Daily Hope Devotional

“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 peopl...

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 wit...

“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. ...

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 ...

Whenever a child is born, he or she automatically becomes a part of the universal family of human beings. But that child also needs to become a member of a specific family to receive nurture and care and grow up healthy and strong. The same is true spiritually. When you were born again, you automatically became a part of God’s universal family. But you also need to become a member of a local expression of God’s family. The difference between being a church attender and a church member is commitment. Attenders are spectators from the sidelines; members get involved in the ministry. Attenders are consumers; members are contributors. Attenders want the benefits of a church without sharing the responsibility. They are like couples that want to live together without committing to marriage. Why is it important to join a local church family? Because it proves you are committed to your spiritual brothers and sisters in reality, not just in theory. God wants you to love real people, not ...

There is no place you can go where God’s love isn’t. You’ll never be separated from God’s love. Nothing — no circumstance, no situation — can separate you, because God’s love is everywhere: “Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39 NIV). If you want an antidote for loneliness, here it is: You will never be separated from God’s love. The fact is we do lose loved ones. If you’re married, one of you is going to die first. And you will grieve over that. But if you’re a Christian, you’ll never be lonely, because you can tune into God’s love. I’m not talking about religion; I’m talking about a relationship with Jesus Christ. His love lasts forever, and His love is everywhere. “Where could I go to escape from You? Where could I get away from Your presence? If I went up to heaven, You would be there; if I lay down in the world of the dead, You would be there. If I fle...

“And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”  (Ephesians 3:18-19 NLT, second edition) The width of God’s love extends across the entire world and includes all people: “The Lord is righteous in all His ways and faithful in all he does” (Psalm 145:17 NIV). God loves the whole world (John 3:16). God never made a person that He didn’t love. He made you; He loves you. And God doesn’t make junk! He loves you unconditionally. He loves you very, very, very, very, very much. Everybody matters to God. In fact, we see in the life of Jesus that He even loves the unlovely and those who may feel unlovable. Do you want to know the secret of self-esteem? Here it is: If you want confidence, then understand how much you matter to God...

“Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure.”   (Ephesians 1:4-5 NLT) A while back, a man came into my office and said, “I’m a Christian, but I don’t feel like I’m going anywhere in my spiritual growth. I’m kind of stuck in neutral.” I said, “What do you think the problem is?” He said, “I think my problem is I just don’t love God enough.” I said, “That’s not your problem. Your problem is not that you don’t love God enough. Your problem is that you don’t understand how much He loves you.” Love is always a response to love. The Bible says, “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19 NIV). When you say, “I don’t love God,” it’s because you don’t understand just how much He really loves you. To understand your life’s purpose and calling...

“All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.” (1 Corinthians 12:27 NLT, second edition) You are not the Body of Christ on your own. You need others to express that. Together, not separated, we are His Body. A church family moves you out of self-centered isolation. The local church is the classroom for learning how to get along in God’s family. It is a lab for practicing unselfish, sympathetic love. As a participating member, you learn to care about others and share the experiences of others: “If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it. Or if one part of our body is honored, all the other parts share its honor” (1 Corinthians 12:26 NCV). Only in regular contact with ordinary, imperfect believers can we learn real fellowship and experience the New Testament truth of being connected and dependent on each other (Ephesians 4:16, Romans 12:4-5, Colossians 2:19, 1 Corinthians 12:25). Biblical fellowship is being as committe...

The world defines freedom as a life without any restraint — “I can do anything I want to do and say anything I want to say, without anybody telling me what to do.” You may burn everybody else, but you get to do it your own way. You can have your freedom, but only by being totally selfish. Yet the Bible says the only way to true freedom is through Jesus: “If the Son sets you free, then you will be really free” (John 8:36 TEV). Real freedom is freedom from fear, where you’re truly free from guilt, from worry, from bitterness, and from death. You’re free to quit pretending because you’re free to be yourself. How do you get rid of those kinds of fears? By letting God love you! The apostle John teaches that “there is no fear in love; perfect love drives out all fear” (1 John 4:18). When you realize how much God loves you, you’ll begin to live in true freedom. In fact, you worship God when you recognize that “God is love.” It is an act of worship to agree that He is a loving, ca...

You are called to belong, not just believe. We are created for community, fashioned for fellowship, and formed for a family, and none of us can fulfill God’s purposes by ourselves. The Bible knows nothing of solitary saints or spiritual hermits isolated from other believers and deprived of fellowship. The Bible says we are put together, joined together, built together, members together, heirs together, fitted together, and held together, and we will be caught up together (1 Corinthians 12:12; Ephesians 2:21-22, 3:6, 4:16; Colossians 2:19; 1 Thessalonians 4:17). You’re not on your own anymore! While your relationship to Christ is personal, God never intended for it to be private. In God’s family you are connected to every other believer, and we will belong to each other for eternity. The Bible says, “In Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others” (Romans 12:5). C. S. Lewis noted that the word “membership” is of Christian origin, but t...