Numbers 26, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: YOUR MOST VALUABLE TOOL - October 24, 2025

Your mindset is your most valuable tool. It’s time to screen thoughts, interrupt thoughts, extract and replace thoughts. And I know just the fellow to help us. God called him “a man after my own heart” (Acts 13:22 NIV). Why? He made this six-word motto his mantra: “The battle belongs to the Lord” (1 Samuel 17:47 MEV).

Goliath stood nine feet nine inches tall and wore 126 pounds of armor. David was the youngest in his family—a teenager. He showed up and piped up. “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (1 Samuel 17:26 NIV).

David sees a battle; he thinks of God. He sees the Philistines; he thinks of God’s armies. And he announces, “The battle belongs to the Lord.” How does David’s reaction to the enemy compare with yours?

Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life

Numbers 26

Census on the Plains of Moab

1–2  26 After the plague God said to Moses and Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, “Number the entire community of Israel by families—count every person who is twenty years and older who is able to serve in the army of Israel.”

3–4  Obeying God’s command, Moses and Eleazar the priest addressed them on the Plains of Moab at Jordan-Jericho: “Count off from age twenty and older.”

4–7  The People of Israel who came out of the land of Egypt:

Reuben, Israel’s firstborn. The sons of Reuben were:

Hanoch and the Hanochite clan,

Pallu and the Palluite clan,

Hezron and the Hezronite clan,

Carmi and the Carmite clan.

These made up the Reubenite clans. They numbered 43,730.

8  The son of Pallu: Eliab.

9–11  The sons of Eliab: Nemuel, Dathan, and Abiram. (These were the same Dathan and Abiram, community leaders from Korah’s gang, who rebelled against Moses and Aaron in the Korah Rebellion against God. The Earth opened its jaws and swallowed them along with Korah’s gang who died when the fire ate them up, all 250 of them. After all these years, they’re still a warning sign. But the line of Korah did not die out.)

12–14  The sons of Simeon by clans:

Nemuel and the Nemuelite clan,

Jamin and the Jaminite clan,

Jakin and the Jakinite clan,

Zerah and the Zerahite clan,

Shaul and the Shaulite clan.

These were the clans of Simeon. They numbered 22,200 men.

15–18  The sons of Gad by clans:

Zephon and the Zephonite clan,

Haggi and the Haggite clan,

Shuni and the Shunite clan,

Ozni and the Oznite clan,

Eri and the Erite clan,

Arodi and the Arodite clan,

Areli and the Arelite clan.

These were the clans of Gad. They numbered 40,500 men.

19–22  Er and Onan were sons of Judah who died early on in Canaan. The sons of Judah by clans:

Shelah and the Shelanite clan,

Perez and the Perezite clan,

Zerah and the Zerahite clan.

The sons of Perez:

Hezron and the Hezronite clan,

Hamul and the Hamulite clan.

These were the clans of Judah. They numbered 76,500.

23–25  The sons of Issachar by clans:

Tola and the Tolaite clan,

Puah and the Puite clan,

Jashub and the Jashubite clan,

Shimron and the Shimronite clan.

These were the clans of Issachar. They numbered 64,300.

26–27  The sons of Zebulun by clans:

Sered and the Seredite clan,

Elon and the Elonite clan,

Jahleel and the Jahleelite clan.

These were the clans of Zebulun. They numbered 60,500.

28–34  The sons of Joseph by clans through Manasseh and Ephraim. Through Manasseh:

Makir and the Makirite clan

(now Makir was the father of Gilead),

Gilead and the Gileadite clan.

The sons of Gilead:

Iezer and the Iezerite clan,

Helek and the Helekite clan,

Asriel and the Asrielite clan,

Shechem and the Shechemite clan,

Shemida and the Shemidaite clan,

Hepher and the Hepherite clan.

Zelophehad son of Hepher had no sons, only daughters.

Their names were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

These were the clans of Manasseh. They numbered 52,700.

35–37  The sons of Ephraim by clans:

Shuthelah and the Shuthelahite clan,

Beker and the Bekerite clan,

Tahan and the Tahanite clan.

The sons of Shuthelah:

Eran and the Eranite clan.

These were the clans of Ephraim. They numbered 32,500.

These are all the sons of Joseph by their clans.

38–41  The sons of Ben-jamin by clans:

Bela and the Belaite clan,

Ashbel and the Ashbelite clan,

Ahiram and the Ahiramite clan,

Shupham and the Shuphamite clan,

Hupham and the Huphamite clan.

The sons of Bela through Ard and Naaman:

Ard and the Ardite clan,

Naaman and the Naamite clan.

These were the clans of Ben-jamin. They numbered 45,600.

42–43  The sons of Dan by clan:

Shuham and the Shuhamite clan.

These are the clans of Dan, all Shuhamite clans. They numbered 64,400.

44–47  The sons of Asher by clan:

Imnah and the Imnite clan,

Ishvi and the Ishvite clan,

Beriah and the Beriite clan.

The sons of Beriah:

Heber and the Heberite clan,

Malkiel and the Malkielite clan.

Asher also had a daughter, Serah.

These were the clans of Asher. They numbered 53,400.

48–50  The sons of Naphtali by clans:

Jahzeel and the Jahzeelite clan,

Guni and the Gunite clan,

Jezer and the Jezerite clan,

Shillem and the Shillemite clan.

These were the clans of Naphtali. They numbered 45,400.

51  The total number of the People of Israel: 601,730.

52–54  God spoke to Moses: “Divide up the inheritance of the land based on population. A larger group gets a larger inheritance; a smaller group gets a smaller inheritance—each gets its inheritance based on the population count.

55–56  “Make sure that the land is assigned by lot.

“Each group’s inheritance is based on population, the number of names listed in its ancestral tribe, divided among the many and the few by lot.”

57–58  These are the numberings of the Levites by clan:

Gershon and the Gershonite clan,

Kohath and the Kohathite clan,

Merari and the Merarite clan.

The Levite clans also included:

the Libnite clan,

the Hebronite clan,

the Mahlite clan,

the Mushite clan,

the Korahite clan.

58–61  Kohath was the father of Amram. Amram’s wife was Jochebed, a descendant of Levi, born into the Levite family during the Egyptian years. Jochebed bore Aaron, Moses, and their sister Miriam to Amram. Aaron was the father of Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar; however, Nadab and Abihu died when they offered unauthorized sacrifice in the presence of God.

62  The numbering of Levite males one month and older came to 23,000. They hadn’t been counted in with the rest of the People of Israel because they didn’t inherit any land.

63–65  These are the ones numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, the People of Israel counted in the Plains of Moab at Jordan-Jericho. Not one of them had been among those counted by Moses and Aaron the priest in the census of the People of Israel taken in the Wilderness of Sinai. For God had said of them, “They’ll die, die in the wilderness—not one of them will be left except for Caleb son of Jephunneh, and Joshua son of Nun.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Friday, October 24, 2025

by Bill Crowder

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

1 Timothy 1:12-20

  I’m so grateful to Christ Jesus for making me adequate to do this work. He went out on a limb, you know, in trusting me with this ministry. The only credentials I brought to it were invective and witch hunts and arrogance. But I was treated mercifully because I didn’t know what I was doing—didn’t know Who I was doing it against! Grace mixed with faith and love poured over me and into me. And all because of Jesus.

15–19  Here’s a word you can take to heart and depend on: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. I’m proof—Public Sinner Number One—of someone who could never have made it apart from sheer mercy. And now he shows me off—evidence of his endless patience—to those who are right on the edge of trusting him forever.

Deep honor and bright glory

to the King of All Time—

One God, Immortal, Invisible,

ever and always. Oh, yes!

I’m passing this work on to you, my son Timothy. The prophetic word that was directed to you prepared us for this. All those prayers are coming together now so you will do this well, fearless in your struggle, keeping a firm grip on your faith and on yourself. After all, this is a fight we’re in.

19–20  There are some, you know, who by relaxing their grip and thinking anything goes have made a thorough mess of their faith. Hymenaeus and Alexander are two of them. I let them wander off to Satan to be taught a lesson or two about not blaspheming.

Today's Insights

Paul left Timothy in Ephesus to work with the young and troubled church there. Although Timothy was to aid the church in its struggles against false teachers (1 Timothy 1:3-7), Paul instructs him that he also needed to grow in his own faith (vv. 18-20). He was to “fight the battle well” (v. 18), most commonly referring to spiritual warfare (see Ephesians 6:10-18); “[hold] on to the faith” (1 Timothy 1:19), referring to trust in Jesus (see Titus 1:1-3); and maintain “a good conscience” (1 Timothy 1:19), keeping his actions commendable (see Titus 3:14-15). The journey of discipleship is lifelong. Actively nurturing our relationship with God helps us grow strong in our faith and avoid spiritual shipwreck.

Growing Strong in God

Fight the battle well, holding on to faith and a good conscience. 1 Timothy 1:18-19

As a boy, I loved reading stories about pirates. How those adventures spurred my imagination! Now I live in an area where one of the most infamous of those pirates—Blackbeard (real name, Edward Teach)—had his headquarters. Shipwrecked in the waters off the coast here is Blackbeard’s ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge.

