Psalm 64, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: PRAYER BRINGS HOPE - June 8, 2026

We are never without hope because we are never without prayer. Prayer confesses, “God can handle it, and since he can, I have hope!” When we pray in the name of Jesus, we come to God on the basis of Jesus’ accomplishment. The Scripture says, “Since we have such a great high priest [Jesus] over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:21-22).

Some people say, “Prayer changes things because it changes us.” I agree, but only in part. Prayer changes things because prayer appeals to the top power in the universe. It is the yes to God’s invitation to invoke his name. Prayer moves the world because prayer moves the heart of God.

God Is with You Every Day

Psalm 64

A David Psalm

1  64 Listen and help, O God.

I’m reduced to a whine

And a whimper, obsessed

with feelings of doomsday.

2–6  Don’t let them find me—

the conspirators out to get me,

Using their tongues as weapons,

flinging poison words,

poison-tipped arrow-words.

They shoot from ambush,

shoot without warning,

not caring who they hit.

They keep fit doing calisthenics

of evil purpose,

They keep lists of the traps

they’ve secretly set.

They say to each other,

“No one can catch us,

no one can detect our perfect crime.”

The Detective detects the mystery

in the dark of the cellar heart.

7–8  The God of the Arrow shoots!

They double up in pain,

Fall flat on their faces

in full view of the grinning crowd.

9–10  Everyone sees it. God’s

work is the talk of the town.

Be glad, good people! Fly to God!

Good-hearted people, make praise your habit.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Monday, June 08, 2026

by Kirsten Holmberg

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Philippians 4:10-19

Philippians 4:10-19

God’s Provision

10 I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length zyou have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. 11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be acontent. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and bhunger, abundance and cneed. 13 I can do all things dthrough him who strengthens me.

14 Yet it was kind of you eto share6 my trouble. 15 And you Philippians yourselves know that fin the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, gno church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. 16 Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again. 17 hNot that I seek the gift, but I seek ithe fruit that increases to your credit.7 18 I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, jhaving received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, ka fragrant offering, la sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. 19 And my God mwill supply every need of yours naccording to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Today's Insights

The church in Macedonia received high praise from Paul. Not only were the Macedonians quick to respond to his needs, in this case they were the only church to do so (Philippians 4:15). Additionally he notes, “You sent me aid more than once when I was in need” (v. 16). Indeed, in 2 Corinthians 8, the apostle pointed to the economically poor Macedonian church as an example for the wealthy church in Corinth (vv. 1-2). This is the context in which the apostle writes, “My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). As God provides for us today, we can in turn give to others.

Reciprocal Generosity

I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. Philippians 4:18

When Melanie began having regular headaches, her doctors discovered she had a benign tumor in her pituitary gland. The tumor was about the size of a plum and was surgically removed in 2003 and again in 2006 when it recurred. Then in 2017, when it came back a third time, Melanie underwent radiation treatment instead, which caused her to lose her hair. Her twenty-seven-year-old son, Matt, decided to grow out his own hair to make a wig for her.

Matt’s selfless, loving act illustrates how one person’s abilities and resources can supply the needs of another person or group. Paul highlights the beauty of such reciprocal generosity in his letter to the Philippians. The believers in Philippi had shared in his “troubles” and “sent . . . aid more than once when [he] was in need” (Philippians 4:14, 16). Having received their gifts, Paul recognized that God had provided amply for his needs.

Our willingness to share with one another is often the conduit of God’s provision in our lives. Sometimes we’re in a position to give of our time, talent, or treasure; other times we’re in need ourselves and must rely on the support of another. Through His Spirit working in us, our gifts are “pleasing to God” and a manifestation of our shared life in the body of Christ (v. 18).

Reflect & Pray

When has God supplied your needs through another person? How might He provide for someone else through your generous giving today?

Father God, thank You for providing for me. Please help me share what You’ve given me as I seek to cheerfully and generously help others.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Monday, June 08, 2026

Determine to Know More

Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. — John 13:17

If you do not cut the moorings, God will have to break them with a storm and send you out. Launch all on God, go out on the swelling tide of his purpose, and you will have your eyes opened. If you believe in Jesus, you are not to spend all your time safe inside the harbor, full of delight. You have to get out into the great deeps of God and begin to know for yourself. You have to develop spiritual discernment.

When you know you should do a thing and you do it, God immediately grants you more knowledge. Look at the places where you’ve become stuck spiritually. You’ll find that your entrenchment began when you failed to do something you knew you should. You procrastinated, thinking there was no urgency. Now you have no perception and no discernment. In times of crisis, you are spiritually distracted instead of spiritually self-possessed.

Your spiritual destiny is to know and to do the will of God (Romans 12:1–2). Many who refuse to know God’s will practice a counterfeit form of obedience: they manufacture crises in order to play at sacrificing themselves, hoping their passion will be mistaken for discernment. It’s easier to sacrifice yourself than to fulfill your spiritual destiny, but God’s word on the matter is clear: “To obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22).

Never live on memories. Beware of nostalgically pining for the safety of the harbor, for the person you used to be. God wants you to be something you’ve never been. He wants you to find out all you long to know. “Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out . . .” (John 7:17).

2 Chronicles 30-31; John 18:1-18

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The message of the prophets is that although they have forsaken God, it has not altered God. The Apostle Paul emphasizes the same truth, that God remains God even when we are unfaithful (see 2 Timothy 2:13). Never interpret God as changing with our changes. He never does; there is no variableness in Him. 

Notes on Ezekiel, 1477 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Monday, June 08, 2026

You Be You - #10280

June 5, 2026

Scripture:  Ephesians 2:10

My next door neighbor in our dorm in college always wanted to preach like Billy Graham. I mean he really wanted to preach like Billy Graham. He would record Billy Graham on his radio program, and then he would listen to the tapes over and over again. He would copy everything, including even the inflections of Billy’s voice. And then he would watch Billy Graham. He studied his gestures; he’d try to get them down and gesture just when Billy Graham would. He’d hold his Bible like Billy Graham. Now you are going to think he was really a fanatic, but this really is true. He told me he even counted the words per minute that Billy Graham averaged and tried to get the same pace. Wow! That’s a crazy way to approach ministry, huh? Well, it’s more common than you might think.

I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “You Be You.”

Our word for today from the Word of God – one of the most challenging, exciting statements in all of the New Testament – is in Ephesians 2:10. This is about you now. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Wow! God has created you as a unique, one-of-a-kind servant, uniquely prepared, uniquely wired by Him for a very unique set of plans which He prepared in advance for you to carry out.

The problem comes when we start to compare ourselves with other people. You really can’t compare yourself because you are a category all by yourself. You might never count the words per minute in somebody’s sermon to copy them, but maybe you are looking at someone else God is using and you’re saying, “You know, I can’t talk like that. I don’t know what they know. I’m sort of shy; I’m not that outgoing. You know, I don’t have the training they have. I could never serve God like that; I’m not like that person.” You’re right! You’re not like them. Hurray! You weren’t meant to be. You were created for works only you can do.

I think we should look for models and learn from their values and their thinking and their ways of working, but not to become clones. The Mona Lisa is an original, it’s priceless, but you can buy a postcard of the Mona Lisa for like 50 cents at the museum, because copies are cheap. Originals are priceless. Don’t devalue yourself by copying someone else; trying to be like someone else. There’s so much in social media that makes us want to do that. Don’t do it! That’s an awful, unnatural bondage if you’re still trying to be like someone else.

You see, everything you need - to do what God put you here to do - you have. And all those things that you don’t have? Guess what? You don’t need. You’ve got the right hair, you’ve got the right height, you’ve got the right body, you’ve got the right voice, you’ve got the right intelligence, you’ve got the right talents, and you’ve got the right limitations - even your background. See, God is using your background to make you into that unique servant of His. He’s weaving a tapestry, and putting into that tapestry the people and experiences that will make you the man or woman you were designed by Him to be.

So be yourself! Relax! Be the person that God made for a unique role that you are destined to fulfill. You compare with somebody else? You’ll never get off the ground. You try to copy someone else, and you will never be the person you were created to be.

I think you can say as you look at your life and the plans that God has for it, “God, you know what You’re doing.” He sure does. Thank Him for making you the only you there is, and don’t try to be a Christian clone. You are an original. So, you be you.

John 13:1-20, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Do it God’s Way

In the game of golf, logic says, “Don’t go for the green.” Golf 101 says, “Don’t go for the green.”  But I say, “Give me my driver, I’m going for the green!”  Golf reveals a lot about a person.  I don’t need advice—whack!  I can handle this myself—clang!

Can you relate? We want to do things our way.  Forget the easy way and forget the best way. Forget God’s way. Too much stubbornness. Too much independence.  Too much self-reliance.  All I needed to do was apologize, but I had to argue.  All I needed to do was listen, but I had to open my big mouth.  All I needed to do was be patient, but I had to take control.  All I had to do was give it to God, but I tried to fix it myself.

Scripture says, “Do it God’s way.”  Experience says, “Do it God’s way.”  And every so often, we do!  We might even make the green.

