Daily Hope Devotional

“His followers discussed the meaning of this, saying, ‘He said this because we have no bread.’ Knowing what they were talking about, Jesus asked them, ‘Why are you talking about not having bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your minds closed?’” (Mark 8:16-17 NCV) You’re going to miss what God is doing in your life if you remain focused on the here-and-now and not what God wants to do in your life long term. When you’re thinking about comfort rather than character, when you’re thinking about your happiness and not your holiness, when you’re thinking about enjoying now instead of preparing for eternity, you’re caught up in short-term thinking, and it will keep you from seeing life clearly. This is what happened with the disciples. Jesus was trying to teach them a lesson about pride by using yeast as a metaphor. The Bible says in Mark 8:16-17, “His followers discussed the meaning of this, saying, ‘He said this because we have no bread.’ Knowing what they were talking abo...

“Then Jesus left the Pharisees and went in the boat to the other side of the lake. His followers had only one loaf of bread with them in the boat; they had forgotten to bring more. Jesus warned them, ‘Be careful! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.’ His followers discussed the meaning of this, saying, ‘He said this because we have no bread.’” (Mark 8:13-16 NCV) In the Bible, yeast is often a metaphor for pride and arrogance. Why? When you put yeast in dough, what does it do? It puffs it up, and if you put in too much, it blows it up. When you’re cooking, you don’t need a lot of yeast. If you’re making bread, you don’t pour a cup of yeast in. You just need a little pinch. Just like yeast, you don’t have to have a lot of pride for it to take over quickly and get you in all kinds of problems. Recently my wife, Kay, and I had what you might call an argument. We call it a “love match.” After that argument, I wrote down in my journal, “When I’m filled with pr...

“My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19 NIV) Some of you are in a rut, and it’s cold and dark and lonely. Some of you are on the road, and it’s scary and insecure, and you have no idea where you’re going or how long the journey’s going to take. And some of you are at the refinery, and the pressure is on. No matter where you are on the way to your miracle, here are some things you need to remember: - God is all you need. You don’t need the government or even a job. If God wants to, He can have ravens drop food on you as His way of providing. If He turns off one job opportunity, He can turn on another just as easily. Don’t trust in your bank account, which changes daily. God is all you need. - Where God guides, God provides. If God tells you to go to Zarephath, leave now! When God gives you direction, He will provide what you need to get there. - You must trust Him one day at a time. Why? Because somethin...

“‘My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,’ says the LORD. ‘And My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.’” (Isaiah 55:8 NLT) Most of us have some need in our lives that we want met. And many of us try to figure how to get them fulfilled. You may be looking around saying, “Maybe God could do it that way” or “Maybe I could help God along with this” or “Maybe I could give a suggestion here.” You’re trying to manipulate God, and it doesn’t work! The source of a miracle will not be where you think it’s going to come from. It’s always unexpected. God told Abraham that he was going to have a son, and that son was going to be the father of a great nation. Abraham was nearly 100 years old and had a little trouble believing God’s promise. So he took matters into his own hands and had sex with a woman who wasn’t his wife, and they had a son named Ishmael. Bu God said, “No! That’s not the one I promised. That’s the one you came up with using your plan, but that’s not my plan...

“Then the LORD spoke His word to Elijah, ‘Go to Zarephath in Sidon and live there. I have commanded a widow there to take care of you.’ So Elijah went to Zarephath.” (1 Kings 17:8-10a NCV) When you’re scared to death and vulnerable, you don’t know where you’re going, you don’t know how long it’s going to take, and you don’t know what’s going to happen when you get there, what do you do? You remember that the path to a miracle is always through uncomfortable territory. The Bible gives an illustration in 1 Kings 17:8-10: “Then the LORD spoke His word to Elijah, ‘Go to Zarephath in Sidon and live there. I have commanded a widow there to take care of you.’ So Elijah went to Zarephath” (NCV). God told Elijah to walk more than 100 miles during a drought through dangerous territory, where everyone knew who he was, and everyone knew King Ahab had a price on Elijah’s head. When Elijah finally made it to Zarephath, he met a poor widow who was going to feed him, but how could she help d...

“Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won’t He also give us everything else?” (Romans 8:32 NLT) When I was a kid, any time I needed something, I’d go talk to my dad. Sometimes what I needed was expensive, but I remember that not once as a kid did I worry about where my father was going to get the money for whatever I needed. That wasn’t my job! It was my dad’s job to figure out where the money was going to come from. It was my job as a kid to simply ask. It’s not your job to figure out how God’s going to provide. It’s your job to ask. The Bible says in James 4:2, “You do not have because you do not ask God” (NIV). Here’s the second key to stress management: Worry less, and ask more. Instead of worrying, pray about everything. Romans 8:32 says, “Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won’t He also give us everything else?” (NLT) If God solved your biggest problem, everything else is small by comparison. If God lov...

“Don’t worry about anything.” (Philippians 4:6 NLT) The number one source of stress in your life is not work. It’s worry. Work doesn’t keep you up at night; worry does. God is very clear in the Bible what He thinks about worry. Philippians 4:6 says, “Don’t worry about anything” (NLT). Why do you need to let go of your worry? Worry is unreasonable for a couple of reasons. First, worry exaggerates the problem. Have you noticed if somebody says something bad about you, the more you think about it, the bigger it gets? Second, worry doesn’t work. To worry about something you can’t change is useless. And to worry about something you can change is stupid. Just go change it! — Worry is unnatural. There are no born worriers. You might think you are, but you’re not. Worry is something you learned. Since worry is unnatural, it’s also unhealthy. Your body wasn’t designed to handle worry. When people say, “I’m worried sick,” they’re telling the truth. Doctors say a lot of people could ...