Max Lucado Daily: JESUS IS WORTHY OF OUR TRUST - March 27, 2026
Why did Jesus live on the earth as long as He did? To take on our sins is one thing, to experience death yes, but to put up with long roads and long days? Why did He do it? Because He wants you to trust Him. Even His final act on earth was intended to win your trust.
Mark 15:22-24 says, “they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha where they offered Him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified Him” (NIV). Why? Why did He endure all this suffering—all these feelings?
Well, because He knew you’d be weary, disturbed, and angry. He knew you would be grief-stricken, and hungry, that you would face pain. A pauper knows better than to beg from another pauper. He needs someone who is stronger than he is. Jesus’ message from the Cross is this: I am that Person. Trust Me.
He Chose the Nails: What God Did to Win Your Heart
1 Samuel 15
Samuel said to Saul, “God sent me to anoint you king over his people, Israel. Now, listen again to what God says. This is the God-of-the-Angel-Armies speaking:
2–3 “ ‘I’m about to get even with Amalek for ambushing Israel when Israel came up out of Egypt. Here’s what you are to do: Go to war against Amalek. Put everything connected with Amalek under a holy ban. And no exceptions! This is to be total destruction—men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys—the works.’ ”
4–5 Saul called the army together at Telaim and prepared them to go to war—two hundred companies of infantry from Israel and another ten companies from Judah. Saul marched to Amalek City and hid in the canyon.
6 Then Saul got word to the Kenites: “Get out of here while you can. Evacuate the city right now or you’ll get lumped in with the Amalekites. I’m warning you because you showed real kindness to the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt.”
And they did. The Kenites evacuated the place.
7–9 Then Saul went after Amalek, from the canyon all the way to Shur near the Egyptian border. He captured Agag, king of Amalek, alive. Everyone else was killed under the terms of the holy ban. Saul and the army made an exception for Agag, and for the choice sheep and cattle. They didn’t include them under the terms of the holy ban. But all the rest, which nobody wanted anyway, they destroyed as decreed by the holy ban.
10–11 Then God spoke to Samuel: “I’m sorry I ever made Saul king. He’s turned his back on me. He refuses to do what I tell him.”
11–12 Samuel was angry when he heard this. He prayed his anger and disappointment all through the night. He got up early in the morning to confront Saul but was told, “Saul’s gone. He went to Carmel to set up a victory monument in his own honor, and then was headed for Gilgal.”
By the time Samuel caught up with him, Saul had just finished an act of worship, having used Amalekite plunder for the burnt offerings sacrificed to God.
13 As Samuel came close, Saul called out, “God’s blessings on you! I accomplished God’s plan to the letter!”
14 Samuel said, “So what’s this I’m hearing—this bleating of sheep, this mooing of cattle?”
15 “Only some Amalekite loot,” said Saul. “The soldiers saved back a few of the choice cattle and sheep to offer up in sacrifice to God. But everything else we destroyed under the holy ban.”
16 “Enough!” interrupted Samuel. “Let me tell you what God told me last night.”
Saul said, “Go ahead. Tell me.”
17–19 And Samuel told him. “When you started out in this, you were nothing—and you knew it. Then God put you at the head of Israel—made you king over Israel. Then God sent you off to do a job for him, ordering you, ‘Go and put those sinners, the Amalekites, under a holy ban. Go to war against them until you have totally wiped them out.’ So why did you not obey God? Why did you grab all this loot? Why, with God’s eyes on you all the time, did you brazenly carry out this evil?”
20–21 Saul defended himself. “What are you talking about? I did obey God. I did the job God set for me. I brought in King Agag and destroyed the Amalekites under the terms of the holy ban. So the soldiers saved back a few choice sheep and cattle from the holy ban for sacrifice to God at Gilgal—what’s wrong with that?”
22–23 Then Samuel said,
Do you think all God wants are sacrifices—
empty rituals just for show?
He wants you to listen to him!
Plain listening is the thing,
not staging a lavish religious production.
Not doing what God tells you
is far worse than fooling around in the occult.
Getting self-important around God
is far worse than making deals with your dead ancestors.
Because you said No to God’s command,
he says No to your kingship.
