Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

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Bring some Spirit-filled peace into your hectic schedule every weekday morning with this new Daily Devotional.

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January 19 · 3 min
January 19th - Mark 3:34-35
Mark 3:34-35 [Jesus] looked at those around him and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” The Gospels tell us remarkably little about Jesus’ family. We would so love to know about all his family members and his relationships with them, but the Gospels are largely silent. However, we meet them on this occasion because they had clearly got the impression that Jesus wasn’t looking after himself. Earlier in this chapter, we are informed that Jesus and his disciples were so busy that they couldn’t even find time to eat. Mark records that they had formed the view that Jesus was out of his mind. When Jesus was told that his mother and brothers had come to see him, his response was to identify who his true family was: people who did God’s will. I don’t believe for a moment that Jesus was abandoning his birth family or seeking to insult them. He always sought to uphold the law, which affirmed the God-given responsibility for caring for one’s parents. However, he wanted to make it plain that the most important relationships were with his spiritual family. The whole Bible is very clear in its teaching about family relationships. The apostle Paul was particularly strong in his language when he addressed his young friend, Timothy. He wrote: “Those who won’t look after their relatives, especially those in their own household, have denied the true faith. Such people are worse than unbelievers” (1 Timothy 5:8). We need to care for our families but never lose sight of the fact that our forever family is our Christian family, made up of those who obey God. Question How important is your birth family to you? Prayer Lord God, thank you for the blessing of both my birth family and my forever family. Amen
January 18 · 3 min
January 18th - Mark 3:13
Mark 3:13 Afterward Jesus went up on a mountain and called out the ones he wanted to go with him. And they came to him. The calling of the twelve disciples is a fascinating moment in Jesus’ ministry. It’s greatly significant that he chose to work with a group of people and not operate alone. In this, he affirmed the importance of fellowship. However gifted we may be, we need one another and our very different outlooks and abilities. Going it alone is never Jesus’ way. I remember as a teenager meeting a very enthusiastic Christian who was determined that my home town should all follow Jesus. It was a wonderful vision to have, but he was quite clear that he was going to do this by himself. He had a large leather bag full of Christian tracts and he was confident that he would be able to get the job done. His enthusiasm was commendable, but his method was sadly wrong. We are never called to go off on heroic solo adventures but to work closely with our Christian brothers and sisters. Jesus’ disciples were a fascinatingly mixed group. Matthew was a tax collector, working for the Romans. Tax collectors were regarded as traitors because of their close relationship with the occupying forces and were particularly despised because they often became very rich in the process. Another disciple was Simon the Zealot, and he likely belonged to a group that was seeking to kick the Romans out of the land, by force if necessary. Just imagine having Matthew and Simon in the same group! They probably had some heated conversations during the time they worked with Jesus, but what united them all was their commitment to him. I also find it interesting that so many of the disciples are either largely or completely unknown to us. When we think of the disciples we immediately think of Peter, James and John, but there were twelve of them and each one was crucial to Jesus’ mission, even those whose words were never recorded. Whoever we are, however small our role and few our words, we all have a vital role to play in Jesus’ mission. Question Why is it so important to spend time worshipping and working with other Christians? Prayer Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for calling me to follow you. Help me to work well with my Christian brothers and sisters. Amen
January 17 · 3 min
January 17th - Mark 2:27-28
Mark 2:27-28 Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!” Some years ago, I spent a couple of months living in Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, which is home to a very large number of ultra-orthodox Jews. I very soon learned, to my surprise, that the Sabbath begins late afternoon on Friday, when the first star is seen in the sky. From that moment, the shops shut and people go home to begin their rituals to mark the start of the Sabbath. There is something incredibly special about setting aside one day in seven as a day of rest. This was the example that God set when he created the world, and the law of Moses protected the day with a penalty of death for anyone who worked on the Sabbath. Over the centuries, the laws of the Sabbath were developed extensively, and by the time of Jesus, there were scores of laws regulating people’s activities on the day. There were, essentially, 