Max Lucado Daily: GOD ISN’T FINISHED - July 24, 2026
In the famous lace shops of Brussels, Belgium, certain rooms are dedicated to the spinning of the finest lace, with the most delicate of patterns. These rooms are completely dark, except for a shaft of natural light from a solitary window. Only one spinner sits in the room. The light falls on the pattern while the worker remains in the dark.
Has God permitted a time of darkness in your world? You look, but you cannot see him. You see only the fabric of circumstances woven and interlaced. You might question the purpose behind this thread or that. But be assured, God has a pattern. He has a plan. The Bible says, “In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). He is not finished. But when he is, the lace will be beautiful.
Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World
Psalm 36
A David Psalm
1–4 36 The God-rebel tunes in to sedition—
all ears, eager to sin.
He has no regard for God,
he stands insolent before him.
He has smooth-talked himself
into believing
That his evil
will never be noticed.
Words gutter from his mouth,
dishwater dirty.
Can’t remember when he
did anything decent.
Every time he goes to bed,
he fathers another evil plot.
When he’s loose on the streets,
nobody’s safe.
He plays with fire
and doesn’t care who gets burned.
5–6 God’s love is meteoric,
his loyalty astronomic,
His purpose titanic,
his verdicts oceanic.
Yet in his largeness
nothing gets lost;
Not a man, not a mouse,
slips through the cracks.
7–9 How exquisite your love, O God!
How eager we are to run under your wings,
To eat our fill at the banquet you spread
as you fill our tankards with Eden spring water.
You’re a fountain of cascading light,
and you open our eyes to light.
10–12 Keep on loving your friends;
do your work in welcoming hearts.
Don’t let the bullies kick me around,
the moral midgets slap me down.
Send the upstarts sprawling
flat on their faces in the mud.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, July 24, 2026
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Hebrews 6:17-20
When God wanted to guarantee his promises, he gave his word, a rock-solid guarantee—God can’t break his word. And because his word cannot change, the promise is likewise unchangeable.
18–20 We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up his permanent post as high priest for us, in the order of Melchizedek.
Today's Insights
The word translated “anchor” (ankyra) in Hebrews 6:19 is used four times in the New Testament. Three times the reference is to a ship’s anchor (Acts 27:29, 30, 40), a weighted iron connected to a rope or cable used to keep a ship in place. The figurative usage in Hebrews 6:19 speaks of the reliability and trustworthiness of God’s promises and their impact on our soul. Other word pictures are used throughout Scripture to depict the dependability of God, who cannot lie (v. 18). In Psalm 18:1-2, David leads with the word rock and then uses metaphors to celebrate God as his strength: “I love you, Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” Today, God is still the anchor for our soul, and we can trust Him.
Anchored in God
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul. Hebrews 6:19
By Patricia Raybon
It’s morning, so my husband opens his phone to select his favorite gospel song, “My Soul Is Anchored.” The lyrics express hope in God in turbulent times. Dan sings along, the words warning of billows rolling and breakers dashing. But we don’t sway, the song says, because God holds us fast.
The words perfectly describe the work of a ship’s anchor. An anchor steadies a vessel by sinking its “arms” into the seabed, keeping the ship from drifting or getting tossed about during a violent squall.
The anchor has become a classic symbol of the Christian faith—reflecting our hope in Christ, to whom we hold tightly, even in life’s chaos. As the writer of Hebrews said, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Hebrews 6:19). This hope is Jesus, whose “unchanging nature” (v. 17) is a trusted holding ground for those who believe in Him. Moreover, what God promised He confirmed with an oath, and in these “two unchangeable things . . . it’s impossible for God to lie” (vv. 17-18). That’s why we who hold on to His promises “may be greatly encouraged” (v. 18).
Some may anchor in unreliable things—their own ambition, unhealthy friends, or negative habits. How much better to anchor in the one whom we know we can trust and depend on. When the waves crash around us, we’ll be held fast. Our soul is anchored in God.
Reflect & Pray
In what stormy sea of life have you held tightly to God? Why is He a trustworthy holding ground?
I’m holding tight to You, dear God. Thank you for anchoring my soul amid all of life’s currents.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, July 24, 2026
Disposition and Deeds
Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. —Matthew 5:20
The defining characteristic of Christian disciples is not that they do good things; it’s that they are good in their motives. Their motives have been made good by the supernatural grace of God.
