Max Lucado Daily: A LIFE OF VICTORY - November 3, 2026
Think about the Christian you want to be. What qualities do you want to have? More compassion? More conviction? More courage? What attitudes do you want to discontinue? Greed? Guilt? Endless negativity?
With God’s help you can close the gap between the person you are and the person you want to be. Indeed, the person God made you to be. You can live “from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18). To inherit your inheritance is God’s vision for your life. Imagine the thought! You as you were intended. It’s a life that is yours for the taking.
Expect to be challenged. The enemy will not go down without a fight. But God’s promises outweigh personal problems. Victory becomes, dare we imagine, a way of life. Isn’t it time for you to change your mailing address from the wilderness to the Promised Land? Are you ready to march?
God Is with You Every Day
1 Kings 9
After Solomon had completed building The Temple of God and his own palace, all the projects he had set his heart on doing, God appeared to Solomon again, just as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.
3–5And God said to him, “I’ve listened to and received all your prayers, your ever-so-passionate prayers. I’ve sanctified this Temple that you have built: My Name is stamped on it forever; my eyes are on it and my heart in it always. As for you, if you live in my presence as your father David lived, pure in heart and action, living the life I’ve set out for you, attentively obedient to my guidance and judgments, then I’ll back your kingly rule over Israel, make it a sure thing on a solid foundation. The same guarantee I gave David your father I’m giving you: ‘You can count on always having a descendant on Israel’s throne.’
6–9“But if you or your sons betray me, ignoring my guidance and judgments, taking up with alien gods by serving and worshiping them, then the guarantee is off: I’ll wipe Israel right off the map and repudiate this Temple I’ve just sanctified to honor my Name. And Israel will become nothing but a bad joke among the peoples of the world. And this Temple, splendid as it now is, will become an object of contempt; visitors will shake their heads, saying, ‘Whatever happened here? What’s the story behind these ruins?’ Then they’ll be told, ‘The people who used to live here betrayed their God, the very God who rescued their ancestors from Egypt; they took up with alien gods, worshiping and serving them. That’s what’s behind this God-visited devastation.’ ”
10–12At the end of twenty years, having built the two buildings, The Temple of God and his personal palace, Solomon rewarded Hiram king of Tyre with a gift of twenty villages in the district of Galilee. Hiram had provided him with all the cedar and cypress and gold that he had wanted. But when Hiram left Tyre to look over the villages that Solomon had given him, he didn’t like what he saw.
13–14He said, “What kind of reward is this, my friend? Twenty backwoods hick towns!” People still refer to them that way. This is all Hiram got from Solomon in exchange for four and a half tons of gold!
15This is the work record of the labor force that King Solomon raised to build The Temple of God, his palace, the defense complex (the Millo), the Jerusalem wall, and the fortified cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.
16–17Pharaoh king of Egypt had come up and captured Gezer, torched it, and killed all the Canaanites who lived there. He gave it as a wedding present to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. So Solomon rebuilt Gezer.
17–19He also built Lower Beth Horon, Baalath, and Tamar in the desert, backcountry storehouse villages, and villages for chariots and horses. Solomon built widely and extravagantly in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and wherever he fancied.
20–23The remnants from the original inhabitants of the land (Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—all non-Israelites), survivors of the holy wars, were rounded up by Solomon for his gangs of slave labor, a policy still in effect. But true Israelites were not treated this way; they were used in his army and administration—government leaders and commanders of his chariots and charioteers. They were also the project managers responsible for Solomon’s building operations—550 of them in charge of the workforce.
24It was after Pharaoh’s daughter ceremonially ascended from the City of David and took up residence in the house built especially for her that Solomon built the defense complex (the Millo).
25Three times a year Solomon worshiped at the Altar of God, sacrificing Whole-Burnt-Offerings and Peace-Offerings, and burning incense in the presence of God. Everything that had to do with The Temple he did generously and well; he didn’t skimp.
26–28And ships! King Solomon also built ships at Ezion Geber, located near Elath in Edom on the Red Sea. Hiram sent seaworthy sailors to assist Solomon’s men with the fleet. They embarked for Ophir, brought back sixteen tons of gold, and presented it to King Solomon.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, November 03, 2026
by James Banks
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
2 Corinthians 12:6-9
If I had a mind to brag a little, I could probably do it without looking ridiculous, and I’d still be speaking plain truth all the way. But I’ll spare you. I don’t want anyone imagining me as anything other than the fool you’d encounter if you saw me on the street or heard me talk.
7–10Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,
My grace is enough; it’s all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.
Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness.
Today's Insights
God in His all-knowing wisdom doesn’t always give us what we ask for in prayer. Paul prayed for Him to remove the “thorn in [his] flesh,” whatever that may have been (2 Corinthians 12:7). But he knew God loved him and would do what was for his best (vv. 8-10; see Romans 8:28). The apostle’s weakness kept him humble and focused on God and His strength rather than on his own (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). And God used him to spread the gospel to many people. Paul had much he could boast about (11:16–12:5), but he chose instead to boast about the things that showed his weakness and God’s strength (12:6-9). Jesus’ prayer reminds us to pray according to God’s will: “Your kingdom come; your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). As we pray today, we can be assured of God’s faithfulness and that He’ll provide what’s best for us.
