Max Lucado Daily: Cry Out to Jesus
My friend Jim has battled a muscular condition much of his adult life. The atrophy slurs his speech and impairs his walk. But it doesn't diminish his faith or erase his smile.
One Sunday we asked church members to park in the back lot and leave the closest spots for guests. As I arrived, I saw Jim. He had parked in the distant corner and was walking toward the sanctuary. His life is an example. I pray that God will heal Jim's body. But until he does, God is using Jim to inspire people like me.
God will do the same with you. He will use your struggle to change others. Or-he may use your struggle to change you! Disease cannot destroy us. And death has lost its sting. Cry out to Jesus in the power of a simple prayer! He will heal you-instantly or gradually or for sure, ultimately!
From Before Amen
Ecclesiastes 6
Things Are Bad
1–26I looked long and hard at what goes on around here, and let me tell you, things are bad. And people feel it. There are people, for instance, on whom God showers everything—money, property, reputation—all they ever wanted or dreamed of. And then God doesn’t let them enjoy it. Some stranger comes along and has all the fun. It’s more of what I’m calling smoke. A bad business.
3–5Say a couple have scores of children and live a long, long life but never enjoy themselves—even though they end up with a big funeral! I’d say that a stillborn baby gets the better deal. It gets its start in a mist and ends up in the dark—unnamed. It sees nothing and knows nothing, but is better off by far than anyone living.
6Even if someone lived a thousand years—make it two thousand!—but didn’t enjoy anything, what’s the point? Doesn’t everyone end up in the same place?
7We work to feed our appetites;
Meanwhile our souls go hungry.
8–9So what advantage has a sage over a fool, or over some poor wretch who barely gets by? Just grab whatever you can while you can; don’t assume something better might turn up by and by. All it amounts to anyway is smoke. And spitting into the wind.
10Whatever happens, happens. Its destiny is fixed.
You can’t argue with fate.
11–12The more words that are spoken, the more smoke there is in the air. And who is any better off? And who knows what’s best for us as we live out our meager smoke-and-shadow lives? And who can tell any of us the next chapter of our lives?
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, November 14, 2026
by
Winn Collier
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Proverbs 13:11-23
Easy come, easy go,
but steady diligence pays off.
12Unrelenting disappointment leaves you heartsick,
but a sudden good break can turn life around.
13Ignore the Word and suffer;
honor God’s commands and grow rich.
14The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life,
so, no more drinking from death-tainted wells!
15Sound thinking makes for gracious living,
but liars walk a rough road.
16A commonsense person lives good sense;
fools litter the country with silliness.
17Irresponsible talk makes a real mess of things,
but a reliable reporter is a healing presence.
18Refuse discipline and end up homeless;
embrace correction and live an honored life.
19Souls who follow their hearts thrive;
fools bent on evil despise matters of soul.
20Become wise by walking with the wise;
hang out with fools and watch your life fall to pieces.
21Disaster entraps sinners,
but God-loyal people get a good life.
22A good life gets passed on to the grandchildren;
ill-gotten wealth ends up with good people.
23Banks foreclose on the farms of the poor,
or else the poor lose their shirts to crooked lawyers.
Today's Insights
God instructed parents to teach His commandments to the next generation (Deuteronomy 6; Psalm 78:5-7). Solomon, who authored many of the proverbs, often wrote in the form of a life manual from a father to a son, providing guidance for navigating the moral minefields of the world (see Proverbs 1:8-9; ch. 4). In Proverbs 13, he says it’s the wise son who “heeds his father’s instruction” (v. 1) and “righteousness guards the person of integrity” (v. 6). The writer stresses the importance of humility, wisdom, prudence, discipline, and diligence (vv. 10-25). Today, as the Spirit helps us obey the instructions found in Scripture, we can faithfully pass along a legacy of integrity and faithfulness to the next generation.
For additional reflection, read: Paul's Spiritual Legacy: 2 Timothy 1.
Investing in Others
A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children. Proverbs 13:22
When 101-year-old Eugenia Dodson died, no one had any idea how wealthy she was. She’d lived frugally, working as a beautician and investing the nest egg her late husband left her when he’d passed fifty years earlier. But Dodson left $35.6 million for cancer and diabetes research. Both diseases had ravaged her family, and she’d wanted to help others. Dodson used her vast resources to care for future generations she would never meet. One representative said, “She was dead set on doing good for humankind. She had a big heart.”
Proverbs says that if we want to make an impact and live a truly good life, then we’ll think not merely about our own needs but about the needs of those who’ll come after us. “A good person,” Scripture says, “leaves an inheritance for their children’s children” (13:22). This admonition refers to helping our own family, but it also has implications for how we invest spiritually and in other ways in all the generations to come. In Israel’s communal culture, “children’s children” referred to a far wider circle than modern notions of a narrow nuclear family.
There are numerous ways we can invest in the futures of others. Some may be able to pass on a financial inheritance. But as our loving God provides what we need, all of us can pass along a legacy of integrity, share a heritage of faithful prayer, and steward His creation for all who follow (v. 23).
Reflect & Pray
How have others invested in your future? How are you investing in others?
Dear God, please help me to serve others for Your glory.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, November 14, 2026
Discovering Divine Designs
As for me, the Lord has led me on the journey. —Genesis 24:27
We have to be so one with God that we do not need to continually ask for his guidance. Sanctification means that we have been made God’s children, and the natural life of a child is obedience—until the child wishes to be disobedient. The instant we are disobedient, we get a warning; a kind of intuitive jolt alerts us. In the spiritual domain, this jolt comes from the Spirit of God. When he checks us, we have to stop at once and be renewed in the spirit of our mind so that we may discern God’s will.
If we have been born again of the Spirit, we do not dictate to God where he should guide us. We simply know that “the Lord has led” us on our journey. When we look back, we see the presence of an amazing design, a design which, because we’ve been born of God, we credit entirely to him.
Anyone can see God in exceptional things, but it requires spiritual discipline to see him in every detail. If we have this discipline, we’re ready to discover divine designs everywhere. What appears random and haphazard to most people is to us nothing less than God’s appointed order.
Beware of making a fetish of consistency to your own convictions instead of being devoted to God. If you are following Jesus Christ, you’ll probably find yourself doing things you swore you’d never do, because there was never a more inconsistent being on this earth than our Lord. But he was never inconsistent to his Father. The one consistency of the disciple is loyalty not to a conviction or a principle but to the divine life. It is the divine life which continually makes more and more discoveries about the divine mind. It’s easier to be a fanatic than a faithful soul, because there is something amazingly humbling—particularly to our religious conceit—about being loyal to God.
Lamentations 3-5; Hebrews 10:19-39
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
The main characteristic which is the proof of the indwelling Spirit is an amazing tenderness in personal dealing, and a blazing truthfulness with regard to God’s Word.
Disciples Indeed, 386 R