The only thing that surpasses right doing is right being. Jesus Christ came to put a new heredity into anyone who would let him, a heredity that would surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees. Jesus says, in essence, “If you are my disciple, you must be right not only in how you live but also in your motives and your dreams, in the deepest recesses of your mind. You must be so pure in your motives that God Almighty can see nothing to censure.”
Who can stand in the eternal light of God and have nothing for God to censure? Only the Son of God. Jesus Christ claims that, by the power of his redemption, he can put his own disposition into anyone, making them as pure and simple as a child. The purity God demands is impossible for me unless I can be remade from within—and this is exactly what Jesus Christ has undertaken with his redemption.
None of us can make ourselves pure by obeying laws. Jesus Christ doesn’t give us rules and regulations. His teachings are truths which only he can interpret. If we wish to understand them, we must do so through the disposition he puts in us—his own disposition. This is what it means that Jesus Christ alters our heredity: he doesn’t alter human nature; he alters the disposition of sin that lies beneath it. This is the great marvel of his salvation.
Psalms 35-36; Acts 25
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Jesus Christ reveals, not an embarrassed God, not a confused God, not a God who stands apart from the problems, but One who stands in the thick of the whole thing with man.
Disciples Indeed, 388 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, July 24, 2026
No Do-Overs - #10315
Scripture: Acts 10:43
We attended a concert, only to learn that it was being taped for later use as a TV program. The host introduced two other men who were going to sing with him, the accompaniment track started up, and they launched into the song; cameras rolling. But they weren’t all singing the same song, and that’s a problem! The host stopped the song, looked up at the control booth, and said, “Guys, let’s start that one over.” Guess what? You’re not going to see that on TV. Then he said to the audience, “Good thing this is taped, not live, huh?” He was right. I’ve done my share of live radio, and I want you to know, live is unforgiving. You blow it, you blew it!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “No Do-Overs.”
Too bad our lives aren’t taped, huh? We could go back and do it over and get it right this time. But we’re all doing a live performance. If you blow it, you blew it. We can’t take those words back, no matter how much they hurt someone we love. We can’t undo what we did sexually, or in anger, or we can’t take back the lies we told, we can’t undo the wounds we’ve left, the people we’ve hurt. We said it, we did it, and there’s no rewinding the tape to do it over.
Actually, our live performance is being recorded - by God. Every mistake, every sin goes into, what they used to call in school, your “permanent record,” except it doesn’t have to be permanent. All the record of all your sins can be destroyed forever. If they’re not, well you have no chance with God. You have no chance of ever seeing heaven, because you can't bring your sin in there.
But there is incredible good news for all of us in our word for today from the Word of God. Listen to Acts 10:43. It's talking about Jesus Christ, and it says, “Everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.” Now, there's no do-over, but there is the possibility of having every sin you’ve ever committed erased from God’s records forever because of what Jesus did.
The Bible talks about what He did when it says, “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22). The ancient Jews understood that. They sacrificed lambs to pay, as their substitute, the death penalty for breaking God’s laws. All the wrong things we’ve done carry an eternal death penalty. The Bible calls it hell. They cannot be erased. Our damning personal record cannot be removed unless that penalty is paid, and someone has to die for your sins to be paid for.
And someone did - the only One who could. The only One who didn’t have any sin of His own to pay for - Jesus. The Bible actually says Jesus came to “do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:26). When He was dying on that cross, He was loving you enough to do your hell for you. You have no hope of being clean inside, no hope of heaven without being forgiven for all your sin. And there’s no forgiveness unless you give yourself to Jesus, because He's the One whose blood was shed to pay for those sins.
Are you ready to be forgiven? Are you ready to be clean? Then you're ready to put your trust in Jesus to be your personal Savior from your personal sins. Right where you are, tell Him. Tell Him you’re giving yourself to Him. As soon as you can, get to a place alone and say, “Jesus, I deserve the penalty for taking my life out of God’s hands and running it myself. But thank You for paying that death penalty because You love me. Beginning today, I turn my back on the junk of my life, and I place my arms totally around You as my only hope.”
I'd love to help you nail that down and be sure you belong to Him. That's why our website is there. Let me urge you to go there today - ANewStory.com. Please go there and get this settled.
There’s not a sin you’ve ever done that Jesus didn’t pay for when He died. Today, He’s ready to destroy all the record of all your sins and give you a brand new beginning.