39 forms of work which ranged from burning, writing and erasing to washing, sewing and cooking. The Pharisees were strict observers of the Sabbath and, in their eagerness to trip him up, they carefully watched Jesus and his disciples on the Sabbath. When they spotted the disciples walking through a field and breaking off the heads of grain to eat, they had their moment. The disciples were caught red-handed, guilty of a number of Sabbath violations, including walking and reaping. Jesus’ response to the Pharisees was to indicate that they had completely missed the point. God had given the gift of the Sabbath in order to be a blessing to people, not to tie them up in legal tangles. In a society that is busy seven days a week, we have a real challenge to keep Sunday special, but in doing so we will receive many blessings. We need to work hard to ensure it doesn’t get squeezed into the mould of the other six days. Question What more could you do to make your Sunday special? Prayer Lord God, I thank you for the gift of Sunday. Help me to use it in order to get to know you better. Amen
January 16 · 3 min
January 16th - Mark 2:22
Mark 2:22 [Jesus said:] “No one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.” We all know what happens to leather after a few years: it becomes hard and brittle. Just imagine what happens when you put wine into an old leather wineskin – the wine inevitably leaks away. In Jesus’ day, wine was largely stored in wineskins, so everyone got the point. If you want to keep your wine, you need to make sure that you only put it into new wineskins. Jesus’ teaching was radical and new. He was telling people about the new wine of the kingdom of God. This wonderful new wine was so precious that there was no point in trying to put it into the old wineskins of Judaism. There needed to be a complete revolution. It was vital for them to be born again. A new life needed to begin. Many people hear the teaching of Jesus and conclude that they need to turn over a new leaf. They need to start being more loving, and stop being so selfish. However, if we are just making a few amendments to life, it isn’t going to work. We will soon fail in the attempt. What we need is a completely new start in which we hand over our lives to God and allow him to lead us by his Holy Spirit. This is the key to all of Jesus’ teaching. As we allow the Spirit to lead us, we will naturally produce the fruit of the Spirit. We won’t need to go on training courses to learn about how to love more or be more peaceful or find more joy in life. These things will inevitably flow as we allow the Holy Spirit to take control. Miraculously, we will find that he gives us gifts to enable us to be more effective for him. Often, they will be gifts related to skills and abilities that we already have, but sometimes they will be totally new gifts which the Spirit gives us for a new situation. Receiving the new wine that Jesus wants to give us will transform every part of life, so we wouldn’t want any of it to leak. Question In what ways have you seen the new wine of the kingdom? Prayer Lord Jesus, I invite you to take charge of my life and to fill me with the new wine of your Holy Spirit. Amen
January 15 · 3 min
January 15th - Mark 2:17
Mark 2:17 [Jesus] told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor – sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” Jesus’ way of life was a shock to the respectable religious leaders of his day. So far as they were concerned, the priority was to ensure they were ritually pure so they could participate in the temple worship. Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan powerfully describes the situation. The first two people who walked past the wounded man were a priest and a Levite. Jesus wasn’t suggesting that they didn’t care – their priority was to remain ritually clean so they could perform their duties. Jesus, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be bothered about staying ritually clean according to the Jewish law. He gladly associated with dodgy people, even though he must have known that this would offend the religious leaders. Here, Jesus explained the reason why he did this: he had come for the sake of people who knew that they were sick, and not for people who were spiritually perfect. Of course, Jesus knew that everyone needed forgiveness, but he also knew he couldn’t help people who thought they were perfect. One of the persistent problems doctors face is that people often don’t take action when they have a medical need. A lump grows or another bodily change takes place and they shrug it off, assuming it will resolve itself. Until a person takes action and visits the doctor, there is not a thing that the doctor can do. It is very much the same with God. He would love to forgive us, but first we must recognise that we have a problem. Question How would you describe your own spiritual health? Prayer Lord God, forgive me for trying to pretend that I was spiritually fit when I needed to come and seek your healing. Amen
January 14 · 3 min
January 14th - Mark 2:5
