Max Lucado Daily: IT’S NOT JUST YOU - August 18, 2026
“There was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord” (1 Kings 17:15-16 NIV). Each day Elijah, the widow, and her son gathered around a table and had a miracle for a meal. Heaven’s delivery system continued as long as the trio needed it.
Jesus spoke of God’s faithful generosity. “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you…?” (Matthew 6:30 ESV). You aren’t one scoop away from empty. It’s not just you and your depleted energy. It’s not just you and your concerns. You don’t face the assignment alone. If it’s God’s will, it’s God’s bill.
Unbreakable Courage
Psalm 110
A David Prayer
1–3 110 The word of God to my Lord:
“Sit alongside me here on my throne
until I make your enemies a stool for your feet.”
You were forged a strong scepter by God of Zion;
now rule, though surrounded by enemies!
Your people will freely join you, resplendent in holy armor
on the great day of your conquest,
Join you at the fresh break of day,
join you with all the vigor of youth.
4–7 God gave his word and he won’t take it back:
you’re the permanent priest, the Melchizedek priest.
The Lord stands true at your side,
crushing kings in his terrible wrath,
Bringing judgment on the nations,
handing out convictions wholesale,
crushing opposition across the wide earth.
The King-Maker put his King on the throne;
the True King rules with head held high!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, August 18, 2026
By Patricia Raybon
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Mark 10:13-16
The people brought children to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus was irate and let them know it: “Don’t push these children away. Don’t ever get between them and me. These children are at the very center of life in the kingdom. Mark this: Unless you accept God’s kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you’ll never get in.” Then, gathering the children up in his arms, he laid his hands of blessing on them.
Today's Insights
The scene from today’s Scripture passage (Mark 10:13-16) occurs not long after Jesus had made another comment about children. As Christ and the disciples were “[passing] through Galilee” (9:30), His disciples got into a quarrel about which of them was the greatest (vv. 33-34). Jesus knew what they’d been discussing, of course, but He didn’t preach a sermon against their sinful ambition. Instead, “He took a little child whom he placed among them” and said, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me” (vv. 36-37). His object lesson about humility was obvious. That’s why it’s surprising when they “rebuked” people who were literally “bringing little children to Jesus” (10:13). They still hadn’t learned that “the kingdom of God belongs to such as these” (v. 14). As we express our childlike trust in Christ, we’ll want to welcome all who’re overlooked and undervalued.
For further study, read A Child’s Compassion.
Loving Children as God Does
The kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Mark 10:14
All summer long, the children in the house behind ours spend hours swinging on their swing set. Their noisy swing set. Its creaky noise doesn’t bother the children who seem, some days, to swing endlessly. Complaining, I asked my husband why their parents don’t oil the swing. Praying about it, however, I noticed a change in my heart. I could see the children’s laughter and joy bursting from the trust they find in their family’s yard, and in having parents within calling distance nearby.
Jesus spoke of such trust when speaking of children. People were bringing their children to Jesus so He could bless them, but His annoyed disciples scolded the parents, rebuking them (Mark 10:13).
Seeing this, Christ “was indignant” (v. 14). “Let the little children come to me,” He told them, “and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” He added, “Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it” (vv. 14-15).
He’d already taught His disciples this when they’d argued who among them was greatest. Taking a child in His arms, on another occasion, Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me” (9:37). Demonstrating the same idea, “He took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them” (10:16). What beautiful reminders to be childlike in our trust in Jesus.
Reflect & Pray
What do you enjoy about the joy of children? How can you learn to love those who annoy you at times?
Please grow my love for others, ever-present and loving God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, August 18, 2026
Have You Ever Been Speechless with Sadness?
When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. — Luke 18:23
The rich young ruler went away speechless with sorrow. He had no confusion about what Jesus Christ had told him, no doubt about what it meant, and it produced a sadness beyond words.
Have you ever been in this place of speechless sadness? Has God’s word come to you about something you’re very rich in and told you to “sell everything you have” (Luke 18:22)? Perhaps you are rich in your temperament or in your personal relationships of heart and mind. Perhaps God has told you to give them up, and you haven’t done it. If so, you’ve often been speechless with sorrow. The Lord won’t plead with you, but every time he meets you on that point, he will repeat, “If you want to follow me, these are the conditions.”
