Max Lucado Daily: Behind Bars
In 1965 Howard Rutledge parachuted into North Vietnam and spent the next several years in a prison in Hanoi, locked in a filthy cell breathing stale, rotten air trying to keep his sanity. Few of us will ever face the conditions of a POW camp.
Yet, to one degree or another, we all spend time behind bars. After half-a-century of marriage, my friend's wife began to lose her memory. A young mother called, just diagnosed with Lupus. Why would God permit such imprisonment? To what purpose? Jeremiah 30:24 promises, "The Lord will not turn back until He has executed and accomplished the intents of His mind."
This season in which you find yourself may puzzle you, but it doesn't bewilder God. He will use it for His purpose. Please be reminded…You will get through this!
From You'll Get Through This
Proverbs 13
Walk with the Wise
1 13 Intelligent children listen to their parents;
foolish children do their own thing.
2 The good acquire a taste for helpful conversation;
bullies push and shove their way through life.
3 Careful words make for a careful life;
careless talk may ruin everything.
4 Indolence wants it all and gets nothing;
the energetic have something to show for their lives.
5 A good person hates false talk;
a bad person wallows in gibberish.
6 A God-loyal life keeps you on track;
sin dumps the wicked in the ditch.
7 A pretentious, showy life is an empty life;
a plain and simple life is a full life.
8 The rich can be sued for everything they have,
but the poor are free of such threats.
9 The lives of good people are brightly lit streets;
the lives of the wicked are dark alleys.
10 Arrogant know-it-alls stir up discord,
but wise men and women listen to each other’s counsel.
11 Easy come, easy go,
but steady diligence pays off.
12 Unrelenting disappointment leaves you heartsick,
but a sudden good break can turn life around.
13 Ignore the Word and suffer;
honor God’s commands and grow rich.
14 The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life,
so, no more drinking from death-tainted wells!
15 Sound thinking makes for gracious living,
but liars walk a rough road.
16 A commonsense person lives good sense;
fools litter the country with silliness.
17 Irresponsible talk makes a real mess of things,
but a reliable reporter is a healing presence.
18 Refuse discipline and end up homeless;
embrace correction and live an honored life.
19 Souls who follow their hearts thrive;
fools bent on evil despise matters of soul.
20 Become wise by walking with the wise;
hang out with fools and watch your life fall to pieces.
21 Disaster entraps sinners,
but God-loyal people get a good life.
22 A good life gets passed on to the grandchildren;
ill-gotten wealth ends up with good people.
23 Banks foreclose on the farms of the poor,
or else the poor lose their shirts to crooked lawyers.
24 A refusal to correct is a refusal to love;
love your children by disciplining them.
25 An appetite for good brings much satisfaction,
but the belly of the wicked always wants more.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, September 20, 2026
by Lisa M. Samra
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
1 John 3:18-24
When We Practice Real Love
18–20 My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.
21–24 And friends, once that’s taken care of and we’re no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we’re bold and free before God! We’re able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we’re doing what he said, doing what pleases him. Again, this is God’s command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us.
Today's Insights
When we believe in Jesus as our Savior, we become “children of God” (John 1:12). The Holy Spirit “testifies [confirms] with our spirit” that this is true (Romans 8:16; see 1 John 3:24). Our sonship is a gift of God “through faith” (Ephesians 2:8). We can’t earn it. As God’s beloved children, He “has lavished” love on us (1 John 3:1), which includes a personal relationship with Him, eternal life, and guidance by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14)—and we’re considered “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (v. 17). He provides all we need in this life—comfort, hope, joy, strength—to live for and serve Him. As God’s children, nothing—“neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future” (v. 38)—can separate us from His great love (v. 39).
For further study, listen to the Discover the Word Podcast : Who Am I?
Children of God
If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 1 John 3:20
One of my favorite books of optical illusions always astounds me as the pictures deceive my eyes—like one with two lines of the same length appearing to be different sizes, or the famous “impossible staircase” in which four flights of stairs seem to link in a continuous loop. It can also be a little disconcerting to realize we don’t always see things as they truly are.
But it’s not only our eyes that deceive us. We can sometimes believe illusions about our identity as God’s children when we’re bombarded daily with the world’s deceptive claims. Author Henri Nouwen wrote, “Jesus came to announce to us that an identity based on success, popularity and power is a false identity—an illusion!”
Our true identity, possible because of God’s lavish love, is that when we receive Jesus as our Savior we become “children of God” (1 John 3:1). As the apostle John recognized, sometimes “our hearts condemn us” (v. 20), and we begin to doubt God’s love or even question if we truly belong to Him. However, “God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything” (v. 20). Instead of being deceived by damaging illusions, we can believe the truth that we are God’s beloved children.
Whatever illusions you may encounter about your identity today, hold fast to the truth that you’re God’s beloved child.
Reflect & Pray
What illusions about your identity have you encountered? How does the truth that you are God’s child encourage you?
Heavenly Father, even when I can’t see or feel it, please help me remember the truth of Your love for me.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, September 20, 2026
The Divine Rule of Life
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. — Matthew 5:48
In Matthew 5, our Lord calls on us to be generous in our behavior with everyone we meet. Be careful of allowing yourself to be led by your natural affinities in your spiritual life. Everyone has natural affinities—everyone likes some people and dislikes others—but we must never let these likes and dislikes rule in our Christian life. If we “walk in the light, as he is in the light” (1 John 1:7), God will give us communion with people for whom we have no affinity.
The example Jesus holds up for us in Matthew 5:48 isn’t of a good person, or even of a good Christian, but of God himself. When Jesus says, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” he means that we must show to others what God has shown to us. In our lives, God will give us many opportunities to prove whether we are perfect as he is perfect. He will ask us to deliberately identify ourselves with his interests in other people.
“Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12). The expression of Christian character isn’t good-doing; it’s God-likeness. If the Spirit of God has transformed you on the inside, then on the outside you will display divine characteristics, not human characteristics. God’s life in us expresses itself as God’s life, not as human life trying to be godly. The secret of being Christian is that the supernatural is made natural in us by the grace of God. We experience this in the regular, busy moments of our lives, not in times of quiet communion. When we come into contact with people or circumstances that should throw us off-balance, we find to our amazement that we have the power to keep wonderfully poised in the center of it all.
Ecclesiastes 4-6; 2 Corinthians 12
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.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 1465 R
No comments:
Post a Comment