We can easily romanticize the wrecks and the high-sea adventures of history. The apostle Paul, however, wrote about a very different kind of shipwreck that provides us with a caution and an exhortation. In his first letter to Timothy, Paul warned his son in the faith to “[hold] on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith” (1 Timothy 1:19). What is this “shipwreck”? Two men, Hymenaeus and Alexander, had in some devastating way departed from the true faith, and the apostle turned them over to Satan “to be taught not to blaspheme” (v. 20). Paul desired them to repent, but the consequences of their actions were dire.

Our faith isn’t static, nor can it exist in a vacuum. We must actively nurture and cultivate our relationship with God to grow strong and healthy in faith and good conscience. May we join with other believers, yield to God’s Spirit, and allow Him to work in us. We can avoid shipwreck.

Reflect & Pray

How would you describe your relationship with Jesus? If you’ve drifted from Him, what’s the first move you can make back to Him?

Wise Father, may Your Spirit work in my heart to keep me close to You and growing in my faith.

For further study, read A Prayer for the Holy Spirit, written by Reclaim Today.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Friday, October 24, 2025

The Viewpoint

Thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession. — 2 Corinthians 2:14

For God’s workers, the viewpoint we have to maintain isn’t one that comes near the highest. It is the highest—the viewpoint of God himself. God’s viewpoint, according to Paul, is that we are here for a single purpose: to be “captives in Christ’s triumphal procession.”

Be careful to maintain God’s viewpoint rigorously, every day, minute by minute. Don’t think on the finite. God’s viewpoint is infinite and inviolable; no outside power can touch it. How small are other points of view in comparison! They always place the wrong thing at the center: “I am standing alone, battling for Jesus,” we say. Or, “I have to maintain the cause of Christ and hold this fort for him.” Paul knows who comes first. He says that he is in the procession of a conqueror, and that it doesn’t matter what the difficulties are. He knows that he is always led in triumph.

Is this idea being worked out practically in your life? Paul’s secret joy was that God took him—a red-handed rebel against Jesus Christ—and turned him into a captive. Once Paul belonged to God, he had no other interest; he was here for one thing and one thing only. It is shameful for a Christian to talk about winning a victory. We ought to belong so completely to the Victor that we know it’s his victory, all the time, that only through him are we “more than conquerors” (Romans 8:37). Once we’ve learned this, we become a wonderful refreshment to God, a delight to him wherever we go.

Jeremiah 3-5; 1 Timothy 4

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible.

Biblical Psychology

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Friday, October 24, 2025

It was supposed to be a one-hour fishing trip off the coast of South Carolina. For 17-year-old Josh and his 15-year-old friend Troy, it turned out to be a six-day nightmare at sea. When they set out on their little 14-foot Sunfish, they didn't know about the small craft warnings in the area. Within hours, the fierce winds had pulled them out to sea - to a point 111 miles north - well outside of the Coast Guard's search area. They fought to stay alive, eating raw jellyfish and gargling sea water. They were severely sunburned, exhausted and dehydrated.

After 48 hours, the Coast Guard announced they were suspending their search and moving from a rescue operation to a recovery operation. But there was this uncle who refused to concede the boys were dead. He's a police officer, so he thinks of rescue. After studying the weather and the currents, he concluded they might be as far as the area where they actually were found. He made sure that fishing vessels in the area were alerted to be looking for the boys. And as they were praying that God would either take them home or take them to heaven, some fishermen spotted them and saved them.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Love That Cannot Let You Go."

That's what that uncle had. When everyone else had given up hope of saving those boys, he was looking for a way to do it. He was a rescuer who refused to give up, who would not quit.

You have someone who loves you like that - someone who has refused to give up on rescuing you. You say, "Do I need rescuing?" We all do. Because we are paying the price for all the times we've done things our way instead of God's way - all the times we've broken God's laws, all the times we've pushed our Creator to the margins of our life.

Isaiah 53:6, our word for today from the Word of God, describes our lostness this way: "We all, like sheep, have gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6). We are paying the price in guilt, and stress, and loneliness, and the bitter consequences of our selfish mistakes. Worse yet, that's only a taste of the ultimate price we'll pay for drifting so far from our home port.

If we don't get rescued, we'll end up separated from God and His love forever. That's the penalty for spiritual hijacking - taking over a life that God was supposed to direct. So whether or not you realize the spiritual danger you're in, your only hope is still a rescuer. And there is one - only one. He does not want to leave you lost. Here's how He proved that. He found a way to bring you home, but it cost Him everything. Speaking of Jesus, that statement in Isaiah says, "The Lord has laid on Him the wrongdoing of us all." For Jesus, the road to rescue you led to a cross, and that is where He paid for your sin.

Jesus said He leaves the sheep that are already in to "go after the lost sheep." Could that be you today? He's come right to where you are to reach out His hand to you. When you grab His hand, when you grab Him as your only hope, you are rescued. You are headed for the home your heart's been missing your whole life.

But you've got to be willing to leave the course that has been taking you away from God and to depend totally on Jesus to make you clean and take you to heaven someday. This could be the day of your rescue. Would you say to Him, "Jesus, I've run my life long enough. I'm ready to turn that over to you. And my only hope of going to heaven, my only hope of ever having my sins forgiven is what you did on the cross and the fact that you are alive and walked out of your grave. I want to invite you to walk into my life this very day."

Our website is there for you at a point just like this. So you can be sure you have begun a relationship with Jesus. It's ANewStory.com.

See, Jesus really, really loves you. He doesn't want to lose you. He went all the way to a cross to bring you home. Now He's reaching for you to rescue you. Now, while you can, grab His hand.

Mark 16, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: TIME TO COME HOME - October 23, 2025

Satan wants you to look back, to obsess over past failures. Yet, the grace of Christ invites you to move forward, enter a new life. “His blood will make our consciences pure from useless acts so we may serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:14 NCV).

The disciples of Christ abandoned their Lord. They left him to carry his cross alone. What would have happened if they had lived in the past? We would not have their gospels, their influence, their teachings.

What about you? If you fail to move forward, who wins? What messages will go untaught? Words unsaid? People unloved? Organizations unled? Children unparented? Confess your struggle to God.  He will hear, and he will help. Help will come through a circle of good friends. Get smart, make some changes, time for a new start! It’s time to come home.

Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life

Mark 16

The Resurrection

1–3  16 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so they could embalm him. Very early on Sunday morning, as the sun rose, they went to the tomb. They worried out loud to each other, “Who will roll back the stone from the tomb for us?”

4–5  Then they looked up, saw that it had been rolled back—it was a huge stone—and walked right in. They saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed all in white. They were completely taken aback, astonished.

6–7  He said, “Don’t be afraid. I know you’re looking for Jesus the Nazarene, the One they nailed on the cross. He’s been raised up; he’s here no longer. You can see for yourselves that the place is empty. Now—on your way. Tell his disciples and Peter that he is going on ahead of you to Galilee. You’ll see him there, exactly as he said.”

8  They got out as fast as they could, beside themselves, their heads swimming. Stunned, they said nothing to anyone.

9–11  [After rising from the dead, Jesus appeared early on Sunday morning to Mary Magdalene, whom he had delivered from seven demons. She went to his former companions, now weeping and carrying on, and told them. When they heard her report that she had seen him alive and well, they didn’t believe her.

12–13  Later he appeared, but in a different form, to two of them out walking in the countryside. They went back and told the rest, but they weren’t believed either.

14–16  Still later, as the Eleven were eating supper, he appeared and took them to task most severely for their stubborn unbelief, refusing to believe those who had seen him raised up. Then he said, “Go into the world. Go everywhere and announce the Message of God’s good news to one and all. Whoever believes and is baptized is saved; whoever refuses to believe is damned.

17–18  “These are some of the signs that will accompany believers: They will throw out demons in my name, they will speak in new tongues, they will take snakes in their hands, they will drink poison and not be hurt, they will lay hands on the sick and make them well.”

19–20  Then the Master Jesus, after briefing them, was taken up to heaven, and he sat down beside God in the place of honor. And the disciples went everywhere preaching, the Master working right with them, validating the Message with indisputable evidence.]

Note: Mark 16:9–20 [the portion in brackets] is contained only in later manuscripts.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Thursday, October 23, 2025

by Leslie Koh

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Proverbs 27:17-27

Your Face Mirrors Your Heart

17  You use steel to sharpen steel,

and one friend sharpens another.

18  If you care for your orchard, you’ll enjoy its fruit;

if you honor your boss, you’ll be honored.

19  Just as water mirrors your face,

so your face mirrors your heart.

20  Hell has a voracious appetite,

and lust just never quits.

21  The purity of silver and gold is tested

by putting them in the fire;

The purity of human hearts is tested

by giving them a little fame.

22  Pound on a fool all you like—

you can’t pound out foolishness.

23–27  Know your sheep by name;

carefully attend to your flocks;

(Don’t take them for granted;

possessions don’t last forever, you know.)