From Traveling Light

John 13:1-20

Washing His Disciples’ Feet

1–2  13 Just before the Passover Feast, Jesus knew that the time had come to leave this world to go to the Father. Having loved his dear companions, he continued to love them right to the end. It was suppertime. The Devil by now had Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, firmly in his grip, all set for the betrayal.

3–6  Jesus knew that the Father had put him in complete charge of everything, that he came from God and was on his way back to God. So he got up from the supper table, set aside his robe, and put on an apron. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of the disciples, drying them with his apron. When he got to Simon Peter, Peter said, “Master, you wash my feet?”

7  Jesus answered, “You don’t understand now what I’m doing, but it will be clear enough to you later.”

8  Peter persisted, “You’re not going to wash my feet—ever!”

Jesus said, “If I don’t wash you, you can’t be part of what I’m doing.”

9  “Master!” said Peter. “Not only my feet, then. Wash my hands! Wash my head!”

10–12  Jesus said, “If you’ve had a bath in the morning, you only need your feet washed now and you’re clean from head to toe. My concern, you understand, is holiness, not hygiene. So now you’re clean. But not every one of you.” (He knew who was betraying him. That’s why he said, “Not every one of you.”) After he had finished washing their feet, he took his robe, put it back on, and went back to his place at the table.

12–17  Then he said, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You address me as ‘Teacher’ and ‘Master,’ and rightly so. That is what I am. So if I, the Master and Teacher, washed your feet, you must now wash each other’s feet. I’ve laid down a pattern for you. What I’ve done, you do. I’m only pointing out the obvious. A servant is not ranked above his master; an employee doesn’t give orders to the employer. If you understand what I’m telling you, act like it—and live a blessed life.

The One Who Ate Bread at My Table

18–20  “I’m not including all of you in this. I know precisely whom I’ve selected, so as not to interfere with the fulfillment of this Scripture:

The one who ate bread at my table

Turned on his heel against me.

“I’m telling you all this ahead of time so that when it happens you will believe that I am who I say I am. Make sure you get this right: Receiving someone I send is the same as receiving me, just as receiving me is the same as receiving the One who sent me.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Sunday, June 07, 2026

by Marvin Williams

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Ruth 1:11-18

  But Naomi was firm: “Go back, my dear daughters. Why would you come with me? Do you suppose I still have sons in my womb who can become your future husbands? Go back, dear daughters—on your way, please! I’m too old to get a husband. Why, even if I said, ‘There’s still hope!’ and this very night got a man and had sons, can you imagine being satisfied to wait until they were grown? Would you wait that long to get married again? No, dear daughters; this is a bitter pill for me to swallow—more bitter for me than for you. God has dealt me a hard blow.”

14  Again they cried openly. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye; but Ruth embraced her and held on.

15  Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law is going back home to live with her own people and gods; go with her.”

16–17  But Ruth said, “Don’t force me to leave you; don’t make me go home. Where you go, I go; and where you live, I’ll live. Your people are my people, your God is my god; where you die, I’ll die, and that’s where I’ll be buried, so help me God—not even death itself is going to come between us!”

18–19  When Naomi saw that Ruth had her heart set on going with her, she gave in.

Today's Insights

Ruth’s devotion to her mother-in-law Naomi was a hard choice that carried with it the prospects of great difficulties. Ruth, a Moabitess, would’ve faced tremendous challenges in moving to Bethlehem. Moab, though a distant cousin of Israel, had become Israel’s enemy (Judges 3), resulting in significant hostilities. Additionally, being a widow in a strange land where she didn’t have the support of family and friends (aside from Naomi) would’ve been potentially dangerous. Through Naomi’s extended family (Boaz), however, God would provide both sustenance and safety (Ruth 2:1, 8-9). Ruth would eventually be enfolded into that community as the wife of Boaz and would become the great-grandmother of King David (4:17). For us today as well, God often uses community to remind us of His great care for us.

Remembering Who We Are

Ruth replied, . . . “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.” Ruth 1:16

A restaurant employee discovered an unconscious man beside a dumpster. He was sunburned, bitten by ants, and showed signs of blunt force trauma. He had no memory of who he was. The man, later self-named “Benjamin Kyle,” lived in limbo for more than a decade. He couldn’t work, collect benefits, or even reclaim his past. His healing began when a community of strangers helped him rediscover his identity through genetic testing and investigation. “I have a history,” he said. “I’m not just some stranger that materialized out of thin air.”

The story of Ruth in the Bible can also be seen as one of rediscovered belonging. After losing her husband and leaving her homeland, she chose to bind herself to her mother-in-law Naomi and her people. She said, “Where you go I will go . . . . Your people will be my people and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). Ruth connected her identity and destiny to that of Naomi and her people in life and in death. She was “determined to go with her” (v. 18)—prioritizing community over clarity, belonging over certainty. In doing so, she stepped into God’s redemptive story and is remembered forever as part of the lineage of Christ (4:18-22; Matthew 1:3-5).

When we as believers in Jesus forget who we are—or when life’s pain leaves us disoriented—God often uses community to reconnect us with our most authentic identity. In Him we’re beloved, chosen, and known.

Reflect & Pray

Who is God using to help you remember who you are in Him? What does it mean to be known by Him?

Dear God, please help me remember who I am in You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Sunday, June 07, 2026

Don’t Slack Off

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. — John 15:7

Am I fulfilling the ministry of the interior life, taking time alone with the Father to intercede for others in prayer? I need not worry that the moments I claim for prayer are selfish. There is no danger of infatuation or pride in intercession; it is a hidden ministry which brings forth the fruit that glorifies the Father. Am I slacking off in my spiritual life, allowing my spiritual energies to be frittered away? Or am I learning to remain in Jesus? To remain in Jesus is to concentrate my spiritual energies around a single point: the atonement of the Lord.

I must begin to realize this central point of power in my life. Do I give one minute out of sixty to concentrate upon it? “If you remain in me” means “If you continually act and think and work on the basis of my atonement.” What holds the most power over me right now? Is it my job? Serving others? Trying to work for God? It isn’t the thing I spend the most time on that shapes me the most; it’s the thing that exerts the greatest power over me. What ought to exert the greatest power over me is Jesus Christ. I must decide to be limited in my affinities, to choose carefully where I place my attention. If Jesus Christ is more and more my dominating interest, every phase of my life will bear fruit for him.

Jesus says that if we remain in him and his words remain in us, God will answer our prayers. Do we recognize this truth? “But,” you say, “suppose I ask for something not according to God’s will?” You won’t—not if you’re fulfilling Jesus’s wish that you remain in him. The disciple who remains in Jesus is the will of God. The choices this disciple makes, though they appear to be made freely, are actually God’s foreordained decrees. Mysterious? Yes. Logically contradictory and absurd? Yes. But a glorious truth to those who remain in him.

2 Chronicles 28-29; John 17

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest.

Disciples Indeed

2 Samuel 18, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

 

A D-Day Prayer by Franklin D. Roosevelt June 6, 1944:"In this poignant hour, I ask you to join me in prayer:…"

Max Lucado Daily: A Human Being

One night I was on baby duty and Jenna’s breathing slowed. I leaned my ear onto her mouth to see if she was alive. And when she burbled and panted, so did I. That’s when a tsunami of sobriety washed over me. We are in charge of a human being!

I don’t care how tough you are. You may be a Navy SEAL who skydives behind enemy lines. It doesn’t matter. Every parent melts the moment he or she feels the full force of parenthood. How did I get myself into this? Moms have thirty-six weeks of reminders elbowing around inside them. Dads, our kick in the gut comes later… but it does come. And for me it came years ago in the midnight quiet of an apartment living room—as I held a human being in my arms!

From Dad Time

2 Samuel 18

David organized his forces. He appointed captains of thousands and captains of hundreds. Then David deployed his troops, a third under Joab, a third under Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, and a third under Ittai the Gittite.

The king then announced, “I’m marching with you.”

3  They said, “No, you mustn’t march with us. If we’re forced to retreat, the enemy won’t give it a second thought. And if half of us die, they won’t do so either. But you are worth ten thousand of us. It will be better for us if you stay in the city and help from there.”

4  “If you say so,” said the king. “I’ll do what you think is best.” And so he stood beside the city gate as the whole army marched out by hundreds and by thousands.

5  Then the king ordered Joab and Abishai and Ittai, “Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.” The whole army heard what the king commanded the three captains regarding Absalom.

6–8  The army took the field to meet Israel. It turned out that the battle was joined in the Forest of Ephraim. The army of Israel was beaten badly there that day by David’s men, a terrific slaughter—twenty thousand men! There was fighting helter-skelter all over the place—the forest claimed more lives that day than the sword!

9–10  Absalom ran into David’s men, but was out in front of them riding his mule, when the mule ran under the branches of a huge oak tree. Absalom’s head was caught in the oak and he was left dangling between heaven and earth, the mule running right out from under him. A solitary soldier saw him and reported it to Joab, “I just saw Absalom hanging from an oak tree!”

11  Joab said to the man who told him, “If you saw him, why didn’t you kill him then and there? I’d have rewarded you with ten pieces of silver and a fancy belt.”