Mark 2:5 Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralysed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.” I love this story. Four men had decided that, however difficult it might be, they were going to get their paralysed friend to Jesus. They knew it would be a challenge because Jesus was already very popular and large crowds were following him. On this particular day, Jesus was preaching in a house in Capernaum where he had been staying. The house was already crammed with people, so there was no possibility of the men getting their friend to Jesus through the door. They needed to use their initiative, and for them the obvious answer was to break through the roof. The owner of the house probably wasn’t quite so thrilled with their conclusion but it was, nonetheless, effective, and the paralysed man was brought to the feet of Jesus. Everybody could see what the need was. The man was paralysed and needed healing, so surely Jesus, who had already acquired a reputation as a miraculous healer, would reach out his hand and heal his paralysis. However, Jesus’ first response was not to heal the man but to pronounce forgiveness. This really wound up the religious teachers, who knew that only God could forgive sin. They were still a long way from recognising Jesus’ true identity. When we look at other people, it is often very easy to spot their immediate problem. They may be ill, poor or anxious. Understandably, we are eager to fix their problem as quickly and effectively as possible, but everybody’s first need is forgiveness. Only when we have a restored relationship with God can we move forward into the new life that he wants for us. Until we have received God’s forgiveness, we will continue to lug around sin, guilt and failures from the past. God’s miraculous forgiveness is on offer to anyone who will own up to their sin and receive his gift for themselves. Question How has God’s gift of forgiveness affected your life? Prayer Loving God, I have let you down in my thoughts, words and actions and through those good things that I have left undone. Please forgive my sin and set me free to live for you. Amen
January 13 · 3 min
January 13th - Mark 1:35
Mark 1:35 Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray. Although Jesus’ ministry had only recently begun, he was already very busy. His authoritative preaching and miraculous healings were attracting great interest and he had little time to himself, but he knew that his authority came from God his Father, so he needed to keep in close contact with him. He had to work hard to find a special time and place to pray. He knew that his ministry relied upon it. As we walk in the footsteps of Jesus, we need to work just as hard to find our special times and places to pray. One thing is certain: personal prayer won’t happen without discipline and determination. We will always be able to fill our time with other activities. The key thing is for us to become convinced that prayer is our priority and that other activities, however worthy and enjoyable, are of lesser importance. That’s often hard to accept because we tend to judge ourselves, and others tend to measure us, by our activities. For the person who doesn’t understand how God works, prayer could easily look like a complete waste of time. The place where we pray is often very important. You may have a special place in your home where you can sit and pray. In a busy household, this might be hard to achieve. I once heard someone claim that the only quiet place they could ever find in their home was their loo! Maybe you have a park where you can walk. Wherever your special place is, you need to cherish the opportunity to meet with God in quietness. William Wilberforce, famous for his involvement in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, once wrote: “Of all things, guard against neglecting God in the secret place of prayer.” Whoever we are, and whatever our life looks like, we all need to listen to those words and make prayer a priority, just like Jesus did. Question What is your special time and place of prayer? Prayer Loving Father, thank you for the privilege of being able to pray to you. Help me to always make it a priority. Amen
January 12 · 3 min
January 12th - Mark 1:16-18
Mark 1:16-18 One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed him. I will never forget the first time I saw the Sea of Galilee. I was with a friend and we had been travelling for a couple of hours up the Jordan valley. It was incredibly hot and our little car didn’t have the blessing of air conditioning. We greeted our first glimpse of the lake with great excitement and, as we saw it, it was so easy to imagine Jesus walking along beside it, coming to a couple of fishermen and inviting them to follow him. The truly incredible thing is that nothing has changed. Two thousand years ago, Jesus invited people to follow him, and he still does! It's the personal nature of Christianity that makes it so different from other religions and philosophies. Religions normally have a set of beliefs and rules that you have to subscribe to, and then you’re a member, but for Christians, it’s all about a person, and living a life that follows and pleases him. Life is instantly redefined when you follow Jesus. Nothing looks the same. Someone once described the difference as being like seeing life in colour after only seeing it in black and white. I find it fascinating that as soon as Jesus invited the fishermen to follow him, he gave them a job. You might have thought that Jesus would have given them a while to get to know him and understand his teaching first, but no – following Jesus always involves finding others to follow him. And that’s the way Jesus’ earthly ministry concluded as well. When Jesus ascended to his Father in heaven he commanded his followers to make disciples of all nations. Whatever you are doing today Jesus says two things to you. He invites you to follow him and asks you to recruit other followers as well. Question Who might you be able to encourage to follow Jesus today? Prayer Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for inviting me to follow you. Help me to follow you more closely each day and to encourage others to do the same. Amen
