Daily Hope Devotional

The whole world needs Jesus. Jesus said this very clearly over and over, but in Matthew 28:18-20 He gave us the Great Commission: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (NIV). What is our assignment? It is “Go.” This is not a suggestion! It’s not optional. If you are a child of God, God expects you to go. What’s the task? Go and make disciples. A disciple is someone who does the five things we were put on Earth to do: know and love God, grow to spiritual maturity, serve God with your shape through ministry, share the Good News, and worship God with all your heart. What’s our authority? It’s not some government or the CIA. It’s Jesus. What is our responsibility? Are we supposed to go and make disciples of some

“I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.”  (Matthew 16:18b NLT, second edition) Only the Church will last forever. Nothing else is going to last. No business is going to last forever. No government is going to last forever. No nation is going to last forever. Only the Church is going to last forever. Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, “ I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it ” (NLT, second edition). The Church is the most magnificent idea God or any human being ever thought up. The entire universe was created for God’s family. What’s God’s family called? The Church. The Church is not a building. The Church is the family of God. God wanted a family, so He decided to create the entire universe just so He could create Earth just so He could create human beings just so we could have the free choice to choose or reject Him. He knew that some of us would choose to love Him back, and He’s going to take us to Heaven to b

It’s not about you. It’s not about profit or politics or anything else. It’s all about God. You may know that the first sentence of The Purpose Driven Life is “It’s not about you.” What you may not remember is that the title of the first chapter is “It’s All About God.” Those two go together. The reason it’s not about you is because it’s all about God. Until you understand that, life is never going to make sense. Until you understand that, I am not going to make sense to you. The goal of my life is not pleasure, it’s not possessions, it’s not prestige, it’s not politics, it’s not power, and it’s not popularity. It’s not anything that the world values. The goal of my life is the glory of God. Romans 11:36 says, “ For everything comes from God alone. Everything lives by His power, and everything is for His glory ” (TLB). Everything on the planet and in the universe was created for God’s glory. What’s the implication of that? If it’s all about God and it’s not all about you o

God will never, ever, ever, ever stop loving you. You will always be loved. Nothing can destroy your relationship with God. If you grasp this fact, it will change your life. Romans 8:38-39 says, “ I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from His love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels won’t, and all the powers of hell itself cannot keep God’s love away. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, or where we are — high above the sky, or in the deepest ocean — nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ when he died for us ” (TLB). When you put your hand in God’s, He grasps it, and He’s never letting go. There may be times you might like to let go. But He never will. You are eternally secure. Once you are born into a family, you can’t be unborn out of it. Once you’re born again, you can’t be unborn out of the family of God. Once your name is written in the eternal book of life, it can’t be erased. It’s in

“For His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are His children, we are His heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory.”   (Romans 8:16-17 NLT, second edition) If you were the son or the daughter of Bill Gates, it would probably stand to reason that you were going to receive a large inheritance. But you have a father that is wealthier than Bill Gates. Your heavenly Father has prepared an inheritance for you as one of his children. The Bible says in Romans 8:16-17, “For His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are His children, we are His heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory” (NLT, second edition). That is one of the most amazing verses in the entire Bible. Everything that God has given to His Son Jesus Christ He’s given to you also. You’re going to share in His glory. That is limitless! In Heaven, you will have unlimited access to the unlimi

As believers, we have hope because we are going to live forever. Death is not the end. There is more to the story! One day your heart will stop beating, and that will be the end of your body. But it’s not going to be the end of you. You were made in God’s image. You were made to last forever. This is not all there is. Why do we have hope? Because no matter how bad it seems on Earth, it’s just for a while. We’re going to spend trillions of years on the other side of eternity with no more sorrow, no more sadness, no more sickness, no more suffering. The Bible says in Romans 8:11, “The Spirit of God, Who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, He will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you” (NLT, second edition). As a pastor, I’ve stood at the graveside of hundreds of families, and I know the difference between people with hope and those without. You can see it in their eyes. I’ve seen the terror