12–13  The man told Joab, “Even if I’d had a chance at a thousand pieces of silver, I wouldn’t have laid a hand on the king’s son. We all heard the king command you and Abishai and Ittai, ‘For my sake, protect the young man Absalom.’ Why, I’d be risking my life, for nothing is hidden from the king. And you would have just stood there!”

14–15  Joab said, “I can’t waste my time with you.” He then grabbed three knives and stabbed Absalom in the heart while he was still alive in the tree; by then Absalom was surrounded by ten of Joab’s armor bearers; they hacked away at him and killed him.

16–17  Joab then blew the ram’s horn trumpet, calling off the army in its pursuit of Israel. They took Absalom, dumped him into a huge pit in the forest, and piled an immense mound of rocks over him.

Meanwhile the whole army of Israel was in flight, each man making his own way home.

18  While alive, Absalom had erected for himself a pillar in the Valley of the King, “because,” he said, “I have no son to carry on my name.” He inscribed the pillar with his own name. To this day it is called “The Absalom Memorial.”

19–20  Ahimaaz, Zadok’s son, said, “Let me run to the king and bring him the good news that God has delivered him from his enemies.” But Joab said, “You’re not the one to deliver the good news today; some other day, maybe, but it’s not ‘good news’ today.” (This was because the king’s son was dead.)

21  Then Joab ordered a Cushite, “You go. Tell the king what you’ve seen.”

“Yes sir,” said the Cushite, and ran off.

22  Ahimaaz son of Zadok kept at it, begging Joab, “What does it matter? Let me run, too, following the Cushite.”

Joab said, “Why all this ‘Run, run’? You’ll get no thanks for it, I can tell you.”

23  “I don’t care; let me run.”

“Okay,” said Joab, “run.” So Ahimaaz ran, taking the lower valley road, and passed the Cushite.

24–25  David was sitting between the two gates. The sentry had gone up to the top of the gate on the wall and looked around. He saw a solitary runner. The sentry called down and told the king. The king said, “If he’s alone, it must be good news!”

25–26  As the runner came closer, the sentry saw another runner and called down to the gate, “Another runner all by himself.”

And the king said, “This also must be good news.”

27  Then the sentry said, “I can see the first man now; he runs like Ahimaaz son of Zadok.”

“He’s a good man,” said the king. “He’s bringing good news for sure.”

28  Then Ahimaaz called out and said to the king, “Peace!” Then he bowed deeply before the king, his face to the ground. “Blessed be your God; he has handed over the men who rebelled against my master the king.”

29  The king asked, “But is the young man Absalom all right?”

Ahimaaz said, “I saw a huge ruckus just as Joab was sending me off, but I don’t know what it was about.”

30  The king said, “Step aside and stand over there.” So he stepped aside.

31  Then the Cushite arrived and said, “Good news, my master and king! God has given victory today over all those who rebelled against you!”

32  “But,” said the king, “is the young man Absalom all right?”

And the Cushite replied, “Would that all of the enemies of my master the king and all who maliciously rose against you end up like that young man.”

33  The king was stunned. Heartbroken, he went up to the room over the gate and wept. As he wept he cried out,

O my son Absalom, my dear, dear son Absalom!

Why not me rather than you, my death and not yours,

O Absalom, my dear, dear son!

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Saturday, June 06, 2026

by Elisa Morgan

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Psalm 23:1-6

God, my shepherd!

I don’t need a thing.

You have bedded me down in lush meadows,

you find me quiet pools to drink from.

True to your word,

you let me catch my breath

and send me in the right direction.

4  Even when the way goes through

Death Valley,

I’m not afraid

when you walk at my side.

Your trusty shepherd’s crook

makes me feel secure.

5  You serve me a six-course dinner

right in front of my enemies.

You revive my drooping head;

my cup brims with blessing.

6  Your beauty and love chase after me

every day of my life.

I’m back home in the house of God

for the rest of my life.

Today's Insights

Despite David’s failings, he was a man who loved God and was loved by Him. We see this clearly expressed in the psalmist’s writings. Psalm 23 is a classic example that still speaks to us today. With God as our “shepherd,” we truly “lack nothing” (v. 1). He leads, refreshes, guides, and comforts us (vv. 2-4); and our “cup overflows” with His blessings (v. 5). He surrounds us with His love and goodness in this life and for all eternity (v. 6). With such a God, we don’t need to live in fear (v. 4). In Psalm 27:4, David exudes, “One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.” Like David, may our longing be for God. In His presence, we find rest and restoration.

God’s Provision

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. Psalm 23:1-2

I was putting my grandson to bed during a sleepover. When his Bible bookmark opened to Psalm 23, he objected, “We already read this one.” After I suggested we might learn something new, he read aloud, “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastries.” Green pastries?! I explained that the word was pastures, not pastries. Hours earlier, he’d stood before a bakery shelf, selecting treats. His interpretation came into focus: To him, a bakery conveyed a place of rest and enjoyment.

Psalm 23 may be so familiar to us that we miss its deep offering. David, a king well acquainted with shepherding, describes God’s provision over a lifetime of things both idyllic (vv. 5-6) and challenging (v. 4). He points out that our good God leads us to places where we can partake of His presence, be rejuvenated, and prepare for what will come. “Green pastures” (v. 1) and “quiet waters” (v. 2) are such dwellings for sheep, and we are God’s sheep (v. 1).

My grandson’s innocent interpretation opened my eyes to the “green pastures” God provides for me—places of rest and enjoyment in everyday life where He restores me. A gold-hued sunset. A verdant field. A quiet corner. A bakery shelf of green pastries, wafting out delight. I’m so glad we read Psalm 23 again!

Reflect & Pray

What unexpected “green pasture” moment have you experienced? How does Psalm 23 invite you into the provision of God’s presence?

Dear God, please open my eyes to the “green pasture” moments You provide. Help me to enter Your presence each day.

For further study, read Why Doesn’t God Answer Me?.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Saturday, June 06, 2026

Work Out What God Works In

Work out your own salvation. — Philippians 2:12

After God has done the work of our salvation, there is something we must do: we must begin to work out what God has worked in, bringing every aspect of our lives into alignment with his will.

Do you find it difficult to do the will of God? Perhaps you want to obey, but something in your flesh makes you powerless to do what you know you should.

The barrier that keeps you from obeying God isn’t your own will. Will is the essential element in God’s creation of humankind; its source, in those who have been reborn, is almighty: “For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13). What stops you from following God is the stub- bornness that arises from your sinful nature. Sin is something much less profound than will. Sin is a perverse disposition that entered into humanity after the fall; will comes directly from God. The only way to get rid of sin and stubbornness is to blow them up with dynamite— the dynamite of obedience to the Holy Spirit.

When you begin to obey the Holy Spirit, you’ll find that your will agrees with God, because God is its source. You do not bring an opposed will to God’s will; God’s will is your will. When the Lord, through the Spirit, presents himself to your conscience, the first thing your conscience does is ignite your will, urging you to action. If you remain steadfastly established on the complete and perfect redemp- tion of the Lord, this process becomes as natural as breathing, and stubbornness no longer gets in the way.

Do I believe that almighty God is the source of my will? God not only expects me to do his will; he is in me to help me do it.

2 Chronicles 25-27; John 16

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence. 

Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L

2 Samuel 17, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: PRAYER IN IT’S PUREST FORM - June 5, 2026

Mark 1:35 says, “Jesus went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.”

This dialogue must have been common among His friends: “Has anyone seen Jesus?”  “Oh, you know.  He’s up to the same thing.”  “Praying again?”  “Yep. He’s been gone since sunrise.”

Jesus would even disappear for an entire night of prayer. Prayer for most of us, isn’t a matter of a month-long retreat or even an hour of meditation. It’s a conversation with God while driving to work or waiting for an appointment. God will teach you to pray. We speak. He listens. He speaks. We listen. It’s prayer in its purest form. God changes His people through such moments.

Here’s my challenge for you! Every day for four weeks, pray four minutes. Then get ready to connect with God like never before!

Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer

2 Samuel 17

Next Ahithophel advised Absalom, “Let me handpick twelve thousand men and go after David tonight. I’ll come on him when he’s bone tired and take him by complete surprise. The whole army will run off and I’ll kill only David. Then I’ll bring the army back to you—a bride brought back to her husband! You’re only after one man, after all. Then everyone will be together in peace!”

4  Absalom thought it was an excellent strategy, and all the elders of Israel agreed.

5  But then Absalom said, “Call in Hushai the Arkite—let’s hear what he has to say.”

6  So Hushai came and Absalom put it to him, “This is what Ahithophel advised. Should we do it? What do you say?”

7–10  Hushai said, “The counsel that Ahithophel has given in this instance is not good. You know your father and his men, brave and bitterly angry—like a bear robbed of her cubs. And your father is an experienced fighter; you can be sure he won’t be caught napping at a time like this. Even while we’re talking, he’s probably holed up in some cave or other. If he jumps your men from ambush, word will soon get back, ‘A slaughter of Absalom’s army!’ Even if your men are valiant with hearts of lions, they’ll fall apart at such news, for everyone in Israel knows the kind of fighting stuff your father’s made of, and also the men with him.

