Daily Hope Devotional

 “Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from Him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God — truly righteous and holy.” (Ephesians 4:21-24 NLT) You will never change the things in your life that you know are defective unless you learn the truth. Change requires learning the truth. Jesus said, “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32 NLT). You’re not going to be free until you know the truth. The secret to personal change is not a pill, program, or process. It’s not therapy, a book, or a seminar. It’s not positive thinking or psychology. The proof of personal change is found in the truth. You have to know and face the truth about yourself, God, and your relationships before you can change. Behind every self-defeating behavior in your li

“If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.” (1 John 1:8 NLT) We’re all defective. We all have parts of our lives that simply don’t work. None of us measure up to a standard of perfection. To pretend like you’ve got it all together when everybody knows you don’t is silly. In fact, the Bible tells us it’s self-deception. You will never be sinless on this planet, but it is possible to sin less. So why is it so hard to change stuff in us that we really don’t like? • Because we’ve had our defects so long. Some of our destructive patterns were developed in childhood, perhaps in resistance to a pain or as a stress coping devise. These defects may be self-defeating, but at least they’re familiar! • Because we identify with our defects. We often confuse our identity with our defects. When you see yourself connected to your defect, you set yourself up to perpetuate it. • Because our defects have a payoff. Whatever is rewarded gets repeated.

“Since we are His children, we will possess the blessings He keeps for His people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for Him; for if we share Christ's suffering, we will also share His glory. I consider that what we suffer at this present time cannot be compared at all with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:17-18 GNT) A famous Harvard study once showed a direct connection between long-term thinking and success. The more people focused on short-term gain, the more likely they were to fail. Those who focus on what “feels good” right now are doomed to be unsuccessful. For Christians, this should be easy. When we talk of long-term thinking, we call it eternity. We’re not thinking 40 or 50 years into the future. We’re thinking trillions and trillions of years in the future. Living with eternity in mind will make you the most successful person possible. When you think long-term, you can handle the momentary problems that come your way.

“Those who are led by God's Spirit are God's children. For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God's children, and by the Spirit's power we cry out to God, ‘Father! my Father!’ God's Spirit joins Himself to our spirits to declare that we are God's children.” (Romans 8:14-16 GNT) When I was a kid, I didn’t get scared often. I played fearlessly. But whenever I did get scared, I always cried out to my daddy. I knew he was strong. I knew he could take on anyone. That’s what you and I are called to do when we’re scared, too. Stop focusing on your fear. Focus on your Father. Ask God for help. Romans 8:14-16 says, “Those who are led by God's Spirit are God's children. For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God's children, and by the Spirit's power we cry out to God, ‘Father! My Father!’

“But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are now controlled by the Spirit, if you have the Spirit of God living in you.” (Romans 8:9 NLT) Some people today insist that we should just give in to any desire that comes our way. It’s a destructive mindset. Just because you have the desire to eat an entire chocolate cake doesn’t mean it’s good for you. Romans 8:9 says, “But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are now controlled by the Spirit, if you have the Spirit of God living in you” (NLT). Before you became a believer, you only had willpower to fight against temptations. But it never was enough. You were relatively powerless against the great cravings that drove you. As a believer, now you’ve got the Holy Spirit — and a new ability to say “no.” You still have the same compulsions, desires, lusts, and impulses you had before you began a relationship with Jesus, but now the power of God resides inside of you. Now you can say “no.” Galatians 5:16 sa

“Yet hope returns when I remember this one thing: The Lord's unfailing love and mercy still continue, fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise. The Lord is all I have, and so in Him I put my hope.” (Lamentations 3:21-24 GNT) Pain is a natural part of life. You can’t escape it. Broken relationships, missed opportunities, and rough seasons of life will always be with us. When they do come, you can either become bitter or hopeful. The choice is yours. Jeremiah faced the same choice. When his world came apart after Jerusalem was sacked in 586 B.C., the prophet wrote the book of Lamentations to share his honest frustrations with God. But he didn’t settle in his bitterness and stay there. In Lamentations 3:21-24, after sharing his bitter feelings, he wrote, “Yet hope returns when I remember this one thing: The Lord's unfailing love and mercy still continue, fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise. The Lord is all I have, and so in Him I put my hope” (GNT). In th