January 11 · 3 min
January 11th - Mark 1:14-15
Mark 1:14-15 Later on, after John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee, where he preached God’s Good News. “The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!” We all know what we need to do when we are driving in the wrong direction: turn around. These days, I rely on satnav for most of my journeys, but every now and again, I trust my memory. Most of time that works brilliantly, but I have had a number of embarrassing experiences when I got things wrong. I remember one time when I was driving home at the end of the day. I wasn’t far from home, but I suddenly realised that I was driving north when I needed to drive south. All I could do was swallow my pride and turn around! That’s repentance – turning from the wrong direction to the right one. Just like John the Baptist, Jesus preached a message of repentance because he knew that it was the only way for people to discover the good news of God’s forgiveness. Repentance is much more than merely regret or remorse. It’s being sorry enough to stop and walk in a new direction. On the day of Pentecost, the punchline of Peter’s sermon was that the people needed to repent. That day saw the birth of the Church as people turned to God in repentance and were baptised. As they did so, Peter told them they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. When we turn our backs on the way we have been living, we need enormous encouragement and strength to head in a new direction. It’s not something we can possibly do by ourselves. No amount of human effort will be enough. We are completely reliant upon God’s Holy Spirit to fill us each day and to help us to walk in a new way. Question What has repentance meant for you personally? Prayer Lord God, I repent of the fact that I have so often gone my own selfish way. I ask you to forgive my sins and for the power of your Holy Spirit to help me live a new life in your strength. Amen
January 10 · 3 min
January 10th - Mark 1:12-13
Mark 1:12-13 The Spirit then compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness, where he was tempted by Satan for forty days. He was out among the wild animals, and angels took care of him. We’d probably all like to think that if our lives were totally led by the Spirit like Jesus’ was, we would be able to avoid all challenges and difficulties. Life would be one long succession of blessings and smiling people. The experience of Jesus shows us that this isn’t how the Spirit works. Led by the Holy Spirit, Jesus faced temptations, injustice, opposition and violence, but as he did so, he was given the wisdom and strength to face every challenge. The New Testament is incredibly candid about the challenges which face those who follow Jesus, and he himself was very clear about this. He saw it as an inevitable consequence of living in a broken and sinful world. In Jesus’ teaching to his disciples before his death, he said: “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). If you look back through the past couple of years, you can likely identify many temptations, challenges and difficulties that you have had to face. That’s life! The same will be true in the months and years ahead, but we need not be afraid because as the Holy Spirit leads us through these experiences, he will also give us the wisdom and strength to cope with them. When Jesus sent his disciples out on their first mission, he assured them that it would be tough. He said he was sending them out like sheep among wolves. He told them they would be handed over to the courts and flogged with whips in the synagogues. On the face of it, everything would go wrong, but Jesus told them not to be fearful because God would perfectly equip them. He told them not to worry about what they would say when they were arrested because the Spirit would give them the right words. I totally understand why we all shrink from the idea of temptations, problems and opposition, but with the Holy Spirit, we have nothing at all to fear. As we trust him, we will have all the wisdom, strength and words we need. Question How does this teaching help you as you look to your own future? Prayer Loving God, I invite your Holy Spirit to fill me, and to guide me every step of my life. Amen
January 9 · 3 min
January 9th - Mark 1:9-11