11–13  “Here’s what I’d advise: Muster the whole country, from Dan to Beer-sheba, an army like the sand of the sea, and you personally lead them. We’ll smoke him out wherever he is, fall on him like dew falls on the earth, and, believe me, there won’t be a single survivor. If he hides out in a city, then the whole army will bring ropes to that city and pull it down and into a gully—not so much as a pebble left of it!”

14  Absalom and all his company agreed that the counsel of Hushai the Arkite was better than the counsel of Ahithophel. (God had determined to discredit the counsel of Ahithophel so as to bring ruin on Absalom.)

15–16  Then Hushai told the priests Zadok and Abiathar, “Ahithophel advised Absalom and the elders of Israel thus and thus, and I advised them thus and thus. Now send this message as quickly as possible to David: ‘Don’t spend the night on this side of the river; cross immediately or the king and everyone with him will be swallowed up alive.’ ”

17–20  Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting around at En Rogel. A servant girl would come and give them messages and then they would go and tell King David, for it wasn’t safe to be seen coming into the city. But a soldier spotted them and told Absalom, so the two of them got out of there fast and went to a man’s house in Bahurim. He had a well in his yard and they climbed into it. The wife took a rug and covered the well, then spread grain on it so no one would notice anything out of the ordinary. Shortly, Absalom’s servants came to the woman’s house and asked her, “Have you seen Ahimaaz and Jonathan?”

The woman said, “They were headed toward the river.”

They looked but didn’t find them, and then went back to Jerusalem.

21  When the coast was clear, Ahimaaz and Jonathan climbed out of the well and went on to make their report to King David, “Get up and cross the river quickly; Ahithophel has given counsel against you!”

22  David and his whole army were soon up and moving and crossed the Jordan. As morning broke there was not a single person who had not made it across the Jordan.

23  When Ahithophel realized that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey and left for his hometown. After making out his will and putting his house in order, he hanged himself and died. He was buried in the family tomb.

24–26  About the time David arrived at Mahanaim, Absalom crossed the Jordan, and the whole army of Israel with him. Absalom had made Amasa head of the army, replacing Joab. (Amasa was the son of a man named Ithra, an Ishmaelite who had married Abigail, daughter of Nahash and sister of Zeruiah, the mother of Joab.) Israel and Absalom set camp in Gilead.

27–29  When David arrived at Mahanaim, Shobi son of Nahash from Ammonite Rabbah, and Makir son of Ammiel from Lo Debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim brought beds and blankets, bowls and jugs filled with wheat, barley, flour, roasted grain, beans and lentils, honey, and curds and cheese from the flocks and herds. They presented all this to David and his army to eat, “because,” they said, “the army must be starved and exhausted and thirsty out in this wilderness.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Friday, June 05, 2026

by Nancy Gavilanes

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Jonah 2:1-10

At the Bottom of the Sea

1–9  2 Then Jonah prayed to his God from the belly of the fish.

He prayed:

“In trouble, deep trouble, I prayed to God.

He answered me.

From the belly of the grave I cried, ‘Help!’

You heard my cry.

You threw me into ocean’s depths,

into a watery grave,

With ocean waves, ocean breakers

crashing over me.

I said, ‘I’ve been thrown away,

thrown out, out of your sight.

I’ll never again lay eyes

on your Holy Temple.’

Ocean gripped me by the throat.

The ancient Abyss grabbed me and held tight.

My head was all tangled in seaweed

at the bottom of the sea where the mountains take root.

I was as far down as a body can go,

and the gates were slamming shut behind me forever—

Yet you pulled me up from that grave alive,

O God, my God!

When my life was slipping away,

I remembered God,

And my prayer got through to you,

made it all the way to your Holy Temple.

Those who worship hollow gods, god-frauds,

walk away from their only true love.

But I’m worshiping you, God,

calling out in thanksgiving!

And I’ll do what I promised I’d do!

Salvation belongs to God!”

10  Then God spoke to the fish, and it vomited up Jonah on the seashore.

Today's Insights

The Bible records various places where people cried out to God. Samson prayed while chained in a pagan temple (Judges 16:28), Jesus prayed from a cross (Luke 23:46), and Paul frequently prayed while in prison (Philippians 1). One of the most unusual places of prayer was in the belly of “a huge fish” (Jonah 1:17; 2:1-9). Imagine how different his story might have been had Jonah prayed while still at home, rather than after God had pursued him to the depths of the sea. When Jonah cried out to God in prayer, He delivered him and gave him a second chance to fulfill his mission (3:1-2). Running from God only makes our problems worse. But when we walk in obedience to Him and cry out to Him in prayer, He’ll hear us and do what’s best within His perfect plans.

Running to God in Prayer

From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. Jonah 2:1

One moment Adrián Simancas was kayaking in the Strait of Magellan in Chile with his father. The next, the twenty-four-year-old was engulfed in the mouth of a humpback whale. “I thought I was dead,” Adrián told a news outlet. After a few seconds, the whale released Adrián into the frigid waters. His life vest caused him to float to the water’s surface, and his father helped him to safety.

The Old Testament prophet Jonah also had an encounter with a large sea creature. Jonah refused to follow God’s directive to preach a message of repentance to the Israelites’ enemies, the Ninevites, so he boarded a ship in the opposite direction of Nineveh. When the ship got caught in a storm, Jonah convinced the crew to throw him overboard (Jonah 1:11-12, 15). “Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights” (v. 17). Jonah went from fleeing from God to crying out to Him: “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God” (2:1).

God heard Jonah and rescued him (v. 10). Then Jonah preached to the Ninevites, and they repented (3:8-10).

If God could hear Jonah’s plea from inside a big fish, He can hear us and rescue us from wherever we are. Instead of running from God, let’s run to Him in prayer, knowing that He will answer us when we cry out to Him.

Reflect & Pray

Why do you sometimes run from God? How can you run to Him today?

Dear God, thank You for the rescue You alone provide.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Friday, June 05, 2026

God’s Promise

God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.” — Hebrews 13:5-6

“Never will I leave you.” God’s promise allows me to go through life without being haunted by fear. This doesn’t mean I won’t be tempted to fear; rather, in the midst of temptation, I will remember what God has said and so be full of courage—just like a child who picks himself up and dusts himself off in order to please his father.

So many of us stumble in our faith when fear sets in. We forget the power of God’s promise; we forget to take a deep breath spiritually. We become filled with dread, convinced that nothing and no one can help us.

What are you dreading? You are not a coward; whatever it is, you’re going to face it. Yet you still have a feeling of dread. Build on God’s promise. Say with confidence, “In this moment, in my present mind- set, the Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.”

“God has said. … So we say…” Are you learning to speak only after you’ve listened to what God has said? Or are you trying to make his words fit into what you already believe? The only way to move past dread is to grasp the full meaning of God’s promise. “Never will I forsake you”—no matter what kind of evil or challenge is in your way.

Another thing that gets in the way of God’s promise is our own weakness. When we realize how frail we are in facing difficulties, the difficulties become like giants, we become like grasshoppers, and God becomes a nonentity (Numbers 13:33). Have we learned to sing after hearing God’s melody? Are we finding the courage to say, “The Lord is my helper”? Or are we succumbing to the weak side of our nature?

2 Chronicles 23-24; John 15

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Seeing is never believing: we interpret what we see in the light of what we believe. Faith is confidence in God before you see God emerging; therefore the nature of faith is that it must be tried.

He Shall Glorify Me, 494 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Friday, June 05, 2026

When You're Lost in the Fog - #10279

June 4, 2026

Scripture:  Luke 19:10

When I say this man is a veteran test pilot, I mean he’s easily old enough to be comfortably retired. Instead, he’s still blasting through the skies at these mind-boggling speeds, testing some of America’s most advanced aircraft. He told his amazing life story on a national television program. It’s a story of a lifelong adventure in the skies and a long spiritual search here on earth that ended, well, with the pilot of the universe piloting his life. As he concluded his story, he told about an incident where he was sent up in a state-of-the-art aircraft to help a pilot who was in distress.

The fog was thick; the weather was dangerous for flying, and a rookie pilot was lost in that fog and unable to get through the weather in a plane that really wasn’t equipped for it. Well, Mr. Test Pilot flew close to that imperiled aircraft until he was actually positioned right at its left wing. And then he radioed the desperate pilot and he simply said, “Look to your left.” Then he said, “Now stick with me. Turn when I turn.” Then in a plane so advanced that the veteran said it can make a game out of bad weather, he led his frightened fellow pilot to that glorious point where they broke through the fog and saw the bright lights of that landing strip below them. When they landed safely, well, you can guess. The rookie got out of his plane, he ran to his rescuer, and hugged him as if he had saved his life. Well, he probably had.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “When You're Lost in the Fog.”

A pilot lost, in a potentially fatal predicament. His only hope was someone who was equipped with everything needed to bring him safely home. We all need somebody like that. Because we are all, in the words the Bible uses to describe our spiritual condition, “lost.”

