Max Lucado Daily: He Cares About You
Maybe you don’t want to trouble God with your hurts. After all, “He’s got famines and pestilence and wars. He won’t care about my little struggles,” you think. Why don’t you let Him decide that?
Jesus cared enough about a wedding to provide the wine. He cared enough about the woman at the well to give her answers. 1 Peter 5:7 says, “He cares about you.”
Your first step is to go to the right person. Go to God. Your second step is to assume the right posture. Bow before God. Luke 18:7 reminds us, “God will always give what is right to His people who cry to Him night and day, and He will not be slow to answer them.”
Listen to the prayer in Psalm 25:1-2: “Lord, I give myself to You, my God. I trust You.” So, go…bow…and trust. It’s worth a try, don’t you think?
from Traveling Light
Exodus 19
Mount Sinai
1–2 19 Three months after leaving Egypt the Israelites entered the Wilderness of Sinai. They followed the route from Rephidim, arrived at the Wilderness of Sinai, and set up camp. Israel camped there facing the mountain.
3–6 As Moses went up to meet God, God called down to him from the mountain: “Speak to the House of Jacob, tell the People of Israel: ‘You have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to me. If you will listen obediently to what I say and keep my covenant, out of all peoples you’ll be my special treasure. The whole Earth is mine to choose from, but you’re special: a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.’
“This is what I want you to tell the People of Israel.”
7 Moses came back and called the elders of Israel together and set before them all these words which God had commanded him.
8 The people were unanimous in their response: “Everything God says, we will do.” Moses took the people’s answer back to God.
9 God said to Moses, “Get ready. I’m about to come to you in a thick cloud so that the people can listen in and trust you completely when I speak with you.” Again Moses reported the people’s answer to God.
10–13 God said to Moses, “Go to the people. For the next two days get these people ready to meet the Holy God. Have them scrub their clothes so that on the third day they’ll be fully prepared, because on the third day God will come down on Mount Sinai and make his presence known to all the people. Post boundaries for the people all around, telling them, ‘Warning! Don’t climb the mountain. Don’t even touch its edge. Whoever touches the mountain dies—a certain death. And no one is to touch that person, he’s to be stoned. That’s right—stoned. Or shot with arrows, shot to death. Animal or man, whichever—put to death.’
“A long blast from the horn will signal that it’s safe to climb the mountain.”
14–15 Moses went down the mountain to the people and prepared them for the holy meeting. They gave their clothes a good scrubbing. Then he addressed the people: “Be ready in three days. Don’t sleep with a woman.”
16 On the third day at daybreak, there were loud claps of thunder, flashes of lightning, a thick cloud covering the mountain, and an ear-piercing trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp shuddered in fear.
17 Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God. They stood at attention at the base of the mountain.
18–20 Mount Sinai was all smoke because God had come down on it as fire. Smoke poured from it like smoke from a furnace. The whole mountain shuddered in huge spasms. The trumpet blasts grew louder and louder. Moses spoke and God answered in thunder. God descended to the peak of Mount Sinai. God called Moses up to the peak and Moses climbed up.
21–22 God said to Moses, “Go down. Warn the people not to break through the barricades to get a look at God lest many of them die. And the priests also, warn them to prepare themselves for the holy meeting, lest God break out against them.”
23 Moses said to God, “But the people can’t climb Mount Sinai. You’ve already warned us well telling us: ‘Post boundaries around the mountain. Respect the holy mountain.’ ”
24 God told him, “Go down and then bring Aaron back up with you. But make sure that the priests and the people don’t break through and come up to God, lest he break out against them.”
25 So Moses went down to the people. He said to them:
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, July 05, 2025
by Katara Patton
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Matthew 25:1-13
The Story of the Virgins
1–5 25 “God’s kingdom is like ten young virgins who took oil lamps and went out to greet the bridegroom. Five were silly and five were smart. The silly virgins took lamps, but no extra oil. The smart virgins took jars of oil to feed their lamps. The bridegroom didn’t show up when they expected him, and they all fell asleep.
6 “In the middle of the night someone yelled out, ‘He’s here! The bridegroom’s here! Go out and greet him!’
7–8 “The ten virgins got up and got their lamps ready. The silly virgins said to the smart ones, ‘Our lamps are going out; lend us some of your oil.’
9 “They answered, ‘There might not be enough to go around; go buy your own.’