Mark 1:9-11 One day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptised him in the Jordan River. As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.” Here, in a gentle yet spectacular way, we see God the Trinity at work. Having been baptised by John, Jesus saw the Holy Spirit descending upon him, and God the Father spoke from heaven confirming his identity. As Jesus stepped into his new ministry, it was essential that the whole Trinity was involved. Jesus continually sought to be close to his Father in prayer and was led by the Spirit. People often struggle to understand the Trinity but it is in Jesus’ ministry that we see most clearly how they all work together. We must be constantly aware of the presence and blessing of God the Trinity in our lives. God is our creator and we bring our worship to him through Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Bible is quite clear that they are distinct from one another, and yet absolutely one. At the dawn of creation, all the members of the Trinity were present. God the Father spoke his word – and John’s Gospel explains that Jesus was that word – while the Spirit hovered over the surface of the waters. Then at Jesus’ baptism, the Father, Son and Spirit met in the River Jordan. People often say that they find the Trinity confusing, but the Bible never explains it to us like some sort of complicated mathematical puzzle. The Trinity is presented to us as the basis of our worship. God is always infinitely beyond our understanding but as we see the relationship between the Father, the Son and the Spirit, we are invited to join in relationship with them. At the heart of that relationship is love. God the Father loves us so much that he sent Jesus into the world to be our saviour, and when Jesus ascended to his Father, God sent his Spirit to us to lead us to Jesus and to enable us to do even more than could be achieved in Jesus’ earthly ministry. Question How does Jesus’ baptism help you in your understanding of the Trinity? Prayer Father, Son and Spirit, I thank you that you love me and call me into relationship with you today. Amen
January 8 · 3 min
January 8th - Mark 1:7-8
Mark 1:7-8 John [the Baptist] announced: “Someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not even worthy to stoop down like a slave and untie the straps of his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit!” It’s always great to see people who know what their job is in life and are happy to get on and do it. I am thinking of carpenters, car mechanics, ministers, teachers and accountants that I know – all sorts of people who have discovered where their gifts are best used and who happily devote their time and energy to doing the very best they can. That well describes John the Baptist. He knew exactly what his God-given role was: to prepare the way for the Son of God. He knew that he had a vital task to perform but that all the attention should go to Jesus, not to him. Do you know what your God-given role is? People often struggle with this question. They tend to be quite dismissive of what they’re currently doing. They don’t see it as very important. They imagine that God has something much more significant for them to do. I believe that we need to see everything we do as vitally important. God is able to use us, wherever we are, to bring praise to him and to encourage other people. As we do our work, we need to remain open to God’s voice. If we are sincerely seeking to serve God, he will want to show us how we can be most useful and effective. If you need to move into another role, I believe that God will show you. We simply need to keep our eyes and ears open. Until the time that God calls us to move on, we need to give 100 per cent to what we are doing now. John’s task was to prepare the way for Jesus and, whatever our work may be, we are always walking in John’s footsteps. We need to be preparing the way for other people to meet Jesus as their own saviour, Lord and friend. Question What is God calling you to do with your life? Prayer Loving Father, thank you that you have work for me to do. Help me to do it to the best of my ability and to take every opportunity to prepare the way for others to meet Jesus. Amen
January 7 · 3 min
January 7th - Mark 1:1
Mark 1:1 This is the Good News about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. When Mark put together his Gospel, he had a very clear purpose. You might have expected him to take us through Jesus’ life story, but he doesn’t. He totally disregards the first 30 years of Jesus’ life. He doesn’t tell us about Jesus’ birth, education, employment or relationships. We would be so fascinated to know about all of those things, but Mark wants to get to the heart of the matter: Jesus was nothing other than the Son of God. He was the Messiah, the one that the Jews had been anticipating for centuries. It is generally agreed that Mark was the first person to write a Gospel. Matthew, Luke and John’s Gospels were written in very different circumstances over the next 30 or 40 years, but it was Mark who was breaking the new ground. He was probably relying on Peter’s eye-witness account of Jesus’ ministry, and it is believed that he wrote it in Rome. Many scholars think he was writing around the year AD 60, a full generation after the earthly life of Jesus. Mark devoted himself to describing a short period of Jesus’ life, from the time he started his public ministry to the time, after his death and resurrection, when he ascended to his Father in heaven. Mark moved at breathtaking speed from one incident in Jesus’ life to another because of his fixed purpose to declare the good news