Max Lucado Daily: THE DOORWAY TO THE HEART - May 25, 2026
Proverbs 4:23 advises, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”
Think of your heart as a greenhouse and consider your thoughts as seed. We must be selective about the seeds we allow to come into the greenhouse. To have a pure heart, we must submit all our thoughts to the authority of Christ. You see, your mind is the doorway to your heart. The Holy Spirit stands with you on the threshold, helping you manage and filter the thoughts that try to enter. If Jesus agrees with the thought, then let it in. If not, kick it out.
How do you know if Jesus agrees or disagrees? You open your Bible. Armed with the opinion of Christ and the sword of the Spirit, guard the doorway of your heart. The more selective you are about seeds, the more delighted you will be with the crop.
Just Like Jesus
Psalm 32
A David Psalm
1 32 Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be—
you get a fresh start,
your slate’s wiped clean.
2 Count yourself lucky—
God holds nothing against you
and you’re holding nothing back from him.
3 When I kept it all inside,
my bones turned to powder,
my words became daylong groans.
4 The pressure never let up;
all the juices of my life dried up.
5 Then I let it all out;
I said, “I’ll make a clean breast of my failures to God.”
Suddenly the pressure was gone—
my guilt dissolved,
my sin disappeared.
6 These things add up. Every one of us needs to pray;
when all hell breaks loose and the dam bursts
we’ll be on high ground, untouched.
7 God’s my island hideaway,
keeps danger far from the shore,
throws garlands of hosannas around my neck.
8 Let me give you some good advice;
I’m looking you in the eye
and giving it to you straight:
9 “Don’t be ornery like a horse or mule
that needs bit and bridle
to stay on track.”
10 God-defiers are always in trouble;
God-affirmers find themselves loved
every time they turn around.
11 Celebrate God.
Sing together—everyone!
All you honest hearts, raise the roof!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, May 25, 2026
by Karen Pimpo
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
2 Samuel 15:23-27, 29-31
The whole country was weeping in loud lament as all the people passed by. As the king crossed the Brook Kidron, the army headed for the road to the wilderness. Zadok was also there, the Levites with him, carrying God’s Chest of the Covenant. They set the Chest of God down, Abiathar standing by, until all the people had evacuated the city.
25–26 Then the king ordered Zadok, “Take the Chest back to the city. If I get back in God’s good graces, he’ll bring me back and show me where the Chest has been set down. But if he says, ‘I’m not pleased with you’—well, he can then do with me whatever he pleases.”
27–30 The king directed Zadok the priest, “Here’s the plan: Return to the city peacefully, with Ahimaaz your son and Jonathan, Abiathar’s son, with you.
So Zadok and Abiathar took the Chest of God back to Jerusalem and placed it there, while David went up the Mount of Olives weeping, head covered but barefooted, and the whole army was with him, heads covered and weeping as they ascended.
31 David was told, “Ahithophel has joined the conspirators with Absalom.” He prayed, “Oh, God—turn Ahithophel’s counsel to foolishness.”
Today's Insights
As David fled Jerusalem, his enemy Shimei hurled stones and cursed at him (2 Samuel 16:5-8). David’s warrior Abishai wanted to kill Shimei, but the king wouldn’t permit it (vv. 9-11). Instead, he trusted God to “restore to [him] his covenant blessing” (v. 12). Despite Shimei’s abuse, “The king and all the people with him arrived at their destination exhausted. And there he refreshed himself” (v. 14). This is the setting for David’s psalm: “I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me” (Psalm 3:5). No matter our circumstances, we can find rest in God.
When God created mankind, He designed us with the necessity to rest.
Finding Rest
I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me. Psalm 3:5
“Tactical napping” is a series of guidelines for soldiers for effective, ten to thirty minutes of sleep. While experiencing a rush of adrenaline, loneliness, or anxiety, sleep-deprived soldiers may not be able to relax. Tips include using earplugs and reading before bed. They’re even offered military-grade, caffeinated chewing gum to reduce grogginess after a nap.
It’s when we most need rest that it’s often difficult to find. King David experienced this after fleeing into the wilderness to escape his son Absalom’s treason. David and his followers wept aloud at his betrayal with their heads covered in mourning (2 Samuel 15:30-31). In fact, “the whole countryside wept aloud” (v. 23). It was around this time that David cried out, “Lord, how many are my foes!” (Psalm 3:1). Perhaps thinking about past troubled nights, however, David continued, “I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me. I will not fear” (vv. 5-6). David realized that God, not Absalom, was in charge of his situation. David even sent the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem, acknowledging that the future was fully in God’s hands (2 Samuel 15:25-26).