10 “They did, but while they were out buying oil, the bridegroom arrived. When everyone who was there to greet him had gone into the wedding feast, the door was locked.
11 “Much later, the other virgins, the silly ones, showed up and knocked on the door, saying, ‘Master, we’re here. Let us in.’
12 “He answered, ‘Do I know you? I don’t think I know you.’
13 “So stay alert. You have no idea when he might arrive.
Today's Insights
The scene in Matthew 25:1-13 is of a bridal wedding party. Traditionally, the bride with her bridesmaids would wait at her parents’ home for the groom, who’d typically arrive after dark to begin a celebratory procession to the wedding at his parents’ home. Because the timing could vary significantly, the bridal party needed to be prepared for an indefinite amount of time. In Jesus’ parable, the groom arrives even later than usual, and some bridesmaids didn’t bring enough oil for their lamps. The wise, prepared bridesmaids couldn’t share their oil reserves without risking also running out and ruining the wedding procession. This scene offered an ideal example of the need for believers in Christ to have a posture of constant faithfulness and readiness both to meet Jesus and to serve Him, even in unpredictable times.
Grandma’s Last Night
The wise [virgins] . . . took oil in jars along with their lamps. Matthew 25:4
My grandmother had a routine on Saturday nights. Before she went to bed, she laid out all her clothing, including the shoes she planned to wear to church the next morning. She always attended the early service and wanted to be ready to get up and go the next morning without any delay. One Saturday night, she was suddenly hospitalized. Later, Jesus called her name, and she died. When my grandfather returned home from the hospital, he found her clothes laid out. She’d been prepared to go to church as well as to meet her God.
My grandmother’s ritual reminds me of the wisdom of the bridesmaids in the parable in Matthew 25. In the story, Christ tells His disciples to be ready for His coming: “Keep watch,” He said. No one knows “the day or the hour” He’ll return (v. 13), so it’s wise for us to be prepared. If we wait until the last minute to prepare, we could be like “the foolish ones” (v. 3). They ran out of oil because they hadn’t prepared well, and just after they left their posts to refill their lamps with oil, the bridegroom came.
We may not need to lay out our clothes like my grandmother, but her ritual demonstrated her desire to be ready for church as well as for her Savior. May we use her wisdom to be ready for the most important things in life, serving Jesus as He leads us and being ready for His return.
Reflect & Pray
How can you prepare for Christ’s coming? What wise choices can you make in serving Him today?
Dear Jesus, please show me how to be wise as I serve You and prepare for Your return.
Discover what the book of Revelation tells us about Jesus’ coming.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, July 05, 2025
Don’t Calculate without God
Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn. —Psalm 37:5-6
Don’t calculate without God. God seems to have a delightful way of upsetting the plans we’ve made without taking him into account. When we get ourselves into circumstances that God didn’t choose for us, sooner or later we realize our mistake and are filled with worry. The only thing that keeps us from the possibility of worrying is bringing God in as the greatest factor in all our calculations.
We think it’s normal to put God first in matters of religion, but we hesitate when it comes to the practical issues of life. We worry that running to God with every little detail is burdensome or disrespectful. If we imagine that we have to put on our best Sunday mood before we draw near to God, we will never come near him. We must come as we are.
Don’t calculate with evil in view. “Love . . . keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Corinthians 13:4–5). Does God really mean for us to take no account of evil and wrong? Love isn’t ignorant of the existence of evil, but it doesn’t treat evil as a relevant factor in making plans. When we calculate without God, all our reasoning starts from the premise that evil must be considered first. God wants us to start from a place of confidence and love.
Don’t calculate with the rainy day in view. If you are trusting Jesus Christ, you can’t set a little aside for a rainy day; you can’t be anxious about tomorrow. Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled” (John 14:27). God won’t prevent your heart from being troubled. It’s a command he has given to you: “Do not . . .” Pick yourself up a hundred and one times a day in order to obey. Do this until you get into the habit of putting God first and calculating with him in view.
Job 30-31; Acts 13:26-52
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Beware of isolation; beware of the idea that you have to develop a holy life alone. It is impossible to develop a holy life alone; you will develop into an oddity and a peculiarism, into something utterly unlike what God wants you to be. The only way to develop spiritually is to go into the society of God’s own children, and you will soon find how God alters your set. God does not contradict our social instincts; He alters them.
Biblical Psychology, 189 L
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