and to reveal that Jesus was fully man and fully God. Mark knew that if Jesus was merely a human being, his life story might be interesting, but it wouldn’t be good news. It was precisely because Jesus was both man and God that he was able to open the way for people to find life in all its fulness. These days, Jesus is warmly spoken about by many people. They love that he was compassionate and radical, and happy to stand up to the authorities, but they don’t know how to cope with the fact that he was the Son of God. To our society, we have nothing less than good news to share as we declare, with Mark, that Jesus was both fully man and fully God. Question How do you relate to the fact that Jesus was both God and man? Prayer Loving God, I thank you for the good news. Help me to let it shape every part of my life. Amen
January 6 · 3 min
January 6th - Psalm 96:1-3
Psalm 96:1-3 Sing a new song to the LORD! Let the whole earth sing to the LORD! Sing to the LORD; praise his name. Each day proclaim the good news that he saves. Publish his glorious deeds among the nations. Tell everyone about the amazing things he does. Many people see life as divided into two categories: the sacred and the secular. The sacred is, for example, what we do when we go to church and worship God, and the secular is our normal daily routine of family life, working and relaxing. This way of looking at life is strongly Greek in origin and is very different from Hebrew thinking, which we see reflected in this psalm. The psalmist had no thought of confining his worship to his visits to the temple! He was eager to proclaim the good news of God’s salvation every day. Whatever he was doing, he wanted to declare the greatness of God and encourage other people to do the same. The idea of living in two separate compartments was completely unknown to him. When we see God at work in every aspect of our lives, it gives a new importance to everything we do. Work is no longer simply a way of making money to feed the family, but an opportunity to serve God and to extend his kingdom. Our sport is no longer something we do merely to keep fit and healthy, but an opportunity to live for God and to represent him to people who may not know him. Our finances are no longer our possession to use in ways that please us, but an exciting God-given opportunity to bless other people. I could go on – God’s desire is to bless every part of our lives. Nothing could be more exciting than to see God at work in every area of life. Dividing up the sacred and secular robs us of the joy that God wants us to experience. God is constantly working in new ways and leading us into new experiences, so the psalmist recognised the need to sing new songs to the Lord. Throughout history, God’s people have come up with new songs, and that continues to happen at an impressive rate! It’s not because there’s anything wrong with the old songs, but because God’s people are continually seeing him at work in new ways throughout all areas of life. Question In what new ways have you seen God at work recently? Prayer Thank you, Lord, that every day you give me new reasons to praise and worship you. Amen.
January 5 · 3 min
January 5th - Psalm 95:6-7
Psalm 95:6-7 Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the LORD our maker, for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the flock under his care. If only you would listen to his voice today! These words of invitation are often used at the beginning of church services to remind us of how wonderful God is, and how much he deserves our worship. However, although God is perfect and worthy of our complete devotion, he will never impose himself on us. It is up to us to respond, and listening is a crucial part of that response. The sad reality is that we often fail to listen. The psalmist reflects on a time when the people of Israel did just that. They were at the start of their wilderness wanderings and there was no water to drink. I don’t want to minimise the acute difficulty of such a dilemma, but the people’s response was to complain and not to listen to God. Although he had miraculously delivered them from slavery in Egypt, and provided regular food for them through the provision of quail and manna, they immediately blamed him. Happily, Moses did listen to God, and the result was that he struck the rock at Horeb and fresh water came gushing out. In his letter, James challenges his readers: “You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry” (James 1:19). James seems to have had an acute understanding of how people tick. He knew the grim truth that we are inclined to be quick to speak and get angry, and slow to listen. It’s easy to understand why: listening is hard work. It demands time and effort, and when we are facing a difficulty, we are inclined to want an instant response. Listening sounds like a very slow and unattractive option. The Bible is astonishingly honest about the repeated disasters of the people of Israel, which all occurred because they stopped listening. If only they had listened, things would have gone so very differently. It is the same for us today. We need to be quick to listen, knowing that God loves to speak with us and will be seeking to do so today through other people, the Bible, literature, music, art, nature and 1,000 other ways. Question How could you improve your ability to listen to God? Prayer Loving God, thank you that you love to speak to me. Help me to listen hard for your voice today. Amen