If we’re honest, we know that we really don’t know how life’s supposed to work, no matter how cool and how together we look on the outside. When it comes to knowing why we’re here, which way to go, and most importantly, how to land safely when we die, we’re all lost. Our only hope is someone who’s equipped with everything needed to lead us safely home; someone who will come beside us and take us the rest of the way through this life and on into the life to come.

His name is Jesus, and He came here for all of us lost pilots. He said so in His personal mission statement, which is recorded in Luke 19:10, our word for today from the Word of God. Here's what Jesus said about Himself, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

Notice, He didn’t come to start a religion called Christianity or just give us a nice morality to live by. No, He came to rescue us from a spiritual predicament that will be eternally fatal unless we let Him lead us home. We’re lost because we took over the pilot’s seat that God was supposed to occupy.

In the Bible’s words, we're “sheep who have gone astray.” And you know what? Lost sheep just don’t find their way home. Their only hope is if the Shepherd comes looking for the one who’s lost. And Jesus did. He, in His own words, came to “lay down My life for the sheep” (John 10:15). The only person who is equipped to lead you out of the guilt and the death penalty for your sin is the one who took all that guilt; who took all that dying on Himself. That’s what Jesus did when He was on that cross. And then, He walked out of His grave under His own power! He’s alive right now, and He’s pulled up next to you today.

That tug you feel in your heart—that’s Jesus seeking you so He can save you. He’s your only hope, but you've got to admit that. You have to tell Him that and start following where He leads you. Right now you could begin your personal relationship with Him. Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours."

Listen, would you get to our website the rest of the information; everything you need to know from God's Word about getting home to Jesus is right there - ANewStory.com.

You don’t have to fly in the fog one more day. You don’t have to be lost anymore. Jesus has come close to you today, and He’s saying, “Look to Me. I’ll get you safely home.” Follow Him.

2 Samuel 16, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: JESUS’ EXAMPLE OF PRAYER - June 4, 2026

We can’t even get the cable company to answer us, yet God will?  The doctor’s too busy, but God isn’t?  We have our doubts about prayer!

Jesus raised people from the dead.  But a “How to Vacate the Cemetery” seminar? His followers never called for one. But they did want Him to do this– “Lord, teach us to pray.” Might their interest have something to do with the jaw-dropping promise Jesus attached to prayer? “Ask and it will be given to you.” When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray He gave them a prayer.

Could you use the same?  Father, You are good.  I need help. Heal me and forgive me. They need help. Thank You. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Before amen—comes the power of a simple prayer. Punctuate your day with it!

Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer

2 Samuel 16

Shortly after David passed the crest of the hill, Mephibosheth’s steward Ziba met him with a string of pack animals, saddled and loaded with a hundred loaves of bread, a hundred raisin cakes, a hundred baskets of fresh fruit, and a skin of wine.

2  The king said to Ziba, “What’s all this?”

“The donkeys,” said Ziba, “are for the king’s household to ride, the bread and fruit are for the servants to eat, and the wine is for drinking, especially for those overcome by fatigue in the wilderness.”

3  The king said, “And where is your master’s grandson?”

“He stayed in Jerusalem,” said Ziba. “He said, ‘This is the day Israel is going to restore my grandfather’s kingdom to me.’ ”

4  “Everything that belonged to Mephibosheth,” said the king, “is now yours.”

Ziba said, “How can I ever thank you? I’ll be forever in your debt, my master and king; may you always look on me with such kindness!”

5–8  When the king got to Bahurim, a man appeared who had connections with Saul’s family. His name was Shimei son of Gera. As he followed along he shouted insults and threw rocks right and left at David and his company, servants and soldiers alike. To the accompaniment of curses he shouted, “Get lost, get lost, you butcher, you hellhound! God has paid you back for all your dirty work in the family of Saul and for stealing his kingdom. God has given the kingdom to your son Absalom. Look at you now—ruined! And good riddance, you pathetic old man!”

9  Abishai son of Zeruiah said, “This mangy dog can’t insult my master the king this way—let me go over and cut off his head!”

10  But the king said, “Why are you sons of Zeruiah always interfering and getting in the way? If he’s cursing, it’s because God told him, ‘Curse David.’ So who dares raise questions?”

11–12  “Besides,” continued David to Abishai and the rest of his servants, “my own son, my flesh and bone, is right now trying to kill me; compared to that this Ben-jaminite is small potatoes. Don’t bother with him; let him curse; he’s preaching God’s word to me. And who knows, maybe God will see the trouble I’m in today and exchange the curses for something good.”

13  David and his men went on down the road, while Shimei followed along on the ridge of the hill alongside, cursing, throwing stones down on them, and kicking up dirt.

14  By the time they reached the Jordan River, David and all the men of the company were exhausted. There they rested and were revived.

15  By this time Absalom and all his men were in Jerusalem.

And Ahithophel was with them.

16  Soon after, Hushai the Arkite, David’s friend, came and greeted Absalom, “Long live the king! Long live the king!”

17  Absalom said to Hushai, “Is this the way you show devotion to your good friend? Why didn’t you go with your friend David?”

18–19  “Because,” said Hushai, “I want to be with the person that God and this people and all Israel have chosen. And I want to stay with him. Besides, who is there to serve other than the son? Just as I served your father, I’m now ready to serve you.”

20  Then Absalom spoke to Ahithophel, “Are you ready to give counsel? What do we do next?”

21–22  Ahithophel told Absalom, “Go and sleep with your father’s concubines, the ones he left to tend to the palace. Everyone will hear that you have openly disgraced your father, and the morale of everyone on your side will be strengthened.” So Absalom pitched a tent up on the roof in public view, and went in and slept with his father’s concubines.

23  The counsel that Ahithophel gave in those days was treated as if God himself had spoken. That was the reputation of Ahithophel’s counsel to David; it was the same with Absalom.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Thursday, June 04, 2026

by Monica La Rose

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

1 John 1:5-9; 2:7-10

Walk in the Light

5  This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there’s not a trace of darkness in him.

6–7  If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we’re obviously lying through our teeth—we’re not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purges all our sin.

8–10  If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won’t let us down; he’ll be true to himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing.

7–8  My dear friends, I’m not writing anything new here. This is the oldest commandment in the book, and you’ve known it from day one. It’s always been implicit in the Message you’ve heard. On the other hand, perhaps it is new, freshly minted as it is in both Christ and you—the darkness on its way out and the True Light already blazing!

9–11  Anyone who claims to live in God’s light and hates a brother or sister is still in the dark. It’s the person who loves brother and sister who dwells in God’s light and doesn’t block the light from others.

Today's Insights

The apostles wrote during a tumultuous time in the history of the church. They had to correct misunderstandings of the gospel, including who were truly part of the church as well as a broad range of misunderstandings of what God’s grace really meant.

In his first letter, John addressed early church teachings that openly tolerated worldly sin while still claiming one could be in fellowship with Jesus. The apostle shuts that down by saying that only those who “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7) have a true relationship with God. But that doesn’t mean believers in Christ don’t sin (v. 8). Instead, it means that because of their relationship with God, they can confess their sin and enjoy both forgiveness and fellowship no matter how heavy the burden of regret (v. 9).

Freedom in God’s Love

If we confess our sins, [God] . . . will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

If you’ve ever heard the expression “albatross around my neck”—a phrase referring to a tiresome burden—you’ve heard an allusion to English poet Samuel Coleridge’s famous poem “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” In the poem, a sailor shoots and kills a harmless, friendly albatross. The crew believes the mariner’s cruel deed curses their voyage and forces him to wear the dead bird around his neck as punishment.

Are there regrets in your life that feel like a heavy weight around your neck? All of us have moments we’d do anything to take back. It can feel like we’re cursed to carry the weight of our guilt and regret forever.

Yet God’s grace can free our hearts from even the most painful regret. We all have sin (1 John 1:8, 10), but when we honestly confess our burdens to God, we’re promised he “will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (v. 9). As His grace rushes in, His light and love can flow through us (2:10), freeing us to love those around us (3:14).

In Coleridge’s poem, the tormented mariner also eventually experiences this grace. When love for God’s creation rushes into his heart and compels him to pray, the albatross falls off his neck, vanishing forever “like lead into the sea.”

Reflect & Pray

What can feel like an “albatross” around your neck? What does it mean for you to accept God’s grace for your guilt?

Dear God, thank You that the guilt I carry doesn’t exclude me from experiencing Your beauty and grace. Please help me find freedom in Your love today.

Learn more about the power of forgiveness.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Thursday, June 04, 2026

The Never-Failing God

God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” — Hebrews 13:5

What path do my thoughts take? Do they turn to what God says or to what I fear? “God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” If I am listening to God, I won’t simply take his comforting words and leave it at that; I’ll build upon them, adding words of my own: “So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid’” (Hebrews 13:6).

“Never will I leave you.” God has promised that he will never leave us—not for all our sin and selfishness and stubbornness. Have I truly let God say to me that he’ll never leave me? If I have, let me listen again.“Never will I forsake you.” Difficulty isn’t always what makes me think God will forsake me. Sometimes it’s the tedium of the day-to-day, of living with no great challenge to meet, no special vision to pursue, nothing wonderful or beautiful to urge me on. Can I hear God’s promise when life is uninspiring?

