Max Lucado Daily: God, Your Refuge
He has a price on his head. No place to lay his head. But somehow he keeps his head. He turns his focus to God and finds refuge! Refuge is a favorite word of David’s in the Psalms. But never did David use the word more poignantly than in Psalm 57—a song of David when he fled from Saul into the cave. On his face, lost in shadows and thought, nowhere to turn. But then he remembers he is not alone. And from the recesses of the cave his voice floats:
“Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me.
For my soul rests in You;
And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge.”
Make God your refuge. Not your job, your spouse, your reputation, or your retirement account. Make God your refuge! Let Him encircle you. Let Him be the foundation upon which you stand! And that foundation will support you right into eternity.
from Facing Your Giants
Mark 5:1-20
The Madman
1–5 5 They arrived on the other side of the sea in the country of the Gerasenes. As Jesus got out of the boat, a madman from the cemetery came up to him. He lived there among the tombs and graves. No one could restrain him—he couldn’t be chained, couldn’t be tied down. He had been tied up many times with chains and ropes, but he broke the chains, snapped the ropes. No one was strong enough to tame him. Night and day he roamed through the graves and the hills, screaming out and slashing himself with sharp stones.
6–8 When he saw Jesus a long way off, he ran and bowed in worship before him—then bellowed in protest, “What business do you have, Jesus, Son of the High God, messing with me? I swear to God, don’t give me a hard time!” (Jesus had just commanded the tormenting evil spirit, “Out! Get out of the man!”)
9–10 Jesus asked him, “Tell me your name.”
He replied, “My name is Mob. I’m a rioting mob.” Then he desperately begged Jesus not to banish them from the country.
11–13 A large herd of pigs was browsing and rooting on a nearby hill. The demons begged him, “Send us to the pigs so we can live in them.” Jesus gave the order. But it was even worse for the pigs than for the man. Crazed, they stampeded over a cliff into the sea and drowned.
14–15 Those tending the pigs, scared to death, bolted and told their story in town and country. Everyone wanted to see what had happened. They came up to Jesus and saw the madman sitting there wearing decent clothes and making sense, no longer a walking madhouse of a man.
16–17 Those who had seen it told the others what had happened to the demon-possessed man and the pigs. At first they were in awe—and then they were upset, upset over the drowned pigs. They demanded that Jesus leave and not come back.
18–20 As Jesus was getting into the boat, the demon-delivered man begged to go along, but he wouldn’t let him. Jesus said, “Go home to your own people. Tell them your story—what the Master did, how he had mercy on you.” The man went back and began to preach in the Ten Towns area about what Jesus had done for him. He was the talk of the town.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, August 10, 2025
by Karen Huang
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
1 Kings 11:34-39; 12:31-32
34–36 “Still, I won’t take the whole kingdom away from him. I’ll stick with him through his lifetime because of my servant David whom I chose and who did follow my directions and obey my orders. But after that I’ll remove the kingdom from his son’s control and give you ten tribes. I’ll leave one tribe to his son, to maintain a witness to my servant David in Jerusalem, the city I chose as a memorial to my Name.
37–39 “But I have taken you in hand. Rule to your heart’s content! You are to be the king of Israel. If you listen to what I tell you and live the way I show you and do what pleases me, following directions and obeying orders as my servant David did, I’ll stick with you no matter what. I’ll build you a kingdom as solid as the one I built for David. Israel will be yours! I am bringing pain and trouble on David’s descendants, but the trials won’t last forever.”
31–33 And that wasn’t the end of it. Jeroboam built forbidden shrines all over the place and recruited priests from wherever he could find them, regardless of whether they were fit for the job or not. To top it off, he created a holy New Year festival to be held on the fifteenth day of the eighth month to replace the one in Judah, complete with worship offered on the Altar at Bethel and sacrificing before the calves he had set up there. He staffed Bethel with priests from the local shrines he had made.
Today's Insights
Jeroboam wasn’t the first (or last) Israelite king who succumbed to fear rather than trust in God (see 1 Kings 12:26-33). Saul was afraid of a Philistine assault and presumptuously offered a sacrifice. By doing so, he gave up a “kingdom over Israel for all time” (1 Samuel 13:13). Saul later failed again to obey God because he “was afraid of the men and so [he] gave in to them” (15:24) and Samuel repeats the verdict on Saul’s dynasty (v. 23). Likewise, other kings throughout Israel’s history were judged on whether they acted out of compromising fear of others or a healthy fear of God, otherwise known as faith.
Unfounded Fears
I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you. 1 Kings 11:38
“I love you. I’ll never leave you.” Julia saved her husband’s text message so she could read it whenever she was afraid. A troubled childhood had left her with a fear of loved ones abandoning her. She’d often ask for reassurance from her husband, and she would wait anxiously for him to come home from work.
Prayer and counseling helped Julia respond to her fear in healthier ways. “I’d look at my fear in the light of my husband’s loving promises to me,” she says. “I’d think, His promises are true! and behave accordingly.”
King Jeroboam also had unfounded fears. Because of Solomon’s apostasy, God had already promised Jeroboam, “I will take the kingdom from [David’s] son’s hands and give you ten tribes” (1 Kings 11:35). God assured him that if he obeyed Him, He would “give Israel to [him]” (v. 38).
Yet Jeroboam was afraid. “If these people . . . offer sacrifices at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem,” he thought, “they will . . . return to King Rehoboam” (12:27). His fear drove him to set up nearby sites of idol worship to prevent his subjects from turning to Solomon’s son (vv. 26-33). As a result, Jeroboam faced God’s judgment (14:7-16). If only he’d trusted God’s promises!
We don’t have to deal with unfounded fears on our own. God has given us the safety of His promises in Scripture. Let’s allow His loving truths to illuminate our mind and steps.
Reflect & Pray
What unfounded fears do you have? What does Scripture say about them?
Dear God, please teach me how to respond to my fears and help me obey You.
Gain a better understanding of fear and how God can help you overcome it here.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, August 10, 2025
The Suffering of the Saint
Those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good. — 1 Peter 4:19
To choose to suffer means that something is wrong. To choose God’s will even if it means suffering is a very different thing. Healthy saints never choose suffering; they choose God’s will, whether it means suffering or not, just as Jesus did.
A saint never dares to interfere with the discipline of suffering in another saint. The people who do us good aren’t those who sympathize with us; they are those who help make us strong and mature for God. Sympathy holds us back; it saps our energy and fills us with self-pity. When we accept sympathy, the thought that goes through our mind is “God is dealing harshly with me.” That is why Jesus said self-pity was of the devil. When Peter implied that God, in allowing Jesus to be put to death, was being too harsh, Jesus replied, “Get behind me, Satan!” (Matthew 16:23).
Beware of the thought that Jesus needed sympathy in his earthly life. He refused sympathy from people, because he knew that no one on earth understood what he was after. Only the Father understood his purposes: “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4).
Be merciful to God’s reputation. It’s easy to tarnish his character, because God never answers back; he never vindicates himself. It may seem that he is wasting his saints, because he sends them to places the world considers useless. Even those who are called by God may misunderstand their calling. We say, “God intends me to be here because I am so useful.” God puts his saints where they will glorify him, and we are not at all capable of judging where that will be.
Psalms 79-80; Romans 11:1-18
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
We are apt to think that everything that happens to us is to be turned into useful teaching; it is to be turned into something better than teaching, viz. into character. We shall find that the spheres God brings us into are not meant to teach us something but to make us something.
The Love of God—The Ministry of the Unnoticed, 664 L
