Max Lucado Daily: SAVOR THE STILLNESS - August 11, 2026
Do you feel isolated from family and friends? Perhaps your isolation is less geographical and more ideological. Do you feel alone in your opinions and concerns? When we follow the crowd, we feel safe. When we swim against the tide, we need strength.
Turn to God as your best friend. Find what it means to walk in the Spirit, to lean on and lean into him as your comforter. Meditate on Scripture. Read inspirational books. Enjoy times of worship. Lay claim to a quiet spot where you can hear God’s voice. Speak less when you are in his presence.
“Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10 NKJV). Learn to savor the stillness. Trust God’s stops as well as God’s steps.
Unbreakable Courage
Psalm 86
A David Psalm
1–7 86 Bend an ear, God; answer me.
I’m one miserable wretch!
Keep me safe—haven’t I lived a good life?
Help your servant—I’m depending on you!
You’re my God; have mercy on me.
I count on you from morning to night.
Give your servant a happy life;
I put myself in your hands!
You’re well-known as good and forgiving,
bighearted to all who ask for help.
Pay attention, God, to my prayer;
bend down and listen to my cry for help.
Every time I’m in trouble I call on you,
confident that you’ll answer.
8–10 There’s no one quite like you among the gods, O Lord,
and nothing to compare with your works.
All the nations you made are on their way,
ready to give honor to you, O Lord,
Ready to put your beauty on display,
parading your greatness,
And the great things you do—
God, you’re the one, there’s no one but you!
11–17 Train me, God, to walk straight;
then I’ll follow your true path.
Put me together, one heart and mind;
then, undivided, I’ll worship in joyful fear.
From the bottom of my heart I thank you, dear Lord;
I’ve never kept secret what you’re up to.
You’ve always been great toward me—what love!
You snatched me from the brink of disaster!
God, these bullies have reared their heads!
A gang of thugs is after me—
and they don’t care a thing about you.
But you, O God, are both tender and kind,
not easily angered, immense in love,
and you never, never quit.
So look me in the eye and show kindness,
give your servant the strength to go on,
save your dear, dear child!
Make a show of how much you love me
so the bullies who hate me will stand there slack-jawed,
As you, God, gently and powerfully
put me back on my feet.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, August 11, 2026
By Adam R. Holz
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
Just because something is technically legal doesn’t mean that it’s spiritually appropriate. If I went around doing whatever I thought I could get by with, I’d be a slave to my whims.
13 You know the old saying, “First you eat to live, and then you live to eat”? Well, it may be true that the body is only a temporary thing, but that’s no excuse for stuffing your body with food, or indulging it with sex. Since the Master honors you with a body, honor him with your body!
14–15 God honored the Master’s body by raising it from the grave. He’ll treat yours with the same resurrection power. Until that time, remember that your bodies are created with the same dignity as the Master’s body. You wouldn’t take the Master’s body off to a whorehouse, would you? I should hope not.
16–20 There’s more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, “The two become one.” Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever—the kind of sex that can never “become one.” There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for “becoming one” with another. Or didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.
Today's Insights
Some scholars believe that people in Corinth may have viewed Christianity as a means of advancing through society (see 1 Corinthians 1:26-31). Slaves and nobles stood equal before Jesus (Galatians 3:28), so perhaps they thought they could also move up through the social ranks. In his first letter to the misguided church in Corinth, Paul challenged many of the wrong beliefs about what it means to be a servant of Christ. Following the risen Messiah doesn’t mean pride in social status (1 Corinthians 1:26-31), abusing food (ch. 8), or indulging in all kinds of licentious behavior (ch. 5; 6:12-20). Instead, God calls us to honor Him with every part of our lives, including our bodies.
What My Rental Car Taught Me
You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
I recently traveled to Los Angeles and had to rent a car. Soon, I was driving through narrow downtown lanes, full of traffic and people. I found myself driving very carefully, slower than normal. Why? Well, I didn’t want to have an accident. But I really didn’t want to damage my rental car. It wasn’t mine, after all. I was just, well, borrowing it.
Most of the time, we’d rather be owners than renters. But as I drove, I couldn’t help but think that renting that car illustrated something important about my relationship to God.
Scripture teaches that even our bodies—which we might think we own—don’t belong to us. In a larger conversation about sexual sin in 1 Corinthians 6, Paul concludes, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (vv. 19-20).
