Max Lucado Daily: NEVER LOSE HEART - October 22, 2026
On April 21st, 2008, Katherine Wolf suffered a massive stroke. She lost her ability to walk, talk clearly, and care for herself. She went from being a California model to a wheelchair-bound patient. God stepped in.
In her wonderful book, Hope Heals, she writes, “I felt a deep awakening of the Word of God, which I had known since I was a little girl. It was my epiphany of hope. I would never lose heart in this situation because my soul was not what was wasting away.”
Don’t try to weather this storm alone, my friend. He is still the great I AM. The next time you pray, “Is anyone coming to help me?” listen for the response of Jesus. “I AM with you in this storm.” Remember my friend, you are never alone.
You Are Never Alone: Trust in the Miracle of God's Presence & Power
Song of Solomon 5
The Man
15I went to my garden, dear friend, best lover!
breathed the sweet fragrance.
I ate the fruit and honey,
I drank the nectar and wine.
Celebrate with me, friends!
Raise your glasses—“To life! To love!”
The Woman
2I was sound asleep, but in my dreams I was wide awake.
Oh, listen! It’s the sound of my lover knocking, calling!
The Man
“Let me in, dear companion, dearest friend,
my dove, consummate lover!
I’m soaked with the dampness of the night,
drenched with dew, shivering and cold.”
The Woman
3“But I’m in my nightgown—do you expect me to get dressed?
I’m bathed and in bed—do you want me to get dirty?”
4–7But my lover wouldn’t take no for an answer,
and the longer he knocked, the more excited I became.
I got up to open the door to my lover,
sweetly ready to receive him,
Desiring and expectant
as I turned the door handle.
But when I opened the door he was gone.
My loved one had tired of waiting and left.
And I died inside—oh, I felt so bad!
I ran out looking for him
But he was nowhere to be found.
I called into the darkness—but no answer.
The night watchmen found me
as they patrolled the streets of the city.
They slapped and beat and bruised me,
ripping off my clothes,
These watchmen,
who were supposed to be guarding the city.
8I beg you, sisters in Jerusalem—
if you find my lover,
Please tell him I want him,
that I’m heartsick with love for him.
The Chorus
9What’s so great about your lover, fair lady?
What’s so special about him that you beg for our help?
The Woman
10–16My dear lover glows with health—
red-blooded, radiant!
He’s one in a million.
There’s no one quite like him!
My golden one, pure and untarnished,
with raven black curls tumbling across his shoulders.
His eyes are like doves, soft and bright,
but deep-set, brimming with meaning, like wells of water.
His face is rugged, his beard smells like sage,
His voice, his words, warm and reassuring.
Fine muscles ripple beneath his skin,
quiet and beautiful.
His torso is the work of a sculptor,
hard and smooth as ivory.
He stands tall, like a cedar,
strong and deep-rooted,
A rugged mountain of a man,
aromatic with wood and stone.
His words are kisses, his kisses words.
Everything about him delights me, thrills me through and through!
That’s my lover, that’s my man,
dear Jerusalem sisters.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, October 22, 2026
By Adam R. Holz
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Galatians 5:16-26
My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?
19–21It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.
This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.
22–23But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.
23–24Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.
25–26Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.
Today's Insights
Paul had much to teach us about the Holy Spirit’s role in the life of the believer in Jesus. The moment a person believes in Christ through faith, they receive the Holy Spirit (Galatians 3:2, 14). Referred to as “the Spirit of his Son” (4:6), God sent Him to dwell in our hearts. He adopted us to become His children and empowers us to call Him “Abba, Father” (v. 6). The apostle warned that our sinful human nature continues to resist the indwelling Spirit (5:17). The key to victory is to live in the power of the Spirit. As we’re led by Him and walk and keep in step with Him, He helps us to overcome the vices of the sinful nature and live in a right relationship with God (vv. 5, 16, 18, 25). Such a Spirit-controlled life is one that pleases God as it bears the “fruit of the Spirit” (v. 22).
For further study, read: The Fruit of the Spirit
In Step with God
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Galatians 5:25
Can you imagine sprinting as hard as you can possibly run . . . without being able to see?
That’s what happens in Paralympic guide running. Blind runners compete with a guide, someone who runs alongside them step by step, connected by a short tether. American runner David Brown is among the world’s fastest blind Paralympian runners, having won a gold medal for running a 100-meter dash in under eleven seconds. Jerome Avery was Brown’s guide for much of his career. Brown described their connection this way: “We’re like one person.” Avery agreed, saying, “It should look like one person running.”
What a beautiful illustration of the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Even when we’re running with all we’ve got, the Spirit stays perfectly in step with us—directing our every movement, guiding us this way and that.
In Galatians 5, Paul describes how we overcome struggles with sin: by being in sync with the Spirit’s work in us. He writes, “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (v. 16). A few verses later, he adds, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” (v. 25). That, he says, would enable us to step past the “acts of the flesh” (v. 19) so we can be spiritually fruitful (vv. 22-23).
