Max Lucado Daily: Do Something
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Matthew 5:6”
Healing begins when you do something. God’s help is near and always available, but it’s given to those who seek it. Healing starts when you take a step. God honors radical, risk-taking faith.
When arks are built, lives are saved. When soldiers march, Jerichos tumble.
When staffs are raised, seas still open. When a lunch is shared, thousands are fed.
And when a garment is touched by the hand of an anemic woman in Galilee—Jesus stops!
He stops and responds.
Compared to God’s part, our part is minuscule—but necessary. We don’t have to do much, but we do have to do something! Faith with no effort is not faith at all!
Write a letter. Ask forgiveness.
Call a counselor. Call a mom!
Visit a doctor. Be baptized.
Feed a hungry person.
Pray. Teach. Go.
God honors radical, risk-taking faith. And He will respond.
Matthew 9:18-38
Just a Touch
18–19 As he finished saying this, a local official appeared, bowed politely, and said, “My daughter has just now died. If you come and touch her, she will live.” Jesus got up and went with him, his disciples following along.
20–22 Just then a woman who had hemorrhaged for twelve years slipped in from behind and lightly touched his robe. She was thinking to herself, “If I can just put a finger on his robe, I’ll get well.” Jesus turned—caught her at it. Then he reassured her: “Courage, daughter. You took a risk of faith, and now you’re well.” The woman was well from then on.
23–26 By now they had arrived at the house of the town official, and pushed their way through the gossips looking for a story and the neighbors bringing in casseroles. Jesus was abrupt: “Clear out! This girl isn’t dead. She’s sleeping.” They told him he didn’t know what he was talking about. But when Jesus had gotten rid of the crowd, he went in, took the girl’s hand, and pulled her to her feet—alive. The news was soon out, and traveled throughout the region.
Become What You Believe
27–28 As Jesus left the house, he was followed by two blind men crying out, “Mercy, Son of David! Mercy on us!” When Jesus got home, the blind men went in with him. Jesus said to them, “Do you really believe I can do this?” They said, “Why, yes, Master!”
29–31 He touched their eyes and said, “Become what you believe.” It happened. They saw. Then Jesus became very stern. “Don’t let a soul know how this happened.” But they were hardly out the door before they started blabbing it to everyone they met.
32–33 Right after that, as the blind men were leaving, a man who had been struck speechless by an evil spirit was brought to Jesus. As soon as Jesus threw the evil tormenting spirit out, the man talked away just as if he’d been talking all his life. The people were up on their feet applauding: “There’s never been anything like this in Israel!”
34 The Pharisees were left sputtering, “hocus-pocus. It’s nothing but hocus-pocus. He’s probably made a pact with the Devil.”
35–38 Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. “What a huge harvest!” he said to his disciples. “How few workers! On your knees and pray for harvest hands!”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, March 09, 2025
by Brent Hackett
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Luke 10:38-42
Today's Insights
Luke 10:38-42 isn’t the only place we read of Jesus interacting with Mary and Martha. In John 11, Christ once again found His way to Bethany—but not for dinner. Lazarus was sick, and his sisters sent word to Jesus (vv. 1-3). In Luke, the setting was domestic (10:40); in John, the situation involved distress and death (11:3, 17). However, certain dynamics were present in both situations. In Luke 10:38-40, Martha is distracted with serving. In John 11:20-22, she’s distressed with grief. But in both cases, Christ put things into perspective (Luke 10:41-42; John 11:23-26). As for Mary, in Luke 10, she’s sitting at Jesus’ feet “listening to what he said” (v. 39). In John 11, she’s at His feet again but this time in desperate grief (v. 32). Christ provides the ultimate hope in our grief: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die and whoever lives by believing in me will never die” (vv. 25-26).
Resting in Christ
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things.” Luke 10:41
Several years ago, a study analyzed the link between teenage depression and the amount of sleep teens received each night. After reading the study, a young woman commented on the results: “I never seem to know when to stop—I push myself so hard that I end up making myself sick from lack of sleep and stress.” Then she said she wanted to know what it really meant to manage her time to honor God. What was the difference between busyness and fruitfulness?
Being busy is no guarantee for being productive, faithful, or fruitful. Yet we might think that being busy is what’s most important. In Luke 10:41, Jesus gently reminded Martha that she was “worried and upset about many things” and that her sister Mary’s choice of sitting “at the Lord’s feet” (v. 39)—a posture of discipleship—was the better choice.
In our desire to serve Christ, are we doing too much, thinking that He’ll notice us more if we do more? Colossians 3:17 says, “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.” However, it doesn’t say to burn ourselves out in His name. In Psalm 46:10, we hear this reminder: “Be still, and know that I am God.”
Let’s take some time to slow down and spend time with Christ rather than focusing solely on our to-do list. Only then can we find true “rest for [our] souls” (Matthew 11:29).
Reflect & Pray
When have you been too busy to be faithful and fruitful? How can you find rest in Jesus to accomplish what He wants you to do?
Dear Jesus, please help me replace busyness with being still so I can know that You’re God and my life can be fruitful.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, March 09, 2025
Going with Jesus
“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. — John 6:67
Our Lord’s words hit home most forcefully when he talks in simple ways. Like the disciples in this passage, we are aware of who Jesus is; we know him and love him. But he still asks if we are going to leave him. Why? Jesus wants to drive home that the attitude we have to maintain toward him is one of total trust and abandon. We must always be journeying forth in his name, following wherever he leads. “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him” (John 6:66). These disciples lost the bold and reckless commitment Jesus wanted them to have. They didn’t stop believing or fall back into sin, but they gave up their intimacy with him.
Many of us today are guilty of this. We may be spending ourselves and being spent in Jesus’s name, but we aren’t walking with him; we aren’t drawing close to him with perfect trust and confidence. Yet this is the one thing God holds us to steadily: that we be one with Jesus as Jesus is one with the Father.
After Christ is formed inside us, the discipline of our spiritual life centers on this question of oneness. If God gives you a clear and emphatic message about something he wants you to accomplish, let oneness be your guide in how to pursue it. Don’t struggle to find any particular method; don’t create a plan that isn’t his. Simply live a natural life of absolute dependence on Jesus Christ, and God will bring about the thing he wants.
Never try to live in any way other than God’s, and remember that God’s way is absolute devotion to him. The certainty that I know I do not know—that is the secret of going with Jesus.
Deuteronomy 8-10; Mark 11:19-33
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Jesus Christ can afford to be misunderstood; we cannot. Our weakness lies in always wanting to vindicate ourselves.
The Place of Help
