Daily Hope Devotional

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...