January 4 · 3 min
January 4th - Psalm 94:18-19
Psalm 94:18-19 I cried out, “I am slipping!” but your unfailing love, O LORD, supported me. When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer. Sharing honestly and openly what God has done in our lives is incredibly powerful. The most wonderful thing about it is that nobody can deny it. Other people might choose to interpret our experiences differently from us, but the moment we declare our personal accounts of how we have seen God at work in our lives, they are bound to take note of what we have said. I draw the conclusion from this that we need to give one another generous opportunities to share what God has done. Sharing our personal testimonies is good at every level. In a large congregation, they can inspire faith and stimulate worship. When we share our experiences in small groups where we can be totally honest with one another, one person’s testimony can trigger other people to share what they have been through. Probably the best time to speak of what God has done is one-to-one. Within the intimacy of a private conversation, we can share our experiences and then explore them with one another. The most important thing is that we don’t keep our testimonies to ourselves. They need to be shared. In the New Testament, we often find the apostle Paul sharing the account of his conversion, but he also loved to speak of the new things that God was doing in his life. He travelled from church to church around the Eastern Mediterranean, bringing them up to date with the ways in which the Holy Spirit was blessing the Church. In his letters, he spoke openly and honestly about how God was using him, even when he was in prison and battling with his “thorn in [the] flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7). Whoever we are, and whatever experiences we may have, each of us has a unique account of what God has done in our lives – and we need to share it. Question What is your own testimony of God at work in your life? Prayer Dear Father, thank you that you are alive and at work in my life day by day. Give me courage and determination to share my testimony with others. Amen
January 3 · 3 min
January 3rd - Psalm 93:4
Psalm 93:4 Mightier than the violent raging of the seas, mightier than the breakers on the shore – the Lord above is mightier than these! I was brought up by the sea and have always enjoyed the sight of waves breaking on the shore. I love the rhythm and the drama as they crash onto the beach. There is a timelessness about waves, and it is easy to understand why the psalmists often refer to them. But, however powerful and violent the sea might be, the psalmists insist that God is even more powerful. He is incomparably great. Whatever threat you are facing, God is more than able to cope. I wonder what challenges you are facing at the moment. They may be connected with your family, work, church, neighbours, community or something completely different. Life in our broken world inevitably produces a stream of challenges for all of us, and when we think beyond our immediate lives, we can see incredible problems engulfing our world. There are fires, floods and famine arising from climate change; huge numbers of people fleeing their home countries because of oppressive regimes; and Christians suffering persecution simply because of their faith. As we face these gigantic challenges, it is very easy for us to feel overwhelmed. So, with the psalmist, we need to fix our eyes on the incomparable greatness of God. God doesn’t always fix our problems immediately – the psalmists often complained about God’s apparently slow response – but we can be confident that he is incomparably powerful and, as we place our lives in his hands, we can be sure that he will be present with us in our times of difficulty. We all need to keep watching the waves, enjoying the drama of their power and thanking God that he is incomparably greater. Question What challenges are you facing at the moment? In what way does God’s strength give you confidence as you confront them? Prayer Lord God, help me to live today with a continual awareness of your mighty power. Amen
January 2 · 3 min
January 2nd - Psalm 92:1-3
Psalm 92:1-3 It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to the Most High. It is good to proclaim your unfailing love in the morning, your faithfulness in the evening, accompanied by a ten-stringed instrument, a harp and the melody of a lyre. Throughout the psalms, we are continually reminded how good it is to worship God. In Psalm 84:10, the psalmist says that he would rather spend a single day in the presence of God than a thousand anywhere else! Our verses today remind us of the importance of worshipping God throughout the day. Worship needs to be woven into the fabric of our lives. We can’t do it occasionally or half-heartedly. It needs to claim the best of our energy and attention. Worship is of such huge importance because it needs to affect absolutely every aspect of life. The thought of worship being confined to a couple of hours in church once a week is completely foreign to the Bible. When we worship, we declare the greatness of