Max Lucado Daily: TRUST THE PROMISE - September 10, 2026
What tragedy has rendered your life a desert? Has God allowed a season of dryness to come your way? Then learn from the life of Elijah. He trusted the promise despite the predicament.
The predicament? Drought. The promise? It appears in 1 Kings 18:1 (NKJV): “Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth.” God had set a limit upon the predicament, and Elijah knew it was just a matter of time before the rain returned.
Do you know the same? “Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5 NLT). The Bible never guarantees the absence of a drought, but it emphatically assures that the drought will not end in eternal defeat.Explore Christian Books
Unbreakable Courage
Proverbs 6
Like a Deer from the Hunter
1–5 6 Dear friend, if you’ve gone into hock with your neighbor
or locked yourself into a deal with a stranger,
If you’ve impulsively promised the shirt off your back
and now find yourself shivering out in the cold,
Friend, don’t waste a minute, get yourself out of that mess.
You’re in that man’s clutches!
Go, put on a long face; act desperate.
Don’t procrastinate—
there’s no time to lose.
Run like a deer from the hunter,
fly like a bird from the trapper!
A Lesson from the Ant
6–11 You lazy fool, look at an ant.
Watch it closely; let it teach you a thing or two.
Nobody has to tell it what to do.
All summer it stores up food;
at harvest it stockpiles provisions.
So how long are you going to laze around doing nothing?
How long before you get out of bed?
A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there,
sit back, take it easy—do you know what comes next?
Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life,
poverty your permanent houseguest!
Always Cooking Up Something Nasty
12–15 Riffraff and rascals
talk out of both sides of their mouths.
They wink at each other, they shuffle their feet,
they cross their fingers behind their backs.
Their perverse minds are always cooking up something nasty,
always stirring up trouble.
Catastrophe is just around the corner for them,
a total smashup, their lives ruined beyond repair.
Seven Things God Hates
16–19 Here are six things God hates,
and one more that he loathes with a passion:
eyes that are arrogant,
a tongue that lies,
hands that murder the innocent,
a heart that hatches evil plots,
feet that race down a wicked track,
a mouth that lies under oath,
a troublemaker in the family.
Warning on Adultery
20–23 Good friend, follow your father’s good advice;
don’t wander off from your mother’s teachings.
Wrap yourself in them from head to foot;
wear them like a scarf around your neck.
Wherever you walk, they’ll guide you;
whenever you rest, they’ll guard you;
when you wake up, they’ll tell you what’s next.
For sound advice is a beacon,
good teaching is a light,
moral discipline is a life path.
24–35 They’ll protect you from wanton women,
from the seductive talk of some temptress.
Don’t lustfully fantasize on her beauty,
nor be taken in by her bedroom eyes.
You can buy an hour with a whore for a loaf of bread,
but a wanton woman may well eat you alive.
Can you build a fire in your lap
and not burn your pants?
Can you walk barefoot on hot coals
and not get blisters?
It’s the same when you have sex with your neighbor’s wife:
Touch her and you’ll pay for it. No excuses.
Hunger is no excuse
for a thief to steal;
When he’s caught he has to pay it back,
even if he has to put his whole house in hock.
Adultery is a brainless act,
soul-destroying, self-destructive;
Expect a bloody nose, a black eye,
and a reputation ruined for good.
For jealousy detonates rage in a cheated husband;
wild for revenge, he won’t make allowances.
Nothing you say or pay will make it all right;
neither bribes nor reason will satisfy him.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, September 10, 2026
By Kirsten Holmberg
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Proverbs 13:18-22
Refuse discipline and end up homeless;
embrace correction and live an honored life.
19 Souls who follow their hearts thrive;
fools bent on evil despise matters of soul.
20 Become wise by walking with the wise;
hang out with fools and watch your life fall to pieces.
21 Disaster entraps sinners,
but God-loyal people get a good life.
22 A good life gets passed on to the grandchildren;
ill-gotten wealth ends up with good people.
Today's Insights
In the book of Proverbs, people are often contrasted using categories such as wise or foolish, good or bad, honorable or shameful. Generosity is a characteristic of those who are “good.” Generous people desire to benefit those who’ll outlive them: “A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children” (13:22). The Proverbs teach us some dimensions of giving that are unexpected. For example, “One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty” (11:24). Another insight is that God takes our generosity to others personally: “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord” (19:17 esv; see 14:31). Believers in Jesus view money as an investment in God’s work and His people rather than a commodity to consume. And that’s the posture of a blessed person. There’s a mystery to giving that requires participation to fully appreciate. As God supplies our needs, we can choose to live generously toward others.
For further study, listen to this webinar: Christian Generosity
Legacy of Generosity
A good person leaves an inheritance ?for their children’s children. Proverbs 13:22
Though we didn’t live in the same state as my maternal grandparents, I’m grateful to have known them as well as I did. They traveled regularly to Colorado to see us, and we enjoyed visits with them in California. As my sister and I became adults, our conversations with our grandparents expanded from playful childhood topics to include more serious discussion of finances. They explained to us that they wanted to share their resources with us while they were alive but that most of their estate would be given to charity at their passing.
My grandparents were, indeed, quite generous to us over their lifetimes. When they died, I was genuinely proud to see their remaining resources given to others. When I compare their real-life example with the words recorded in Proverbs 13:22, that “a good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children,” I see their legacy to me from a broader perspective. We aren’t to live selfishly but instead care for those coming after us.