We have the idea that God is going to do something exceptional with us, that he’s preparing us for some extraordinary feat. But as we grow in grace, we find that he is glorifying himself through us here and now. If we hold fast to God’s promise, we will find that we have the most amazing strength, and we will learn to sing in the ordinary days and ways.

2 Chronicles 21-22; John 14

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

I have no right to say I believe in God unless I order my life as under His all-seeing Eye.

Disciples Indeed, 385 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Thursday, June 04, 2026

Fishing for Fish, Fishing for People - #10278

June 3, 2026

Scripture:  Luke 19:5

My Dad worked to make the money for our family, so my Dad decided where we went on vacation—fishing. Now some people would consider that a dream vacation, but the high-energy, ten-year-old me? No, I didn’t think so. After just a little while, I was complaining. I was bored, but of course we kept fishing. Did I mention that my Dad made the money? Well, actually, we did have a good catch there and they were good eating. Catching them was fun. Eating them was fun. In between, there was this one step that was less fun - cleaning them. But for that fish to realize its culinary destiny, it had to be cleaned.

I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Fishing for Fish, Fishing for People.”

If you’re a fisherman, you’re probably Jesus’ kind of person. Four of the 12 disciples He called were fishermen by trade. When He summoned them to His service, He said, “Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Mark 1:17). He told Simon Peter, “From now on you will catch men” (Luke 5:10).

So the business of bringing people into a relationship with Jesus Christ apparently has some things in common with fishing. For example, you don’t try to attract the fish with what you’re interested in, but what they’re interested in. Right? Look, I like pizza. I don’t like worms. But if I put pizza on my hook, I’m going home with an empty bucket buddy. I’ve got to offer what will be interesting to the fish I’m trying to attract. And so, that’s how it is with reaching people for Jesus Christ.

If all we offer is religious bait, come to our religious meeting to hear a religious speaker talk on a religious subject in a religious place, we probably won’t attract many of the lost people who need Christ so desperately. But if we’re talking about needs they care about in a place where they feel comfortable, in words they can understand, we have a far better chance of getting them within hearing distance of the gospel.

But there’s another very important fishing principle we need to keep in mind as we present Jesus to the people around us. It’s a principle it seems many believers have never thought about. You ready? You don’t clean fish until you catch them! See, too many times, lost people are judged by us rather than loved by us, because we’re attacking the things they do. And they do those because they’re lost, and instead we should be leading them to the One who will take them from lost to found!

You catch them, then you clean them! Actually, God catches them and cleans them, through you. You can see Jesus working that way in Luke 19, beginning with verse 5, our word for today from the Word of God. The whole town is shocked, scandalized, when Jesus says to Zacchaeus, of all people—the town crook, “I must stay at your house today.” As stunned as anyone, the Bible says Zacchaeus “welcomed him gladly. The people started muttering, ‘He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.’”

But after meeting Jesus and experiencing His unconditional love, Zacchaeus can’t stand his sin anymore. He announces he’s going to make right the dishonest wrongs he has done, “If I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Jesus announced, “Today salvation has come to this house.”

Zacchaeus got clean, but he got caught first! The problem with the lost people you know is not their profanity, not their dishonesty, or not their immorality. They’re lost and they’re living like it! Their real problem is they need a Savior! Yes, they must repent, but that’s part of being rescued by Jesus from their sin! Don’t make their lifestyle the issue. Make Jesus the issue, and say with the great spiritual fisherman, Paul, “When I came to you…I resolved to know nothing…except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:1-2).

If you want to help people be in heaven with you, stick to Jesus. And stick to His cross!

Matthew 26:36-75, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: PRAYER 101 - June 3, 2026

When I pray, I think of a thousand things I need to do. I forget the one thing I set out to do: pray. Can you relate?

But wouldn’t we all like to pray… More? Better? Deeper? Stronger? With more fire, faith, or fervency? Yet we have kids to feed, bills to pay, deadlines to meet. We want to pray, but when? We want to pray, but why? We have our doubts about prayer, our checkered history of unmet expectations, unanswered questions. We aren’t the first. The sign-up for Prayer 101 contains familiar names: John, James, Andrew, and Peter. The first followers of Jesus needed prayer guidance.

Here’s my challenge for you: every day for four weeks, pray four minutes. Then get ready to connect with God like never before.

Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer

Matthew 26:36-75

Then Jesus went with them to a garden called Gethsemane and told his disciples, “Stay here while I go over there and pray.” Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he plunged into an agonizing sorrow. Then he said, “This sorrow is crushing my life out. Stay here and keep vigil with me.”

39  Going a little ahead, he fell on his face, praying, “My Father, if there is any way, get me out of this. But please, not what I want. You, what do you want?”

40–41  When he came back to his disciples, he found them sound asleep. He said to Peter, “Can’t you stick it out with me a single hour? Stay alert; be in prayer so you don’t wander into temptation without even knowing you’re in danger. There is a part of you that is eager, ready for anything in God. But there’s another part that’s as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire.”

42  He then left them a second time. Again he prayed, “My Father, if there is no other way than this, drinking this cup to the dregs, I’m ready. Do it your way.”

43–44  When he came back, he again found them sound asleep. They simply couldn’t keep their eyes open. This time he let them sleep on, and went back a third time to pray, going over the same ground one last time.

45–46  When he came back the next time, he said, “Are you going to sleep on and make a night of it? My time is up, the Son of Man is about to be handed over to the hands of sinners. Get up! Let’s get going! My betrayer is here.”

With Swords and Clubs

47–49  The words were barely out of his mouth when Judas (the one from the Twelve) showed up, and with him a gang from the high priests and religious leaders brandishing swords and clubs. The betrayer had worked out a sign with them: “The one I kiss, that’s the one—seize him.” He went straight to Jesus, greeted him, “How are you, Rabbi?” and kissed him.

50–51  Jesus said, “Friend, why this charade?”

Then they came on him—grabbed him and roughed him up. One of those with Jesus pulled his sword and, taking a swing at the Chief Priest’s servant, cut off his ear.

52–54  Jesus said, “Put your sword back where it belongs. All who use swords are destroyed by swords. Don’t you realize that I am able right now to call to my Father, and twelve companies—more, if I want them—of fighting angels would be here, battle-ready? But if I did that, how would the Scriptures come true that say this is the way it has to be?”

55–56  Then Jesus addressed the mob: “What is this—coming out after me with swords and clubs as if I were a dangerous criminal? Day after day I have been sitting in the Temple teaching, and you never so much as lifted a hand against me. You’ve done it this way to confirm and fulfill the prophetic writings.”

Then all the disciples cut and ran.

False Charges

57–58  The gang that had seized Jesus led him before Caiaphas the Chief Priest, where the religion scholars and leaders had assembled. Peter followed at a safe distance until they got to the Chief Priest’s courtyard. Then he slipped in and mingled with the servants, watching to see how things would turn out.

59–60  The high priests, conspiring with the Jewish Council, tried to cook up charges against Jesus in order to sentence him to death. But even though many stepped up, making up one false accusation after another, nothing was believable.

60–61  Finally two men came forward with this: “He said, ‘I can tear down this Temple of God and after three days rebuild it.’ ”

62  The Chief Priest stood up and said, “What do you have to say to the accusation?”

63  Jesus kept silent.

Then the Chief Priest said, “I command you by the authority of the living God to say if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”

64  Jesus was curt: “You yourself said it. And that’s not all. Soon you’ll see it for yourself:

The Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Mighty One,

Arriving on the clouds of heaven.”

65–66  At that, the Chief Priest lost his temper, ripping his robes, yelling, “He blasphemed! Why do we need witnesses to accuse him? You all heard him blaspheme! Are you going to stand for such blasphemy?”

They all said, “Death! That seals his death sentence.”

67–68  Then they were spitting in his face and banging him around. They jeered as they slapped him: “Prophesy, Messiah: Who hit you that time?”

Denial in the Courtyard

69  All this time, Peter was sitting out in the courtyard. One servant girl came up to him and said, “You were with Jesus the Galilean.”

70  In front of everybody there, he denied it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

71  As he moved over toward the gate, someone else said to the people there, “This man was with Jesus the Nazarene.”

72  Again he denied it, salting his denial with an oath: “I swear, I never laid eyes on the man.”

73  Shortly after that, some bystanders approached Peter. “You’ve got to be one of them. Your accent gives you away.”

74–75  Then he got really nervous and swore. “I don’t know the man!”

Just then a rooster crowed. Peter remembered what Jesus had said: “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” He went out and cried and cried and cried.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Wednesday, June 03, 2026

by Winn Collier

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

1 Samuel 16:14-23

David—An Excellent Musician

14  At that very moment the Spirit of God left Saul and in its place a black mood sent by God settled on him. He was terrified.

15–16  Saul’s advisors said, “This awful tormenting depression from God is making your life miserable. O Master, let us help. Let us look for someone who can play the harp. When the black mood from God moves in, he’ll play his music and you’ll feel better.”

