Daily Devotion by Ray Stedman

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JANUARY 12TH​

Practical Principles for Giving​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: 1 CORINTHIANS 16:1-2

On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.
1 Corinthians 16:1-2

Here are the four practical principles Paul gives us which should guide the procedure of giving. First, giving is to be persistent. On the first day of every week it is to be done. There must be a repetitive regularity about our giving. God set aside the first day of the week, the day of our Lord's resurrection, to remind us that we are to operate from the compassionate impulse of the indwelling life of Jesus Christ that keeps us from turning away as we would otherwise do from the demands of human needs around us. This first day of the week is set aside for that purpose.

Second, giving must be personal. On the first day of every week, each of you… — there is a universal inclusiveness about giving. It is not addressed to the rich only, or to adults only, but it includes rich and poor, young and old. No one is excluded from this. Jesus received the widow's mite, the smallest possible gift, to indicate that even the poorest are not excluded from giving. We are all to give because God always associates the gift with the giver. Giving is an intensely personal thing.

Third, giving is to be premeditated. We are to put something aside and store it up. It is a decision made in the home, with thoughtful premeditation, to divide up certain amounts in certain directions. In New Testament days, they would divide their wealth into little piles, piles of goods or food or grain. Today we simply withdraw from our accounts and pay, but it is the same principle. Let each one decide where it is to go, and in what amount, and do this as a premeditated act.

Finally, giving is to be proportionate, in keeping with your income. Here is the New Testament replacement for the Old Testament tithe. In the Old Testament, believers were asked to give 10% of their income to the work of God. But that is the kindergarten practice of giving. Men had to be told how much to give on a legal basis. When you come into the New Testament, you do not find the tithe carried forward. But proportionate giving is definitely taught. As increase in prosperity comes, there should be a corresponding increase in proportionate giving; not simply in the amount, but the proportion increases as God has prospered.

Lord, how futile it is for me to resist the moving of your Spirit in this thing, when the very reason that you have in asking me to give is in order that I might be blessed. Teach me this, and may I respond out of cheerfulness and gladness.

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Life Application​

Is your giving proportionate to the ways God has blessed you? Do you respond in cheerfulness and gladness when a new opportunity to give is shown to you?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JANUARY 13TH​

More Than Others​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: LUKE 6:32-36

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. … But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
Luke 6:32-36

These words of our Lord haunt me. What more are you doing than others? Why don't you react differently from others? Someone has said that a Christian is judged not so much by his actions but by his reactions. It isn't so much what he plans to do, but what he does instinctively on the spur of the moment, in the press of a situation. This is what reveals what is really in the Christian's life.

It's time we took seriously our Lord's words here. He clearly states that a Christian is to be different, and his reactions are expected to be different from others. He points out various practical situations. If someone is nice to you, it's no problem to be nice to them. Or if people are pleasant to you, it's no credit to you to be pleasant back to them. What are you doing more than others? But as He points out, it's when the reverse is true; when they are unpleasant, what do you do back? When they are nasty and insolent to you, how do you respond? When you lend them money and they don't repay, then what? When you invite someone over and instead of inviting you back, you hear they have told some false rumor about you behind your back? What do you do more than others is our Lord's question.

Most Christians think of witnessing in terms of talking to someone about the Lord. The reason we don't have an effective witness is often because we have many times ruined it in terms of being, of reacting. The New Testament says little about talking to someone about the Lord as Christian witness, but it says a great deal about our reactions as Christian witness. The attitude we show in times of pressure, irritation, and temptation to lose our temper or be impatient. This is what real Christian witness is. This is what paves the way for witness in the words that follow. It's when people see the unexpected Christian attitude that the door opens for witness.

Lord, lay hold upon my heart now, that I may rise up and stand in the strength you have given me, and stop asking you for power when you have given me power. Help me to start to exercise that which you have given me.

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Life Application​

How do you react when someone treats you in a way you did not expect? Ask the Holy Spirit for ways to show his power within you when this happens.

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JANUARY 14TH​

The True Witness​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: ACTS 1:8

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Acts 1:8

There is a sense in which every Christian, whether or not he talks about Christ, is a witness. It is literally true that if we have been born again by the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ, we are witnesses. Everything we do, the attitudes we take, the opinions we express, the reactions we have to situations, all are telling people what kind of Christian we are, or whether or not we are really Christians. The question is not, shall we be witnesses. The question is, what kind of witness are we?

Notice who is the soul winner. In all of history there has only been one soul winner, and it is not us. It is the Holy Spirit. He is the only one who has any capability of winning souls. We are not salesmen for God with a mandate to talk people into buying something. No salesman is dependent upon a person working with him to do the job properly, yet that is who we are as witnesses for Christ. We are not the ones who do the soul winning, ever. We do not have the power to convince people to become Christians, nor is a person won to Christ by your trying to argue with them. This means we can relax in our approach, and if the Holy Spirit has not already prepared a heart and made them ready and willing to listen, there is nothing we can do to make them so, except to pray for them.

