Song of Solomon 1, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: God Chats in the Closet

Religious leaders loved to make theater out of their prayers. The show nauseated Jesus. In Matthew 6:6 He said, "When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who cannot be seen. Your Father can see what is done in secret, and He will reward you."

The words surely stunned Jesus' audience. The people were simple farmers and stonemasons. They couldn't enter the temple. But they could enter their closets. The point? He is low on fancy, high on accessibility. You need not woo him with location! Or wow him with eloquence. It's the power of a simple prayer.

Join me every day for 4 weeks, to pray 4 minutes, a simple prayer. Sign on at BeforeAmen.com. Then get ready to connect with God like never before!

Before Amen

Song of Solomon 1

The Song—best of all songs—Solomon’s song!

The Woman

2–3Kiss me—full on the mouth!

Yes! For your love is better than wine,

headier than your aromatic oils.

The syllables of your name murmur like a meadow brook.

No wonder everyone loves to say your name!

4Take me away with you! Let’s run off together!

An elopement with my King-Lover!

We’ll celebrate, we’ll sing,

we’ll make great music.

Yes! For your love is better than vintage wine.

Everyone loves you—of course! And why not?

5–6I am weathered but still elegant,

oh, dear sisters in Jerusalem,

Weather-darkened like Kedar desert tents,

time-softened like Solomon’s Temple hangings.

Don’t look down on me because I’m dark,

darkened by the sun’s harsh rays.

My brothers ridiculed me and sent me to work in the fields.

They made me care for the face of the earth,

but I had no time to care for my own face.

7Tell me where you’re working

—I love you so much—

Tell me where you’re tending your flocks,

where you let them rest at noontime.

Why should I be the one left out,

outside the orbit of your tender care?

The Man

8If you can’t find me, loveliest of all women,

it’s all right. Stay with your flocks.

Lead your lambs to good pasture.

Stay with your shepherd neighbors.

9–11You remind me of Pharaoh’s

well-groomed and satiny mares.

Pendant earrings line the elegance of your cheeks;

strands of jewels illumine the curve of your throat.

I’m making jewelry for you, gold and silver jewelry

that will mark and accent your beauty.

The Woman

12–14When my King-Lover lay down beside me,

my fragrance filled the room.

His head resting between my breasts—

the head of my lover was a sachet of sweet myrrh.

My beloved is a bouquet of wildflowers

picked just for me from the fields of En-gedi.

The Man

15Oh, my dear friend! You’re so beautiful!

And your eyes so beautiful—like doves!

The Woman

16–17And you, my dear lover—you’re so handsome!

And the bed we share is like a forest glen.

We enjoy a canopy of cedars

enclosed by cypresses, fragrant and green.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Saturday, October 17, 2026

by Karen Huang

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Jonah 3:10–4:2, 4, 6-11

God saw what they had done, that they had turned away from their evil lives. He did change his mind about them. What he said he would do to them he didn’t do.

“I Knew This Was Going to Happen!”

1–24Jonah was furious. He lost his temper. He yelled at God, “God! I knew it—when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That’s why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness!

Today's Insights

Jonah wanted God to destroy the wicked Ninevites and became angry when He forgave them and spared their lives (3:10–4:1). The prophet even objected to God being “gracious and compassionate . . . slow to anger and abounding in love” (Jonah 4:2). Jonah didn’t want Him to extend His grace to the gentiles. But our sovereign God has the right to show mercy to whomever He chooses (v. 11; see Exodus 33:19; Romans 9:15). As believers in Jesus and His “chosen people” (1 Peter 2:9), we’re “to be like God” (Ephesians 4:24)—compassionate, kind, patient, loving, and forgiving (Colossians 3:12-14). Today, God can help us show compassion to others, even to difficult people.

For further study, read: A Circumcised Heart and a Compassionate Life

God’s Compassion

The Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Jonah 4:4

I didn’t like Sadie. My colleague was often rude to me, so I avoided her. So when she heard about an evangelistic meeting in my church and asked if she could go with me, I was indifferent. “I’ll see,” I mumbled.