17  Saul told his servants, “Go ahead. Find me someone who can play well and bring him to me.”

18  One of the young men spoke up, “I know someone. I’ve seen him myself: the son of Jesse of Bethlehem, an excellent musician. He’s also courageous, of age, well-spoken, and good-looking. And God is with him.”

19  So Saul sent messengers to Jesse requesting, “Send your son David to me, the one who tends the sheep.”

20–21  Jesse took a donkey, loaded it with a couple of loaves of bread, a flask of wine, and a young goat, and sent his son David with it to Saul. David came to Saul and stood before him. Saul liked him immediately and made him his right-hand man.

22  Saul sent word back to Jesse: “Thank you. David will stay here. He’s just the one I was looking for. I’m very impressed by him.”

23  After that, whenever the bad depression from God tormented Saul, David got out his harp and played. That would calm Saul down, and he would feel better as the moodiness lifted.

Today's Insights

In the ancient Near East, it was common for court musicians to be hired for reasons such as entertainment or religious ceremonies. In the case of King Saul in 1 Samuel 16, his attendants believed his mental torment would be eased by lyre music (v. 16). Since David was a skilled lyre player as well as a warrior (v. 18), he became both a musician and armor-bearer—carrying Saul’s shield and weapons (vv. 21-23). David’s father, Jesse, sent gifts of food and wine with David (vv. 19-20), perhaps showing gratitude for the honor of having his son chosen to serve the king. Today, we can remember that God can use music to renew our hope and bring us joy.

The Power of Music

David would take up his lyre and play. Then relief would come to Saul. 1 Samuel 16:23

On November 21, 1915, the hope of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his twenty-seven crew members sank, along with their ship Endurance, into the darkness below the Antarctic ice. They were stranded thousands of miles from home. Later, the crew shared several things that aided their survival, including a banjo. Embarking on their brutal trek, Leonard Hussey (the expedition’s meteorologist) was the only person allowed more than two pounds of personal gear. He was allowed to bring his twelve-pound Windsor banjo. “It’s vital mental medicine,” Shackleton told Hussey, “and we shall need it.” The crew’s journals explained the power of Hussey’s music. “The banjo does . . . supply brain food,” wrote one sailor. Another reflected on “Hussey’s indispensable banjo.” 

The Bible presents music as one of God’s immense gifts, a way His healing and comfort enter the human heart. In the tragic story of King Saul, we hear how (due to his disobedience) he was oppressed by an “evil spirit” (1 Samuel 16:14). And what did Saul’s attendants believe the king needed to provide relief? Music. So they found young David with his harp: “David would take up his lyre and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him” (v. 23).

Music offers more than mere entertainment. It can bring joy, renew hope, and comfort weary souls. It’s truly one of God’s powerful gifts.

Reflect & Pray

What encouragement has music offered you? How has it deepened your relationship with God?

Dear God, thank You for the gift of music!

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Wednesday, June 03, 2026

The Secret Of The Lord

The Lord confides in those who fear him. — Psalm 25:14

What is the sign of true friends? That they tell you secret sorrows? No, that they tell you secret joys. Many people will confide to you their secret sorrows, but the ultimate sign of intimacy is confiding secret joys. Have we ever let God tell us his joys? Or are we so busy telling God our secrets that we leave no room for him to talk to us?

At the beginning of our Christian life, our prayers are full of requests. Then we discover that what God wants is to bring us, through prayer, into a personal relationship with him so that he can reveal his will. Jesus Christ’s idea of prayer is, “Your will be done” (Matthew 26:42). Are we so committed to this way of praying that we catch the intimate secrets of God? God may bring us great big blessings, but it is the small, secret things that make us love him, because they show his amazing intimacy with us. They show that he knows every detail of our lives.

“He will instruct them in the ways they should choose” (Psalm 25:12). At the start of our life of faith, we want to be conscious of God guiding us. But as we go on, we no longer need to ask what his will is; the thought of choosing anything else no longer occurs to us. If we are saved and sanctified, God instructs us in every choice we make, guiding our common sense and alerting us when we are in danger of choosing something he doesn’t want. When God checks us in this way, we must obey. Never reason it out and say, “I wonder why I shouldn’t.” Whenever there is doubt, don’t.

2 Chronicles 19-20; John 13:21-38

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The great point of Abraham’s faith in God was that he was prepared to do anything for God. 

Not Knowing Whither, 903 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Wednesday, June 03, 2026

The Dark and Lonely Stretches - #10277

June 2, 2026

Scripture:  Romans 8:39

When you’re a five-year-old girl, going to dark places can be pretty scary. When my wife was that age, she lived in the country and she had this long, often dark road that she walked to get to the school bus. Part of the way, there was a grandma, and then there was a neighbor who watched and waved at her as long as she was in sight. See, it was that last stretch that was the problem. Trees covering that road, making it dark on the sunniest day, and sounds in the woods that reminded her of those wild critters that lived in their area. She told me how she made it down that stretch. She said, “There was one thing that got me through every day. I sang this little song, ‘Jesus loves me, this I know.’”

I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “The Dark and Lonely Stretches.”

It was years later and my honey’s beloved grandfather was 94 years old. Little did we know that one particular call to him would be her last. It was brief, but it was memorable. Granddad was at the point where he often didn’t recognize even the people closest to him even though they had a pretty small family. When my wife called, she identified herself, and he responded, “I don’t know who this is.” She again gave her name and reminded him that she was his granddaughter, the daughter of his only son. Just a chuckle on the other end, and Granddad said, “I don’t know who this is.” Then, when she told him she loved him, he seemed a little embarrassed. "Who is this strange woman saying she loves me?"

That’s when my wife said, “Well, Granddad, that’s OK. Because all that matters is that you know that Jesus loves you.” We will never forget his suddenly animated response: “Now Him I know!” Think about it: a scared little girl, walking a stretch she had to walk alone; a grandfather, walking the final stretch of life so many have to walk alone. Each of them, at opposite ends of life, finding their anchor in the very same place—in the same person—in their personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

He wants to be your anchor for every dark, every lonely stretch you're going to ever walk—including that final stretch. The one the Bible calls “the valley of the shadow of death.” The writer of that 23rd Psalm put it this way, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.” One “unloseable” relationship that not even death can interrupt. The one that you were made for that you were never meant to lose.

The Bible says of Jesus that we were all “created by Him and created for Him” (Colossians 1:16). Problem: we haven’t lived for Him. We’ve chosen to usurp the throne of our life, to do what we want, not what God wants. So life is lonely and meaningless because we’re away from the One we were made for. And only the death of the Son of God could pay the penalty for that sin.

And how do you know you can count on Jesus for every stretch of the road? Well, our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 8:39, “Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That’s your ironclad promise from the one who’s never broken a promise.

He’s coming where you are today, offering you this relationship that He actually died to give you. If He wouldn’t turn His back on you when loving you meant dying for you, He will never turn His back on you. But you have to open your life to Him. Trust Him totally. Would you do that today? Tell Him, “Jesus, You’re my only hope. I’m Yours beginning today.” When you do that, that’s how your anchor relationship with Jesus begins.

I want you to be sure beyond any shadow of a doubt that you have got this settled with God once and for all. That's why I’m urging you to go to our website's today. It’s ANewStory.com. There you'll see the information that will help you be sure you belong to Jesus.

This is the only love that will not desert you, never divorce you, never disappoint you, and never die on you. From the moment you give yourself to Jesus, He's going to walk with you every step of the way—all the way to heaven.

Psalm 69, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: PRAYER IS PORTABLE - June 2, 2026

Some people excel in prayer. They are the SEAL Team Six of intercession. They’d rather pray than sleep. Why is it I sleep when I pray? It’s not that we don’t pray at all; we all pray some. Surveys indicate one in five unbelievers prays daily. Just in case, perhaps?

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, he gave them a prayer. A quotable, repeatable, portable prayer. Could you use the same? “Father, You are good. I need help. Heal me and forgive me. They need help. Thank you. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

Here’s my challenge for you: every day for 4 weeks, pray four minutes. Then get ready to connect with God like never before.

Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer

Psalm 69

A David Psalm

1  69 God, God, save me!

I’m in over my head,

2  Quicksand under me, swamp water over me;

I’m going down for the third time.

3  I’m hoarse from calling for help,

Bleary-eyed from searching the sky for God.

4  I’ve got more enemies than hairs on my head;

Sneaks and liars are out to knife me in the back.

What I never stole

Must I now give back?

5  God, you know every sin I’ve committed;

My life’s a wide-open book before you.

6  Don’t let those who look to you in hope

Be discouraged by what happens to me,

Dear Lord! God of the armies!

Don’t let those out looking for you

Come to a dead end by following me—

Please, dear God of Israel!

7  Because of you I look like an idiot,

I walk around ashamed to show my face.

8  My brothers shun me like a bum off the street;

My family treats me like an unwanted guest.

9  I love you more than I can say.

Because I’m madly in love with you,

They blame me for everything they dislike about you.

10  When I poured myself out in prayer and fasting,

All it got me was more contempt.

11  When I put on a sad face,

They treated me like a clown.