And then, when the crops are in

and the harvest is stored in the barns,

You can knit sweaters from lambs’ wool,

and sell your goats for a profit;

There will be plenty of milk and meat

to last your family through the winter.

Today's Insights

Learning to view troubles and trials as instruments in God’s hand is an important key to our spiritual growth. His goal for us isn’t that we have an easy or pain-free life, but rather that we “be conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29). As fire purifies gold (Proverbs 17:3; 27:21), so the heat of trials can be God’s tool to purify us and make us more like Jesus. Christ’s half brother James affirms this in his letter: “The testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete” (James 1:3-4). Part of walking by faith is trusting that God doesn’t waste anything. We can be sure that when difficult times come, He has a purpose for those trials in refining and shaping us to become more like Jesus.

Sharpened by Iron

As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17

Louise, a project manager, regretted taking on the freelance job. Both the client and designer were testing her patience. Why is it so difficult? she wondered. Why can’t these people get it together?

Weeks later, as she read Proverbs 27, verse 17 stood out—“iron sharpens iron.” “You can’t file down rough edges with something soft, like silk,” she told her small group soon after. “You need something hard, like iron.”

Louise realized that the challenges in the project were smoothing down some rough edges of her own. She was learning to be more patient and humble, and to adapt to different working styles. God, she concluded, was using the project to expose her flaws and teach her new lessons about working with others.

Much of the book of Proverbs extols the value of godly wisdom, but this wisdom doesn’t come easily. It needs to be sought after with obedience and discernment (3:13; 13:20; 19:20), and refined in crucibles and furnaces, with mortars and pestles (27:21-22)—situations that may mean temporary pain and suffering.

Yet the Bible reminds us that challenges come with rewards: In seeking God’s wisdom diligently and obeying His ways, we’ll find true security, satisfaction, and blessing (vv. 26-27).

Reflect & Pray

What lessons can you learn from difficult situations you’re facing? How might God be refining and shaping you to be more like His Son, Jesus?

Loving Father, please grant me strength to endure my trials and a humble heart to learn from life’s challenges. Thank You for shaping and molding me each day.

Disover more about A Resilient Life.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Thursday, October 23, 2025

Not a Bit of It!

If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! — 2 Corinthians 5:17

Our Lord never nurses our prejudices; he destroys them. We imagine that God has a special interest in our personal preferences. We’re sure he’ll never deal with us as he does with others. We think, “Well, of course God has to handle those people in a very stern way, but he knows my prejudices are OK.” Not a bit of it! Instead of God being on the side of our prejudices, he is deliberately wiping them out. It’s part of our moral education to have our prejudices pierced straight through by his providence.

God wants only one thing from us: unconditional surrender. When we are born again, the Holy Spirit begins to work his new creation inside us, and a time will come when the old life will have gone entirely—the old sense of self-importance, the old attitudes and bigotries. Then we will be a “new creation,” knowing that “all this is from God” (2 Corinthians 5:17–18).

How are we to get this new life? The life that has no lust, no self-interest, no oversensitivity? How will we get the love that is not easily angered, that thinks no evil, that is always kind (1 Corinthians 13:4–6)? The only way is by allowing nothing of the old life to remain—only simple, perfect trust in God, such trust that we no longer want God’s blessings, only God himself. Have we come to the place where God can withdraw his blessings and it doesn’t shake our trust in him? Once we’ve seen God at work, we will never again worry ourselves about what happens. All our trust will be in our Father in heaven, whom the world cannot see.

Jeremiah 1-2; 1 Timothy 3

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

We are not fundamentally free; external circumstances are not in our hands, they are in God’s hands, the one thing in which we are free is in our personal relationship to God. We are not responsible for the circumstances we are in, but we are responsible for the way we allow those circumstances to affect us; we can either allow them to get on top of us, or we can allow them to transform us into what God wants us to be. 

Conformed to His Image, 354 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Thursday, October 23, 2025

LEAVING A TRAIL OF GIFTS - #10119

My wife was one of the most generous people I've ever known. We never had a whole lot to spend on gifts, but somehow she usually found a way to give them. Over the years God has blessed us with some friends who have been very generous with us. They have invited us to get away to their cabin or their cottage or their farm. I can remember occasions where I've been all packed and ready to go and anxious to leave, and my wife hadn't come out yet. I'd go back inside and I'd say, "Honey, what are you doing?" You know where she is? She's rummaging through her gift box or her gift closet, and she would say, "Wait a minute, Honey, I'm looking for a gift."

Sure enough she almost always left a gift behind for those friends. She found something of hers that she could give. I can't tell you how many times she did that for a dinner host, for a sick friend, for a new mom. She just left a gift in so many lives.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Leaving a Trail of Gifts."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Romans 1:11. Paul says to the Roman Christians, "I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong." Whoa! That reminds me of my Karen! "I want to be with you. And when I am, I'll leave you with a gift."

What kind of trail do you leave with the people you touch? It's exciting to live like Paul describes here, consciously asking as you're with a person, "Lord, what spiritual gift could I give him or her? How could I leave this person a little better off than they were before I was with them?" Whether you're on the phone or on the Internet with them, or you're in an appointment, or whether it's a casual contact on social medis, or it's with your mate, or your roommate, or your son or your daughter, or you parents, what kind of gift could I give them on this occasion? I want to impart to you, he said, "some spiritual gift."

Too often we look at it the other way, "What gift can they give me?" We go looking to them for some attention, or information, or affection. What connection does this person have that I could use? What promotion could they give me? What money could they give me? Well, this doesn't talk about living for you to impart to me. It's about me imparting to you.

Or maybe, you too often impart a gripe instead of a gift. There are some people who just tend to drop bad news or some burden on everybody they meet. You walk away and they are feeling down or suddenly heavier than before you were with them.

Because Jesus lives in you, people should feel richer after they have been with you. Do they? What gift could you give them? A word of encouragement maybe, or just to put your arm around them and pray with them if that would be appropriate right now, or a testimony of how God is at work in your life right now that might help them see how He can work in theirs. Maybe you could share with them just something you're thankful for that God has done for you, a God-sighting you've had today, or maybe some good news about a friend instead of bad news, a verse that came alive for you recently. Maybe just give them a chance to laugh when it's been mostly tears.

The gifts will differ with the person's need, but your mission - your attitude - should always be "What gift can I leave today?" I remember singing that song "Make me a blessing to someone today." Well, you will be a blessing if you approach folks as a giver and not a taker.

I've watched the blessing a person can leave because she was always looking for a gift to give. Why don't you try that as a lifestyle? I think you'll like it, and they'll love it.

Numbers 25, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: FROM SELF-RELIANCE TO GOD-RELIANCE - October 22, 2025

I do not know how to say this tactfully, so I won’t try: don’t listen to stupid people. And when it comes to sexuality, everyone is stupid but God. Don’t think you can lust and not get hurt or hurt someone else. At the same time, don’t underestimate God’s love. You have not out-sinned God’s grace. Move from self-reliance to God-reliance.

One of the greatest toys is the Etch-A-Sketch. Twist the two knobs and watch a figure appear. The genius of the device is not in the creating but in the erasing. Just shake the toy and you get a fresh start. In God’s hands, your heart is an Etch-A-Sketch. And he can do what you cannot do: he can wipe away the past.

Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life

Numbers 25

The Orgy at Shittim

1–3  25 While Israel was camped at Shittim (Acacia Grove), the men began to have sex with the Moabite women. It started when the women invited the men to their sex-and-religion worship. They ate together and then worshiped their gods. Israel ended up joining in the worship of the Baal of Peor. God was furious, his anger blazing out against Israel.

4  God said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of Israel and kill them by hanging, leaving them publicly exposed in order to turn God’s anger away from Israel.”

5  Moses issued orders to the judges of Israel: “Each of you must execute the men under your jurisdiction who joined in the worship of Baal Peor.”

6–9  Just then, while everyone was weeping in penitence at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, an Israelite man, flaunting his behavior in front of Moses and the whole assembly, paraded a Midianite woman into his family tent. Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw what he was doing, grabbed his spear, and followed them into the tent. With one thrust he drove the spear through the two of them, the man of Israel and the woman, right through their private parts. That stopped the plague from continuing among the People of Israel. But 24,000 had already died.

10–13  God spoke to Moses: “Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has stopped my anger against the People of Israel. Because he was as zealous for my honor as I myself am, I didn’t kill all the People of Israel in my zeal. So tell him that I am making a Covenant-of-Peace with him. He and his descendants are joined in a covenant of eternal priesthood, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the People of Israel.”

14–15  The name of the man of Israel who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, the head of the Simeonite family. And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi daughter of Zur, a tribal chief of a Midianite family.

16–18  God spoke to Moses: “From here on make the Midianites your enemies. Fight them tooth and nail. They turned out to be your enemies when they seduced you in the business of Peor and that woman Cozbi, daughter of a Midianite leader, the woman who was killed at the time of the plague in the matter of Peor.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Wednesday, October 22, 2025

by Monica La Rose

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Hebrews 2:7-15

You made them not quite as high as angels,

bright with Eden’s dawn light;

Then you put them in charge

of your entire handcrafted world.