I’ll admit, it’s hard to completely comprehend that my body isn’t my own. Still, God calls us to honor Him with it. To care for our bodies. To realize that we’re stewards—renters, if you will—of these vessels He’s given us, that we might use them to honor and serve the one whose own broken body and blood saves us.
Reflect & Pray
How do you respond to the idea that God wants us to honor Him with our bodies? How could this truth change how you live?
Dear Father, thank You for the amazing gift of my body. Please help me to honor You by using it to love and serve others today.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, August 11, 2026
This Experience Must Come
Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. . . . And Elisha saw him no more. — 2 Kings 2:11–12
It isn’t wrong to depend upon your Elijah—your guide and leader—for as long as God gives you. But remember that a time will come when your Elijah will have to go and can no longer be your guide, because God does not intend it. You say, “I can’t go on without Elijah.” God says you must.
Alone at your Jordan River (2 Kings 2:14). Jordan is the type of aloneness where you find no fellowship with other human beings, where no one can take responsibility for you. At Jordan, you have to put what you learned with your Elijah to the test. You have been to Jordan over and over again with Elijah, but now you must go there alone. It isn’t any use saying you can’t go. This experience has come, and you must go. If you want to know whether God is the God you believe him to be, go through your Jordan alone.
Alone at your Jericho (vv. 19–21). Jericho is the place where you’ve seen your Elijah do great things. When you come to your Jericho, you feel a strong resistance to taking the initiative and trusting in God; you want someone else to take the initiative for you. But if you remain true to what you learned with Elijah, you will get a sign that God is with you.
Alone at your Bethel (v. 23). At your Bethel, you find yourself at the end of your wits and the beginning of God’s wisdom. When you get to your wits’ end and feel like you’re going to panic, don’t. Stand true to God and he will bring his truth out in a way that will make your life a sacrament. Put into practice what you learned with your Elijah. Use his cloak and pray. Determine to trust in God, and do not look for Elijah anymore.
Psalms 81-83; Romans 11:19-36
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Beware of pronouncing any verdict on the life of faith if you are not living it.
Not Knowing Whither, 900 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, August 11, 2026
Looking Back Attack - #10327
Scripture: Philippians 3:12
Most of the major milestones in college revolve around a little four-letter word. Maybe you remember; maybe you're experiencing it now. The word - exam. My wife and I ended up in some classes together while we were in college before we were married, and that meant we ended up being stressed out at exactly the same time, sharing the same questions, the same challenges. But it was after the exam that the differences we had really surfaced because we handled the exam aftermath differently.
I'd come away rehearsing questions and thinking, "Well, how did I do on that one?" "What did you write for that one?" And, "Oh no, I forgot to write about that point." I thought about what I might have aced or what I might have missed; generally, I'd relive the exam. Now, my wife on the other hand; she had no desire to look back. When that exam was over, it was over and none too soon! She didn't want to go back and go over and over what was already history. I think she had the better idea.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Looking Back Attack."
Our word for today from the Word of God is from Philippians 3, and I'll begin reading at verse 12. Paul says, "I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
The imagery here is of a track runner. I happen to think that maybe Paul was a sports fan; he seemed to refer to the Olympics pretty often. And here's this runner going for the gold, and his first step to victory is to forget what's behind you. Let history be history; let the ground covered be the ground covered. You can't do a thing about it! You can't change the past. You can't do anything about the ground you already covered. In simple language, "Don't look back."
Too often we're like that college "me." We rehearse again and again what is unchangeable history. I kept thinking about the exam and kept thinking about the questions; couldn't change a thing by thinking about them. And oftentimes we get to the point where we're not focusing on today, on the race that we've still got to run. It's good to learn from the past, but not good to dwell on it.
Maybe you're having a looking back attack right now. Maybe it's a past hurt, and you just replay it over and over again. That replay is leading to resentment. If you don't go to the cross and find that grace to forgive that hurt, to release that hurt, you're going to stumble every time you try to run. It's time to focus on forgiving; a new beginning in that relationship. Maybe you're looking back at a past failure and you're paralyzed by it. You're replaying what you did wrong. Learn from it! Accept Christ's erasing and press on for the prize. Don't look back!
Maybe you're reliving past history, but it doesn't really mean anything today. It's time to make some new victories, some new memories, gain some new ground for Jesus instead of cruising on the glories of the past. You run so much better if you keep your eyes like Paul said, "On the prize" rather than on the past. The steps that you already took just don't matter that much anymore. What matters is going for the gold today.
