Max Lucado Daily: Sheep Can’t Sleep
Millions of Americans have trouble sleeping! You may be one of them. Only one other living creature has as much trouble resting as we do. They are woolly, simpleminded, and slow…sheep. Sheep can’t sleep! For sheep to sleep, everything must be just right. No predators. No tension in the flock. Sheep need help. They need a shepherd to “lead them” and help them “lie down in green pastures.” Without a shepherd, they can’t rest.
Without a shepherd, neither can we! Psalm 23:2 says, “He, (the Shepherd) makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.” Who’s the active one? Who’s in charge? The Shepherd! With our eyes on the Shepherd, we’ll get some sleep. Isaiah 26:3 reminds us of the promise, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You.”
Read more Traveling Light
Luke 22:24-46
Get Ready for Trouble
24–26 Within minutes they were bickering over who of them would end up the greatest. But Jesus intervened: “Kings like to throw their weight around and people in authority like to give themselves fancy titles. It’s not going to be that way with you. Let the senior among you become like the junior; let the leader act the part of the servant.
27–30 “Who would you rather be: the one who eats the dinner or the one who serves the dinner? You’d rather eat and be served, right? But I’ve taken my place among you as the one who serves. And you’ve stuck with me through thick and thin. Now I confer on you the royal authority my Father conferred on me so you can eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and be strengthened as you take up responsibilities among the congregations of God’s people.
31–32 “Simon, stay on your toes. Satan has tried his best to separate all of you from me, like chaff from wheat. Simon, I’ve prayed for you in particular that you not give in or give out. When you have come through the time of testing, turn to your companions and give them a fresh start.”
33 Peter said, “Master, I’m ready for anything with you. I’d go to jail for you. I’d die for you!”
34 Jesus said, “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, Peter, but before the rooster crows you will have three times denied that you know me.”
35 Then Jesus said, “When I sent you out and told you to travel light, to take only the bare necessities, did you get along all right?”
“Certainly,” they said, “we got along just fine.”
36–37 He said, “This is different. Get ready for trouble. Look to what you’ll need; there are difficult times ahead. Pawn your coat and get a sword. What was written in Scripture, ‘He was lumped in with the criminals,’ gets its final meaning in me. Everything written about me is now coming to a conclusion.”
38 They said, “Look, Master, two swords!”
But he said, “Enough of that; no more sword talk!”
A Dark Night
39–40 Leaving there, he went, as he so often did, to Mount Olives. The disciples followed him. When they arrived at the place, he said, “Pray that you don’t give in to temptation.”
41–44 He pulled away from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, “Father, remove this cup from me. But please, not what I want. What do you want?” At once an angel from heaven was at his side, strengthening him. He prayed on all the harder. Sweat, wrung from him like drops of blood, poured off his face.
45–46 He got up from prayer, went back to the disciples and found them asleep, drugged by grief. He said, “What business do you have sleeping? Get up. Pray so you won’t give in to temptation.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, June 14, 2026
by Anne Cetas
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Nehemiah 2:17-18; 3:6-12
Then I gave them my report: “Face it: we’re in a bad way here. Jerusalem is a wreck; its gates are burned up. Come—let’s build the wall of Jerusalem and not live with this disgrace any longer.” I told them how God was supporting me and how the king was backing me up.
They said, “We’re with you. Let’s get started.” They rolled up their sleeves, ready for the good work.
6–8 The Jeshanah Gate was rebuilt by Joiada son of Paseah and Meshullam son of Besodeiah; they repaired it, hung its doors, and installed its bolts and bars. Melatiah the Gibeonite, Jadon the Meronothite, and the men of Gibeon and Mizpah, which was under the rule of the governor from across the Euphrates, worked alongside them. Uzziel son of Harhaiah of the goldsmiths’ guild worked next to him, and next to him Hananiah, one of the perfumers. They rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall.
9–10 The next section was worked on by Rephaiah son of Hur, mayor of a half-district of Jerusalem. Next to him Jedaiah son of Harumaph rebuilt the front of his house; Hattush son of Hashabneiah worked next to him.
