Max Lucado Daily: DON’T LET FEAR WIN - February 18, 2025
The fear-filled cannot love deeply. They cannot give to the poor; benevolence has no guarantee of a return. They cannot dream wildly; what if their dreams sputter and fall from the sky? Fear paralyzes people.
Are you afraid? Afraid of a job loss? Afraid of what people are saying about you? Jesus wages such a war against fear. In Matthew 10:28 (NIV) he says, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” In John 14:27 (NIV) Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
Fear’s main goal is to keep you from God’s plan for your life. Don’t allow it to win! Punch fear in the face! If anything should be afraid, it should be fear itself.
Max on Life: Answers and Insights to Your Most Important Questions
Job 1
Job was a man who lived in Uz. He was honest inside and out, a man of his word, who was totally devoted to God and hated evil with a passion. He had seven sons and three daughters. He was also very wealthy—seven thousand head of sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred teams of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and a huge staff of servants—the most influential man in all the East!
4–5 His sons used to take turns hosting parties in their homes, always inviting their three sisters to join them in their merrymaking. When the parties were over, Job would get up early in the morning and sacrifice a burnt offering for each of his children, thinking, “Maybe one of them sinned by defying God inwardly.” Job made a habit of this sacrificial atonement, just in case they’d sinned.
The First Test: Family and Fortune
6–7 One day when the angels came to report to God, Satan, who was the Designated Accuser, came along with them. God singled out Satan and said, “What have you been up to?”
Satan answered God, “Going here and there, checking things out on earth.”
8 God said to Satan, “Have you noticed my friend Job? There’s no one quite like him—honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil.”
9–10 Satan retorted, “So do you think Job does all that out of the sheer goodness of his heart? Why, no one ever had it so good! You pamper him like a pet, make sure nothing bad ever happens to him or his family or his possessions, bless everything he does—he can’t lose!
11 “But what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away everything that is his? He’d curse you right to your face, that’s what.”
12 God replied, “We’ll see. Go ahead—do what you want with all that is his. Just don’t hurt him.” Then Satan left the presence of God.
13–15 Sometime later, while Job’s children were having one of their parties at the home of the oldest son, a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys grazing in the field next to us when Sabeans attacked. They stole the animals and killed the field hands. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
16 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Bolts of lightning struck the sheep and the shepherds and fried them—burned them to a crisp. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
17 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Chaldeans coming from three directions raided the camels and massacred the camel drivers. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
18–19 While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Your children were having a party at the home of the oldest brother when a tornado swept in off the desert and struck the house. It collapsed on the young people and they died. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”
20 Job got to his feet, ripped his robe, shaved his head, then fell to the ground and worshiped:
21 Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
naked I’ll return to the womb of the earth.
God gives, God takes.
God’s name be ever blessed.
22 Not once through all this did Job sin; not once did he blame God.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
by Marvin Williams
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Ephesians 4:17, 22-32
The Old Way Has to Go
17–19 And so I insist—and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd.
Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.
25 What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ’s body we’re all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself.
26–27 Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.
28 Did you use to make ends meet by stealing? Well, no more! Get an honest job so that you can help others who can’t work.
29 Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.
30 Don’t grieve God. Don’t break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don’t take such a gift for granted.
31–32 Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.
Today's Insights
In Ephesians 4:17-32, Paul contrasts the deceptive ways of ”the devil” (v. 27) with the truth of God’s ways. The “Gentiles” (who don’t believe in God) are lost in “the futility of their thinking” (v. 17) and “darkened in their understanding.” Paul notes how this “ignorance” is “due to the hardening of their hearts” (v. 18). This reflects their conscious choice to reject God’s truth. In contrast, we’ve been “taught . . . the truth that is in Jesus” (v. 21) so that we will “put off [our] old self” and “its deceitful desires” (v. 22). We’re to live in God’s truth.
No Fake Ratings
Put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. Ephesians 4:25
A ride-sharing customer shared that he had endured a driver eating the world’s smelliest fruit, another driver who was bickering with a girlfriend, and one who tried to get him to invest money in a Ponzi scheme. In each case, instead of a poor rating, he gave the drivers five stars. He explained, “They all seemed like nice people. I didn’t want them to be kicked off the app over my bad rating.” He gave false reviews—keeping the truth from the drivers . . . and others.
For different reasons, we might withhold the truth from others. But the apostle Paul encouraged the Ephesian believers to lovingly speak the truth to one another as new creatures in Christ. This required cultivating habits of “righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24)—living lives that were set apart for Him and that reflected His ways. They were to replace lying with telling one another the truth because lies divide and disrupt, while truth unites us as believers. He wrote, “Each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body” (v. 25).