We won’t all have financial wealth to pass on to future generations. Yet in choosing to live generously toward others with whatever resources we have, even if just time and attention, our children (and theirs) receive a precious inheritance: a legacy of generosity. As we depend on God for our needs, we’re able to share both our faith and our resources with others.
Reflect & Pray
Whose example of faithful, generous living benefited you? How might you extend practical help to others today?
Dear Father, please help me to live generously.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, September 10, 2026
Worshipping as the Occasion Arises
I saw you while you were still under the fig tree. — John 1:48
We imagine that we’ll rise to the occasion when a big crisis comes along. But a big crisis only reveals what we’re made of; it doesn’t put anything new into us. Are you telling yourself that you’ll do what’s necessary if God gives the call? You won’t—not unless you’re already rising to the occasion. You have to be the real thing with God before the big event, in the workshop of your private life with him.
Every day, God is giving you small, seemingly insignificant things to do, things which may go entirely unnoticed by the world. If you don’t believe God has engineered these things and therefore you aren’t using them as opportunities for worship, you’ll be revealed as unfit when the crisis comes. Crises always reveal character.
A private worshipping relationship with God is the great essential of spiritual fitness. The time will come when you have to step out from “under the fig tree”—out from your sheltered, private place—and go forth into the glare and the crowd. If you haven’t been worshipping in private, as the occasion arises, you’ll find you have no value to God in the outside world. But if you have been worshipping in private, you will be ready when God sends you out, because in the unseen life—the life no one saw but God—you’ve become perfectly fit. When the strain arrives, God will know he can rely on you.
Do you think you have no time for worshipping or praying or reading the Bible? Do you say to yourself, “I can’t be expected to live a worshipful life in the circumstances I’m in right now; my opportunity hasn’t come yet. When it does, of course I’ll be ready”? You won’t be. If you haven’t been worshipping where you are right now, as the occasion arises, then in the crisis you’ll be useless to yourself and an enormous hindrance to those around you. The workshop of the disciple’s life is the hidden, personal time spent worshipping God.
Proverbs 8-9; 2 Corinthians 3
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
“I have chosen you” (John 15:16). Keep that note of greatness in your creed. It is not that you have got God, but that He has got you.
My Utmost for His Highest, October 25, 837 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, September 10, 2026
The High Price of Neglect - #10349
Scripture: Proverbs 27:23-24
It was the house Grandma and Granddad built with a little help from their granddaughter, who happened to turn out to be my wife. That was many years ago. Grandma and Granddad are gone, and the house was in the hands of renters for a number of years. And the landlord, my wife's dad, lived hours away, and his age and his health prevented him from keeping up with what was happening. And man, I'll tell you, the house and the land around it, not good stuff was happening. When he deeded that house to the rest of the family, they weren’t really pleased with what had happened over the years. The house was run down; the carpet was infested with bugs; fences had been moved. And nobody in the family had to do anything to accumulate this mess. All we had to do was do nothing.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “The High Price of Neglect.”
And who is that silent thief? He has a name. His name is neglect. He doesn't make much noise, but he sure steals a lot from you. Since the family began to own the house, they've been working very hard to recover what that silent thief stole.
Our word for today from the Word of God is a warning against this silent thief. Proverbs 27:23-24 say, "Be sure you know the condition of your flocks; give careful attention to your herds; for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations." So God's saying, "Take good care of what's important to you. What you don't take care of, you may very well lose."
People end up with major health problems; not always because they do terrible things to their body, but because they just let their body go. But neglect is even more damaging in your important relationships.
It may be that in that spinning gerbil wheel of your busy life, someone you love is suffering from neglect. You haven't done anything bad to your mate or child, or maybe your parents. You just haven't done much. Remember, neglect is the silent thief. Slowly, but very surely, intimacy is lost, trust is lost, communication, closeness. Believe me, we saw what neglect did to a house. The longer you let things go, the harder it's going to be to get it fixed. It may be time for a priority check; time to bring those that you love and those you need the most back from the margins and back into the center.
Tragically, the most important relationship in your life can atrophy through neglect - your relationship with God. You may not have done something awful. You're just slowly pushing Jesus to the edges of your schedule and your life.
And on that day when you go into eternity, as we all will, if you miss heaven will it be because of the silent thief? He will have stolen from you the greatest treasure of all—eternal life. By getting you to miss a personal relationship with Jesus just by never getting around to beginning that relationship.
That's why God's book says, "How shall we escape if we neglect such great salvation?" (Hebrews 2:3). Many people will spend eternity away from God, not because they rejected what Jesus did on the cross, but because they simply neglected it. They put it off, they made excuses. They postponed God. This "great salvation" is what Jesus did by loving you so much He died to pay your death penalty for your sin. But that salvation isn't your salvation until you tell Jesus you’re putting your total trust in Him like a drowning person would grab a lifeguard as their only hope.
So, let me ask you, "When did you do that with Jesus?" If you never have, and you don't want to risk losing the heaven that Jesus died to give you, would you give yourself to Him today? Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours." This would be the day to go to our website and get that information that will help you secure that relationship with Him. It's ANewStory.com.
I’ve known too many people who waited one day too long to get to Jesus, and that neglect stole their eternity. Don't walk by Jesus any more. No, run into His waiting arms.