When God put them in charge of everything, nothing was excluded. But we don’t see it yet, don’t see everything under human jurisdiction. What we do see is Jesus, made “not quite as high as angels,” and then, through the experience of death, crowned so much higher than any angel, with a glory “bright with Eden’s dawn light.” In that death, by God’s grace, he fully experienced death in every person’s place.

10–13  It makes good sense that the God who got everything started and keeps everything going now completes the work by making the Salvation Pioneer perfect through suffering as he leads all these people to glory. Since the One who saves and those who are saved have a common origin, Jesus doesn’t hesitate to treat them as family, saying,

I’ll tell my good friends, my brothers and sisters,

all I know about you;

I’ll join them in worship and praise to you.

Again, he puts himself in the same family circle when he says,

Even I live by placing my trust in God.

And yet again,

I’m here with the children God gave me.

14–15  Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death.

Today's Insights

Hebrews 2:6-8 references Psalm 8:4-6. In this psalm, David is in awe of God for creating and caring for creation, particularly people: “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” (v. 4). It likewise amazes the psalmist that God entrusted the creation into our care (vv. 5-8). The author of Hebrews references Psalm 8 to point to Jesus, who, by becoming a man, lowered Himself so that He could die for our sins (Hebrews 2:7, 9). He loves us that much—and understands all we’re going through!

God Understands

[Jesus] shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death.  Hebrews 2:14

In his Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, John Koenig offers a collection of new words, each invented to give a name to complicated feelings we previously lacked a word for. His book includes words like dés vu, “the awareness that this moment will become a memory,” and onism, “the frustration of being stuck in just one body, that inhabits only one place at one time.” Koenig says his mission is to shed light on all of the unique and strange experiences of being human, so that people can feel less alone in those experiences.

While we might not always be able to find a word for what we’re going through, believers in Jesus can take great comfort in knowing that God values and understands what it’s like to be human. He values people so much that He chose to entrust humanity with caring for creation (Hebrews 2:7-8). And because of Jesus, God understands completely what it’s like to live as a human. Christ is God made fully human, which means other believers are called Jesus’ “brothers and sisters” (v. 12).

Christ not only understands all our experiences and temptations (4:15) but He has also broken “the power of death” over our lives (2:14). Because of Him, our experiences need not cause us to feel afraid or alone. Instead, we can celebrate the gift of being human.

Reflect & Pray

What experiences do you sometimes struggle to find words for? How does it encourage you to know God understands and values your experience?

Dear God, thank You that You value being human and empathize with all that I experience.

Discover more by reading One of Us.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Wednesday, October 22, 2025

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

Much of the misery in our Christian life comes not because the devil tackles us, but because we have never understood the simple laws of our make-up. We have to treat the body as the servant of Jesus Christ: when the body says “Sit,” and He says “Go,” go! When the body says “Eat,” and He says “Fast,” fast! When the body says “Yawn,” and He says “Pray,” pray!

Biblical Ethics, 107 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Wednesday, October 22, 2025

TODAY'S BATTLES, YESTERDAY'S WEAPONS - #10118

Look, whether you're a Yankee or a Confederate at heart, you don't take much joy in what happened at what is called the "High Water Mark of the Confederacy." If you're a Civil War buff, you know that's where the Union Army turned back Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg. Some 15,000 Confederate soldiers marched courageously across a field in a very tightly-packed formation, advancing on 40,000 Union soldiers. Only 150 of those Southern soldiers made it. General Lee had made an honest but tragic mistake. See, he'd been trained at West Point in Napoleon's war tactics - masses of men, advancing against imprecise, short-range weapons until they could overwhelm the opposing troops in hand-to-hand combat. Unfortunately, things had changed since that kind of strategy had won battles for Napoleon. Recent technology of that time had greatly improved the range and the accuracy of the rifles that the Union Army was using, which meant those masses of men were brought down long before they could ever reach enemy lines.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Today's Battles, Yesterday's Weapons."

Robert E. Lee, the great general that he was, made the fatal mistake of fighting today's battles with what used to work. You know, a lot of us are still making that fatal mistake when it comes to fighting the battle for which Jesus gave His life - turning people from the death penalty of their sin to the eternal life that only Jesus can give them. When we lose that battle, a soul is lost forever.

The message that Jesus died for our sin and came back from the dead to be our living Savior: that message, wow, that never changes. The Good News about Jesus always has been and it always will be the unchanging (in God's words) "power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16). That message is always relevant, it's always powerful, it's never to be tampered with or watered down, or compromised.

But the methods by which we present His message are always subject to change. And, frankly, many of us haven't changed our methods for a long time. We're still trying to reach people with what used to work. But today's lost people? They don't know the Bible, they don't understand our "Christianese" words we use to explain what Jesus did, they don't ever plan to come to our religious meeting to hear our religious speaker talk on a religious subject in a religious place, which describes a lot of the ways we try to reach them.

The Apostle Paul, who never compromised his message, of course, was the same one who said in 1 Corinthians 9:22, our word for today from the Word of God, "I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some." In terms of method, Paul tells us you have to be willing to do whatever it takes, within Biblical boundaries, to rescue the dying.

Which today may mean going to where they are instead of counting on them to come where we are, doing outreach in places where they feel comfortable - neutral ground - instead of where we feel comfortable in our religious setting, communicating Christ in non-religious words that a lost person can understand. Delivering the message in music that is their musical language instead of ours, realizing it's going to be the everyday believer like you that we'll have to depend on to rescue the lost more than those programs we've created. See, the program of God for rescuing the dying is the people of God.

If we insist on fighting today's battle for the lost with what worked yesterday, we'll keep on reaching who we've already been reaching, while most of the spiritually dying people around us will live and die without God and without hope. We can't lose them because we insist on doing what we've always done, sticking to what we're comfortable with.

The eternity of people all around us is at stake - this is a battle that is too costly to lose.

Numbers 24, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: RUN TOWARD GOD - October 21, 2025

Romans 6:13 (NCV) reads, “Do not offer the parts of your body to serve sin, as things to be used in doing evil…Offer the parts of your body to God to be used in doing good.”

When temptation strikes, immediately initiate the Uproot and Replant strategy.  Go nuclear on the immoral. Yank lust like a dentist yanks a rotten tooth—pull it out by the roots. Lay claim to scriptures like this one: “God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear” (1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV).

Meditate on Christ. Running toward him is the easiest way to run from sin. We keep wrong thoughts out by keeping the right thoughts in. Ponder heaven. Memorize verses. Write psalms. Listen to Christian worship music. In running toward God, you are running from sin, and the run is so much more enjoyable.

Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life

Numbers 24

By now Balaam realized that God wanted to bless Israel. So he didn’t work in any sorcery as he had done earlier. He turned and looked out over the wilderness. As Balaam looked, he saw Israel camped tribe by tribe. The Spirit of God came on him, and he spoke his oracle-message:

3–9  Decree of Balaam son of Beor,

yes, decree of a man with 20/20 vision;

Decree of a man who hears God speak,

who sees what The Strong God shows him,

Who falls on his face in worship,

who sees what’s really going on.

What beautiful tents, Jacob,

oh, your homes, Israel!

Like valleys stretching out in the distance,

like gardens planted by rivers,

Like sweet herbs planted by the gardener God,

like red cedars by pools and springs,

Their buckets will brim with water,

their seed will spread life everywhere.

Their king will tower over Agag and his ilk,

their kingdom surpassingly majestic.

God brought them out of Egypt,

rampaging like a wild ox,

Gulping enemies like morsels of meat,

crushing their bones, snapping their arrows.

Israel crouches like a lion and naps,

king-of-the-beasts—who dares disturb him?

Whoever blesses you is blessed,

whoever curses you is cursed.

10–11  Balak lost his temper with Balaam. He shook his fist. He said to Balaam: “I got you in here to curse my enemies and what have you done? Blessed them! Blessed them three times! Get out of here! Go home! I told you I would pay you well, but you’re getting nothing. You can blame God.”

12–15  Balaam said to Balak, “Didn’t I tell you up front when you sent your emissaries, ‘Even if Balak gave me his palace stuffed with silver and gold, I couldn’t do anything on my own, whether good or bad, that went against God’s command’? I’m leaving for home and my people, but I warn you of what this people will do to your people in the days to come.” Then he spoke his oracle-message:

15–19  Decree of Balaam son of Beor,

decree of the man with 20/20 vision,

Decree of the man who hears godly speech,

who knows what’s going on with the High God,

Who sees what The Strong God reveals,

who bows in worship and sees what’s real.

I see him, but not right now,

I perceive him, but not right here;

A star rises from Jacob

a scepter from Israel,

Crushing the heads of Moab,

the skulls of all the noisy windbags;

I see Edom sold off at auction,

enemy Seir marked down at the flea market,

while Israel walks off with the trophies.

A ruler is coming from Jacob

who’ll destroy what’s left in the city.