12  Now drunks and gluttons

Make up drinking songs about me.

13  And me? I pray.

God, it’s time for a break!

God, answer in love!

Answer with your sure salvation!

14  Rescue me from the swamp,

Don’t let me go under for good,

Pull me out of the clutch of the enemy;

This whirlpool is sucking me down.

15  Don’t let the swamp be my grave, the Black Hole

Swallow me, its jaws clenched around me.

16  Now answer me, God, because you love me;

Let me see your great mercy full-face.

17  Don’t look the other way; your servant can’t take it.

I’m in trouble. Answer right now!

18  Come close, God; get me out of here.

Rescue me from this deathtrap.

19  You know how they kick me around—

Pin on me the donkey’s ears, the dunce’s cap.

20  I’m broken by their taunts,

Flat on my face, reduced to a nothing.

I looked in vain for one friendly face. Not one.

I couldn’t find one shoulder to cry on.

21  They put poison in my soup,

Vinegar in my drink.

22  Let their supper be bait in a trap that snaps shut;

May their best friends be trappers who’ll skin them alive.

23  Make them become blind as bats,

Give them the shakes from morning to night.

24  Let them know what you think of them,

Blast them with your red-hot anger.

25  Burn down their houses,

Leave them desolate with nobody at home.

26  They gossiped about the one you disciplined,

Made up stories about anyone wounded by God.

27  Pile on the guilt,

Don’t let them off the hook.

28  Strike their names from the list of the living;

No rock-carved honor for them among the righteous.

29  I’m hurt and in pain;

Give me space for healing, and mountain air.

30  Let me shout God’s name with a praising song,

Let me tell his greatness in a prayer of thanks.

31  For God, this is better than oxen on the altar,

Far better than blue-ribbon bulls.

32  The poor in spirit see and are glad—

Oh, you God-seekers, take heart!

33  For God listens to the poor,

He doesn’t walk out on the wretched.

34  You heavens, praise him; praise him, earth;

Also ocean and all things that swim in it.

35  For God is out to help Zion,

Rebuilding the wrecked towns of Judah.

Guess who will live there—

The proud owners of the land?

36  No, the children of his servants will get it,

The lovers of his name will live in it.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Tuesday, June 02, 2026

by Leslie Koh

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE

Philippians 2:12-13, 3:12-16

Rejoicing Together

12–13  What I’m getting at, friends, is that you should simply keep on doing what you’ve done from the beginning. When I was living among you, you lived in responsive obedience. Now that I’m separated from you, keep it up. Better yet, redouble your efforts. Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure.

Focused on the Goal

12–14  I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.

15–16  So let’s keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision—you’ll see it yet! Now that we’re on the right track, let’s stay on it.

Today's Insights

In today’s text, the apostle Paul encourages us by his example to “press on toward the goal to win the prize” (Philippians 3:14). Elsewhere he writes, “I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace” (Acts 20:24). Paul’s goal is to be more like Christ and to spread the gospel, and the ultimate “prize” (Philippians 3:14) he refers to is eternal life with Jesus (vv. 10-11, 20-21). The reward isn’t based on our deeds. In Ephesians 2, he states, “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (v. 8). Good works are evidence of God’s Spirit working in and through us. As God enables us, we can strive to live holy and faithful lives.

Our Part, God’s Part

It is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Philippians 2:13

In Singapore, the government encourages people to support good causes by donation-matching. It “tops up” donations to specific charities by contributing an equal amount or more. By effectively multiplying people’s contributions, it hopes to encourage them to become more involved in charitable giving.

This two-pronged approach reminds me of how believers in Jesus are called to God’s standards of holiness in our discipleship journey. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul urges them “to work out [their] salvation” (2:12) and “press on” (3:12, 14). At the same time, he stresses that “it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (2:13).

Believers in Jesus aren’t made right with God by good works or performance. But there is an idea of partnership in our spiritual growth. It requires heart and effort on our part, yet we do not do it by human strength. Having saved us by grace, God calls us to be holy—set apart for Him—and we respond in sincerity and gratitude. As we seek to obey and please Him, He enables and helps us to do so. He shows us when we go wrong (Philippians 3:15), gives us strength to resist temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13), and empowers us to do what’s right in His eyes (Ephesians 2:10).

Reflect & Pray

What are your biggest challenges in seeking to be faithful and pleasing to God? How can you rely more on the Holy Spirit’s strength?

Holy God, please help me to be holy and faithful in my journey, for I know that You desire me to be like Your Son Jesus.

Learn more here about having a personal relationship with God

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Tuesday, June 02, 2026

What Are You Haunted By?

Who, then, are those who fear the Lord? — Psalm 25:12

What are you haunted by? “Nothing,” you will say. But we are all haunted by something. Usually we are haunted by ourselves or, if we are Christians, by our spiritual experience. The psalmist says we must be haunted by God—that it is God alone we must fear.

To be haunted by the Lord is to make him the ruling consciousness of our lives. A child’s consciousness is so mother-haunted that although children are not always consciously thinking of their mother, they instinctively seek their mother whenever a crisis arises. In the same way, we are to live and move and have our being in God. The whole of our life, inside and out, is to be absolutely dominated by his presence.

If we are haunted by God, nothing else can get in—no worries, no distractions, no troubles. We see now why our Lord so emphasized the sin of worrying (Matthew 6:25–34). How dare we be so unbelieving when God is all around?

“His soul shall dwell at ease” (Psalm 25:13 KJV). In tribulation, misunderstanding, and slander—in the midst of all these things—if our life is hidden with Christ in God, he will keep us in peace. We rob ourselves of the marvelous revelation of this abiding companionship. “God is our refuge and strength” (Psalm 46:1). Nothing can get through this shelter.

2 Chronicles 17-18; John 13:1-20

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

It is an easy thing to argue from precedent because it makes everything simple, but it is a risky thing to do. Give God “elbow room”; let Him come into His universe as He pleases. If we confine God in His working to religious people or to certain ways, we place ourselves on an equality with God. 

Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Tuesday, June 02, 2026

Fighting Temptation Before it Hits - #10276

June 1, 2026

Scripture:  Daniel 1:8

It seems like I’ve been on a diet since I was about six months old, or at least it seems that way. My “thorn in my flesh” could be my metabolism. Is that possible? It refuses to convert calories; it loves to store calories instead. Now, over the years, I’ve made friends with my metabolism, and thankfully I was able to knock off a good amount of that. I’ve learned how much intake I can stand in relation to how much I’ll be doing that day. The problem is that the day is filled with caloric choices, whether it’s a nibble on those snacks that somebody brought to the office, or getting a sandwich from the deli like everybody else is, or eating that tempting dinner that someone has prepared.

I’ve learned a fundamental principle of how to control your weight. You have to decide in advance what you’re going to do. You choose your lunch fare before your appetite or your opportunity chooses for you. I have to decide in the morning what I’m going to do about lunch. And you decide early in the day that perhaps you’re not going to eat dinner or you’re going to figure out a very low-calorie dinner. In fact, pre-choosing? That’s actually the way to control of any part of your life.

I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Fighting Temptation Before it Hits.”

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Daniel 1:8. Daniel is actually a captive in another country; he is in Babylon. The Jews have been carried away to captivity there. He’s been identified as kind of a leadership prospect, and he and some of his friends are kind of in the leadership academy there, and he’s being asked to eat food that is forbidden to him by his Jewish faith. He says he won’t do it.

The Bible puts it this way, “Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself in this way.” He goes ahead and eats a diet that is consistent with his convictions and he ends up stronger than any of those who ate the prescribed diet.

Notice here his resolution came before – ahead of time – that he was not going to eat it. Then he took action to support that choice. He had already resolved what he would not eat. See, most of us don’t do that; we make situational choices. Right in the middle of it we’ll say, “I’ll see how I feel. I’ll see how it’s going. I’ll see which way the wind’s blowing. I’ll see how it goes. I’ll see what the circumstances are.” Well, that’s a good way to get blown away spiritually by temptation.

Remember this, the key to no-regrets choices is deciding in advance. I guess Sampson had never really made up his mind how far he would go. And with Delilah he lost his leadership and he lost his life. But Daniel, in contrast, knew where his line was and became one of God’s great leaders. He had decided in advance.

Now, if you’re facing a situation where you’ll be tempted to give away what you’ll later wish you hadn’t, decide in advance how you’re going to handle it. That’s nowhere more crucial than in keeping sex pure and special. You set your line sometime when you’re alone with your Lord, and then you don’t violate that boundary. You don’t let your glands decide. Your glands make lousy choices.

Maybe you’re in a situation where you’re going to be tempted to tell something less than the truth. Well, you’ve got to decide now to tell the truth and what truth you’ll tell. It might be a situation where you’re going to be offered a chance to sin possibly. Would you decide now how you’re going to answer? We live in a world where 99% of the pressure is to not do it God’s way. If you wait and see how it’s going to go, I know how it’s going to go – so do you. You’ll make a wrong choice.

No, you see, like a dieter, you have to know now what you’re going to do then. Remember, the key to no-regrets choices is deciding in advance.