For further study, read: The Wilderness of Broken Dreams
Praying for Answers
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 2 Corinthians 12:8
When Monica’s son Augustine wanted to leave home for a city known for its immorality, she pleaded with God not to let him go. But he went anyway, which greatly grieved his mother, yet it was there that God transformed his life. In his Confessions, Augustine later prayed, “Yet in your deep counsel you heard the central point of her longing . . . [so] that you would make me what she continually prayed for.” Augustine not only became a believer in Jesus, but he also became one of the most influential Christian thinkers in history.
Sometimes God doesn’t give us what we ask for—giving us instead something of greater worth. Like Monica, the apostle Paul asked God for something he didn’t receive. We don’t know what Paul’s “thorn” in his flesh was, but we know it tormented him, and “three times” he “pleaded with the Lord to take it” from him (2 Corinthians 12:7-8). Yet God responded, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (v. 9). In the end, Paul concluded that he would “boast all the more gladly” about his weaknesses so that he might know more of “Christ’s power” (v. 9).
Paul’s response shows us the way forward when we’re waiting for God’s answers, or when they aren’t what we expect. Jesus is our hope in all things, and in His strength we have more than we need.
Reflect & Pray
When have you asked God for something and received something else? How did Christ help you in this?
Ever-wise Savior, please help me to trust Your goodness in all things and to daily draw strength from You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, November 03, 2026
A Bond Servant of Jesus
I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. —Galatians 2:20
These words mean breaking my independence with my own hand and surrendering myself to the supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ. No one else can do this for me; I must do it myself. God may bring me to the point of surrender three hundred sixty-five times a year, but he can’t push me through. Surrender means breaking the shell of my individual independence from God. It means the emancipation of my personality into oneness with him—not for any agenda of my own, but for absolute loyalty to Jesus. Very few of us know anything about this kind of loyalty. “Whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel . . .” (Mark 8:35): that is what makes an iron saint.
Has the break with my independence come? The one thing I must decide is, Will I give up? Will I surrender to Jesus Christ, making no conditions? I must be broken of the desire for self-realization. Once this point is reached, supernatural identification with my Lord takes place immediately, and the witness of the Spirit of God within me is unmistakable: “I have been crucified with Christ.”
The passion of Christianity is that I deliberately sign away my rights and become a bond servant of Jesus Christ. Until I do that, I cannot begin to be a saint. When I have done it, God is able to help himself to my life. Will I let him? Or do I have my own ideas of what I’m going to be?
Jeremiah 30-31; Philemon
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
There is no condition of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus.
We have to learn to abide in Him wherever we are placed.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, November 03, 2026
The Surprising Secret of a Real Man - #10387
Scripture: Proverbs 16:32
I think it was our older son's first official date with a girl; actually, just a couple of hours at the mall really. The next day he ran into some of the guys from school who just wanted to know one thing about his Friday night. "So how much did you get off her?" I know, it’s gross. They weren't talking about money. They were talking about conquest. Our son actually came home pretty disgusted, frankly. He said, "Man, those guys; they’re messed up!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about “The Surprising Secret of a Real Man.”
Actually, a lot of us men have been raised on a messed up idea of what really makes you a man. Guys of all ages seem to think that it is conquest that makes you a real man: sexual conquest, athletic conquest, financial conquest, business conquest. So many men define their worth, their success, and their masculinity by whether or not they are conquering - conquistadores!
Virtually every guy has been told somewhere in his life, "Be a man!" But by whose definition? Is it your biceps that make you a man, your bank account, your bedroom exploits, being the boss? If you want to know what manhood is really all about, consult the Inventor of manhood. That would be God. If you go by His definition, you get Designer Manhood, and that is the real thing.
And guess what? It is all about conquest after all, but in a very different arena than most of us were ever taught. It's exemplified in our word for today from the Word of God in Proverbs 16:32. "Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city." You say, "Hey, look at these trophies. Look at all the victories I've won. Look, I conquered this whole city!" God isn't impressed. He says, "Oh, yeah? How are you doing with your temper? Are you really patient?"
Here's the surprising secret of a truly powerful man: he is conquering himself!
What's it mean to be a man who is conquering himself? Well, a powerful man conquers his mouth. He eliminates the trash talk, the angry words, the critical words, the hurting words. He knows the power of his words and he controls those destructive words and specializes in encouraging words.
A powerful man also conquers his passions, focusing all his desire on his wife. You know, if he's single, keeping his relationships pure and his body reserved for his life partner. A powerful man also conquers his coldness. He shows his love. He expresses his love so he doesn't leave a lonely son or a frustrated wife or daughter or a mother who just doesn’t know where she stands.
Another conquest that displays real manhood is conquering your hardness; that unwillingness to ever admit you're wrong or that you're hurting. A powerful man conquers his neglect as well; his failure to spend the time with the people who love him, the time they so desperately need. And, bottom line, a truly powerful man conquers his selfishness - his tendency to want everyone to revolve around him.
Many a man has found out he cannot be that kind of a man. The Apostle Paul said at one time, "The things I want to do, I don't do. And the things I ought to do, I don't." He said, "Why is it that I cannot get free of this darkness inside of me?" And then he said, "Thanks be to God, a rescue has come in Jesus Christ."
I can say as a man, and I can say on behalf of many men I know, that they never could have become the man they wanted to be and everyone they loved needed them to be until they surrendered to Jesus Christ, who died for their sins.
Maybe you've never done that. Well listen, I want to invite you to tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm yours." If you want to know more about that relationship, and I hope you do, would you check us out at ANewStory.com.
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