20  Then Balaam spotted Amalek and delivered an oracle-message. He said,

Amalek, you’re in first place among nations right now,

but you’re going to come in last, ruined.

21–22  He saw the Kenites and delivered his oracle-message to them:

Your home is in a nice secure place,

like a nest high on the face of a cliff.

Still, you Kenites will look stupid

when Asshur takes you prisoner.

23–24  Balaam spoke his final oracle-message:

Doom! Who stands a chance

when God starts in?

Sea-Peoples, raiders from across the sea,

will harass Asshur and Eber,

But they’ll also come to nothing,

just like all the rest.

25  Balaam got up and went home. Balak also went on his way.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Tuesday, October 21, 2025

by 

Jennifer Benson Schuldt

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Mark 4:35-41

The Wind Ran Out of Breath

35–38  Late that day he said to them, “Let’s go across to the other side.” They took him in the boat as he was. Other boats came along. A huge storm came up. Waves poured into the boat, threatening to sink it. And Jesus was in the stern, head on a pillow, sleeping! They roused him, saying, “Teacher, is it nothing to you that we’re going down?”

39–40  Awake now, he told the wind to pipe down and said to the sea, “Quiet! Settle down!” The wind ran out of breath; the sea became smooth as glass. Jesus reprimanded the disciples: “Why are you such cowards? Don’t you have any faith at all?”

41  They were in absolute awe, staggered. “Who is this, anyway?” they asked. “Wind and sea at his beck and call!”

Today's Insights

The story of Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4:35-41 is the first in a series of four miracles in chapters 4-5 that demonstrate Christ’s power. In stilling the sea, He demonstrates His power over the chaos of nature. The disciples ask, “Don’t you care if we drown?” (4:38). Jesus’ calming of the storm is a concession to their doubt (v. 40). 

But the next three miracles show that Christ does, indeed, care for the plight of the hurting, the desperate, and the grieving. He demonstrates His authority over demons (5:1-20), over illness (vv. 21-34), and over death itself (vv. 35-43). He expends His power not to gain influence or fame but to serve those who are suffering. Jesus’ miracles point to a future where, one day, fear and pain will completely disappear. When we face difficulties and trials today, we can trust His same power and presence to help us.

Calming the Storm

Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? Mark 4:40

My three-year-old niece is beginning to understand that she can trust Jesus in any situation. One night as she prayed before bedtime during a thunderstorm, she pressed her hands together, closed her eyes, and said, “Dear Jesus, I know You’re here with us. I know You love us. And I know that the storm will stop when You tell it to stop.”

I suspect she had recently heard the story of Jesus and the disciples as they crossed the Sea of Galilee. It’s the one where Jesus fell asleep in the back of the boat just before a squall nearly capsized the vessel. The disciples woke Him and said, “Don’t you care if we drown?” Jesus didn’t speak to them but instead addressed the natural world: “Quiet! Be still!” (Mark 4:38-39).

Immediately the water stopped splashing into the boat. The howling wind subsided. There in the silence, Jesus looked at His followers and said, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (v. 40). I imagine their wide eyes staring back at Him as water coursed down their faces and dripped from their beards.

What if we could live today with the awe the disciples felt in that moment? What if we could view every concern with a fresh awareness of Jesus’ authority and power? Maybe then our childlike faith would chase away our fear. Maybe then we would believe that each storm we face is at His mercy.

Reflect & Pray

What are the barriers to faith in your life? How can you recapture a sense of wonder of Jesus?

Dear Jesus, please increase my faith as I meditate on Your power and presence. 

Check out this video on The Compassion of Jesus.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Tuesday, October 21, 2025

Impulse

Building yourselves up in your most holy faith . . . — Jude 1:20

There was nothing impulsive and nothing cold-blooded about our Lord, just a calm strength that never got into a panic. Most of us develop our Christianity along the line of our own impulses rather than along the line of God. Impulsiveness is a natural human trait, but our Lord always ignores it, because it hinders the development of the life of a disciple.

Watch how the Spirit of God checks our impulses. His checks bring a rush of self-consciousness that instantly makes us want to vindicate ourselves. Impulsiveness is fine in a child but disastrous in a man or a woman; an impulsive adult is always a petulant adult. Impulsiveness has to be trained into intuition by discipline.

Discipleship has no impulsiveness in it; it is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God. Walking on water is easy in an impulsive burst of courage, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is a different thing. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus (Matthew 14:29)—but he also walked far with Jesus on the land. We don’t need the supernatural grace of God in order to weather crises; human nature and pride are sufficient for that. But we do need his grace in order to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, to go through drudgery as a child of God, to live an ordinary, unobserved, ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus Christ. We think that we have to do exceptional things for God, but this isn’t true. We have to be exceptional in ordinary things, to be holy in mean streets, and this isn’t learned in five minutes.

Isaiah 62-64; 1 Timothy 1

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Beware of bartering the Word of God for a more suitable conception of your own. 

Disciples Indeed, 386 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Tuesday, October 21, 2025

NO DIRT IN THE THRONE ROOM - #10117

It's a nice deal when your auto mechanic is also your good friend. And I've had that opportunity. What I've really appreciated about my friend, the auto mechanic, was the fact that he worked long, hard, and professionally.

However, it was unfortunate that when I stopped by his station, I was usually all dressed up on my way somewhere. Now, instinctively, what would we do with a friend? We'd extend our hands to shake. Well, we would immediately hesitate and both of us would look at the layers of grease on his hand and then we'd look at my suit and my white shirt and my clean hands. Yeah, pretty boy over here. I didn't have any time to clean up, and he would say, "We'd better not." Now, I'd love to shake hands with my buddy, but it just might be a problem. It's actually best to get the dirt off your hand before you reach for a really clean one.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Dirt In the Throne Room."

Our word for today from the Word of God is from 1 Timothy 2:8. Guess what it's about? Hands. "I want men everywhere," Paul says, "to lift up holy hands in prayer without anger or disputing." Now, we could probably get into a little debate on that most cosmic theological issue of all, "Should we pray with upraised hands?" You say, "Ron, I pray with my hands in my pocket." Well, listen, I'm not going to get into that. There's a much larger point that Paul is making here.

Whether you lift up your hands to God literally or symbolically to offer praise to the Lord, to get something you need from the Lord, the bigger issue is this: What kind of hands are you lifting up? He says here, "Lift up holy hands to the Lord." Make sure your hands are clean before you reach up for a holy God.

The failure to do that? Well, that just might explain why God hasn't reached back toward you yet with the answer you've been seeking. You've praised Him. You've petitioned Him over and over again, but you haven't heard anything back. Could it be that you haven't cleaned up a part of you that in His eyes is giving you unholy hands? See, a sinless God cannot bless your sin. He can't respond to sin.

And so if you could hear His voice, He might be saying, "I see you reaching for Me, and I've got something I want to give you, but what's that in your hand? See, I can't have that." So, before you reach out to God, review the last 24 hours. Where did you get some dirt on your spiritual hands? You might need to look at the last hour. Has there been some dishonesty, you've told something less than the truth? Did you display a little less than total integrity? Have there been impure thoughts, impure motives? Have you hurt someone in these last hours? Have you neglected someone?

Whatever the dirt, deal with the dirt first. In fact, this scripture talks about anger and disputing. It suggests that maybe what we need to take care of is some broken relationships before we ever lift up our hands, so our hands will be holy. The Bible says, "If you have something against your brother, or your brother has something against you, leave the altar. Leave your sacrifice there and go and make it right with him." David said, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." Now there are many reasons we may not have heard an answer to prayer but this one we need to check out in our own heart: Is it because of dirty hands to receive the request? There's so much He wants to do for you, so much He has to bless you with. But He can't hand it to you while your hands are dirty with sin.

Whether you reach for God literally or symbolically, would you be sure your hand is emptied of anything sinful. If you want God to put His hand in yours, be sure you're not offering Him a dirty hand.

Numbers 23, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE DEVASTATION OF SIN - October 20, 2025

Don’t think for a second that lust has no consequences. And don’t think for a second that the consequences won’t lead to scandal. A secret sin never remains secret. Lust will take you further than you wanted to go, keep you longer than you wanted to stay, and cost you more than you ever intended to pay. Envision the worst possible outcome of infidelity and be assured, Satan is plotting to deliver it.

Even after you have turned away from lust, the filth lingers in your system. And long after the sin is forgiven, the soot of the sin lingers. And long after alcoholism is forgiven, the thirst lingers. Long after the embezzlement is forgiven, employment opportunities are rare. Long after the affair is over, the embarrassment hovers. Even the psalmist wrote: “Even my bones are not healthy because of my sin” (Psalm 38:3 NCV).

Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life

Numbers 23

Balaam said, “Build me seven altars here, and then prepare seven bulls and seven rams.”

2  Balak did it. Then Balaam and Balak sacrificed a bull and a ram on each of the altars.

3  Balaam instructed Balak: “Stand watch here beside your Whole-Burnt-Offering while I go off by myself. Maybe God will come and meet with me. Whatever he shows or tells me, I’ll report to you.” Then he went off by himself.