24–25 Saul gave in and confessed, “I’ve sinned. I’ve trampled roughshod over God’s Word and your instructions. I cared more about pleasing the people. I let them tell me what to do. Oh, absolve me of my sin! Take my hand and lead me to the altar so I can worship God!”
26 But Samuel refused: “No, I can’t come alongside you in this. You rejected God’s command. Now God has rejected you as king over Israel.”
27–29 As Samuel turned to leave, Saul grabbed at his priestly robe and a piece tore off. Samuel said, “God has just now torn the kingdom from you, and handed it over to your neighbor, a better man than you are. Israel’s God-of-Glory doesn’t deceive and he doesn’t dither. He says what he means and means what he says.”
30 Saul tried again, “I have sinned. But don’t abandon me! Support me with your presence before the leaders and the people. Come alongside me as I go back to worship God.”
31 Samuel did. He went back with him. And Saul went to his knees before God and worshiped.
32 Then Samuel said, “Present King Agag of Amalek to me.” Agag came, dragging his feet, muttering that he’d be better off dead.
33 Samuel said, “Just as your sword made many a woman childless, so your mother will be childless among those women!” And Samuel cut Agag down in the presence of God right there in Gilgal.
34–35 Samuel left immediately for Ramah and Saul went home to Gibeah. Samuel had nothing to do with Saul from then on, though he grieved long and deeply over him. But God was sorry he had ever made Saul king in the first place.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, March 27, 2026
by Karen Huang
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Nehemiah 9:19-21
You in your amazing compassion
didn’t walk off and leave them in the desert.
The Pillar of Cloud didn’t leave them;
daily it continued to show them their route;
The Pillar of Fire did the same by night,
showed them the right way to go.
20–23 You gave them your good Spirit
to teach them to live wisely.
You never stinted with your manna,
gave them plenty of water to drink.
You supported them forty years in that desert;
they had everything they needed;
Their clothes didn’t wear out
and their feet never blistered.
Today's Insights
Nehemiah 9:5-37 is a prayer of thanksgiving and praise to God by the Levites as the people were assembled. They listened to a reading of “the Book of the Law of the Lord their God” and then confessed their sins and worshiped “the Lord their God” (v. 3). When the Levites prayed, “For forty years you sustained [the Israelites] in the wilderness” (v. 21), we might forget that their time in the wilderness refers to God’s discipline of them. Because of Israel’s constant complaining and faithless lack of gratitude, every adult over the age of twenty had to die so the next generation could inhabit the promised land. And yet, God still cared for His wayward people. Now, as His perpetually wayward people were re-entering the promised land from their exile, He still showed His love for them by faithfully caring for their every need. Today, God still shows His care for us in the details of our lives.
God in the Details
During the forty years that I led you through the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet. Deuteronomy 29:5
My niece, a college freshman, was busy with schoolwork and adjusting to a new residence. Because of recent security issues, her school required a vehicle pass. Since applying for this would be one more task on her long to-do list, I offered to do it. “Thanks!” she later said, surprised it had taken me only minutes in the campus office.
What she didn’t know was that the otherwise simple task had taken half a day of coordinating with the office, fixing a glitch in her application, and gathering unexpected documents. But I didn’t tell her this. “Anytime!” I said.
Love is in the details. Here, it was in taking care of details my niece was unaware of. Scripture tells us of God’s love as seen in two seemingly small details of the Israelites’ life in the wilderness: their clothes and shoes. Throughout forty years of walking, their “clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on [their] feet” (Deuteronomy 29:5). In fact, their feet didn’t even swell! (8:4).
God’s people had been unfaithful, but He showed “great compassion,” not abandoning them (Nehemiah 9:19). “They lacked nothing” (v. 21). God provided the “big” things, such as His presence, the counsel of His Spirit, and food and water (vv. 19-20); and the “smaller” but necessary things, such as clothes and shoes.
God shows His love in ways we may overlook or be unaware of. Such is His love, that He sees every detail of our life.
Reflect & Pray
What details in your life show God’s love? How do they help you trust Him?
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your enduring love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, March 27, 2026
Vision by Personal Character
Come up here, and I will show you. — Revelation 4:1
Elevated emotions can only come out of an elevated habit of personal character. If you’ve developed the kind of character that allows you to live up to the highest standards you know, God will grant you insights that draw you even higher. He will continually say to you, “Come up here, and I will show you.”