“I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.” (Romans 7:22-23 NLT) You have a war inside of you that will rage for your entire life between who you used to be and who you’ve become in Jesus Christ. Paul, the most decorated missionary in the history of Christianity and the author of most of the New Testament, battled with it. The Bible says in Romans 7:22-23, “I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me” (Romans 7:22-23 NLT). I hate to tell you this, but you’ll always have this battle. You’ll never outgrow it. You can’t read enough Scripture to make the temptations go away. You can’t hide from them. Until you get to Heaven, you’re stuck with an all-out battle between your two natures. I’ve been a believer for a long time, but my old natu

“Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so God can heal you. When a believing person prays, great things happen.” (James 5:16 NCV) People don’t go to war by themselves. It would be a suicide mission. Someone has to have your back. You need a battle buddy. The same is true in the spiritual battles we all face. You can’t go to war against lustful thoughts, dishonesty, addictions, and fear by yourself. You’ll be doomed to fail. If all you want is to be forgiven, admit your sin and brokenness to God. If you want to make a change, admit it to someone else. Revealing your sin is the beginning of healing. You don’t have to admit your sin to everyone. But you need to admit it to someone. You need one person who’ll love you unconditionally, accept you completely, and pray for you constantly. You need someone of the same gender to be open and honest with. The Bible says in James 5:16 “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so God can heal you. Whe

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8 NIV) We lie to ourselves all the time: “I haven’t gained any weight. I’m not hurting anyone. No one even noticed.” But one lie is more dangerous than most: “It’s not really a problem.” You tell yourself that your finances aren’t a problem, your marriage isn’t in trouble, and your temper isn't out of control. Lying to ourselves is the number one way we mess up our lives. The Bible says,  “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8 NIV). Sin causes us to deceive ourselves, and deception causes us to sin. Behind every self-defeating act in our lives is a lie we’ve believed. Either we've lied to ourselves or we’ve believed one of Satan’s lies. The Bible says our heart is “deceitful above all things” (Jeremiah 17:9). You and I have an amazing ability to lie to ourselves. So stop it! Stop rationalizing. Stop minimizing your behavi

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12 NIV) You may not realize it, but you’re at war. You may not wear military fatigues. You may not eat at a mess hall. You may not dodge physical bullets. But you’re in a war — an invisible one. It’s called spiritual warfare. You’ll be in the war from the moment you’re born until the moment you die.                                                     The Bible tells us that you have three mortal enemies out to destroy your life and everything God wants to do through it: • The world — the dominant value system around us. • The flesh — the old nature within you. • The Devil — a real being that's out to “kill, steal, and destroy” along with his demonic minions. The victory for the war you’re in won’t come through bullets or tactics. The Bible teaches us that,

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down , especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” (Hebrews 12:1 NLT) The most important word to remember for your spiritual journey may be a surprising one — no. Your faith journey is a long one. Too many people start off well in their spiritual journey but putter out before the end. God wants you to go the distance. You’ve got a marathon ahead of you, and you can’t run the marathon with a barbell in your hands. Often people quit their faith journey early because everything they’re carrying wears them out. We need to de-clutter. A cruise liner can get pretty fast in the middle of the water.  If you add a hundred lifeboats to it, it’ll slow down. Plug a battery into one light bulb, and it’ll go a long way. Plug it into 15, and it drains much more quickly. Plug it into 100, a

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” (Hebrews 12:1 NLT) Home field advantage can mean everything in sports. Teams who are at home often have a far better record than those on the road. When a team has someone cheering them on, they can often outplay their ability. The Bible says that you, too, have an audience cheering you on. Hebrews 12:1 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us” (NLT). Nothing you do is private. You have an audience. Heaven is watching. But, more importantly, you have a cheering section. The Bible says that everyone in Heaven is cheerin