4  God did meet with Balaam. Balaam said, “I’ve set up seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.”

5  Then God gave Balaam a message: “Return to Balak and give him this message.”

6–10  He went back and found him stationed beside his Whole-Burnt-Offering and with him all the nobles of Moab. Then Balaam spoke his message-oracle:

Balak led me here from Aram,

the king of Moab all the way from the eastern mountains.

“Go, curse Jacob for me;

go, damn Israel.”

How can I curse whom God has not cursed?

How can I damn whom God has not damned?

From rock pinnacles I see them,

from hilltops I survey them:

Look! a people camping off by themselves,

thinking themselves outsiders among nations.

But who could ever count the dust of Jacob

or take a census of cloud-of-dust Israel?

I want to die like these right-living people!

I want an end just like theirs!

11  Balak said to Balaam, “What’s this? I brought you here to curse my enemies, and all you’ve done is bless them.”

12  Balaam answered, “Don’t I have to be careful to say what God gives me to say?”

13  Balak said to him, “Go with me to another place from which you can only see the outskirts of their camp—you won’t be able to see the whole camp. From there, curse them for my sake.”

14  So he took him to Watchmen’s Meadow at the top of Pisgah. He built seven altars there and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

15  Balaam said to Balak, “Take up your station here beside your Whole-Burnt-Offering while I meet with him over there.”

16  God met with Balaam and gave him a message. He said, “Return to Balak and give him the message.”

17–24  Balaam returned and found him stationed beside his Whole-Burnt-Offering and the nobles of Moab with him. Balak said to him, “What did God say?” Then Balaam spoke his message-oracle:

On your feet, Balak. Listen,

listen carefully son of Zippor:

God is not man, one given to lies,

and not a son of man changing his mind.

Does he speak and not do what he says?

Does he promise and not come through?

I was brought here to bless;

and now he’s blessed—how can I change that?

He has no bone to pick with Jacob,

he sees nothing wrong with Israel.

God is with them,

and they’re with him, shouting praises to their King.

God brought them out of Egypt,

rampaging like a wild ox.

No magic spells can bind Jacob,

no incantations can hold back Israel.

People will look at Jacob and Israel and say,

“What a great thing has God done!”

Look, a people rising to its feet, stretching like a lion,

a king-of-the-beasts, aroused,

Unsleeping, unresting until its hunt is over

and it’s eaten and drunk its fill.

25  Balak said to Balaam, “Well, if you can’t curse them, at least don’t bless them.”

26  Balaam replied to Balak, “Didn’t I tell you earlier: ‘All God speaks, and only what he speaks, I speak’?”

27–28  Balak said to Balaam, “Please, let me take you to another place; maybe we can find the right place in God’s eyes where you’ll be able to curse them for me.” So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, with a vista over the Jeshimon (Wasteland).

29  Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for sacrifice.”

30  Balak did it and presented an offering of a bull and a ram on each of the altars.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Monday, October 20, 2025

by James Banks

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Jonah 4:5-11

But Jonah just left. He went out of the city to the east and sat down in a sulk. He put together a makeshift shelter of leafy branches and sat there in the shade to see what would happen to the city.

6  God arranged for a broad-leafed tree to spring up. It grew over Jonah to cool him off and get him out of his angry sulk. Jonah was pleased and enjoyed the shade. Life was looking up.

7–8  But then God sent a worm. By dawn of the next day, the worm had bored into the shade tree and it withered away. The sun came up and God sent a hot, blistering wind from the east. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head and he started to faint. He prayed to die: “I’m better off dead!”

9  Then God said to Jonah, “What right do you have to get angry about this shade tree?”

Jonah said, “Plenty of right. It’s made me angry enough to die!”

10–11  God said, “What’s this? How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planted nor watered it. It grew up one night and died the next night. So, why can’t I likewise change what I feel about Nineveh from anger to pleasure, this big city of more than 120,000 childlike people who don’t yet know right from wrong, to say nothing of all the innocent animals?”

Today's Insights

Jonah 4 shows just how hardened the prophet’s heart had become. While it’s true that the people of Nineveh were far from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we see that Jonah himself was also very far from God’s heart. Having been God’s instrument to bring about a national revival in Nineveh (3:5-10), Jonah was angry at Him for rescuing his enemies. God’s love for Nineveh could’ve been a learning opportunity for him, but his heart was so filled with hate that all he could feel was his own rage. Still God loved and cared for the prophet (4:6), just as He loves and cares for us in spite of our hardened hearts.

Great Enough to Care

The Lord said, . . . “Should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh?” Jonah 4:10-11

How could God possibly care about all these people? The thought hit me as I stepped off a busy train platform in a crowded city, thousands of miles from home. I was a teenager traveling abroad for the first time, and I was overwhelmed by the size of the world around me. I felt small by comparison and wondered how God could love so many people.

I had yet to understand the broad reach of God’s perfect love. In Scripture, the prophet Jonah couldn’t fathom this either. When Jonah finally obeyed God’s call to preach repentance to the city of Nineveh, the capital of the brutal Assyrian Empire that had oppressed his native Israel, he didn’t want God to forgive them. But the city did repent, and when God didn’t destroy them, Jonah was angry. God provided shelter for Jonah through a fast-growing plant but then took his shade away, which angered him all the more. Jonah complained, but God responded, “You have been concerned about this plant . . . . And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people?” (Jonah 4:10-11).

God’s so great that He’s able to care deeply for those who are far from Him. His love goes to the lengths of the cross and empty tomb of Jesus to meet our ultimate need. His greatness manifests itself in goodness, and He longs to draw us near.

Reflect & Pray

How does it comfort you to know God cares for you? How will you respond to His love?

Loving God, thank You for coming to save me. Please help me to love others like You do.

For further study, read The Pouting Prophet.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Monday, October 20, 2025

Is God’s Will My Will?

It is God’s will that you should be sanctified. — 1 Thessalonians 4:3

My sanctification isn’t a question of whether God is willing to sanctify me. The question is, Am I willing? Am I willing to let God do in me all that has been made possible by the atonement? Am I willing to let the life of Jesus Christ manifest itself in my mortal flesh?

Beware of saying, “I’m longing to be sanctified.” Stop longing and treat it as a transaction, a simple matter of asking and receiving. Ask God for the Holy Spirit on the basis of Luke 11:13: “How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Then, in implicit faith, receive Jesus Christ to be made sanctification to you, and the great marvel of the atonement will be made real in you.

All that Jesus Christ made possible is mine because of one thing and one thing only: the free, loving gift of God. My attitude as a saved and sanctified soul must be one of profound, humble holiness. (There’s no such thing as proud holiness.) I recognize what Jesus has done for me with agonizing repentance and a sense of unspeakable shame and degradation. I have the amazing realization that even when I cared nothing for God, his love for me was so great that he completed everything for my salvation and sanctification.

No wonder Paul says that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39). Sanctification makes me one with Jesus Christ, and in him one with God. This is done only through the atonement of Christ, which is the cause of my holiness. Never confuse the cause and the effect. My holiness and obedience and service and prayer are all effects—the outcome of speechless thanks and adoration for the sanctification worked in me by the atonement.

Isaiah 59-61; 2 Thessalonians 3

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

Monday, October 20, 2025

THE UGLY BENEATH THE BEAUTIFUL - #10116

Our friends John and Marie have a lovely family area in their home that they call the Great Room. And it really is a great room - big fireplace, lots of comfortable couch and chairs, tastefully decorated. It's just one of those rooms that people are drawn into like a magnet, and you don't want to leave. And on the wall near the fireplace, a beautiful painting. That's new. See, it hasn't always been there...until the wall cracked. Now, they tell me it was some kind of water damage, but it has left a really ugly hole in the wall. But who would know? It's covered up with this lovely painting!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Ugly Beneath the Beautiful."

Now, it's true that no one can see the ugly spot. It's successfully covered up by something beautiful. It keeps anyone from knowing about the ugly, but not even a Rembrandt can repair that damage!

Most of us have something ugly that we would just as soon not have anyone see. There's ugly stuff in our past, in our heart, in the closets of our life. The secrets we don't want anyone to know about - the dark side we try to conceal: those weaknesses, those failures, the mistakes that betray the wonderful view that we portray to the world.

See, we cover the ugly with a great personality, or with religious activity, or spirituality, with our image, with good things we do. But no matter how impressive what we hang on the wall is, the damage - the holes inside - they're still there. God says that one day, all the cover-ups are going to come off the wall, and we will be judged on the basis of the ugly on the inside, not the beauty on the outside.

That's our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 2:16. It talks about "the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ." That's the junk we've successfully concealed from others, maybe even those closest to us. But it's totally known to God. And until the sin inside is removed - not just covered up - we are in the danger zone with the One who will judge us based on His knowledge of every secret.

In the next chapter in the Bible, God tells us that no one is exempt from the reality of a sinful heart or of the consequences of a self-run life. He says, "All have sinned," even the most religious person among us. It says, "and they fall short of the glory of God." There is no way we can make it into God's heaven with this sin we all carry inside, no matter how much religion we cover it with. It sounds pretty hopeless until you read on.