Let’s walk—and maybe even run—in step with the Spirit.
Reflect & Pray
How do you realize you’re out of step with God? In your life, what does being “in step” with the Spirit look like?
Dear Father, thank You that the Holy Spirit helps me walk closely with You. Please help me keep in step with You! For further study, read The Fruit of the Spirit at odbm.org.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, October 22, 2026
The Testimony of the Spirit
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit. — Romans 8:16
We are in danger of getting into a negotiating mindset with God, of trying to haggle him into giving us the testimony of the Spirit before we’ve done what he tells us to do. “Why isn’t the Spirit testifying with my spirit?” you ask. “Why doesn’t God reveal himself to me?” The answer is that he won’t, not as long as you are in his way, refusing to abandon yourself to him. The instant you do abandon, God begins to testify to himself. He can’t testify to you—that is, to your human nature. Rather, he testifies to his own nature inside you, the nature you received when you were baptized by the Holy Spirit.
If you were to receive the testimony of the Spirit before the Spirit was a reality inside you, it would end in sentimental emotion. But the moment you stop debating and complete the spiritual transaction, the moment you ask for the Holy Spirit and receive him, God gives you the testimony. When you abandon intellectual reasoning and argument and hand yourself in faith to God, you will be amazed at your impertinence in having kept him waiting so long.
If you are debating the question of whether God can deliver you from sin, either let him do it or tell him he can’t. Don’t come at him with evidence, quoting this or that expert. Instead, try Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened.” Come, when you are burdened with doubt. Ask, if you know you are evil: “How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13).
The simplicity that characterizes commonsense decisions is easy to mistake for the testimony of the Spirit. But the Spirit testifies only to his own nature and to the work of redemption, never to our human reason. If we try to make him testify to our reason, it is no wonder we remain in darkness and perplexity. Fling your doubting and debating overboard, trust in God, and his Spirit will give the testimony.
Isaiah 65-66; 1 Timothy 2
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Am I learning how to use my Bible? The way to become complete for the Master’s service is to be well soaked in the Bible; some of us only exploit certain passages. Our Lord wants to give us continuous instruction out of His word; continuous instruction turns hearers into disciples.
Approved Unto God, 11 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, October 22, 2026
The Miracle in the Mirror - #10379
Scripture: Psalms 139:13
Fasten your seat belt, science fans. These days it seems as if there's a blockbuster discovery almost every day in the rapidly expanding world of science. But few things have amazed me more than some of the discoveries that came out of the mapping of human genes, human cells, and the stuff of human life that we call DNA. You've lived in your body so many years you probably don't think much about it. Well, think about it for a minute. Your body has, according to the research, ten trillion cells. Each of those ten trillion cells contains a strand of DNA that, if you uncoiled it, would be about six feet long. Now, here's what they're telling us. If you were to place each of those ten trillion strands in your body end to end—ready for your mind to be blown? Your DNA would span the solar system! Go take another look in the mirror.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Miracle in the Mirror."
When King David wrote about his own being, it was some 3,000 years ago; long before people knew even a tiny fraction of the amazing stuff we know today about just one human being. But even then, with the little he knew, he penned these words, recorded in Psalm 139, our word for today from the Word of God, and actually amplified by these recent discoveries.
Beginning in verse 13, he says to God, "You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful ... All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be." Now, imagine. God gave you your worth from birth—actually, before birth. Most of what you are today was all there in your genetic code, basically from the moment you were conceived. So, no one on earth gave you your worth, and no one on earth can take it away.
God ordained the number of days of your life before you lived even one of them. You are, in essence, immortal until your work is done. Now, fast forward to the New Testament, and you read this encouraging and amazing description of who you really are: Ephesians 2:10, "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Just think, there's a plan made by God with your name on it, and you've been wired by Him to make a unique difference in your short time on this planet.
He started you. He'll decide when you're done here. He's the One who knows why you're here. Question: Do you belong to this awesome God who you were made by and made for? The Bible says we've actually turned away from this majestic Creator of ours to do our own thing. It’s got a name. It's called sin. And it took God becoming one of us, from the womb to the tomb, to give us a chance to get back to Him. That's what Jesus died on the cross to do. He died for your sins so you don't have to. He was abandoned by God the Father on the cross so you don't ever have to be.
And that hole in your heart that's never gone away can only be filled by the awesome God who made you; who we can only get to by giving ourselves to Jesus, the only bridge to our Creator. Maybe you've never actually put your life in the hands of the One who gave you your life and who gave His life for you. You could do that right now. Say, "Jesus, this is the end of me running my own life I was never meant to. You drive from this day on. I believe your payment for my sin on the cross is my only hope of heaven. And today, Jesus, I'm giving myself to you. I'm yours."
We’ve put some information on our website for a moment just like this; a beginning with Jesus Christ. A place to go to get this settled. The website is ANewStory.com.
You may have awakened this morning away from the awesome God who made you. You can go to bed tonight, knowing that you belong to Him forever.