Max Lucado Daily: JESUS WANTS TO CHANGE YOUR HEART - May 4, 2026
The love of people often increases with performance and decreases with mistakes. Not so with God’s love. He loves you right where you are, but he refuses to leave you that way. And so he cleanses us of filth: immorality, dishonesty, prejudice, bitterness, greed. He wants us to be just like Jesus. Isn’t that good news? You aren’t stuck with today’s personality. You are tweakable!
Where did we get the idea we cannot change? Why do we say things such as, “It’s my nature to worry,” or “I’ll always be pessimistic; I’m just that way,” or, “I have a bad temper; I can’t help the way I react.” Who says? If our bodies malfunction, we seek help. Shouldn’t we do the same for our hearts? Can’t we seek aid for our sour attitudes? Of course we can! Jesus wants to change our hearts. Can you imagine a better offer?
Just Like Jesus
2 Samuel 1
Shortly after Saul died, David returned to Ziklag from his rout of the Amalekites. Three days later a man showed up unannounced from Saul’s army camp.
2–3 Disheveled and obviously in mourning, he fell to his knees in respect before David. David asked, “What brings you here?”
He answered, “I’ve just escaped from the camp of Israel.”
4 “So what happened?” said David. “What’s the news?”
He said, “The Israelites have fled the battlefield, leaving a lot of their dead comrades behind. And Saul and his son Jonathan are dead.”
5 David pressed the young soldier for details: “How do you know for sure that Saul and Jonathan are dead?”
6–8 “I just happened by Mount Gilboa and came on Saul, badly wounded and leaning on his spear, with enemy chariots and horsemen bearing down hard on him. He looked behind him, saw me, and called me to him. ‘Yes sir,’ I said, ‘at your service.’ He asked me who I was, and I told him, ‘I’m an Amalekite.’ ”
9 “Come here,” he said, “and put me out of my misery. I’m nearly dead already, but my life hangs on.”
10 “So I did what he asked—I killed him. I knew he wouldn’t last much longer anyway. I removed his royal headband and bracelet, and have brought them to my master. Here they are.”
11–12 In lament, David ripped his clothes to ribbons. All the men with him did the same. They wept and fasted the rest of the day, grieving the death of Saul and his son Jonathan, and also the army of God and the nation Israel, victims in a failed battle.
13 Then David spoke to the young soldier who had brought the report: “Who are you, anyway?”
“I’m from an immigrant family—an Amalekite.”
14–15 “Do you mean to say,” said David, “that you weren’t afraid to up and kill God’s anointed king?” Right then he ordered one of his soldiers, “Strike him dead!” The soldier struck him, and he died.
16 “You asked for it,” David told him. “You sealed your death sentence when you said you killed God’s anointed king.”
17–18 Then David sang this lament over Saul and his son Jonathan, and gave orders that everyone in Judah learn it by heart. Yes, it’s even inscribed in The Book of Jashar.
19–21 Oh, oh, Gazelles of Israel, struck down on your hills,
the mighty warriors—fallen, fallen!
Don’t announce it in the city of Gath,
don’t post the news in the streets of Ashkelon.
Don’t give those coarse Philistine girls
one more excuse for a drunken party!
No more dew or rain for you, hills of Gilboa,
and not a drop from springs and wells,
For there the warriors’ shields were dragged through the mud,
Saul’s shield left there to rot.
22 Jonathan’s bow was bold—
the bigger they were the harder they fell.
Saul’s sword was fearless—
once out of the scabbard, nothing could stop it.
23 Saul and Jonathan—beloved, beautiful!
Together in life, together in death.
Swifter than plummeting eagles,
stronger than proud lions.
24–25 Women of Israel, weep for Saul.
He dressed you in finest cottons and silks,
spared no expense in making you elegant.
The mighty warriors—fallen, fallen
in the middle of the fight!
Jonathan—struck down on your hills!
