Max Lucado Daily: PRAY LIKE CHILDREN - June 12, 2026
We prayer wimps fear mis-praying. What’s the expected etiquette and dress code of prayer? What if we kneel instead of stand? Jesus’ answer is in Matthew 18:3 when he says, “Become as little children.” Carefree. Joy filled. Playful. Trusting. Curious. Trust more—strut less.
God prefers this greeting: “God, you are my Daddy, and I am your child!” It’s hard to show off and call God “Daddy” at the same time. Impossible, in fact. Remember, prayer doesn’t depend on how you pray. The power of prayer depends on the One who hears the prayer.
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
2 Samuel 22
David prayed to God the words of this song after God saved him from all his enemies and from Saul.
2–3 God is bedrock under my feet,
the castle in which I live,
my rescuing knight.
My God—the high crag
where I run for dear life,
hiding behind the boulders,
safe in the granite hideout;
My mountaintop refuge,
he saves me from ruthless men.
4 I sing to God the Praise-Lofty,
and find myself safe and saved.
5–6 The waves of death crashed over me,
devil waters rushed over me.
Hell’s ropes cinched me tight;
death traps barred every exit.
7 A hostile world! I called to God,
to my God I cried out.
From his palace he heard me call;
my cry brought me right into his presence—
a private audience!
8–16 Earth wobbled and lurched;
the very heavens shook like leaves,
Quaked like aspen leaves
because of his rage.
His nostrils flared, billowing smoke;
his mouth spit fire.
Tongues of fire darted in and out;
he lowered the sky.
He stepped down;
under his feet an abyss opened up.
He rode a winged creature,
swift on wind-wings.
He wrapped himself
in a trenchcoat of black rain-cloud darkness.
But his cloud-brightness burst through,
a grand comet of fireworks.
Then God thundered out of heaven;
the High God gave a great shout.
God shot his arrows—pandemonium!
He hurled his lightnings—a rout!
The secret sources of ocean were exposed,
the hidden depths of earth lay uncovered
The moment God roared in protest,
let loose his hurricane anger.
17–20 But me he caught—reached all the way
from sky to sea; he pulled me out
Of that ocean of hate, that enemy chaos,
the void in which I was drowning.
They hit me when I was down,
but God stuck by me.
He stood me up on a wide-open field;
I stood there saved—surprised to be loved!
21–25 God made my life complete
when I placed all the pieces before him.
When I cleaned up my act,
he gave me a fresh start.
Indeed, I’ve kept alert to God’s ways;
I haven’t taken God for granted.
Every day I review the ways he works,
I try not to miss a trick.
I feel put back together,
and I’m watching my step.
God rewrote the text of my life
when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes.
26–28 You stick by people who stick with you,
you’re straight with people who’re straight with you,
You’re good to good people,
you shrewdly work around the bad ones.
You take the side of the down-and-out,
but the stuck-up you take down a peg.
29–31 Suddenly, God, your light floods my path,
God drives out the darkness.
I smash the bands of marauders,
I vault the high fences.
What a God! His road
stretches straight and smooth.
Every God-direction is road-tested.
Everyone who runs toward him
Makes it.
32–46 Is there any god like God?
Are we not at bedrock?
Is not this the God who armed me well,
then aimed me in the right direction?
Now I run like a deer;
I’m king of the mountain.
He shows me how to fight;
I can bend a bronze bow!
You protect me with salvation-armor;
you touch me and I feel ten feet tall.
You cleared the ground under me
so my footing was firm.
When I chased my enemies I caught them;
I didn’t let go till they were dead men.
I nailed them; they were down for good;
then I walked all over them.
You armed me well for this fight;
you smashed the upstarts.
You made my enemies turn tail,
and I wiped out the haters.
They cried “uncle”
but Uncle didn’t come;
They yelled for God
and got no for an answer.
I ground them to dust; they gusted in the wind.
I threw them out, like garbage in the gutter.
You rescued me from a squabbling people;
you made me a leader of nations.
People I’d never heard of served me;
the moment they got wind of me they submitted.
They gave up; they came trembling from their hideouts.
47–51 Live, God! Blessing to my Rock,
my towering Salvation-God!
This God set things right for me
and shut up the people who talked back.
He rescued me from enemy anger.
You pulled me from the grip of upstarts,
You saved me from the bullies.
That’s why I’m thanking you, God,
all over the world.
That’s why I’m singing songs
that rhyme your name.
God’s king takes the trophy;
God’s chosen is beloved.
I mean David and all his children—
always.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, June 11, 2026
by Patricia Raybon
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Romans 5:6-8
Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.
Today's Insights
Romans 5:6-10 uses several unflattering terms to describe those who were apart from God: powerless, ungodly, sinners, enemies. Verse 6 says that “when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” The Greek word for powerless is asthenes, which means “without strength,” “feeble,” “weak,” “infirm.” Ungodly is the word asebes, which describes one who is “destitute of reverential awe toward God.” Paul says that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (v. 8). The Greek word for sinners (hamartolos) describes one who is “devoted to sin,” “wicked ones.” Finally, the apostle describes those apart from God as enemies (v. 10).
The same passage that highlights human despair, however, includes rays of brilliant hope—God’s love expressed through Jesus’ death (v. 8). Because of God’s love and grace, believers are now alive in Christ and can show His beauty to those around us.
Learn more about evangelism in the Twenty-first Century.
Seasons of Love
At just the right time . . . Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8
Flowers don’t have to be in bloom to be beautiful, says famed landscape designer Piet Oudolf. Even in the dead of winter, the Dutch gardener’s award-winning designs are known for their stunning appeal. “Beauty is in so many things you wouldn’t think of,” Oudolf says, although some may disagree. “The moment you say I love plants that are dead [dormant],” he said, “then you have a problem because people don’t like dead plants.”
