Max Lucado Daily: Do it God’s Way
In the game of golf, logic says, “Don’t go for the green.” Golf 101 says, “Don’t go for the green.” But I say, “Give me my driver, I’m going for the green!” Golf reveals a lot about a person. I don’t need advice—whack! I can handle this myself—clang!
Can you relate? We want to do things our way. Forget the easy way and forget the best way. Forget God’s way. Too much stubbornness. Too much independence. Too much self-reliance. All I needed to do was apologize, but I had to argue. All I needed to do was listen, but I had to open my big mouth. All I needed to do was be patient, but I had to take control. All I had to do was give it to God, but I tried to fix it myself.
Scripture says, “Do it God’s way.” Experience says, “Do it God’s way.” And every so often, we do! We might even make the green.
From Traveling Light
John 13:1-20
Washing His Disciples’ Feet
1–2 13 Just before the Passover Feast, Jesus knew that the time had come to leave this world to go to the Father. Having loved his dear companions, he continued to love them right to the end. It was suppertime. The Devil by now had Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, firmly in his grip, all set for the betrayal.
3–6 Jesus knew that the Father had put him in complete charge of everything, that he came from God and was on his way back to God. So he got up from the supper table, set aside his robe, and put on an apron. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of the disciples, drying them with his apron. When he got to Simon Peter, Peter said, “Master, you wash my feet?”
7 Jesus answered, “You don’t understand now what I’m doing, but it will be clear enough to you later.”
8 Peter persisted, “You’re not going to wash my feet—ever!”
Jesus said, “If I don’t wash you, you can’t be part of what I’m doing.”
9 “Master!” said Peter. “Not only my feet, then. Wash my hands! Wash my head!”
10–12 Jesus said, “If you’ve had a bath in the morning, you only need your feet washed now and you’re clean from head to toe. My concern, you understand, is holiness, not hygiene. So now you’re clean. But not every one of you.” (He knew who was betraying him. That’s why he said, “Not every one of you.”) After he had finished washing their feet, he took his robe, put it back on, and went back to his place at the table.
12–17 Then he said, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You address me as ‘Teacher’ and ‘Master,’ and rightly so. That is what I am. So if I, the Master and Teacher, washed your feet, you must now wash each other’s feet. I’ve laid down a pattern for you. What I’ve done, you do. I’m only pointing out the obvious. A servant is not ranked above his master; an employee doesn’t give orders to the employer. If you understand what I’m telling you, act like it—and live a blessed life.
The One Who Ate Bread at My Table
18–20 “I’m not including all of you in this. I know precisely whom I’ve selected, so as not to interfere with the fulfillment of this Scripture:
The one who ate bread at my table
Turned on his heel against me.
“I’m telling you all this ahead of time so that when it happens you will believe that I am who I say I am. Make sure you get this right: Receiving someone I send is the same as receiving me, just as receiving me is the same as receiving the One who sent me.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, June 07, 2026
by Marvin Williams
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Ruth 1:11-18
But Naomi was firm: “Go back, my dear daughters. Why would you come with me? Do you suppose I still have sons in my womb who can become your future husbands? Go back, dear daughters—on your way, please! I’m too old to get a husband. Why, even if I said, ‘There’s still hope!’ and this very night got a man and had sons, can you imagine being satisfied to wait until they were grown? Would you wait that long to get married again? No, dear daughters; this is a bitter pill for me to swallow—more bitter for me than for you. God has dealt me a hard blow.”
14 Again they cried openly. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye; but Ruth embraced her and held on.
15 Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law is going back home to live with her own people and gods; go with her.”
16–17 But Ruth said, “Don’t force me to leave you; don’t make me go home. Where you go, I go; and where you live, I’ll live. Your people are my people, your God is my god; where you die, I’ll die, and that’s where I’ll be buried, so help me God—not even death itself is going to come between us!”
18–19 When Naomi saw that Ruth had her heart set on going with her, she gave in.
Today's Insights
Ruth’s devotion to her mother-in-law Naomi was a hard choice that carried with it the prospects of great difficulties. Ruth, a Moabitess, would’ve faced tremendous challenges in moving to Bethlehem. Moab, though a distant cousin of Israel, had become Israel’s enemy (Judges 3), resulting in significant hostilities. Additionally, being a widow in a strange land where she didn’t have the support of family and friends (aside from Naomi) would’ve been potentially dangerous. Through Naomi’s extended family (Boaz), however, God would provide both sustenance and safety (Ruth 2:1, 8-9). Ruth would eventually be enfolded into that community as the wife of Boaz and would become the great-grandmother of King David (4:17). For us today as well, God often uses community to remind us of His great care for us.
Remembering Who We Are
Ruth replied, . . . “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.” Ruth 1:16
A restaurant employee discovered an unconscious man beside a dumpster. He was sunburned, bitten by ants, and showed signs of blunt force trauma. He had no memory of who he was. The man, later self-named “Benjamin Kyle,” lived in limbo for more than a decade. He couldn’t work, collect benefits, or even reclaim his past. His healing began when a community of strangers helped him rediscover his identity through genetic testing and investigation. “I have a history,” he said. “I’m not just some stranger that materialized out of thin air.”
The story of Ruth in the Bible can also be seen as one of rediscovered belonging. After losing her husband and leaving her homeland, she chose to bind herself to her mother-in-law Naomi and her people. She said, “Where you go I will go . . . . Your people will be my people and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). Ruth connected her identity and destiny to that of Naomi and her people in life and in death. She was “determined to go with her” (v. 18)—prioritizing community over clarity, belonging over certainty. In doing so, she stepped into God’s redemptive story and is remembered forever as part of the lineage of Christ (4:18-22; Matthew 1:3-5).
When we as believers in Jesus forget who we are—or when life’s pain leaves us disoriented—God often uses community to reconnect us with our most authentic identity. In Him we’re beloved, chosen, and known.
Reflect & Pray
Who is God using to help you remember who you are in Him? What does it mean to be known by Him?
Dear God, please help me remember who I am in You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, June 07, 2026
Don’t Slack Off
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. — John 15:7
Am I fulfilling the ministry of the interior life, taking time alone with the Father to intercede for others in prayer? I need not worry that the moments I claim for prayer are selfish. There is no danger of infatuation or pride in intercession; it is a hidden ministry which brings forth the fruit that glorifies the Father. Am I slacking off in my spiritual life, allowing my spiritual energies to be frittered away? Or am I learning to remain in Jesus? To remain in Jesus is to concentrate my spiritual energies around a single point: the atonement of the Lord.
I must begin to realize this central point of power in my life. Do I give one minute out of sixty to concentrate upon it? “If you remain in me” means “If you continually act and think and work on the basis of my atonement.” What holds the most power over me right now? Is it my job? Serving others? Trying to work for God? It isn’t the thing I spend the most time on that shapes me the most; it’s the thing that exerts the greatest power over me. What ought to exert the greatest power over me is Jesus Christ. I must decide to be limited in my affinities, to choose carefully where I place my attention. If Jesus Christ is more and more my dominating interest, every phase of my life will bear fruit for him.
Jesus says that if we remain in him and his words remain in us, God will answer our prayers. Do we recognize this truth? “But,” you say, “suppose I ask for something not according to God’s will?” You won’t—not if you’re fulfilling Jesus’s wish that you remain in him. The disciple who remains in Jesus is the will of God. The choices this disciple makes, though they appear to be made freely, are actually God’s foreordained decrees. Mysterious? Yes. Logically contradictory and absurd? Yes. But a glorious truth to those who remain in him.
2 Chronicles 28-29; John 17
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest.
Disciples Indeed
No comments:
Post a Comment