You can give by reason or by revelation. If you’re going to become a person of faith, you have to learn to give by revelation. When you give by reason, you say, “This is what I can reasonably give.” It doesn’t require any faith to give by reason. Giving by revelation is when you say, “God, what do you want to give through me? How much do you want me to trust you for in this particular instance?” My wife Kay and I have been tested many times on giving when we didn’t have it. One of the most dramatic examples was when we raised money to build Saddleback Church’s building back in 1993. We were meeting in a tent and decided that we would have an offering to build a building. People would make commitments to give over a three-year period. So Kay and I prayed about what we would give, and we came up with an amount that certainly wasn’t reasonable. In fact, it was more than we could afford. But we trusted God for that amount. Then one day I was reading in 1 Chronicles 29 about how th

Faith is not believing God can do something. Faith is not hoping he will do something. Faith is thanking God in advance. Jesus said, “ When you pray and you ask for something, believe that you have received it and you will be given what you asked for ” (Mark 11:24 TEV). You say, “Wait a minute! I’ve got to thank God in advance before I get it in order to get it?” Yes. If you thank God after you’ve got it, that’s gratitude. When you thank Him in advance, that’s called faith. If I handed you a check right now for a thousand dollars, would you wait until you cashed it to thank me? No! You’d thank me right now. But it really wouldn’t be yours until you actually cashed it, because that check is really a promise. When I give you that check, you go, “Thank you, Rick,” believing that I was credible and that I had enough money in the bank to cover that check for a thousand dollars. Faith is thanking God in advance. What I’m saying is this: If God tells you to go after Moby Dick in a

There is enormous power in your words. If you’re going to become a woman or man of faith, you have to change the way you talk. You have to announce it in order to experience it. Sometimes speaking in faith appears totally foolish, arrogant, and totally out of touch with reality to people who don’t understand faith. Abraham knew about this. God came to Abram one day and said, “Abram, I’m going to change your name from Abram to Abraham.” Abraham means “the father of a great nation.” There was only one problem: Abraham was 99 years old, and he had no kids. He was probably ruthlessly ridiculed for his name. But God says that we don’t live in the world of human reality. We live in the world of spiritual reality, and we see it not as it is but as it can be, as it should be, as God wants it to be. Romans 4:17 says that God “ speaks of future events with as much certainty as though they were already past ” (TLB). That’s called speaking in faith — you announce it in order to experience

“It was faith that made Moses leave Egypt without being afraid of the king’s anger. As though he saw the invisible God, he refused to turn back.”  (Hebrews 11:27 TEV) Sometimes I don’t feel like being nice to my wife and kids. I don’t feel like doing the unselfish thing. I want to just lie on the couch and watch TV. I don’t want to do one more thing today. I don’t want to handle another problem. But just because I don’t feel like it doesn’t mean I shouldn’t do it. This will really shock you: Sometimes I don’t feel like praying or reading my Bible. But I do it. I’ve found that if the only time I pray is when I feel like it, the devil makes sure I never feel like it. If the only time I read my Bible is when I feel like it, the devil makes sure I never feel like it. Maturity is when you live your life by your commitments, not by your feelings. The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people are willing to do what unsuccessful people

“It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, Who warned him about things that had never happened before.”  (Hebrews 11:7a NLT, second edition) Faith is obedience when you don’t understand it. In just the New Testament alone, there are 1,050 commands, and they’re all there for your benefit. God says things like, “Love your enemies” and “Forgive the people who hurt you.” That’s not easy! There are a lot of commands in the Bible that seem difficult, unreasonable, unrealistic, unachievable, and even impossible. But when God says things like, “You should save sex for marriage,” He’s not being mean. He says it because He knows best and what will make you happy more than you do. Every time God tells you to do something, it’s a test of your faith. The question is this: Do you trust God, or do you trust your gut? Do you trust the Word, or do you trust the world? Will you obey? As a kid, did your parents ever ask you to do somethi

Faith is visualizing the future. It’s believing it before you see it. Hebrews 11:1 says, “ Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see ” (NLT, second edition). A lot of people say, “I’ll believe it when I see it!” God says the exact opposite is true: “You will see it when you first believe it.” There are many things in life that have to be believed before they can be seen. In the 1960s, the Russians sent the first cosmonaut into outer space. He circled the earth, and when he came back down, he did a press conference and said, “I searched the heavens, and I looked for God, and I did not see Him anywhere. Therefore, there is no God.” The Communists, which was an atheistic regime, said, “We now have scientific proof that there is no God.” About six months later, John Glenn went into space, circled the earth three times on Gemini, came back down, and held a press conference. He said, “I saw God everywhere! I sa

“Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”   (2 Corinthians 9:6-8 NIV) When it comes to your giving, there are two principles you need to remember, and they’re based on 2 Corinthians 9:6-8: “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (NIV). This is the principle of harvest: What you sow, you’re going to reap —

“‘Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test Me in this,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.’”   (Malachi 3:10 NIV) The Bible says there’s only one way you can prove God: through giving, specifically through tithing. Malachi 3:9-10 says, “‘You are under a curse — your whole nation — because you are robbing Me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test Me in this,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it’” (NIV). I’ll never forget the first time I let God test my faith about giving. I was 19 years old, in college, and in debt. I owed my school $500 that was due at the end of the month. I owed 10 bucks to a friend. And all I had was $50 in the bank. I

You make a living by what you get. You leave a legacy by what you give. Jesus said in Acts 20:35, “There is more happiness in giving than in receiving” (TEV). I’ve always loved that verse because it’s so honest. Does Jesus say there’s no happiness in receiving? No. There is happiness in receiving. But Jesus says there’s more happiness in giving. That’s the exact opposite of the way the world thinks. Most of the world thinks there’s more happiness in getting. But Jesus does not think like the world. He knows that you are most like Him when you aren't giving, and that produces joy. When people visit Saddleback Church, they notice that it’s a joyful church. Do you know why? Because it’s a generous church. People love to give! And when we’re generous, it results in joy. It feels good to give. Do you want your family to be more joyful? Then be more generous as a family. Do you want to be a more joyful person? Then be more generous as a person. Talk It Over When was a

“Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full — pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”   (Luke 6:38 NLT, second edition) Generosity determines the blessings in your life. Proverbs 22:9 says, “Blessed are those who are generous” (NLT, second edition). I’ve seen that time after time in my own life and in the lives of others. Tom Holladay, a pastor at Saddleback Church, says that the time he and his wife saw most in their married life how God blesses them through generosity was when they lost it all. Years ago a levy near their house broke, and nine feet of water flooded their house. Everything was lost. All they had left was the car they were driving and the clothes on their backs. Tom says: “We had more than tithed all of our lives. I’m a pastor. I wasn’t going to challenge other people to follow Jesus in a way that I wasn’t going to foll

The Bible says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21 NIV). So where is your heart today? It’s simple, really. It’s wherever you put your money. Some of you, your heart is in your home, because that’s where you put your money. Maybe your heart’s in your boat. Or your cabin. Or that car you love. Wherever you put your money, that’s where your heart is going to go. Do you want to get interested in the Coca-Cola Company? Buy some stock. The moment you buy some stock, you’re going to be very interested in the stock price of Coca-Cola. If your treasure is not there, you couldn’t care less about Coca-Cola stock. Where you put your money and your time reveals your priorities. You can say you love Jesus, but if you don’t spend any time with Him, then you don’t love Him as much as you think you do. You say you love your kids, but do you spend time with your kids? No? Then you don’t really love them the way you think you do. You can say you love to be in

It took me a while, but I finally figured out that this marriage thing is about communication. I discovered that on the days that I had deep, soul-communication with my wife Kay — not “Hi. How are you? I love you. See you later” — that’s when our relationship would grow. And on those days when we have little or no communication, our relationship decays. A relationship is never standing still. It’s either growing or decaying. The same is true with God. On the days when you have deep, significant talks with God, your relationship grows. On the days when you have little or no conversation with God, your relationship decays. It’s that simple. When you really love somebody, you don’t just want to spend time with Him. You want to talk with Him. Remember when you first fell in love as a teenager and your parents got upset because you were always on the phone? You talked and talked and talked because you were getting to know that person. Communication is how you get to know others. Wh

You’ve probably noticed that music and love go together, because music comes from the heart. It’s not something you do intellectually. It’s something that comes out of your soul, your emotions. There are many love songs in the world. In fact there are radio stations that are dedicated entirely to the love song format. But did you know that more songs have been written about Jesus Christ than any other topic in the world? Christianity is a singing faith. Why? Because it’s not about religion. It’s about a love affair. It’s about a relationship with God, Who loves you so much that He sent His Son to die for you and Who wants you to love Him back. Psalm 147:7 says, “ Sing out your thanks to Him; sing praises to our God ” (TLB). Nothing will make you more aware of God’s love and presence in your life than singing and praise. You may be thinking, “But you don’t understand. I can’t sing.” The Bible says to make a joyful noise. I know you can do that because probably when you go to a