“Sell everything you have.” Strip yourself of everything that might be considered a possession, until you stand before God as a mere conscious being, and then offer yourself. This is where the battle is fought: in the domain of the will before God.
Are you more devoted to your idea of what Jesus wants than to Jesus himself? Then you are likely to hear him say something to you that will produce sorrow. What Jesus says is hard, but to those who have his disposition inside them, it’s easy. Beware of allowing anything to soften the hard things Jesus says.
You can be so rich in the consciousness that you are somebody that you will never be a disciple of Jesus. Or you can be so rich in the consciousness that you are nobody, so convinced of your poverty, that you’ll never be a disciple. Are you willing to give up the idea that you have nothing to give up? If not, you are bound to be discouraged. Discouragement is disenchanted self-love, and self-love may be love of your devotion to Jesus.
Psalms 100-102; 1 Corinthians 1
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Much of the misery in our Christian life comes not because the devil tackles us, but because we have never understood the simple laws of our make-up. We have to treat the body as the servant of Jesus Christ: when the body says “Sit,” and He says “Go,” go! When the body says “Eat,” and He says “Fast,” fast! When the body says “Yawn,” and He says “Pray,” pray!
Biblical Ethics, 107 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, August 18, 2026
Knowing the Words, Knowing the Lord - #10332
Scripture: Mark 7:6
A friend of ours is an avid hunter. In fact, so much that he's been known to skip church occasionally during duck hunting season. He's well known in the church, so the pastor notices when he's not there. With a twinkle in his eye, our friend explained recently how he's prepared to handle pastoral questions like, "Where were you on Sunday?" He said he's actually named his duck blinds where he hides to hunt those birds. One he has named "The Word." The other is named "Prayer." So when the pastor asks where he was on Sunday, he simply answers, "I was in 'The Word,'" or, "I was in 'Prayer.'" That's messed up!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Knowing the Words, Knowing the Lord."
Obviously, this is a hunter who understands the value of camouflage, as in the value of hiding behind some wonderful spiritual words. While his words are meant to be more whimsical than deceptive, they illustrate a deeper and more dangerous issue that is rampant among us church folks. We know how to use all the right Christian words and have just the right Christian look. We put it on every time we walk in the church door, but often it's camouflage that's covering up some issues in our life that aren't Christian at all.
Jesus put it this way in Mark 7:6, our word for today from the Word of God: "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." You can say all the good, God-honoring things and still underneath have a heart that is far from Him. A life that has, beneath all that spiritual camouflage, some attitudes or actions that have no place in a child of God, someone who's been rescued at the price of the blood of God's Son.
We forget that God doesn't look at the "outward appearance" but "at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). In other words, the only One who really matters is not fooled by our Christian words. Your whole relationship with Him, His blessing on your life, is all about the condition of your heart.
Could it be that you've been hiding some serious un-repented sin under the camouflage of those beautiful spiritual words? You can be talking about prayer and Bible study in the morning and swimming in the cesspool of Internet pornography at night. Your Christian words can mask all kinds of hidden bitterness, lust and deception, or a compartmentalized life that's all about Jesus in the God-compartment, but all about you at work, at school, or at home.
You can even try to put Christian words on things that are anything but Christian. You can call it conviction, God calls it stubbornness; you call it compassion, God calls it compromise; you call it love, God calls it immorality or adultery. Isn't it time you looked in the mirror and maybe saw the hypocrite behind the beautiful words? There's freedom, there's forgiveness and there's integrity waiting for you at the cross of Jesus Christ, where you need to bring all the sin that's been hiding behind all that spirituality.
One of the greatest dangers of being in a Christian environment is that you can know the words and never know the Lord. You can have a religion that's all about Jesus and never have Jesus. Jesus said there will be people like that on Judgment Day to whom He will say, "I never knew you."
Could it be you've got Christianity but you don't have Christ? You've mistaken agreeing with Jesus for being committed to Jesus, and that mistake will cost you heaven. But today Jesus brought us together so you can experience what it is to know Him for real. Make this the day you say, "Lord, all this time I've missed You. But I want You in my heart, not just in my head. I'm Yours."
Listen, our website is set up as a place where you can go and actually make sure you belong to Him. Would you go there? It's ANewStory.com.
It isn't the rhetoric of Jesus that matters; it's the reality of Jesus. So come to Him today as you really are. There's so much you've been missing. You can have it today.
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