Each time you go higher, you will face new and different kinds of temptation. The golden rule of temptation is “go higher.” Both God and Satan use the promise of elevation to draw us upward, but they use it to very different effects. Satan whispers to us of an unattainable holiness, a holiness beyond what flesh and blood can bear. He draws us into a spiritual acrobatic performance that ends up freezing us: we are poised on a tightrope and cannot move. But when God, by his grace, elevates us to the heavenly places, we find a vast plateau, where we can move around with liberty and ease.
Compare this week in your spiritual history with the same week last year, and see how God has called you higher. This is how you know you have grown in grace—not because you no longer backslide into sin but because God has granted you new spiritual insight. If God has revealed to you a new truth, you know it is because of growth in your character. Keep trusting and obeying him. Whenever he gives you a truth, apply it instantly to your life. Always work it out in your personal practices; always keep yourself in its light.
“Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” (Genesis 18:17). Why didn’t God immediately tell Abraham about his plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? Because Abraham wasn’t yet ready to receive that truth. God has to hide from us what he does, until by personal character we get to the place where he can reveal it.
Judges 1-3; Luke 4:1-30
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest.
Disciples Indeed
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, March 27, 2026
THE MOST IMPORTANT ARRANGEMENTS YOU WILL EVER MAKE - #10230
When you're little, your parents seem immortal. They're not. Sooner or later, most of us get the kind of call that I got, and maybe you've gotten - a parent is gone. In my case, the hospital called to say my Mom had been admitted due to a medical emergency, but her body gave out and she was gone. No matter what the circumstances, the death of someone you love is always a shock, even if you knew maybe it was coming. When you're the only living child and your other parent is already gone, there's this numbing list of arrangements that you suddenly have to make. Thankfully, that wasn't the case with my Mom. Mercifully, funeral arrangements had been made and paid for years in advance.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Important Arrangements You Will Ever Make."
It was a real blessing to have funeral arrangements made in advance, believe me. But my mother had made much more important pre-arrangements for the day she died, and those arrangements were the greatest blessing of all. Years ago, my Mom had made a choice that guaranteed she would be in heaven for all eternity. These are the most important arrangements you will ever make - or fail to make.
God knows we're so busy living that we don't give much thought to dying. In fact, we generally try to avoid thinking about death as much as possible. Until we're looking in the casket at someone we've just lost. It's hard to look face-to-face at death like that and not think, "Where will I be when it's me there?" This isn't about being morbid. It's about being ready. If I know I'm prepared for something that's coming up, I don't have to keep thinking about it. It's settled. There's nothing more critical for you to settle than your eternal destination. Avoiding those arrangements carries a price too high to pay.
That's why the Bible says in Amos 4:12-13, our word for today from the Word of God, "Prepare to meet your God...He who forms the mountains, creates the wind...and treads the high places of the earth - the Lord God Almighty is His name." It is this awesome God who will decide when you and I will take our last breath; when eternity will begin for each and every one of us. The Bible says that you and I actually have an appointment with our Creator - the time when the old-timers used to say you "meet your Maker." God's Book says, "Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). A divine appointment, the nearness of which we cannot know, and judgment for every wrong thing we have ever done.
When you face God, it's too late then to make your arrangements. That's got to be done here and now. So many people think they'll get to heaven by being good. They're wrong - they're eternally wrong. The Bible clearly explains: "It is by grace (that's undeserved love) that you have been saved, through faith - and this...is the gift of God - not by works" (Ephesians 2:8-9). All our good can't possibly cancel our sin because sin has this eternal death penalty, and a death penalty cannot be paid by somebody doing good. Somebody's got to die, and someone did. Jesus did - so you don't have to. Your only hope is grabbing Him like a drowning person would grab a rescuer.
If you've never done that, you are not (in the Bible's words) "prepared to meet your God." But you can be, beginning today. You can actually know from this moment on that you are going to heaven when you die, because the sin that would keep you out of heaven has been forever forgiven by the One who died for that sin. Your spiritual rescue begins the moment you say, "Jesus, I'm putting my total trust in You and what You did on the cross for me. I'm Yours."
Our website is basically there to help you be sure you belong to Jesus. Let me give you that web address. It's ANewStory.com.
There is no greater peace, there's no greater security, than to know your arrangements for eternity have all been made. This very day you can prepare to meet your God.
