Max Lucado Daily: THE CALL TO FORGIVE - December 30, 2025
You will never forgive anyone more than God has already forgiven you. Is it still hard to consider the thought of forgiving the one who hurt you?
If so, go one more time to the room. Watch Jesus as he goes from disciple to disciple. Can you see him? Can you hear the water splash? Can you hear him shuffle on the floor to the next person? Keep that image. John 13:12 says, “When he had finished washing their feet…” Please note: he finished washing their feet. That means he left no one out. Why is that important? Because that means he washed the feet of Judas. Jesus washed the feet of his betrayer.
That’s not to say it was easy for Jesus. That’s not to say it’s easy for you. That is to say God will never call you to do what he hasn’t already done.
A Gentle Thunder: Hearing God Through the Storm
Luke 9:1-17
Keep It Simple
1–5 9 Jesus now called the Twelve and gave them authority and power to deal with all the demons and cure diseases. He commissioned them to preach the news of God’s kingdom and heal the sick. He said, “Don’t load yourselves up with equipment. Keep it simple; you are the equipment. And no luxury inns—get a modest place and be content there until you leave. If you’re not welcomed, leave town. Don’t make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and move on.”
6 Commissioned, they left. They traveled from town to town telling the latest news of God, the Message, and curing people everywhere they went.
7–9 Herod, the ruler, heard of these goings on and didn’t know what to think. There were people saying John had come back from the dead, others that Elijah had appeared, still others that some prophet of long ago had shown up. Herod said, “But I killed John—took off his head. So who is this that I keep hearing about?” Curious, he looked for a chance to see him in action.
10–11 The apostles returned and reported on what they had done. Jesus took them away, off by themselves, near the town called Bethsaida. But the crowds got wind of it and followed. Jesus graciously welcomed them and talked to them about the kingdom of God. Those who needed healing, he healed.
Bread and Fish for Five Thousand
12 As the day declined, the Twelve said, “Dismiss the crowd so they can go to the farms or villages around here and get a room for the night and a bite to eat. We’re out in the middle of nowhere.”
13–14 “You feed them,” Jesus said.
They said, “We couldn’t scrape up more than five loaves of bread and a couple of fish—unless, of course, you want us to go to town ourselves and buy food for everybody.” (There were more than five thousand people in the crowd.)
14–17 But he went ahead and directed his disciples, “Sit them down in groups of about fifty.” They did what he said, and soon had everyone seated. He took the five loaves and two fish, lifted his face to heaven in prayer, blessed, broke, and gave the bread and fish to the disciples to hand out to the crowd. After the people had all eaten their fill, twelve baskets of leftovers were gathered up.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, December 30, 2025
by Karen Huang
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Genesis 39:20-23
Joseph’s master took him and threw him into the jail where the king’s prisoners were locked up. But there in jail God was still with Joseph: He reached out in kindness to him; he put him on good terms with the head jailer. The head jailer put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners—he ended up managing the whole operation. The head jailer gave Joseph free rein, never even checked on him, because God was with him; whatever he did God made sure it worked out for the best.
Today's Insights
Joseph’s plight in Egypt (Genesis 39) calls to mind the dilemma of Daniel in Babylon centuries later. Like Joseph, he was taken from his native land and found favor with the officials even in less-than-ideal circumstances. “God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel” (Daniel 1:9). The timeless Psalm 23 reminds us that as much as we desire “green pastures” and “quiet waters” (vv. 2-3), our life journeys often include seasons in “the darkest valley” and “in the presence of [our] enemies” (vv. 4-5). This psalm, as well as the examples of Joseph, Daniel, and others, reminds us that our lives must be more about the object of our faith than the location of our feet. God’s faithful love knows no boundaries. Even in our trials, we can trust Him: “Surely your goodness and [faithful] love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever” (v. 6 nlt).
God’s Faithful Love
The Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love. Genesis 39:21 nlt
During our church outreach in a nursing home, an elderly resident told me of how his daughter had driven him there years before and simply left him on the sidewalk. In his wheelchair, Ed couldn’t get up to run after her. She’d returned to the car without looking back and had driven away. “We’re going to a nice hotel,” she’d said earlier. That day was the last time he saw her.
Vastly different in nature from the many loving family experiences of eldercare, this clear case of abuse traumatized Ed. He still has nightmares about that day.
Centuries ago, a young man also suffered trauma (Genesis 37:12-36). Joseph’s brothers threw him into a cistern and sold him to traders going to Egypt. But “the Lord was with Joseph” (39:2). In an unfamiliar land, as he courageously did what was right in God’s eyes, both in his master’s house (vv. 7-10) and in prison, Joseph realized that God “showed him his faithful love” (v. 21 nlt). Despite the trauma of his past, Joseph was able to succeed in whatever he did because God helped him (v. 23). Eventually he became second-in-command to Pharaoh and raised a family of his own (41:41-52). Later, he even reconciled with his brothers (45:12-15).