26 O my dear brother Jonathan,
I’m crushed by your death.
Your friendship was a miracle-wonder,
love far exceeding anything I’ve known—
or ever hope to know.
27 The mighty warriors—fallen, fallen.
And the arms of war broken to bits.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, May 04, 2026
by Bill Crowder
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Revelation 1:1-2, 12-18
A revealing of Jesus, the Messiah. God gave it to make plain to his servants what is about to happen. He published and delivered it by Angel to his servant John. And John told everything he saw: God’s Word—the witness of Jesus Christ!
I turned and saw the voice.
I saw a gold menorah
with seven branches,
And in the center, the Son of Man,
in a robe and gold breastplate,
hair a blizzard of white,
Eyes pouring fire-blaze,
both feet furnace-fired bronze,
His voice a cataract,
right hand holding the Seven Stars,
His mouth a sharp-biting sword,
his face a perigee sun.
I saw this and fainted dead at his feet. His right hand pulled me upright, his voice reassured me:
17–20 “Don’t fear: I am First, I am Last, I’m Alive. I died, but I came to life, and my life is now forever. See these keys in my hand? They open and lock Death’s doors, they open and lock Hell’s gates.
Today's Insights
John’s vision of Jesus in Revelation 1:12-18 reveals Christ’s divine authority, holiness, and power. The imagery of white hair, blazing eyes, and a voice like “rushing waters” (v. 15) emphasizes His purity, wisdom, and majesty. Scholars agree that the seven golden lamp stands (see chs. 2-3) symbolize His presence among the churches, affirming both His nearness and His role as their protector and judge. The “sharp, double-edged sword” from His mouth (1:16) represents the power of His word to convict and save. Christ identifies Himself as “the Living One” (v. 18) who triumphed over death. Believers in Jesus don’t need to fear the future because the risen Christ holds the ultimate authority over life and eternity.
No Fear of an Apocalypse
The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. Revelation 1:1
In 1859, the largest solar storm in recorded history took place. Known as the Carrington Event, it produced a massive geomagnetic disturbance blamed for disrupting the telegraph system. The website Space.com says, “It’s been conjectured that a storm on the scale of the Carrington event, if it happened today, could cause an internet apocalypse.”
The ominous word apocalypse intrigues us. It’s the Greek title of the book of Revelation (apokalypsis). But the word doesn’t only mean a catastrophe or the end of the world. As the title Revelation implies, it also refers to an unveiling, a revealing.
The book opens, “The revelation from Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:1). Revelation reveals Jesus as the Lamb of God, a term John uses in the book more than twenty-five times to describe Him. Revelation also reveals Christ as one whose “eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters” (vv. 14-15). When John first saw the Lamb of God, he “fell at his feet as though dead” (v. 17). But this Lamb touched him and said, “Do not be afraid. . . . I am alive for ever and ever!” (v.v 17-18).
Rather than fearing any apocalypse, we can embrace Revelation for showing us the glorified, resurrected Christ. He’s the one we worship.
Reflect & Pray
What are your fears about the future? How does Jesus help you transcend those fears?
Heavenly Father, thank You for revealing Your Son Jesus to me.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, May 04, 2026
Vicarious Intercession
Since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, . . . let us draw near to God with a sincere heart. — Hebrews 10:19, 22
Our ability to approach God is entirely due to what our Lord did on the cross: he identified himself with sin, and then sacrificed himself to atone for that sin. Beware of the idea that interceding for others in prayer means bringing our personal sympathies into the presence of God and demanding he do what we ask. To draw near to God “with a sincere heart” is to approach God with all humility, remembering that it is only “by the blood of Jesus” that we can enter the holy of holies.
Spiritual stubbornness is the greatest barrier to interceding for others in the way we should. If we are spiritually stubborn, we sympathize with something in ourselves or in others which doesn’t need sympathy; rather, it needs to be atoned for by the blood of Christ. Generally, this is something that seems right and virtuous, something we can’t imagine needs to be handed over to God for atonement.