“All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.” (Hebrews 11:39-40 NLT) It’s not easy to live by faith. We live in a broken world. The weather doesn’t work right. Our bodies don’t work right. Our relationships don’t work right. When God kicked Adam out of Heaven, He told Adam that life would be hard. And it is. There’s a cosmic battle for your life going on inside of you and outside of you. You battle with your own sinful nature. You also battle against Satan himself, who wants nothing more than to “steal, kill, and destroy.” And sometimes it just gets to us. We just want to give up. But in Hebrews 11, God urges us to hang on, because God hasn’t forgotten us and will fulfill His promises one day. He promises to give us a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11). He promises to take away our tears (Revelation 7). An

“Everyone who hears these Words of Mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24 NIV) Receiving, reading, researching, remembering, and reflecting on the Word of God are all useless if we fail to put what we learn into practice. We must become doers of the Word (James 1:22). I understand this is a hard step, because Satan fights it so intensely. He doesn’t mind you going to Bible studies as long as you don’t do anything with what you learn. We fool ourselves when we assume that just because we have heard or read or studied a truth, we have internalized it. Actually, you can be so busy going to the next class or seminar or Bible conference that you have no time to implement what you’ve learned. You forget it on the way to your next study! Without implementation, all our Bible studies are worthless. Jesus said, “Everyone who hears these Words of Mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the

“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly.” (Colossians 3:16a NIV) Just like you need physical food for physical strength, you need spiritual food for spiritual strength. The Bible describes itself as spiritual food — the water, milk, bread, and meat of our spiritual lives. It’s everything you need for sustenance. If you were a construction contractor, you wouldn’t consider sending out a guy who hadn’t eaten anything in two weeks. If you were a commander in the Army, you wouldn’t send a person into battle who hadn’t eaten in a month. Right? We need to feed ourselves to have the strength to accomplish the tasks ahead of us. You’re not going to have much success in winning the spiritual battles you face if you’re starving yourself to death. That’s why we need to feed on the Word of God. Unlike eating physical food, whenever I feed on God’s Word, I get even hungrier. The more I taste and see how good God is, the more I want. The Bible says in Colossians

“Does the LORD really want sacrifices and offerings? No! He doesn’t want your sacrifices. He wants you to obey Him.” (1 Samuel 15:22b CEV) If you aren’t experienced in applying God’s Word to your life, you might be frustrated. How do you do it? Today I want to give you three questions you can ask of any passage that will help you apply the Bible to your life. Here are the three questions: 1) What did this Scripture mean when it was written? 2) What is the timeless truth behind what God is saying? 3) How does it apply to me now? We call this the application bridge. We’re building a bridge between the world of the Bible and our world. Let’s try to build this bridge when applying what Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 8 about eating the food sacrificed to idols. Read 1 Corinthians 8:1-13, and then ask yourself the questions above. 1) What did this Scripture mean when it was written? There were people in the church of Corinth who knew that idols meant nothing and the food offere

“And I am certain that God, Who began the good work within you, will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” (Philippians 1:6 NLT) God’s Word will never change your life until you let it become personal. It’s not about your neighbor, your friend, your spouse, or the stranger down the street. God’s Word must be applied to your life. The Bible won’t become dynamic until it becomes specific. How do you make God’s Word personal? Try the personalize-it method of Bible meditation. Anybody can do it! You don’t need any special tools or advanced theological training. You simply put your name in the place of pronouns or nouns in Scripture. For example, if I were personalizing John 3:16, I’d write something like this: “For God so loved Rick that he gave His One and only Son, that Rick would not perish but have everlasting life.” Or, for Philippians 1:6: “He who began a good work in Rick Warren will carry it on to completion until the day o

“Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” (John 13:17 NIV) James says it is self-deception when we merely listen to God’s Word and don’t let It change us. We think that just gaining knowledge makes us spiritually mature, but the test of maturity is not knowledge. The test of maturity is character. A lot of people have great Bible knowledge, but they are spiritual midgets. We need to put God’s Word into practice. We need to continually apply It in our lives. In fact, knowledge increases responsibility. The more we know, the more we’re accountable for. Jesus said, “Much is required from the person to whom much is given” (Luke 12:48b GNT). What are you doing about what you know? In Matthew 7, Jesus tells the story of the wise and the foolish builders. He says the foolish builder builds on sand. He is like the guy who hears the Word of God but doesn’t do what it says. The wise man builds on a solid foundation because he hears God’s Word and then goes

“Everyone who hears these Words of Mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24 NIV) Did you know studying the Bible can be dangerous? In fact, the results of Bible study could be disastrous. Sounds strange, I know. But God intended for us to apply the Bible to our lives, not just read it. The Bible is about transformation, not just information. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Everyone who hears these Words of Mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matthew 7:24 NIV). Applying God’s Word is vitally important. So why is it important that we apply God’s Word to our lives? 1) Knowledge produces pride if we don’t apply truth to our lives. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 8:1, “Knowledge puffs up while love builds up.” We’ve all seen people who know the Bible backward and forward but have never let it seep into their lives. They use the Bible has a hammer to po

“The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.” (Proverbs 21:5 ESV) Having a quiet time is like many other activities you might do in life — in at least one respect. To be successful, it helps to have a plan. The Bible says, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty” (Proverbs 21:5 ESV). If you’ve never had a quiet time before, you may not have a good, simple plan for doing one. Simplicity is important with any plan you develop. If you make it complicated, you’re more likely to get off track. All you really need for an effective quiet time is a Bible, notebook, and maybe a hymnal or songbook. So what does a daily quiet time look like? • First, be quiet before the Lord. The Bible calls it waiting on God. You start by simply sitting down and shutting up. • Second, pray briefly. Start off with a short opening prayer. Ask God to open your mind and guide you. Ask

“But don’t just listen to God’s Word. You must do what It says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.” (James 1:22 NLT) Nothing becomes dynamic until it becomes specific. That’s why when you read God’s Word, you try to move It to what you need to do now — your application. A great habit to get into after you read your Bible is to write a one-sentence application for what you’ve just read. It’ll help you become a “doer of the Word,” not just a hearer. What makes a good application sentence? It has four characteristics: 1) It’s personal. You can’t write an application for somebody else. It’s not about what the world needs to do or what your husband needs to do or what your kids need to do. It’s about what you need to do! 2) It’s practical. Your application should be something you can actually do and something you are able to make a plan to do. Broad generalities won’t help you. In fact, they’ll produce little action and will make you feel helpless. 3) It’s possible

SPACEPETS: Probe the Bible with These Questions “But don’t just listen to God’s Word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.” (James 1:22 NLT) Christian meditation means thinking about Scripture. You meditate on Scripture in the same way a cow chews her cud: by chewing on it and chewing on it and chewing on it. The “probe-it” method of Bible study is a great way to do that. When you use this method, you probe the text with questions, almost like a jackhammer. To help you do that, I’ll share with you one of the strangest acrostics I’ve ever used: SPACEPETS. Each letter in the phrase is the first letter of a key word in a question you ask of God’s Word. 1) Is there a SIN to confess? Does God’s Word make you aware of something you need to make right with God? 2) Is there a PROMISE to claim? There are more than 7,000 promises in God’s Word. Ask yourself if the passage you’ve read contains a universal promise. Ask whether you’ve met all the cond

“Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives.” (Colossians 3:16a NLT) Studying the Bible in a way that changes your life doesn’t take a bunch of expensive tools. You don’t need commentaries or Bible study software. In fact, if you were stuck on a desert island with just a Bible, you could simply use the method you’ll learn about in this devotional to study God’s Word. God says that if we meditate on His Word, we’ll be successful. Here’s a method you can use to meditate on God’s Word in a way that’ll please God. The “pronounce it” method of biblical meditation is an easy method for meditating on Scripture and getting every ounce of spiritual nutrition you can out of it. You start with a verse and read it over and over again. Each time you read the verse, you emphasize a different word. It’s the simplest way to start unlocking Scripture. You can do it even if it’s the first time you’ve ever opened up a Bible. It’s simple but amazingly powerful! Each time

“Therefore everyone who hears these Words of Mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24 NIV) The foundation of a house tells you how big the house can get. You can’t put a big house on a small or faulty foundation. It’ll collapse every time. The same is true for our lives. You can’t become what God wants you to be on a faulty foundation. We’re given a lot of different options for what the foundation of our lives will be: • Popular culture. Some people think they’ll simply do what every other person is doing. If it’s popular, that’s what they do, too. Yet what’s popular today won’t be popular tomorrow. Basing your life on popular culture is like building a house on a constantly moving foundation. It doesn’t work! • Tradition. Other people build their lives on what has always been done or how their parents did it. That does make a little sense. Tradition becomes tradition because it works. But no tradition lasts foreve

“No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:11b NIV) Have you ever heard someone say, “Well, that’s just your interpretation of the Bible?” It’s as if that little phrase disproves everything that’s been said. But it really doesn’t disprove anything. There are right ways and wrong ways to interpret Scripture. Here are six principles of interpretation that are accepted just about everywhere. 1) You need faith and the Holy Spirit to interpret Scripture. The Bible doesn’t make sense to non-believers. It is God’s love letter to believers. When an unbeliever reads the Word, he is reading someone else’s mail. The Bible is a spiritual book that must be understood by spiritual people. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 2:11, “No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” (NIV). 2) The Bible is its own best commentary. Scripture interprets Scripture. Practice this principle by getting a Bible with cross-references in the margin. By lookin

“Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” (Joshua 1:8 NIV) I can remember hearing great sermons or in-depth Bible teaching and wondering how the teacher found all those great nuggets of truth in God’s Word. That’s why I wrote my first book 35 years ago: to help people like me. “Rick Warren’s Bible Study Methods” shares 12 methods of Bible study, such as the chapter summary method, the topical method, and the verse-by-verse method, all of them useful for anyone to get the most from God’s Word. One of my favorites is the devotional Bible study method. If I were to summarize the devotional method in one word, it would be “meditate.” For many, the word “meditate” is a bad word. They associate it with Eastern or New Age religions. Some Christians, when they think of meditation, picture people folding their bodies into pretzels and contemplating t

“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip His people to do every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV) I was once asked what the best translation of the Bible is. My answer was, “When you translate it into your life.” That’s what Bible study is all about. If you’re not translating God’s Word into your life, you’re not studying the Bible the way God intended. God gave us the Bible to transform us, not simply inform us. It should give us a bigger heart, not a bigger head. James 1:22 says, “Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (NIV). In other words, God wants our beliefs turned into behavior. God makes His purpose for the Bible even more explicit in 2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us real

“If you continue in My Word, then you are truly disciples of Mine.” (John 8:31b NASB) It’s a really important step to commit to reading your Bible regularly for a short period, maybe a few weeks. It’s a great way to get started, but you should never leave it there. Jesus said, “If you continue in My Word, then you are truly disciples of Mine” (John 8:31b NASB). It’s the long-term commitment to learning from Jesus and His Word that makes us His disciples. How do you continue in the Word and stay connected with Jesus through His Word for the long-term? 1. Make the decision to do it. It starts with your commitment. Don’t wait for a better time to make God’s Word a regular part of your life. Start your commitment today. 2. Make a declaration. Announce your intentions to others. Hold yourself accountable. If you keep your commitment to God a secret, it’s easier to slip up. 3. Make a determination. Don’t allow anything to knock you off your commitment. Be absolutely determine