11–12 Malkijah son of Harim and Hasshub son of Pahath-Moab rebuilt another section that included the Tower of Furnaces. Working next to him was Shallum son of Hallohesh, mayor of the other half-district of Jerusalem, along with his daughters.
Today's Insights
Cooperation is on display in Nehemiah 3 as people with various gifts, talents, and callings stacked their hands to accomplish one good work. Among them were priests (vv. 1, 22, 28) and Levites (v. 17); goldsmiths, perfumers, and merchants (vv. 8, 31-32); rulers (vv. 12-19), and others. The wall-building project, like other worthwhile community endeavors, required good leadership, and Nehemiah provided that. A survey of his qualities reveals that he was a man of prayer (1:4; 2:4), vision (2:5, 11-16), good communication skills (2:7-8, 17-18), and courage (vv. 19-20). Today, we can also serve others by working together with God's strength.
Learn more about the gifts of the spirit.
Serving Side by Side
“Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work. Nehemiah 2:18
Serendipity Bookstore, a popular spot in Chelsea, Michigan, needed to expand. The owner found a building twice the size just a block away. She wanted to make the move quickly instead of closing the store for days and boxing up all the books. So she requested help from the community. More than three hundred people showed up! They stood shoulder to shoulder, forming a human conveyor belt, and passed the books from one person to the next, moving 9,100 books in just under two hours. The owner said, “[The bookstore] is really a part of the community, and [the people] have ownership.” They all enthusiastically worked side by side.
When Nehemiah, a Jew who was the trusted cupbearer to the Persian king, learned that the wall surrounding Jerusalem lay in shambles, he cried out for God’s guidance (Nehemiah 1:3-11). The Babylonians had destroyed the walls in 587 bc. After investigating, Nehemiah recruited help from the community. He said to the Jewish leaders, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins . . . . Come, let us rebuild the wall” (2:17). Chapter 3 describes how leaders and citizens alike willingly repaired the section of the wall that was right in front of each one. They worked side by side.
We too can impact our community by serving together under God’s direction and in His strength.
Reflect & Pray
What are your God-given abilities? How might He be calling you to work side by side with others?
Please open my eyes, dear God, to those around me so I might serve You in ways that help my community.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, June 14, 2026
Get a Move On
Remain in me, as I also remain in you. — John 15:4
The Spirit of Jesus has been put into me by the atonement. Now I must begin to construct, with patience and determination, a way of thinking that is exactly in line with my Lord’s. God will not make me think like Jesus; I have to do it myself, bringing every thought into captivity for him. “Remain in me” means to abide in Jesus in intellectual matters, in money matters—in everything that makes human life what it is.
Am I preventing God from making changes to my circumstances because I think it will disrupt my communion with him? If so, I’m being impertinent. I don’t need to carefully guard my schedule in order to spend time alone with God; I need to learn to abide in Jesus no matter the circumstance. It’s as easy to commune in a kitchen as it is in a prayer meeting.
Our Lord had an inner abiding that was never disturbed. He was at home with God wherever he found himself. He never chose his own circumstances but was obedient to his Father’s choices for him. Think of the amazing openness and acceptance with which our Lord met the events of his life! We come to the Father in a state of high excitement and anxiety, with none of the serenity of the life that is hid with Christ in God.
Consider the things that take you out of Christ. Are you always promising to start abiding in him later—once this or that crisis is resolved, once this or that task is completed? Get a move on! Begin to abide now. In the early stages, abiding requires continual effort, but eventually it becomes an unconscious habit. Decide to abide in Jesus now, wherever you are placed.
Ezra 9-10; Acts 1
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
We have no right to judge where we should be put, or to have preconceived notions as to what God is fitting us for. God engineers everything; wherever He puts us, our one great aim is to pour out a whole-hearted devotion to Him in that particular work. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.”
My Utmost for His Highest, April 23, 773 L
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