Days passed, and the topic seemed forgotten. But God hadn’t forgotten. I could feel His gaze, waiting for me to reach out to Sadie. One day, while I was praying, a question pervaded my thoughts: Think about your response to Sadie. Is it right?

Ouch! The question reminded me of what God asked the prophet Jonah after the people of Nineveh repented: “Is it right for you to be angry?” (Jonah 4:4). Jonah had warned the Ninevites of God’s judgment for their sin (3:1-4). Strangely, however, when they repented and God “did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened” (v. 10), “this seemed very wrong” to Jonah “and he became angry” (4:1). He believed that the cruel enemies of Israel had gotten off easily (vv. 1-3) and deserved punishment.

But God corrected Jonah, pointing out his lack of compassion for the Ninevites, who had no true spiritual understanding (vv. 5-11). God, “gracious and compassionate . . . slow to anger and abounding in love” (v. 2), cares about the welfare of all people, no matter what they’ve done. Let’s extend God’s compassion to others too—helping them to know and love Him.

Reflect & Pray

Why can it be difficult to show compassion to some people in your life? How can God help you extend it to them?

Loving Father, please help me to see others the way You do and show them Your compassion.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Greater Works

Saturday, October 17, 2026

They will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. — John 14:12

Prayer doesn’t prepare us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work. We think of prayer as a commonsense exercise of our higher powers, as something that gets us ready to do God’s work. In the teaching of Jesus Christ, prayer is the miracle of the redemption at work in me—a miracle which, by the power of God, produces the miracle of the redemption in others: “I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last” (John 15:16). It’s true that my prayer produces lasting fruit, but I must remember that it is prayer based on the agony of the redemption, not on my agony.

Prayer doesn’t prepare us for battle; prayer is the battle. It doesn’t matter where we are nor how God has engineered our circumstances; our duty is to pray. Never allow the thought, “I’m of no use where I am.” You certainly can be of no use where you’re not. Wherever God has dumped you down, pray to him—pray all the time. Most of us won’t pray unless it gives us a thrill, which is the most intense form of spiritual selfishness. We have to work according to God’s direction; and he says, simply, pray.

“Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:38 kjv). There’s nothing thrilling about a laboring person’s work, but it is the laboring person who makes the conceptions of the genius possible. In the same way, the laboring disciple makes the conceptions of the Master possible. You may not see the fruits of your prayer immediately, but from God’s viewpoint there are results all the time. What an astonishment it will be to find, when the veil is lifted, how many souls have been reaped by you simply because you were in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 50-52; 1 Thessalonians 5

 

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Crises reveal character. When we are put to the test the hidden resources of our character are revealed exactly. 

Disciples Indeed, 393 R

Acts 5:22-42, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: WATCH GOD WORK - October 16, 2026

During World War I, Biddy Chambers, her husband, and small daughter moved to Egypt, where he served as a chaplain. He taught, she transcribed. It was a perfect partnership.

Then her husband’s complications from appendicitis rendered Biddy a widow, and all the dreams of a teaching ministry would have to be abandoned, right? Well, no. She turned her husband’s notes into pamphlets. Eventually, they were compiled into a book, My Utmost For His Highest. This work of Oswald Chambers has sold more than 13 million copies and has been translated into more than 35 languages.

The next time you feel overwhelmed, remind yourself of the one who is standing next to you. Give him what you have, offer thanks, and watch him go to work. Remember friends, you are never alone.

You Are Never Alone: Trust in the Miracle of God's Presence & Power

Acts 5:22-42

The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language

Other versions

When the police got there, they couldn’t find them anywhere in the jail. They went back and reported, “We found the jail locked tight as a drum and the guards posted at the doors, but when we went inside we didn’t find a soul.”

24The chief of the Temple police and the high priests were puzzled. “What’s going on here anyway?”

25–26Just then someone showed up and said, “Did you know that the men you put in jail are back in the Temple teaching the people?” The chief and his police went and got them, but they handled them gently, fearful that the people would riot and turn on them.

27–28Bringing them back, they stood them before the High Council. The Chief Priest said, “Didn’t we give you strict orders not to teach in Jesus’ name? And here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are trying your best to blame us for the death of this man.”