Yes, we've all missed it with God, but it goes on to say, "we are justified" (that means made right with God) "justified freely by His grace through the redemption" (or the rescue) "that came by Christ Jesus." God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood. Now, we couldn't do anything to fix our sin problem, but God, who is the One we've sinned against, reached out in love by sending His Son to die our death penalty - to remove the stain of the sin that has haunted us and condemned us for so long.

And today, God's waiting to go deep inside you where all that sin is, and all the guilt and the shame, the secrets, and clean it all up. He wants to forgive it all. He wants to repair what you could never repair. He wants to change what you could never change and cleanse what you could never cleanse. And it happens when you tell Jesus that you are trusting Him to be your rescuer from your sin, because only the One who died for your sin can forgive your sin.

This could be your day to be something better than religious. You could be forgiven. You could be clean. If you want that, go to the One that can do it. Tell Him, "Jesus, you're my only hope of my sin being erased and being in heaven some day. I am yours beginning today."

Our website will help you, so much, to know that you belong to Him and get you started with Him. Please go there today. It's ANewStory.com.

There's nothing like the freedom, the relief, of knowing that the sin of a lifetime is gone - not concealed, but gone.

Mark 15:26-47, bible reading and devotionals.

MaxLucado.com: What Are You Looking For?

Jesus said:

“I am the bread that gives life.”

“I am the resurrection and the life.”

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

“I will come back and take you with me.”

Jesus, ever proclaiming– ever offering, but never forcing!   It’s His voice.  But, it’s our choice.

Near the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus said, “Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.  Martha, do you believe this?” (John 11:26)

The first time John hears Jesus speak, Jesus asks the question, “What are you looking for?”  (John 1:38)

The honest questions.  The thundering claims.  The gentle touch.  God will whisper.  God will shout.  God will touch and tug.  God will take away our burdens; he’ll even take away our blessings.  If there are a thousand steps between us and Him, he will take all but one.  But he will leave the final one for us.

The choice is ours.

From A Gentle Thunder

Mark 15:26-47

The charge against him—the king of the jews—was printed on a poster. Along with him, they crucified two criminals, one to his right, the other to his left. People passing along the road jeered, shaking their heads in mock lament: “You bragged that you could tear down the Temple and then rebuild it in three days—so show us your stuff! Save yourself! If you’re really God’s Son, come down from that cross!”

31–32  The high priests, along with the religion scholars, were right there mixing it up with the rest of them, having a great time poking fun at him: “He saved others—but he can’t save himself! Messiah, is he? King of Israel? Then let him climb down from that cross. We’ll all become believers then!” Even the men crucified alongside him joined in the mockery.

33–34  At noon the sky became extremely dark. The darkness lasted three hours. At three o’clock, Jesus groaned out of the depths, crying loudly, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

35–36  Some of the bystanders who heard him said, “Listen, he’s calling for Elijah.” Someone ran off, soaked a sponge in sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down.”

37–39  But Jesus, with a loud cry, gave his last breath. At that moment the Temple curtain ripped right down the middle. When the Roman captain standing guard in front of him saw that he had quit breathing, he said, “This has to be the Son of God!”

Taken to a Tomb

40–41  There were women watching from a distance, among them Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of the younger James and Joses, and Salome. When Jesus was in Galilee, these women followed and served him, and had come up with him to Jerusalem.

42–45  Late in the afternoon, since it was the Day of Preparation (that is, Sabbath eve), Joseph of Arimathea, a highly respected member of the Jewish Council, came. He was one who lived expectantly, on the lookout for the kingdom of God. Working up his courage, he went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. Pilate questioned whether he could be dead that soon and called for the captain to verify that he was really dead. Assured by the captain, he gave Joseph the corpse.

46–47  Having already purchased a linen shroud, Joseph took him down, wrapped him in the shroud, placed him in a tomb that had been cut into the rock, and rolled a large stone across the opening. Mary Magdalene and Mary, mother of Joses, watched the burial.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Sunday, October 19, 2025

by Katara Patton

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

1 Peter 5:6-9

So be content with who you are, and don’t put on airs. God’s strong hand is on you; he’ll promote you at the right time. Live carefree before God; he is most careful with you.

He Gets the Last Word

8–11  Keep a cool head. Stay alert. The Devil is poised to pounce, and would like nothing better than to catch you napping. Keep your guard up. You’re not the only ones plunged into these hard times. It’s the same with Christians all over the world. So keep a firm grip on the faith.

Today's Insights

Giving our worries to God acknowledges His sovereign and loving care for us (1 Peter 5:7). Jesus devoted a portion of His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) to the topic of worry (6:25-34). He specifically told His listeners not to worry about their life—including food and clothing—but instead to observe birds and flowers and see how lovingly God provides for them. Noting His care for them, we better understand His love and care for us, for we are much more valuable than birds (v. 26)! Christ said, “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (v. 27). Instead, we’re invited to focus on God—who’s so much bigger and greater than we are—and entrust our concerns to His loving care (vv. 33-34; 1 Peter 5:7).

Casting Cares

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7

I walked to the airline kiosk to check in using the confirmation number stored in my cell phone. But my phone was missing! I’d left it behind in the car that had dropped me off. So how could I contact the ride-hailing driver who’d dropped me off?

As I scrambled to connect my laptop to the airport’s Wi-Fi, I worried it was too late. Utilizing an app, my husband noticed my phone wasn’t with me at the airport and had already sent me an email—waiting for me as soon as I connected to the Wi-Fi. His email said, “Send me the car service’s number and I’ll take care of it.” My husband had jumped in to take care of things—giving me an immediate sense of peace.

This is part of the peace I believe God wants us to enjoy in the relationship we can experience with Him through Christ. First Peter 5:7 reminds us to “cast all [our] anxiety on him because he cares for [us].” This verse says that God wants to take on our worries and concerns. Why? Because He cares that much for us. We can give our cares to God rather than allowing them to swim around in our heads as we try to figure things out.

Casting our anxiety on God is a form of humility that acknowledges that He’s much more capable of handling our concerns than we are (v. 6). Although something may pop up to cause us to suffer (v. 10), we can rest in His care and provision.

Reflect & Pray

What do you need to cast on God? How does it encourage you to know He cares for you?

Gracious God, thank You for allowing me to place my worries and concerns in Your faithful hands.

For further study, check out Experiencing God's Peace by Reclaim Today.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Sunday, October 19, 2025

The Unheeded Secret

My kingdom is not of this world. — John 18:36

Today, a great enemy of Jesus Christ is the idea we have of practical work. This idea doesn’t come from the New Testament but rather from systems of the world in which endless energy and activity are insisted upon, but no private life with God. The emphasis is placed on the wrong thing. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21 kjv); it is hidden and obscure. Too often Christian workers live in the shop window. They’ve forgotten that it is the innermost of the innermost that reveals the power of the disciple’s life.

We have to rid ourselves of the spirit of the religious age we live in. As disciples, our lives are supposed to resemble our Master’s life; in his life, there was none of the stress and rush of tremendous activity that are regarded so highly today. The cornerstone of the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a personal relationship to him, not public usefulness to other people. Rather than wasting our time in activity, we should be soaking in the great fundamental truths of his redemption.

If we don’t get into the habit of soaking in God’s truths, we will snap when the strain comes—and it will come. None of us has any idea where God is going to put us nor any knowledge of what kinds of difficulty we will face. But if we’ve prepared ourselves beforehand by getting rooted and grounded in God, we will remain true to him whatever happens.

Isaiah 56-58; 2 Thessalonians 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

Numbers 22, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: He is Preparing a Place

God's purpose from all eternity is to prepare a family to indwell the kingdom of God. "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11).

God's plotting for our good. In all the setbacks, He is ordaining the best for our future. Every event of our day is designed to draw us toward our God and our destiny. When people junk you in the pit, God can use it for good. When family members sell you out, God will recycle the pain. Falsely accused?  Utterly abandoned?  You may stumble but you will not fall.  You will get through this!

Not because you are strong, but because God is. Not because you are big, but because God is. Not because you're good, but because God is. He has a place prepared for you!

From You'll Get Through This

Numbers 22

Balaam

1  22 The People of Israel marched on and camped on the Plains of Moab at Jordan-Jericho.

2–3  Balak son of Zippor learned of all that Israel had done to the Amorites. The people of Moab were in a total panic because of Israel. There were so many of them! They were terrorized.

4–5  Moab spoke to the leaders of Midian: “Look, this mob is going to clean us out—a bunch of crows picking a carcass clean.”

Balak son of Zippor, who was king of Moab at that time, sent emissaries to get Balaam son of Beor, who lived at Pethor on the banks of the Euphrates River, his homeland.

5–6  Balak’s emissaries said, “Look. A people has come up out of Egypt, and they’re all over the place! And they’re pressing hard on me. Come and curse them for me—they’re too much for me. Maybe then I can beat them; we’ll attack and drive them out of the country. You have a reputation: Those you bless stay blessed; those you curse stay cursed.”

