Daily Hope Devotional

Here is the testimony of a Chinese Christian: “I walked through the road of life and had fallen into a great ditch. The ditch was filled with depression, discouragement, and sin. As I lay in that ditch, Mohammed came along and said, ‘It’s your fault you’re in the ditch. You offended Allah, and this is your just punishment.’ Then Marx came by and said, ‘You’re in the ditch because of class warfare. You must revolt.’ But after the government changed, I was still in my ditch. Then Buddha came along and said, ‘You’re not really in that ditch. You just think you’re there. It’s all an illusion of the mind. Be at peace, and learn to live in your ditch.’ Then Confucius came by and said, ‘Here are the 10 steps of self-attainment by which you can get out of your ditch. If you will struggle, you will climb out eventually.’ But as much as I struggled and strained, I couldn’t get out of the ditch, because it was too deep. “Then one day, Jesus Christ came by and saw me in my ditch. Withou

Sin always involves self-deception. At the moment you’re sinning, you’re deceiving yourself because you think that what you’re doing will actually produce better results than what God has already told you to do. To stop defeating yourself, you must stop deceiving yourself. You’ve got to take an honest look at your life, face the truth, and deal with the issues. What is it in your life you’re pretending isn’t a problem? What is it in your life you’re pretending you’re not addicted to? What is it in your life you’re saying “It’s no big deal” about? It really doesn’t matter whether you’re shooting heroin or running up your MasterCard, whether you’re reading pornography or a trashy novel. You’re using it all to try to escape from your pain and your sin. But you’re not going to get healing until you first acknowledge the root of your problem. You don’t have to hit rock bottom before you really change. There are wake-up calls going on all around you right now, and you’re not listeni

Have you ever wondered why you do what you don’t want to do? Ever wondered why it’s so hard to do the things that you know are the right things to do? Our sinful nature causes us to often make the wrong choice. You can probably relate to the apostle Paul when he says,  “I don’t understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate …. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t”  (Romans 7:15, 17-18 NLT, second edition). Even after you become a believer, there’s this tension inside of you. You have your good nature that God gave you, but you also have your old sinful nature that is pulling at you. But there is a way out! Jesus promised in John 8:32,  “You will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free”  (NIV). The secret to personal change is not willpower. It’s not a pill. It’s not a resoluti

A lot of us think we’re too busy to listen for God’s response. But we have to take the time to tune in and listen, because God is speaking. Job 33:14 says,  “God does speak — sometimes one way and sometimes another — even though people may not understand it”  (NCV). The question is, “How do I understand it? How do I tune in so that I can hear God’s voice?” Here are four of the channels that God uses: 1. God speaks to us through the Bible.  It’s your guidebook for life. It shows you the right step to take. That is why you need to read God’s Word every day. If you’re not having a daily quiet time and reading the Bible, God is getting a busy signal when he wants to speak to you. You have to keep a constant connection, because God’s will is found in God’s Word. 2. God speaks to us through teachers.  Have you ever been in a church service and felt like what the teacher was saying was a direct message from God to you? There’s no way I or any other teacher could figure out exac

If you want to know God’s will, you need to do a couple of things: 1. Admit that you need guidance.  We don’t really like to admit when we’re confused. Men especially don’t like to do this! It’s not in my nature to say, “Hey! I’m lost!” and stop and ask for directions. That’s why, when it comes to knowing God’s will, it takes some real courage to admit that we’re confused and need direction. Psalm 25:9 says, “He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way” (NIV). If you’re arrogant and think you’ve got it all figured out, God’s going to say, “Be my guest. Go for it!” I’ve had people tell me, “I’ve been a Christian for 20 years, and I’ve never felt God guiding me.” My response? Maybe it’s because you’ve never admitted that you need it. You go to work assuming that you know what to do without praying about it. You make financial decisions all the time without praying about it. You make vacation plans without praying about them. You make career decisions without pr

You already know a lot of things God wants you to do with your life. So why haven’t you done them? God is not obligated to give you step 2 until you’ve already done step 1. Some of you keep saying, “I want to know God’s will for my career/marriage,” and God’s says, “Let’s get to the basics. Are you reading your Bible? Are you in a small group? Are you tithing? Are you talking with me?” You need to start doing what you already know to be the revealed will of God for your life. So, what do you already know to do but you haven’t done yet? What’s your next step? Maybe you’ve been attending a church for more than a year and need to take the next step in membership. Maybe you’ve been praying about baptism but still need to put it on the calendar. Maybe you’ve been looking for a group of people to do life with, and you need to start a small group in your home. Maybe God has shown you what your shape is, and you know you should find a way to use it to serve others. Are you going to m