Jesus empowers us with the courage to resist lying and giving one another “fake ratings”—things that can disrupt our unity with other believers. Living a life of love, as He guides us, will lead to our sharing “kind and compassionate” expressions of truth (v. 32).
Reflect & Pray
When are you tempted to withhold the truth from other believers? Why is it vital to share what’s honest and true?
Dear God, please help me to be authentic in my relationships out of love for You and others.
For further study, read Clothed in Him.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
The Initiative against Despair
Rise! Let us go! — Matthew 26:46
In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus’s disciples fell asleep when they were supposed to be keeping watch. When they awoke and realized that Jesus was about to be taken, they were filled with despair.
We might imagine that this kind of despair is unusual; in fact, it’s a very common human experience. Whenever we realize that we’ve done something we can’t undo, whenever we let a magnificent opportunity pass us by, despair is the natural response. Sometimes, our feeling of despair is so deep we can’t lift ourselves out of it. At these moments, we need Jesus Christ to come to us and say, “Rise! Let us go!”
When our Lord comes to us in this way, he tells us to accept the reality of our situation. “That opportunity is lost forever,” he says. “You can’t change what has happened. But rise now, and go on.” In Gethsemane, the disciples had done something they felt was unforgivable. Jesus came with his spiritual initiative against despair, telling them to move on to the next thing. What is the next thing? If we are inspired by God, the next thing is always to trust him absolutely and to pray on the ground of his redemption.
Never let a sense of failure alter your new plans and actions. Let the past sleep, but let it sleep with Christ. Step out into the irresistible future with him.
Leviticus 23-24; Mark 1:1-22
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
We are in danger of being stern where God is tender, and of being tender where God is stern.
The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 673 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Love With Your Name On It - #9942
When I was in junior high school, we usually bought one copy of the local newspaper every day. Until the day I won the County Spelling Bee! Yeah, I can do autographs later. I'm sure you're very impressed. Well, that day my parents bought about 20 copies of the local newspaper. What was the difference? Well, my name was in it this time!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Love With Your Name On It."
Actually, that wasn't unusual for my family to do, buying all those newspapers. I mean, we're all like that. When our name is in something we're suddenly a whole lot more interested. It's that way with what might be the most important statement in all the Bible. Certainly one of the most quoted.
Maybe you've seen the fans at NFL games with their banners or their signs in the end zone. It says John 3:16, or maybe back when Tim Tebow played with the black under his eyes at a football game. Well, it could be the most important statement in the Bible. Here's what it says, "For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life."
Those words are probably the most dramatic answer in the world to any questions about how God feels about us. "God loves the world so much that He gave." He proved it. He acted on it. His one and only Son; the most valuable gift He could give. Why? So we who deserved to die can live forever instead. You say, "What do you mean deserved to die?" Well, the Bible says, for example, in Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death." That's what we'd be paid for running our own lives. That's what we deserve; the wages of running our own life. We've all built this wall between us and our Creator by taking our life into our own hands; hijacking our life. It's called sin.
Have you ever wondered why there's never been enough love? It's because of the sin wall. You can't get to the One who's got the love you were made for. There never seems to be a reason to live. Why? Because the One who knows why you're here is on the other side of the wall. If we die with that wall there, that wall is there forever. That's hell - eternal death - conscious separation and loneliness, away from a holy God forever and still enduring the pain because there are none of the sedatives we had on earth.
But God, the very One we have wronged, acted to get our death penalty paid for with the life of His own Son. Now, let's put your name in John 3:16. When I leave a blank, would you put your name there? "God loved ____ so much that He gave His one and only Son, that if ____ would believe in Him, then ____ will never die but will have eternal life."
See, it says in order to make what He died for yours, you have to believe in Him. That's not just agreeing with your mind. That's grabbing Jesus like a drowning person would grab a lifeguard. It's total trust. The gift of God's Son was all for you, but like any gift, you have to reach out and take it for it to be yours. Have you ever done that? This could be that day.
Something dramatic happens when you walk up to the cross of Jesus and say these two words, "For me. This is for me isn't it, Jesus. Some of those sins you died for are my sins." God's waiting right now to erase everything you've ever done from His book; to add your name to His Book of Life; the one He will check when your heart finally stops and you stand before Him.
But it all begins when you put your name in what Jesus did on the cross for you, and you make the Savior your Savior. If you've never done that, and you sense that knocking on the door of your heart, that's Jesus. I hope you'll go to our website. There you'll find the way to make sure you belong to Jesus Christ before this day ends. Tell Him right now, "I'm Yours, Jesus." The website is ANewStory.com.
When your name is in something, it's totally different. Today may be your day to realize that what Jesus did is not just generic, not just for the world. It was for you!