If we get stuck in this mindset, we no longer identify ourselves with God’s interest in others. We fall in love with our own ideas and constantly put them forward, becoming sullen and sulky if we don’t get our way. Soon, prayer for others has become nothing more than the glorification of our natural sympathies. We have to realize that Jesus’s identification with sin, and our identification with him, requires a radical alteration of all our sympathies. Vicarious intercession means that we deliberately substitute our natural sympathy with others for God’s interest in them.
1 Kings 16-18; Luke 22:47-71
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
There is no allowance whatever in the New Testament for the man who says he is saved by grace but who does not produce the graceful goods. Jesus Christ by His Redemption can make our actual life in keeping with our religious profession.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, May 04, 2026
Looking for What's Right There - #10255
How did we know it was a stupid question? Our family was in Alaska some years ago and we asked some of the folks there what seemed like a reasonable question, "Where can we go to see a moose?" Turns out seeing a moose is really no big deal in Alaska. In fact, some people we talked to had hit one recently! So, they're everywhere. Sure. While I was busy speaking, my wife and kids drove all over the countryside looking for some moose. Nada. Maybe people hit them all! They even went to the Moose Sanctuary and they saw no moose there; frustrated, tired of looking, and pretty sure those moose were only in pictures in the tourist brochures. One morning we walked out of the house where we were staying, piled in the car, and started driving down the driveway. Suddenly, one of the kids shouted, "Moose!" And sure enough, there were three members of the antler gang right there at the bottom of our driveway! What we'd been looking for all that time was right in front of us!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Looking for What's Right There."
You know this is a time when spirituality is important to more and more people, there's a word you hear a lot and folks use it to describe themselves spiritually - I'm a "seeker" or I'm "searching spiritually." And that's a good thing to be doing. We're created with this eternity dimension by a God who is eternal, and we'll only find life's real meaning by shopping in the store called "spiritual answers." That part is right.
Today, as never before, there's a spiritual cafeteria to choose from. Our search for the truth can carry us to many different religions or a blend of several religions; into New Age spirituality, into ourselves to find the power within us. But like our family hunting for moose, we're looking, but often not finding what we're looking for. Much searching - still no lasting peace, no security about eternity.
It was a number of years ago where 39 members of the "Heaven's Gate" cult committed suicide. It was really unsettling because these were bright people, competent people; sincere spiritual seekers hoping to graduate from earth to, believe it or not, a waiting spaceship. That was their unusual belief. But listen, this is what I wanted to share with you - what one national news magazine observed about them and about us. It said, "Subtract the spaceship and the mass suicide, and you have a yearning and a search familiar to millions of Americans." That's true.
That magazine pointed out what they called universal needs that many people are trying to meet: "the craving to belong, the wish to connect to something larger than oneself, the secret hope of finding an all-caring parent who offers protection and comfort." I'll tell you what, those needs were built into us by our Creator.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Colossians 1:16. "All things were created by Him and for Him." That simple statement from God could be the beginning of the end of your spiritual search. He says you were created by Jesus; you were created for Jesus. The Savior who's been pretty much in front of you all the time, but maybe you've passed him by because you get Jesus confused with all the religious baggage attached to His name because you thought it was some new spirituality you needed.
But only Jesus died to remedy our central spiritual problem: we're away from God because of our sin. And only the One who paid for that sin with His life can put you and God together. Without that, all spiritual searching must, sooner or later, turn up empty. The day you find is the day you say, "Jesus, You died and it was for me, for my sin. And today, I am Yours."
He's been here all the time, but you've missed Him. Why don't you make today the day you find Him? Make a trip to our website and find out there how to be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com.
Searching is good. Finding is better. Your long search will end in the loving arms of the One who's been patiently waiting for you all this time. Jesus - the end of your search.
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