“The steps of a man are established by the Lord …. When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the One who holds his hand.” (Psalm 37:23a-24 NASB) You may be at what you think is a dead end in your life. “We’re never going to get out of debt! I’m never going to have a baby. My dream is never going to come true. How is it ever going to work out?” Right now it may look dark and you may feel defeated and it may seem like a mystery to you. But one day you’re going to see in the light of eternity how it all fits together in God’s plan. Until then, there are three errors you need to avoid as you seek God’s will that will help you trust in him, even when you don’t understand. 1. Don’t be fatalistic.  The idea of fatalism — that everything that happens is God’s will — leads to self-pity. It causes us to blame God for everything bad in our lives rather than accepting responsibility that we caused the problem. And, fatalism leads to passivity. It makes us think

God’s not playing games with you. He wants you to understand His will, His purpose, and His plan for your life. You may say, “I want God to guide me, but I still get confused. I don’t know what to do.” Often the problem is we’re looking for the wrong thing. You need to know what you’re looking for before you can find it. So, what is God’s will? 1. God’s will is not a feeling. Some of you are looking for a feeling or a supernatural sign. You want God to pull your heartstring so you’ll know exactly what to do. The problem is that feelings are unreliable; they will often guide you the wrong way. Feelings can come from fatigue, hormones, or an event you’ve just experienced. Jeremiah 17:9 says,  “The heart is deceitful”  (NIV). Even your heart plays tricks on you. Even the devil can create a feeling. If I had listened to my feelings, I would never have married my wife.The day before the wedding, my feelings said, “Run!” But that wasn’t God’s will. It was fear! Don’t wait for

“It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart.”  (Philippians 1:7a NIV) I’ve discovered that if people are not on my heart, they’re on my nerves. If you don’t have your kids in your heart, they get on your nerves. If you don’t have your husband in your heart, he gets on your nerves. The reason so many marriages are crumbling is that mates are reacting to each other from their minds rather than their hearts. When your wife says, “I feel depressed,” listen to her; it’s legitimate. When your husband says, “I don’t feel this is the right thing for us to do, and I think we ought to do it this other way,” listen to him. Heart love begins with understanding why others feel the way they do. Ask questions, and then listen. Hear the hurt, look for the problems, and know what makes your mate tick. You need to understand the moods of the people closest to you — why they act the way they do. If you care, you’ll be aware. How do you love people wh

Maybe as a child you were hurt by an adult — a teacher, a family member, maybe even your parents. The Bible says that there will be severe judgment for child abuse, neglect, and abandonment; one day God is going to settle the score on that. When God says, “Honor your father and mother,” He’s not saying honor their sins or their selfishness or their poor decisions. He’s not saying ignore the pain in your life and put on a happy face and pretend everything’s great. So what does God expect? How does He expect you to love the destructive people who’ve hurt you? He doesn’t expect you to ignore it. He’s not asking you to gloss over it or deny it or repress it or make excuses for the people who’ve hurt you. God doesn’t want you to fake it; He wants you to face it, because you can’t forgive until you face your hurt. You’ve got to stop running, and you’ve got to stop blaming. If you’re going to become the loving woman or man that God wants you to be, you’re going to have to deal now

A church family will help keep you from backsliding. None of us are immune to temptation. Given the right situation, you and I are capable of any sin. God knows this, so He has assigned us as individuals the responsibility of keeping each other on track. The Bible says, “Encourage one another daily … so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness” (Hebrews 3:13 NIV). “Mind your own business” is not a Christian phrase! We are called and commanded to be involved in each other’s lives. If you know someone who is wavering spiritually right now, it is your responsibility to go after him and bring him back into the fellowship. James tells us, “If you know people who have wandered off from God’s truth, don’t write them off. Go after them. Get them back” (James 5:19 MSG). A local church also provides the spiritual protection of godly leaders. God gives the shepherd leader the responsibility to guard, protect, defend, and care for the spiritual welfare of his flock (Ac