People may hurt us, but God never will. Although He may help us heal in ways different from what He did for Joseph, He promises us His same faithful love. Let’s follow His leading as we trust Him to heal our hearts.
Reflect & Pray
How has God helped you through trauma? How can you trust Him to care for you?
Dear Father, thank You for how Your love heals me.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, December 30, 2025
Every Virtue We Possess
All my fountains are in you. — Psalm 87:7
When God remakes us in spiritual rebirth, he doesn’t simply patch up our natural virtues. He remakes the whole person on the inside: “Put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). See that your natural human life puts on the clothing that is in keeping with the new life God has planted in you.
The life God plants in us develops its own virtues—not the virtues of Adam but the virtues of Jesus Christ. Watch how, after sanctification, God will wither up your confidence in your natural virtues, in any power you have, until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus. If you are going through a drying–up experience just now, give thanks to God.
The sign that God is at work in us is that he corrupts our confidence in our natural virtues, showing us that they are merely remnants, leftovers of what he originally created humans to be. They aren’t promises of what we are going to be. Still, we cling to the natural virtues, even as God is trying all the time to get us into contact with a life that can never be described in terms of natural virtues—the life of Jesus Christ. It’s the saddest thing to see people who, though they are in the service of God, are still depending on that which his grace never gave them, on virtues they possess merely by the accident of heredity.
God doesn’t build up our natural virtues and transfigure them, because our natural virtues can never come anywhere near what Jesus Christ wants. No natural love, no natural patience, no natural purity can ever come up to his demands. But as we bring every part of our bodily life into harmony with the new life God has put into us, he will exhibit through us the virtues that are characteristic of Jesus.
“All my fountains are in you”: every virtue we possess is his alone.
Zechariah 13-14; Revelation 21
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Wherever the providence of God may dump us down, in a slum, in a shop, in the desert, we have to labour along the line of His direction. Never allow this thought—“I am of no use where I am,” because you certainly can be of no use where you are not! Wherever He has engineered your circumstances, pray.
So Send I You, 1325 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, December 30, 2025
LOVE HAS X-RAY VISION - #10167
I don't like to perform a wedding unless I can first have several premarital counseling sessions with the couple. I remember when I told my youngest son (he was very young at that time) that I was going to be performing a wedding ceremony for one of the women on our staff. But the way I said it was this: "Hey, guess what? I'm going to be marrying Margaret." He burst into tears. He said, "What about Mommy?"
So I've cleaned up my vocabulary a little bit, but I won't perform a wedding unless I can first counsel that couple. I'll tell you why. You need to get some of the stars out of their eyes. "I love him!" "I love her!" Well, that's great, but most pre-married couples need an emotional optometrist who can help them take a little more honest look at this person that they really do love. So I try to give them some emotional glasses to see who is really there. I think those sessions are a "must" and in fact I even give some tests to show the differences in expectations and in their perceptions of each other. Why? Well, because of the truth of three time-tested words, "Love is (fill in the blank) blind." No it isn't! Not really.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Love Has X-Ray Vision."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Philippians 1:9-10. This is a great prayer here! In fact, I think it's a prayer we ought to just pray right out of scripture on behalf of some people we care about. Here it is: "And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight." It doesn't sound like love is blind there, does it? "And I want to pray this so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ."
Now, the word that's used here is agape love. Of the several Greek words that could be used, this is the one for divine love; it's the highest form. He says, "I pray that your agape will abound more and more." And he said that agape love is insightful. It's not just blindly accepting of everything. This applies to all your relationships, not just romantic relationships.
Then he gives here some solid guidelines for all the important choices that you are making at this stage of your life. He says that this knowledgeable love will make you able to discern. It really means to test. Test what? Well, I want you to have the kind of love, God is saying here, that's able to check out what is best.
The Greek word that's used here is one that literally means to carry through. What's worth carrying through life? I want you to be able to discern that. It's often translated "more valuable" in the Bible. When you put it together it seems to say this, "Authentic love checks out every choice and chooses what's really worth the most."
That kind of thinking settled it for my oldest son one day when he was trying to spend all of his allowance on junk food at the store. But he didn't, and when he left he said, "Dad, I decided I'd spend on what lasts." That's what this is talking about. Some people have us believe that love is this syrupy, naive, acceptance of everyone and everything. But actually, that was pretty tough, because it keeps asking, "What's really best in this situation? What will last?" Not, "What's more comfortable, what's more fun, what's more acceptable, or what's more materially profitable?" No, what's more eternally valuable?
You can have that discernment in your daily choices the same way the first-century believers did. You've got to pray for it. Ask for it often. Like Superman, you can have x-ray vision, but to see the things that are really valuable. God can give you powerful inner eyes when you open up to His discerning love. When you have love, God's way, it's not blind - it has x-ray vision.
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