July 3rd

THE OVERSEER OF YOUR WORLD - July 3, 2026

By Max Lucado

It is not God’s will that you face every day with dread and trepidation.

I have a childhood memory that I cherish. My father loved corn bread and buttermilk. About ten o’clock each night he would meander into the kitchen and crumble a piece of corn bread into a glass of buttermilk, stand at the counter and drink it. Then he’d make the rounds to the front and back doors, checking the locks. Once everything was secure, he would step into the bedroom I shared with my brother and say something like, “Everything is secure, boys. You can go to sleep now.”

I have no inclination to believe that God loves corn bread and buttermilk, but I do believe he loves his children. He keeps everything secure. He oversees your world. And by his power you will “be anxious for nothing” and discover the “peace…that passes all understanding” (Philippians 4:4-8 RSV).

 Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World

Read more Anxious for Nothing:

Your Goal or Your People? - #10300

Psalm 13

The Message

13 1-2 Long enough, God—

    you’ve ignored me long enough.

I’ve looked at the back of your head

    long enough. Long enough

I’ve carried this ton of trouble,

    lived with a stomach full of pain.

Long enough my arrogant enemies

    have looked down their noses at me.

3-4 Take a good look at me, God, my God;

    I want to look life in the eye,

So no enemy can get the best of me

    or laugh when I fall on my face.

5-6 I’ve thrown myself headlong into your arms—

    I’m celebrating your rescue.

I’m singing at the top of my lungs,

    I’m so full of answered prayers.

Our daily bread:

Today's Scripture:

Isaiah 40:25-31

The Message

25-26 “So—who is like me?

    Who holds a candle to me?” says The Holy.

Look at the night skies:

    Who do you think made all this?

Who marches this army of stars out each night,

    counts them off, calls each by name

—so magnificent! so powerful!—

    and never overlooks a single one?

27-31 Why would you ever complain, O Jacob,

    or, whine, Israel, saying,

“God has lost track of me.

    He doesn’t care what happens to me”?

Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening?

God doesn’t come and go. God lasts.

    He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine.

He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath.

    And he knows everything, inside and out.

He energizes those who get tired,

    gives fresh strength to dropouts.

For even young people tire and drop out,

    young folk in their prime stumble and fall.

But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.

    They spread their wings and soar like eagles,

They run and don’t get tired,

    they walk and don’t lag behind.

Insight

Isaiah warned the unrepentant people of Judah that God would exile them to Babylon because of their covenantal unfaithfulness (Isaiah 1-39). But after disciplining them, God would bring them back to the promised land and bless them (chs. 40-66). Comforting a discouraged Judah (40:1-2), Isaiah assured them that God wouldn’t abandon them and that He had the power to bless them. He reminded them that Yahweh alone, “the Holy One” (v. 25), is their everlasting, omnipotent, sovereign “Creator” (v. 28). Speaking tenderly of God as a loving and caring shepherd, Isaiah said that God “gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart” (v. 11) to bring them home. The tired, weary, and weak would find new strength (vv. 28-31) as they journeyed back to the promised land with God. In our journey of faith, God will provide strength as well. We affirm with the psalmist, “Blessed are those whose hope . . . is in the Lord their God” (Psalm 146:5).

Walk by Faith

Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.

Isaiah 40:31

The woman walked gingerly up each step to the church’s sanctuary for that night’s prayer service. As she paused because of her pain or breathlessness, a man passing by said, “One step at a time. That’s the only way you’re going to make it. Take it easy.” His words were meant to encourage the woman and may have given her the boost she needed to reach the top. They certainly encouraged my weary soul during my visit that evening.

In our faith journey, we may feel tempted to quit when the path seems too long or difficult. Yet in these moments, we can find solace in the words the prophet Isaiah spoke to comfort the Israelites. He told them God would eventually redeem them from their decades of captivity in Babylon, and He reminded them that God wasn’t like powerless idols (Isaiah 40:18-20).  Almighty God, who created the heavens and earth, “will not grow tired or weary,” and He strengthens the weak (vv. 28-29). “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (v. 31).

Isaiah’s words encouraged the Israelites, and we can receive strength from the same “everlasting God” (vv. 28-29) they were trusting. Let’s walk by faith day by day and one step at a time. As we continue to hope in the one true God, He will help us walk, run, and soar for His glory.

By:  Nancy Gavilanes

Reflect & Pray

Why is it sometimes hard to take things one step at a time? How can you rely on God’s strength each day?

