wild animals will say ‘Thank you!’
—the coyotes and the buzzards—
Because I provided water in the desert,
rivers through the sun-baked earth,
Drinking water for the people I chose,
the people I made especially for myself,
a people custom-made to praise me.
Today's Insights
God exiled Judah to Babylon because of her sins (Isaiah 39:6-7). Hundreds of years earlier, He’d mightily rescued them from the Egyptians (43:16-17), but they weren’t to “dwell on the past” (v. 18) because their miraculous journey in the first exodus would pale in comparison with the “new thing” God would do for them (v. 19). He’d bring them back from exile (vv. 5-7) and give them a glorious future (vv. 20-21). More importantly, He’d blot out their sins (v. 25). This forgiveness wasn’t because they were deserving—for they’d failed to honor Him as their God (vv. 22-24)—but because of who God is (v. 25).
God forgives our sins because He’s “a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love” (Nehemiah 9:17). We can look forward to the future rather than dwell on our past sins because of the “new thing” God did through Jesus.
The Future God’s Preparing
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. Isaiah 43:18
We live in a world where the internet forgets nothing—every photo, post, and blog entry is seemingly stored forever. One major search engine, however, introduced a privacy feature allowing users to request the removal of personal data like phone numbers, home addresses, and more. While this doesn’t erase the data from the internet entirely, it significantly reduces its visibility, giving people a sense of control over their digital footprints.
This idea of “scrubbing” the past echoes the prophet’s words in Isaiah 43:18-19. God said, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing.” These verses were spoken to Israel during their exile in Babylon—a period of deep despair and longing for restoration. God commanded His people to not fixate on their past failures or the pain of captivity but to look forward to the new work He was about to do—a new and more significant exodus—their deliverance from Babylon and return to their homeland. He wasn’t just erasing the past but “making a way” (v. 19) to a future filled with hope and purpose.
Instead of dwelling on failures or regrets, let’s trust that God has “scrubbed” our past sins, regrets, and shame and—through Jesus’ sacrifice (Hebrews 10:10)—“remembers [our] sins no more” (Isaiah 43:25). God propels us toward the future He’s preparing.
Reflect & Pray
Why is it so difficult to let go of the past? How might you deepen your trust in God for new beginnings?
Dear God, please help me say goodbye to my past and look forward to the future.
Learn more about Dealing with the Past.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, January 09, 2026
Where God Can Go
May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless. —1 Thessalonians 5:23
Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians, that they be kept blameless in their whole spirit, soul, and body, is a prayer that can only be answered through the great mystical work of the Holy Spirit.
Far beneath the surface of our personality lies a shadowy region we ourselves can’t get at. This is where our deepest fears and motivations are found, those unconscious forces we haven’t chosen and can’t control. If we are to be made blameless here, we need the Spirit to seek us out: “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me,” writes David in Psalm 139:1. “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” (v. 7).
The psalm is a testimony to God’s omnipresence and eternity, his everywhereness and alwaysness. David is saying, “You are the God of the early mornings and the late-at-nights, the God of the mountain peaks and of the sea. But, my God, my soul has further horizons than the early mornings, deeper darknesses than the night, higher peaks than any mountain, greater depths than any sea. You who are God of all these things, be my God. There are motives I cannot understand, dreams I cannot grasp. Please, Lord, search them out.”
Do we believe that God can garrison our imagination far beyond where we can go? As the ancient Romans sent garrisons of soldiers beyond the reaches of their empire, so God sends the Spirit to the outer limits of our soul. It is only when we are garrisoned by God in this way that we are made blameless. Blameless does not mean perfection but preserved in unspotted integrity, undeserving of censure in God’s sight, until Jesus comes.
Genesis 23-24; Matthew 7
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
We are apt to think that everything that happens to us is to be turned into useful teaching; it is to be turned into something better than teaching, viz. into character. We shall find that the spheres God brings us into are not meant to teach us something but to make us something.
The Love of God—The Ministry of the Unnoticed, 664 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, January 09, 2026
KNOWING HOW LONG YOU'LL LIVE - #10175
I got to thinking the other day about some of the close calls in my life - those moments that could have been my last, but obviously they weren't. There was the night that a drunk driver totaled our car with all of our family in it, but thank God it didn't total us. I was driving. We could have died; we didn't.
There was that night my plane was only a few feet away from landing at Newark Airport, and suddenly it revved up, and we took off again sharply, and about 15 minutes later the pilot said, "Well, we decided we wouldn't land when we saw that there was someone else on our runway." I was very glad for that decision. I thought that was a good choice! See, there's no telling what could have been that night with another plane on the runway.
I'm still here and so are you. In spite of some close calls you've had, some you knew about and I'll bet there's been some you never knew about. We have all been inches or seconds from death probably many times, but we're still here. Why?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Knowing How Long You'll Live."
Now, I'm going to read to you today a word for you and me from the Word of God from 2 Timothy 4. It's from a man who had cheated death many times - the Apostle Paul. He says, "At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth." Now, many people think that refers to Caesar's attempt to have him killed. Many people tried to have him killed.
"The Lord will rescue me," he says, "from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom." Now, I like what he says here. "I've been delivered from the lion's mouth, and I will be rescued." For how long? "...until the Lord will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom." You want to know how long you'll live? Till your work is done.
Paul was saying, "My work's not done. When God says it is, that's when I'll go home." Here's an exciting principle to remember: a person is immortal until his work is done. Now, some people's work for the Lord is done when they're five, some when they're 15, some 45, some not till they're 95. I think there are some people who think their work is done, but God doesn't think so. They're still here. And then there are some who think that their work isn't done, and God thinks it is.
You won't be left here one extra day. But every day you are here, go for it - live out your life mission. See, this principle has two important implications: one, your safety does not depend on your surroundings. I guess you could be in a hail of bullets (now, I don't recommend you go looking for a place like that), and if your work isn't done, you're going to be okay. But if your work is done, you can be in your living room on the couch and God will take you home. You're immortal until your work is done. Psalm 139 says, "All the days ordained for me were written in God's book before one of them came to be."
Secondly, God's got work for you to do. The fact that you woke up this morning means that God has a destiny for you for this day. He's delivered you from every lion in your life so you could finish what He's put you on earth to do. What a way to live: fearlessly, confident, significantly! The Lord will rescue you from every attack except one. And that will be when He takes you safely to His heavenly kingdom.