God and seek to bring our lives into line with his will. One of the most comprehensive definitions of worship was provided by William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury during the second world war. He wrote: “To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.” Those challenging words demand very careful reflection, because all too easily what we do in church can be cheapened. Whatever style of worship we are used to, it is so easy for it to become a performance which we judge by our own particular musical preferences. Worship needs to be focused entirely on God. It is very easy for us to focus instead on the people who lead us and our reactions to their gifts and idiosyncrasies. True worship of the living God brings us to life in a way that nothing else can, so we need to make sure it becomes increasingly central to our lives, however busy we happen to be. Question Give yourself a few minutes to think this through. How central is worship in your life? Prayer Lord God, I ask you in the power of your Holy Spirit to give me a constantly renewed desire to worship you with all of my heart. Amen
January 1 · 3 min
January 1st - Psalm 91:2
Psalm 91:2 This I declare about the LORD: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him. I will never forget where I was when I heard the news of the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 2001. I was buying carpet with my wife in a large store in Exeter, standing at the till. A woman was describing to the shop assistant the awful events in such a way that I assumed that she was talking about a film. Such things don’t happen in real life – or so I thought! As I listened to the conversation, it suddenly became clear that she was talking about a real event, and the horror of it started to sink in. Thousands of people were snatched away in an instant. All of them had gone to work that day with the not unreasonable expectation that they would return home safe and well, but they didn’t. Such events are exceptional, thank God, but we all live in a precarious world where none of us enjoys complete safety and security. In such a world, it is important that we recognise where our ultimate security lies. This is a theme which the psalmists returned to time and again. They often reflected on the reality of life’s dangers and the ferocity of their enemies. They were often surrounded by attackers. They were fully aware that God didn’t stop them going through difficult and dangerous times, and neither does he offer to do that for us. We might like God to be a ‘Bridge over troubled water’, but time and again, the Bible tells us that he actually invites us to wade through the middle of those troubled waters. Our security lies in the fact that, as we face threats and challenges, he is with us. In Isaiah 43:2, God says: “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown.” We might prefer it if God gave us a detour, but he doesn’t. His promise is that he will be with us when we face the waters, because he is our true security for time and eternity. Question How do you respond to the fact that in God, you are eternally secure? Prayer Lord God, I thank you that you are my refuge and place of safety and that I can look to the future with confidence and peace. Amen
Dec 31, 2025 · 3 min
December 31st - Luke 2:37-38
Luke 2:37-38 [Anna] never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshipping God with fasting and prayer. She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem. In this part of Luke’s gospel, our eyes are focused on Jesus and his young parents. A new day had dawned that was full of hope for the future. It is important, however, that it was two old people, Simeon and Anna, who recognised the significance of his birth. They had lived so close to God that they were ready for this moment. Age can change people in very different ways. Anna had only been married for seven years before her husband died. She was now an old woman and had been a widow for many decades. She could have become sour and cynical with the passing of time, but her life was clearly focused upon God. She spent her days in the temple worshipping God, and this meant she was spiritually alert and quick to see what he was doing. In this beautiful moment, she came alongside Simeon as he spoke with Mary and Joseph and joined in the celebration. At the time, there were godly people, who were known as The Quiet in the Land. They devoted their lives to prayer and waited patiently for God to come. Simeon and Anna were such people, and their godly example should inspire us today. Over the years, I have met many older people who, as their mobility has decreased, have increasingly devoted themselves to prayer. I have been so grateful for their godly influence and encouragement and delighted that they haven’t gone the way of so many in becoming increasingly grumpy and negative with the passing of time. As we get older, let’s allow Simeon and Anna to set the standard for how we should serve God: always prayerful, expectant and full of praise. Question As you get older, what are you going to do to ensure that you become increasingly prayerful? Prayer Loving God, thank you for the wonderful example of people like Simeon and Anna. Help me to get closer to you and become more gracious and loving as I get older. Amen