Dear God, thank You for strengthening me step by step.

The Concentration of Personal Sin

BY OSWALD CHAMBERS

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips.” — Isaiah 6:5

When the Lord appeared to Isaiah in a vision, Isaiah was convicted by a sense of his sinfulness (Isaiah 6:1—5). This conviction wasn’t vague or indefinite; the Lord revealed to Isaiah the exact nature of his sin, showing him that he was “a man of unclean lips.”

A sure sign that I am in the presence of God is this lack of vagueness about sin. I realize I am a sinner not in a general sense but in a particular sense. I understand that there is a concentration of sin in a specific area of my life. It’s easy to say, “Oh, yes, I know I am a sinner.” But I can’t get away with a vague statement like this when I am with God.

Everyone, from the greatest and the least of saints to the greatest and the least of sinners, experiences this awareness of the concentration of sin when they come into God’s presence. When we are on the first rung of the ladder of spiritual experience, we may not know exactly where we’ve gone wrong. The Spirit of God will show us. He will point out a definite sin, fixing our minds upon it, as he fixed Isaiah’s mind upon his “unclean lips.” If we will yield to his conviction on this point, he will take us to a deeper level of conviction, leading us all the way down to the great disposition of sin that lies underneath.

Once we’ve been convicted of our sin, God will purify us of it, sending his cleansing fire to the precise place the sin is concentrated: “He touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for’” (v. 7). This is always the way God deals with us when we are consciously in his presence.

Job 25-27; Acts 12

 

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Sincerity means that the appearance and the reality are exactly the same.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 1449 L

Ron Hutchcraft

Scripture:  Ecclesiastes 4:4

Chimney Mountain! I wanted our family to conquer it together. So, my wife and I, and our then three little Hutchcrafts started hiking up the trail. And my wife was a lovely tour guide as we went up that mountain trail. She pointed out for example, “Oh, look at the chipmunks over there! Hey, there goes a squirrel! Oh, look at those roots, they’re huge! Notice how they tangled around the tree. Wait, wait, stop, listen; can you hear the wind whispering to us in the pines?” We were having a great time together.

We were about half-way up the mountain and my wife said, “Oh, this has really been nice. Well, let’s go back.” I said, “What? Let’s go back? What is the purpose for getting on a mountain trail in the first place? The reason you climb a mountain is to get to the top of the mountain. We’ve got to conquer it! We have to achieve!” But my wife was saying, “Well, we’ve had a nice experience together. Isn’t that what was important?” Sounds kind of like a guy and a woman perspective, doesn’t it? Get to the top or get with each other? You have to decide what’s important on your mountain too.

I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Your Goal or Your People?”

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Ecclesiastes 4. Solomon says this in verse 4, “And I saw that all labor and all achievements spring from man’s envy for his neighbor.” He called it kind of a great chase! “This, too," he said, "is meaningless...” That’s his verdict on a lifetime of work. Listen to this: "a chasing after the wind.” Then he says, “Better one handful with tranquility than two hands full with toil and chasing after the wind.”

Now, this sounds like an indictment really of a lifestyle that’s considered normal by most of us. Work harder and harder to get more and more. The tendency is to live as if my worth is my work. I am what I do. Then one day people retire and they don’t know who they are because they don’t have their job any more.

One day after I spoke at a church, a well-dressed woman came up to me, probably in her 30s, she started to cry and she shook her head and she said, “I can’t believe I fell for it.”

I said, “What do you mean?” She said, “All these years we‘ve watched the price that our husbands paid to chase success: stress, heart attacks, pressure, broken relationships.” And she said, “I decided I would go after that too.” And she said, “Do you know what I have to show for it? Pressure at work and failure at home.”

Men have fallen for the lie that your worth is your work for a long time – getting up that mountain. And you know what? Now women are falling for it too. Now they’re getting the ulcers; they’re getting the heart attacks, and both are leaving a trail of neglected relationships as they push up the trail. There was a song some years ago that said, “Daddy, don’t you walk so fast. Won’t you slow down some, because you’re making me run? Daddy, don’t you walk so fast.”

People around us may be crying, “Slow down! I need time with you!” But we’re ruled by our work. God says, “People are more important than work or achievement.” Only you can be Mom or Dad to your kids. You’re the only husband or wife, brother or sister that they have. Are you busy chugging up Mount Work, Mount Accomplishment, Mount Goal? Are you so busy that the people you love are only getting your leftovers?

Being is more important than doing. Who you’re on the mountain with is more important than getting to the top.