29–32Peter and the apostles answered, “It’s necessary to obey God rather than men. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, the One you killed by hanging him on a cross. God set him on high at his side, Prince and Savior, to give Israel the gift of a changed life and sins forgiven. And we are witnesses to these things. The Holy Spirit, whom God gives to those who obey him, corroborates every detail.”

33–37When they heard that, they were furious and wanted to kill them on the spot. But one of the council members stood up, a Pharisee by the name of Gamaliel, a teacher of God’s Law who was honored by everyone. He ordered the men taken out of the room for a short time, then said, “Fellow Israelites, be careful what you do to these men. Not long ago Theudas made something of a splash, claiming to be somebody, and got about four hundred men to join him. He was killed, his followers dispersed, and nothing came of it. A little later, at the time of the census, Judas the Galilean appeared and acquired a following. He also fizzled out and the people following him were scattered to the four winds.

38–39“So I am telling you: Hands off these men! Let them alone. If this program or this work is merely human, it will fall apart, but if it is of God, there is nothing you can do about it—and you better not be found fighting against God!”

40–42That convinced them. They called the apostles back in. After giving them a thorough whipping, they warned them not to speak in Jesus’ name and sent them off. The apostles went out of the High Council overjoyed because they had been given the honor of being dishonored on account of the Name. Every day they were in the Temple and homes, teaching and preaching Christ Jesus, not letting up for a minute.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

October 16, 2026

by Dave Branon

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

1 Peter 3:13-17

If with heart and soul you’re doing good, do you think you can be stopped? Even if you suffer for it, you’re still better off. Don’t give the opposition a second thought. Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They’ll end up realizing that they’re the ones who need a bath. It’s better to suffer for doing good, if that’s what God wants, than to be punished for doing bad.

Today's Insights

After we’ve placed our trust in Jesus as our Savior and are ready to meet Him when He returns, we’re called to share our hope in Christ with others. The apostle Peter tells us, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15). The sometimes-overlooked key to his instructions on sharing our faith is that there needs to be a catalyst in our lives that causes people to ask about it. That catalyst is a Christlike, hope-filled life, which opens the door to sharing about our relationship with Jesus. Because we live in a desperate world, a life that displays hope can cause people to want what they see in us. God can help us “be prepared” to tell others of our Savior (v. 15), who is our source of hope through His resurrection (1:3).

For further study, read: Die First, Then Comes the End

Ready for Christ’s Return

Be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. 1 Peter 3:15

It was late fall, and my wife and I were going to take a trip by car. The day before our planned departure, it began to snow, and I suddenly realized I hadn’t taken the car in to have snow tires put on. The snowy, deteriorating conditions led to a long line at the tire shop—something I could have avoided with better planning.

Much of life is about getting ready, isn’t it? It’s vital for us to think ahead, prepare for what eventualities might occur, and make sure we’ve planned well.

This is true of our spiritual life as well. In Matthew 24, Jesus pointed out the necessity of being all set for His later return. He told His listeners that they “must be ready” because He will come again (v. 44). And Peter later wrote that believers should prepare themselves ahead of time intellectually and spiritually “to give the reason for the hope that [they] have” (1 Peter 3:15).

Our lives should be ones of preparation. First, we must make sure we’re ready for Jesus’ return by putting our faith in Him. Next, our task is to continually prepare ourselves for service for Him—even if it means to “suffer for doing good” (v. 17). With His help, let’s get ready.

Reflect & Pray

How are you sure you’re ready to meet Jesus when He returns or when you die? What can you do to better prepare to serve and honor God?

Dear Jesus, please help me use my time wisely—preparing for what You want me to do. While I handle daily responsibilities, help me to also set aside times for spiritual preparation.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

October 16, 2026

The Key to the Master’s Orders

Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. — Matthew 9:38kjv

The key to the problems that arise in missionary work lies in God’s hand, not humanity’s. The key isn’t hard work or common sense. It isn’t education or medical aid. It isn’t even evangelizing. The key is prayer.

“Pray ye therefore . . .” We are challenged by the difference between our human view of prayer and the Lord’s. From our point of view, prayer is completely impractical and absurd. From our Lord’s point of view, prayer is the only thing that makes sense. We say, “It’s ridiculous to think that God is going to change things in answer to prayer!” This is exactly what Jesus Christ says God will do.