Remember what the scripture says is the condition of man without Christ? Dead! How far would you get if you took a sales course and went to graveyards to sell your product to corpses? When scripture says that men and women are dead in trespasses and sins, it isn't just using language lightly. That is exactly the condition they are in, and every attempt to try to argue or reason a person into salvation apart from the Holy Spirit is like arguing with a corpse. A corpse has only one great need, and that is life. You may get the most eloquent and erudite books in the library and read to it all the philosophical elements for life, but it will not give him life. You may shake a stick over him and demand he obey the law, but that won't help. He needs life. This is the reason only the great Life-giver can do the work of soul winning. You don't have to beg him to do it. He is far more willing to do it than you are, but he does it with the ones of his choice, not your choice.

Father, thank you that you have called me to be a witness. What a thrilling and joyful thing that is, when I remember that you are able to do it all through me.

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Life Application​

Have you been guilty of trying to win people to Christ by attempting to convince them or by arguing with them?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JANUARY 15TH​

The Message Committed To Us​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: 2 CORINTHIANS 5:16-21

And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:19b-20

Paul says that the word of reconciliation has been committed to us and that God makes his appeal through us. He is in us. And He's doing it, and that is what saves us from fear and from uncertainty and from mistakes in the work of witnessing. Our reasoned logic, our arguments, and so on are of no effect whatsoever in this, except as they be the expression of the Holy Spirit within us. He will do his work; all we need to be is ready to respond to the situation, depending on him to do his work.

This relieves one of the greatest fears that keep people from witnessing. It has helped me tremendously to realize that I do not have to pump up my courage and tackle a situation in which I hardly know what I am coming into at all. I may be talking to somebody that is a stranger to me. I do not know what his background is, what his ability is, what his mental acumen is, or anything of the sort. I do not need to know. All I need to know about or do is just carry on a normal conversation about ordinary things. If I can but look to the Lord to find an opening to insert just a word that will switch the conversation over toward the things of Christ, that may lead to a deeper conversation. If this is a prepared heart, that person will respond. If it is not one that the Holy Spirit has prepared, then he won't respond. Therefore, the work of witnessing is impossible until the Holy Spirit has made the person ready.

You do not practice this work of witnessing without realizing that sometimes the initial response is different than what you would expect. You may discover that the person is often belligerent at first, but has a hungry heart underneath. You learn to be quick at perceiving that and paying no attention to what he says, but instead speaking to what he is displaying in his inner hunger. But any kind of response is a good response, as long as it is an open door by which you could pursue the subject further.

We do not need to pray for the Holy Spirit to prepare hearts. He is preparing them. He has them prepared all around us. Jesus said, Don't you have a saying, 'It's still four months until harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest (John 4:35). These prepared, hungry hearts, hearts yearning for answers, are all around us. Our job is simply to be so available to the Lord, that as we make contact from day to day, we can be used of Him to find who they are and carry this witness forward.

Thank you, Lord, that you have committed to me the message of reconciliation. May I operate as your ambassador through the power of your Spirit.

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Life Application​

Walk through today expecting the Holy Spirit to give you opportunities to share the truths of Jesus and be an ambassador of reconciliation.

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JANUARY 16TH​

Secret Growth​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: MARK 4:26-29

He also said, This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it because the harvest has come.
Mark 4:26-29

Here is our Lord's comment on how the kingdom of God comes into the affairs of men. First, we must be faithful to sow the seed. You cannot expect to harvest if you never sow. We often circumvent this sowing in the church. We gather together and show films on how to sow seed; we take courses and we read books, but somehow we resist letting this seed actually take root in our own hearts. But this is the only way God has arranged for planting the kingdom in the midst of people. He is not going to do it through any program men can devise; he is going to bring it about only through the planting of the seed. And you and I must be faithful to sow it.

Second, we must leave room for God to work. We are never content with this process of sowing and then waiting for God to work; we want it to come NOW! This is the cry of our age: everything comes in instant formulas. But we cannot force it; we must wait out God's time with patience, as a farmer does. The seed does not grow up overnight. The farmer went home after he had sowed the seed and lived a normal life. As the seed takes root in our lives, we are to keep on doing normal everyday things. And all the time we are doing so, things we cannot see are happening.

We are not to get discouraged when it looks as if nothing is occurring in our lives. Does a farmer get discouraged when he plants seed? Does he go out the next morning, see the field lying there just as black as the day before, and say, Oh, what a waste of time. Nothing's happening. And the next day there is still no sign of anything. After four or five days does he say, What's the use of this? Why did I waste my seed? No farmer does that. He knows that, as surely as the seed is there, it must take root. The forces of life in the soil must react with the forces of life in the seed, and then things will happen. If he waits a little while, when he goes out he finds green shoots sticking up here and there. Later the whole field suddenly turns green — almost overnight, it seems.

Finally, we must realize that the growth of the kingdom of God can be detected only at certain stages, as Jesus made clear. First the blade, then the ear, then the full stalk of wheat. Though we cannot see change in our lives from day to day, yet there are times when we can see that something has happened. When we compare what we have become with what we were a while ago, then we see change. This is exactly what a farmer does. He can look at his field any given day and not detect any change from the day before. But when he looks back two or three weeks, or two or three months, he can see remarkable change. Jesus says this is what happens in our lives as well.