Oudolf’s appreciation of plants’ life cycles echoes a core spiritual principle: While we were dead in our sins, God still loved us. “You see,” explained the apostle Paul, “at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). Paul continued, “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (v. 8).
Jesus chose disciples with flaws. He ate meals with known sinners. He healed outcasts. Oudolf, likewise, is “interested in plants not only for their flowers, but also for their personality”—seeing beauty “in things that, on first sight, are not beautiful.”
As bearers of God’s image, we show Him to the world in how we relate to Him and each other. Planted in His love, we’re anointed by our Father to bloom anew in Him—once-dead sinners showing His beauty to a world longing for a glimpse of Him.
Reflect & Pray
In what season of your life did God call you? How can you spiritually bloom so others can see His image in you?
You called me when I was dead in my sins, dear God. Thank You for saving me to bloom anew in You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, June 11, 2026
Come with Me
They said, “Rabbi . . . , where are you staying?” “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went . . . and they spent that day with him. — John 1:38-39
Some of us never spend more than a day with Jesus before our worries and self-interest come flooding in. We break our fellowship with the Lord, imagining that it is impossible to abide in him when circumstances are hard. We have to learn that there is no condition of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus.
“You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (John 1:42). God writes our new name in the places where he has erased our pride and self-sufficiency. Some of us have the new name only in spots—like spiritual chicken pox. When we have our best spiritual mood on, we act like saints. But don’t look at us when we’re not in that mood!
Disciples are those who have the new name written all over them. Their pride and self-sufficiency have been completely erased. Pride is the deification of self, but there are many forms of pride. Today, many of us are prideful not like the Pharisee, who was obsessed with his own virtue, but like the tax collector, who was so humble he “would not even look up to heaven” (Luke 18:13). To say “Oh, I’m no saint” sounds humble to human ears, but humility before people may be unconscious blasphemy before God. It means that you think God can’t make you righteous, that you’re so weak and hopeless the atonement can’t reach you.
Why aren’t you righteous? Either you don’t want to be or you don’t think God can accomplish it. There would be no problem, you say, if God had taken you to heaven the instant you were saved. That is just what he will do! “My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23). Make no excuses. Let Jesus be everything, and he will take you home with him not only for a day but for always.
Ezra 3-5; John 20
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
When we no longer seek God for His blessings, we have time to seek Him for Himself.
The Moral Foundations of Life, 728 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, June 11, 2026
Never Home Alone - #10285
Scripture: Romans 8:37
I grew up as an only child. My parents took me to most of the places that they went, but I remember one time they left me home by myself. I was home alone. (You know, maybe somebody could make a movie about that someday.) Well, anyway, we lived in this third floor apartment on the south side of Chicago. It was getting very late. I was sitting near the back door waiting and they should have been home by now. I was worried. I remember hearing sirens and I thought, “Oh, no!” Okay, my imagination went crazy; it was taking me all over the place. I was thinking of all the bad things that might have happened to my parents. I was already there and then the sirens came. I was sure the sirens were for my mommy and my daddy, but they weren’t. But the fear I had that night was so great (how about this?) - I still remember it don’t I?
I’m Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about “Never Home Alone.”
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Romans 8, beginning with verse 37. You probably know this fear of abandonment that I had that night. That's not unique to me, or even to a child. I’m thinking of a friend of ours who struggled her whole life with the fear of abandonment. She was left by her parents a lot because they were in mission work and there were a lot of “goodbyes” and she was always vulnerable to some bad choices because she was always afraid that she’d lose what she loved and what loved her.
All right, Romans 8:37, referring to the most dangerous things that could happen to you in your life, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced (boy, here's the best news you might have ever heard) that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future (boy, this has got everything covered!), nor any powers, neither height nor depth (and that's like just in case I've forgotten anything), neither anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.”
This is where God promises one unloseable relationship. God created us to anchor ourselves to one relationship. The problem is that every other relationship on earth is losable. I think of the night when my wife was almost dying from hepatitis, and we weren’t sure she’d make it. And I knelt by her bed and I said, “Dear God, please spare her.” And I thank Him that He did spare her life. But that night I almost lost the one relationship I thought would never leave me. She said she would never choose to leave and I would never choose to leave her, but you know what? There come those times when the choice is out of our hands. One day that choice did come and now she’s in Heaven and I’m still here.
See, you need a relationship you can’t lose, and you can’t take Jesus away. He will not leave you—ever. He is the unloseable one. Any human love I receive, well, that's a welcome bonus, but my identity is supposed to be knowing Jesus. So, do you know Him? See, life is never secure until you belong to Christ. That begins the day you get your sin erased by putting your faith in what Jesus did when he died on the cross for that sin and then you’re in His arms to stay.
Nothing in heaven, nothing on earth, nothing in hell can take you away from Him. You’ve had your sins forgiven. The only thing that will keep you out of God’s heaven is gone because you’ve put your trust in the One who died to remove those sins—Jesus, His One and only Son who’s alive because He walked out of His grave. He can walk into your life today.
He said, “I will never leave you or forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). And you decide whether that relationship ever begins, and you decide when it begins. Let it be today. Tell Him, “Jesus, I’m Yours.”
You need to get to our website to find there everything you need to know to be sure you belong to Him. That website is ANewStory.com.
The child in all of us hears the sirens. We imagine life without someone who loves us and we fear a future alone, and then Jesus steps in at your invitation and makes this awesome promise, “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20).