“. . . into his harvest.” Jesus Christ owns the harvest that is produced by distress and by conviction of sin. This is the harvest we must pray that laborers will be sent to reap. This harvest isn’t located in a particular place; it isn’t directed at certain people. There are no nations or tribes in Jesus Christ’s outlook, only the world. How many of us have learned to pray without respect to persons, only with respect to a person, Jesus Christ? Too often we lose sight of Jesus Christ, becoming distracted by our own agendas. People all around us are ripe to harvest, and we don’t even notice; we just go on wasting our Lord’s time in over-energized activities. Suppose a crisis of faith comes in your father’s life, in your sister’s life: Are you there as a laborer to reap the harvest for Jesus Christ? Or do you say, “I have special work to do! I don’t have time to deal with my brother.” No Christian has special work to do. Christians are called to be Jesus Christ’s own, disciples who don’t dictate to their master. Our Lord doesn’t call us to special work; he calls us to himself. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest,” and he will engineer your circumstances and send you out.

Isaiah 47-49; 1 Thessalonians 4

 

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.

Our Brilliant Heritage

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

October 16, 2026

The Thirst That's Never Quenched - #10375

Scripture:  Isaiah 55:2

He may have been the greatest American hero of his time; his name was Meriwether Lewis. When President Thomas Jefferson bought the massive Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon, the size of this young country was more than doubled overnight. The land stretched from the Mississippi all the way to the Pacific, and much of it was known well to Native Americans but largely unknown to white Americans. Jefferson tapped his personal aide and a distinguished war veteran to lead this incredible adventure that we know today as the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Following the long and winding route of the Missouri River, Lewis led his expedition all the way from the point where it ends near St. Louis to its headwaters in Montana. His longtime dream had been to find the source of that river and to drink from it. He got his dream. If only it had satisfied his thirst.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Thirst That's Never Quenched."

In a letter to a friend after he reached that pinnacle, Meriwether Lewis wrote these words: "I feel all that restlessness, which I cannot help but thinking proceeds from that void in our hearts. Whence it comes I know not, but certain it is, that I have never felt less like a hero than at the present moment." Shortly thereafter, Meriwether Lewis died of what is believed to be his own suicide.

He accomplished his greatest goals; he drank the sweet water of success and conquest and had the admiration of thousands. But he still had not found what fills what he called "that void in our hearts." Maybe you know that feeling. If you haven't gotten what you've been pursuing, you know, maybe a relationship, an accomplishment, a position, and you think that's why you have this incurable restlessness. If you've gotten what you thought would fill that hole in your heart and the hole is still there, guess what the next stop is? Despair.

But ultimately the void is in our hearts because God isn't. In the Bible's words, we were "created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). But we haven't lived for Him. Again, according to the Bible, 100% of us have basically done life our way, not God's way. So we're missing Him. I wish I could get into a time machine and go back and talk to Meriwether Lewis and help him understand who he was restless for.

That's not possible, but God has put you and me together today, maybe because He wants to show you how the thirst in your soul can finally end by drinking from the Source; by experiencing for yourself, not a religion, but a personal love relationship with the God who put you here.

He says in Isaiah 55:2, our word for today from the Word of God, "Why spend money on what is not bread and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen to Me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare." Jesus, God's Son, who died to pay the penalty for you and me hijacking our life from God, made this promise: "He who comes to Me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty" (John 6:35). Void filled. Restlessness satisfied. With the gap between you and God bridged by Jesus, you're finally drinking from the Source.

It starts the day that you "come to" Jesus, the day you, He said, "believe in" Him. And you do that by placing your total trust in this One who loved you enough to die for you and then was powerful enough to rise from the dead. Why don't you let Him begin this relationship now; let your search be over. If you do, would you tell Him that, "Jesus, beginning today, I'm yours."

Check out our website, because it's loaded with information that will help you be sure you have made this connection with Jesus Christ, the One who loves you most. Our website is ANewStory.com.

There’s no one else who can satisfy your thirsty soul. Beginning today, you can be, as so many of us restless seekers have discovered, you could be thirsty no more.