7–8  The leaders of Moab and Midian were soon on their way, with the fee for the cursing tucked safely in their wallets. When they got to Balaam, they gave him Balak’s message.

“Stay here for the night,” Balaam said. “In the morning I’ll deliver the answer that God gives me.”

The Moabite nobles stayed with him.

9  Then God came to Balaam. He asked, “So who are these men here with you?”

10–11  Balaam answered, “Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, sent them with a message: ‘Look, the people that came up out of Egypt are all over the place! Come and curse them for me. Maybe then I’ll be able to attack and drive them out of the country.’ ”

12  God said to Balaam, “Don’t go with them. And don’t curse the others—they are a blessed people.”

13  The next morning Balaam got up and told Balak’s nobles, “Go back home; God refuses to give me permission to go with you.”

14  So the Moabite nobles left, came back to Balak, and said, “Balaam wouldn’t come with us.”

15–17  Balak sent another group of nobles, higher ranking and more distinguished. They came to Balaam and said, “Balak son of Zippor says, ‘Please, don’t refuse to come to me. I will honor and reward you lavishly—anything you tell me to do, I’ll do; I’ll pay anything—only come and curse this people.’ ”

18–19  Balaam answered Balak’s servants: “Even if Balak gave me his house stuffed with silver and gold, I wouldn’t be able to defy the orders of my God to do anything, whether big or little. But come along and stay with me tonight as the others did; I’ll see what God will say to me this time.”

20  God came to Balaam that night and said, “Since these men have come all this way to see you, go ahead and go with them. But make sure you do absolutely nothing other than what I tell you.”

21–23  Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went off with the noblemen from Moab. As he was going, though, God’s anger flared. The angel of God stood in the road to block his way. Balaam was riding his donkey, accompanied by his two servants. When the donkey saw the angel blocking the road and brandishing a sword, she veered off the road into the ditch. Balaam beat the donkey and got her back on the road.

24–25  But as they were going through a vineyard, with a fence on either side, the donkey again saw God’s angel blocking the way and veered into the fence, crushing Balaam’s foot against the fence. Balaam hit her again.

26–27  God’s angel blocked the way yet again—a very narrow passage this time; there was no getting through on the right or left. Seeing the angel, Balaam’s donkey sat down under him. Balaam lost his temper; he beat the donkey with his stick.

28  Then God gave speech to the donkey. She said to Balaam: “What have I ever done to you that you have beat me these three times?”

29  Balaam said, “Because you’ve been playing games with me! If I had a sword I would have killed you by now.”

30  The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your trusty donkey on whom you’ve ridden for years right up until now? Have I ever done anything like this to you before? Have I?”

He said, “No.”

31  Then God helped Balaam see what was going on: He saw God’s angel blocking the way, brandishing a sword. Balaam fell to the ground, his face in the dirt.

32–33  God’s angel said to him: “Why have you beaten your poor donkey these three times? I have come here to block your way because you’re getting way ahead of yourself. The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If she hadn’t, I would have killed you by this time, but not the donkey. I would have let her off.”

34  Balaam said to God’s angel, “I have sinned. I had no idea you were standing in the road blocking my way. If you don’t like what I’m doing, I’ll head back.”

35  But God’s angel said to Balaam, “Go ahead and go with them. But only say what I tell you to say—absolutely no other word.”

And so Balaam continued to go with Balak’s nobles.

36  When Balak heard that Balaam was coming, he went out to meet him in the Moabite town that was on the banks of the Arnon, right on the boundary of his land.

37  Balak said to Balaam, “Didn’t I send an urgent message for help? Why didn’t you come when I called? Do you think I can’t pay you enough?”

38  Balaam said to Balak, “Well, I’m here now. But I can’t tell you just anything. I can speak only words that God gives me—no others.”

39–40  Balaam then accompanied Balak to Kiriath Huzoth (Street-Town). Balak slaughtered cattle and sheep for sacrifices and presented them to Balaam and the nobles who were with him.

41  At daybreak Balak took Balaam up to Bamoth Baal (The Heights of Baal) so that he could get a good view of some of the people.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Saturday, October 18, 2025

by Tom Felten

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

2 Chronicles 20:5-12

Then Jehoshaphat took a position before the assembled people of Judah and Jerusalem at The Temple of God in front of the new courtyard and said, “O God, God of our ancestors, are you not God in heaven above and ruler of all kingdoms below? You hold all power and might in your fist—no one stands a chance against you! And didn’t you make the natives of this land leave as you brought your people Israel in, turning it over permanently to your people Israel, the descendants of Abraham your friend? They have lived here and built a holy house of worship to honor you, saying, ‘When the worst happens—whether war or flood or disease or famine—and we take our place before this Temple (we know you are personally present in this place!) and pray out our pain and trouble, we know that you will listen and give victory.’

10–12  “And now it’s happened: men from Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir have shown up. You didn’t let Israel touch them when we got here at first—we detoured around them and didn’t lay a hand on them. And now they’ve come to kick us out of the country you gave us. O dear God, won’t you take care of them? We’re helpless before this vandal horde ready to attack us. We don’t know what to do; we’re looking to you.”

Today's Insights

Jehoshaphat is one of Judah’s more intriguing kings. The kingdoms of Judah and Israel had parted ways barely six decades earlier, yet Jehoshaphat foolishly agreed to go into battle allied with Israel’s idol-worshiping King Ahab (2 Chronicles 18:3). Their combined forces were routed, and Ahab was killed (vv. 33-34). Despite that episode, Jehoshaphat followed God throughout most of his reign. As a large foe amassed against the people of Judah (20:1-3), Jehoshaphat instinctively sought God. Praying before all the people, he recalled God’s promise to their father Abraham (vv. 5-9). Desperate though he was, Jehoshaphat knew God could be trusted. In our trials, we too can find comfort when we seek God in prayer.

A Prayerful Posture

Jehoshaphat bowed down with his face to the ground . . . in worship before the Lord. 2 Chronicles 20:18

A lengthy battle with a chronic illness had taken its toll on Jimmy. Though he desired to spend time with God each morning, praying to Him and meditating on the Scriptures, he couldn’t find a way to position his body in his chair that wasn’t painful. He shifted from side to side, but there was no relief. Finally, in desperation, he fell to his knees. As he did, that prayerful posture proved to lessen the agonizing ache. In the mornings that followed, Jimmy spent time with God on his knees—experiencing comfort even as he called out to Him in prayer.

Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, also faced a battle—not with pain but with threatening enemies (2 Chronicles 20:1-2). The king was “terrified by this news and begged the Lord for guidance” (v. 3 nlt). All the people of Judah sought “help from the Lord” as well (v. 4). God heard their prayers, and His Spirit came upon a Levite named Jahaziel, who delivered this comforting message to the king: “Do not be afraid or discouraged . . . . The Lord will be with you” (vv. 15, 17). Jehoshaphat “bowed down with his face to the ground,” and everyone “fell down in worship before the Lord” (v. 18).

In painful and challenging times, we can often experience God’s nearness in a powerful way. As He helps us submit to His will and live out a prayerful posture in our hearts, we can find comfort and peace in Him.  

Reflect & Pray

How has God comforted you as you prayed to Him? What painful thing will you bring to Him today?

Loving God, thank You for meeting and comforting me as I pray to You.

For further study, read Compassion: Learning to Love Like Jesus.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Saturday, October 18, 2025

The Key to the Missionary’s Devotion

It was for the sake of the Name that they went out. — 3 John 1:7

Our Lord has told us how our love for him should manifest itself: “Do you love me?” he asks. “Feed my sheep” (John 21:17). Our Lord is saying, “Identify yourself with my interests in other people,” not “Identify me with your interests in other people.” This kind of love has a specific character. It’s defined in 1 Corinthians 13:4–8: “Love is patient, love is kind . . .” It is the love of God expressing itself. Other expressions of love are merely sentimental. The love of God is able to stand up to the most practical tests.

“It was for the sake of the Name that they went out.” The Holy Spirit fills my heart with the love of God and sends that love through me to everyone I meet. It enables me to remain loyal to the Name, even though every commonsense fact declares that Jesus Christ has no more power than the morning mist. This loyalty is the supernatural work of redemption, worked in me by the Holy Spirit.

The key to the missionary’s devotion is being attached to nothing and no one except our Lord himself. This doesn’t mean being separated from the outside world; our Lord was always in the world, among ordinary people and things. His detachment was entirely on the inside, where he was attached only to God. Avoiding the world is often a sign of a secret, inner attachment to the very things we’re setting out to avoid. The missionary has no such attachments. His or her soul is kept concentratedly open to Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ alone. The men and women our Lord chooses to send out as his missionaries, though they are made of ordinary human stuff, have a dominating devotion to him, formed by the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 53-55; 2 Thessalonians 1

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

It is in the middle that human choices are made; the beginning and the end remain with God. The decrees of God are birth and death, and in between those limits man makes his own distress or joy. 

Shade of His Hand, 1223 L