Sleep feels especially fleeting when we’re facing adversity in our waking hours, but it’s a good reminder of how many things are outside our control. Yet God sustains us and, as we trust Him, He can help us lie down in peace.
Reflect & Pray
What keeps you from true rest? How can your surrender to God produce peace?
Dear God, thank You for keeping watch while I sleep and when I wake.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, May 25, 2026
The Test of Self-Interest
Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me. . . . If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.”— Genesis 13:8-9
As soon as you begin to live the life of faith in God, rich and fascinating possibilities open up before you. These things are yours by right, but if you are living the life of faith, you will exercise your right to waive your rights. You will let God choose for you.
In Genesis 13, Abraham declines to choose a parcel of land, even though choosing would seem the wisest thing for him to do. Even though it is Abraham’s right to choose, even though people will consider him a fool for not choosing, Abraham lets God decide.
God sometimes allows you to be tested in a way that requires you to sacrifice your own well-being. At such times, it seems only right for you to think about yourself, to put your needs first. But if you are living a life of faith, you will joyfully set aside your right and allow God to direct your path. This is the discipline by which the natural is transformed into the spiritual, through obedience to the voice of God.
Whenever we allow rights and entitlements to guide us, we dull our spiritual insight. The great enemy of the life of faith in God isn’t sin; it’s the good which isn’t good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best.
Many of us fail to progress spiritually because we prefer to choose what seems right instead of relying on God to choose for us. We have to learn to walk according to the standard which keeps its eye on God: “Walk before me” (Genesis 17:1).
1 Chronicles 25-27; John 9:1-23
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
I have no right to say I believe in God unless I order my life as under His all-seeing Eye.
Disciples Indeed, 385 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, May 25, 2026
You Have Life to Give - #10258
May 6, 2026
Scripture: Genesis 1:19
OK, let's put away all the junk food snacks for a minute and reach for a healthy snack today. Yes, it's time for some fresh fruit. It could be an apple, an orange, a pear, but the next time you eat one, would you look for the example on the inside? There is one. Oh, I wouldn't recommend you eat that entire apple; you'll probably want to stop when you get to the core. But notice what's there in the middle of that apple. Yep, seeds that can make another apple!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "You Have Life to Give."
That little encounter with the inside of a piece of fruit can actually take us all the way back to the first fruit that God ever made, and a powerful example of some of what gives our lives real meaning.
Genesis 1:29 - it's our word for today from the Word of God. The Lord told Adam and Eve, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it." As I was reading that, it really struck me that God has created things with the seeds of reproducing themselves built right in. When God created man and woman, He told them to "be fruitful and increase in number" (Genesis 1:28).
But that principle of fruit carrying the seeds of the next generation goes beyond just physical reproducing. Jesus said to His followers, "I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit - fruit that will last." And certainly that includes people who will come to Jesus because of you. They are fruit that your life is supposed to be producing. So, how are you doing?
The great creative plan of God is that when He creates a life, He creates it with the potential of reproducing life like itself - "Fruit with seed in it." The moment you gave your heart to Jesus Christ, God made you fruit with seeds, with the capability and the purpose of making some more like you! Apples generate apples, oranges generate oranges, and followers of Jesus generate followers of Jesus. Or at least they're supposed to.
But you know what? There's research that shows that maybe even just 10% of believers ever tell someone about their relationship with Jesus Christ, which in that case would mean 9 out of 10 believers are missing their destiny. They have the seeds of life to plant in another heart, but they're doing nothing with those seeds. And people around us go on dying without Christ, and without any hope of heaven.
Isn't it time you start bearing some fruit, like people who will be in heaven with you because you helped them know how? And God's plan is that we reproduce our own kind. Moms introducing other moms to Jesus, and students introducing other students to Jesus, and golfers pointing golfers to Christ, and business people reaching business people, and wounded people reaching wounded people. God has made you who you are; He's placed you where you are so you can take people like you to heaven with you! How are you doing with your divine assignment?
We're not talking here about you adding some new activities to your already overstuffed life. This is just using things you already do to bring other people who do them to Jesus. You already live where you live, you go to school where you go to school, you work where you work, and you play where you play. Just go there with the conscious mission of helping some of those people go to heaven with you!
There are seeds of spiritual life that God planted in you the day you met Jesus. And He's counting on you now to plant those seeds in the people like you. In fact, their eternity may depend on it.