“Brothers and sisters, if someone in your group does something wrong, you who are spiritual should go to that person and gently help make him right again. But be careful, because you might be tempted to sin, too.”   (Galatians 6:1 NCV) Everybody in your life is going to disappoint you at some point. Why? Because nobody’s perfect! So how do you deal with disappointing people? How does love respond when people disappoint you? The Bible says in Galatians 6:1,  “Brothers and sisters, if someone in your group does something wrong, you who are spiritual should go to that person and gently help make him right again. But be careful, because you might be tempted to sin, too”  (NCV). The loving response to people who disappoint you is to be gentle, not judgmental. How do you have tough conversations with people in a gentle way? How do you confront people you love when you see they’re doing something they shouldn’t be doing? The Bible tells us to do it gently and with respect, not

“The thought of my pain, my homelessness, is bitter poison. I think of it constantly, and my spirit is depressed. 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 3:19-24 TEV) When your world is falling apart, it’s so easy to focus on the pain, the problems, the pressure, and the difficulties. It’s the natural response. But the biblical response is to turn your focus to God’s love. Even though you’re mad at God, you need to remind yourself how much He loves you. Focus on His unconditional love. Remember that you can’t make God stop loving you. You can complain, yell at Him, and scream at Him, but He will still love you forever. You can see this biblical approach in Jeremiah’s life in Lamentations 3:19-24. Jeremiah starts out focused on his pain: “The thought of my pain, my homelessness, is bitter poison. I th

Have you noticed how many difficult people there are in the world? Do you feel like you have to deal with most of them some days? You know what rude acts bug me the most? People who call me and then say, “Who is this?” People who honk their horns in traffic jams. People who cheat in the 10-items-or-less grocery line. People who steal your parking spot. The list goes on, and I’m sure you can relate. So, how should we respond in love to difficult people? Proverbs 16:21 says, “A wise, mature person is known for his understanding. The more pleasant his words, the more persuasive he is” (TEV). The more pleasant you are, the more persuasive you are. And, you’re never persuasive when you’re abrasive. Nagging doesn’t work. The way you say something determines the way it’s received. If you say something offensively, it’s going to be received defensively. That’s why love is all about your words. Love is truthful, but it is also tactful. Tact and tone always go together. It matters

God has a unique role for you to play in His family. This is your ministry, and God has gifted you for your assignment: “A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other” (1 Corinthians 12:7 NLT, second edition). Your local fellowship is the place God designed for you to discover, develop, and use your gifts. You may also have a wider ministry, but that is in addition to your service in a local church. Jesus has not promised to build your ministry; He has promised to build His Church. You will share in Christ’s mission in the world. When Jesus walked the earth, God worked through the physical body of Christ; today He uses His spiritual Body. The Church is God’s instrument on Earth. We are not just to model God’s love by loving each other; we are to carry it together to the rest of the world. This is an incredible privilege we have been given together. As members of Christ’s Body, we are His hands, His feet, His eyes, and His heart. He works through us in

A church family helps you develop spiritual muscle. You will never grow to maturity just by attending worship services and being a passive spectator. Only participation in the full life of a local church builds spiritual muscle. The Bible says, “As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love” (Ephesians 4:16b NLT, second edition). The phrase “one another” or “each other” is used more than 50 times in the New Testament. We are commanded to love each other, pray for each other, encourage each other, admonish each other, greet each other, serve each other, teach each other, accept each other, honor each other, bear each other’s burdens, forgive each other, submit to each other, be devoted to each other, and many other mutual tasks. This is biblical membership! These are your “family responsibilities” that God expects you to fulfill through a local fellowship. Who are you doing these with? It

God loves you so much that He sent Jesus on a mission of love with a message of love. The Bible doesn’t say God has love; it says God is love. Love is His nature; God is love. God created the entire universe. He created this planet; He created the human race. Then, He created you because He loves you. It could be said the reason you’re alive is because God created you as an object of His love. God made you so He could love you and so you could love Him. God’s love for you is the reason your heart’s beating right now; it’s the reason you’re breathing. God’s good news is that He loves you on your good days as much as He loves you on your bad days. He loves you when you can feel His love, and He loves you when you can’t seem to feel His love. He loves you regardless of whether or not you think you deserve His love. There is nothing you can do that will make God stop loving you. You could try, but you simply can’t do it — because His love for you is based upon His character and