Father, may I recognize that these processes will never fail until that great day when the kingdom of God shall be made visible among men. Your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.

​

Life Application​

Are you impatiently expecting to see significant changes in your life because of your walk with Jesus? Do you need to pray for him to show you the changes?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JANUARY 17TH​

God and the Nations​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: ROMANS 13:1-5

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.
Romans 13:1

Government is God's gift to men. It was given in order to keep us from fulfilling the evil of the human heart. Every time in human history when man is at the place where he is on the verge of destroying himself, God has intervened, usually through governmental agencies or the raising up of some new nation or some new power on the earth to overturn and overthrow the plans and programs of men, and return the world to some semblance again of order and of peace. This has been God's recurrent program throughout human history. And thus we can see that the existence of nations can be viewed as God's partial answer to the disintegrating force of sin in human life. If it weren't for government, man would have ceased to exist long, long ago.

This view of human government is reflected by the apostle Paul in Romans 13. We read that governmental agencies are instituted by God, and every governmental agent is a servant of God for your good. Government is therefore the agent of the Almighty. This helps to put into proper perspective the questions that arise from time to time on the rightness or the wrongness of matters such as bearing of arms in warfare. A Christian has the perfect right to become a soldier and serve in the armed forces of his country. If he has conscientious objections to this because of his background or his training he ought to observe his conscience, but if he is instructed in the scriptures, he can easily be shown that Christians have a right to serve as soldiers, and the government in raising an army for the defense of a country is exercising its privilege as a minister of the Almighty, as an agent of God.

Though governments are ordained of God, they can perform functions in rebellion against God. But even a government that rejects God and has no recognition of God at all in any public way, isn't any less a true government ordained of God. This is reflected by Paul in Romans 13 when he writes concerning the government. He says these powers are ordained of God, and at the time he wrote, the Emperor on the throne of Rome was Nero, the most monstrous wretch that had ever sat upon the Imperial throne; yet Paul recognized him as an agent of God.

God rules among the nations whether they know it or not. If a nation refuses to recognize its utter dependence upon God and the need for His wisdom and power, then all the forces that operate within it operate to its destruction, and it will ultimately destroy itself. History confirms it and the Bible declares it. The nation that remembers God is the nation whose God is Lord.

Father, thank you for my beloved nation. I pray that I may look to you as the one who holds all nations in the palm of your hand. May I recognize that you are able to use them, turn them, change them, and move them at will.

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Life Application​

Have you thought about your nation's government as being ordained by God? How will this truth affect your perspective on governmental matters?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JANUARY 18TH​

The Scars of Sin​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: ROMANS 6:15-18

Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
Romans 6:16

What happens when we give way to temptation? It is clear that several things occur. First, we always go farther than we intended to go. This is invariably true when we choose to sin. Which of us has not told a lie, intending to tell only one lie, but before the day was over we found that that one lie forced us to tell another to support it, and then another, and yet another. Before the thing was over, where we had intended to tell but one lie, we ended up telling twenty-five, each one worse than the one before. We have all felt, as one little boy once put it, that a lie is an abomination to the Lord, but it is a very present help in time of trouble. But as we look back on our lies, we discover that they are not a help at all; they have taken us much farther than we wanted to go. That is the first result of sin.

The second is that we invariably expose someone else to danger or to hurt. Because we are tied up in one bundle of life with all of our friends and relatives, what we do always affects someone else. I think of the tears in parents' eyes as they grieve over the folly into which their children have fallen. Sin is not a private affair, it always touches someone else. No one can sin in private, for God who sees the hearts always works to uncover that which is hidden. Eventually it all comes out, to the hurt, damage, sorrow, and despair of others whom we didn't mean to hurt at all.

The third effect of sin is that we find that repentance becomes increasingly difficult. The longer we go on, the more we give way and choose the evil, the harder it is to cast ourselves upon the forgiving, redeeming grace of God, and to stop the evil thing. In fact, if we go on too far this way, we may find it impossible to turn around. This is the thrust of the warnings that are found on page after page of the Bible. Five times in the book of Hebrews alone you will find this kind of a warning note, Be careful! If you go too far you will find that you cannot come back.

But suppose we find genuine forgiveness? Suppose we do repent and we stop the evil thing, what happens then? Immediately all the estrangement that was between us and God is gone, and we are restored to a sense of fellowship with him. Our guilt is removed, we are cleansed, and we do not need to beat ourselves over the head any more. We are washed and set free, and, in God's sight, treated as though the thing never happened. This is the amazing wonder of forgiveness, that we can find genuine relief from the inner torment of our hearts and be set free.

Thank you, Father, that your restrictions upon me are not prompted by a desire to limit me but rather to give me freedom; not prompted by a desire to hurt me, but to help me and to keep me from harm.

​

Life Application​

Reflect on the glorious freedom from guilt and shame God offers you in forgiveness of your sins, and ask that he bring about true repentance in your heart.

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JANUARY 19TH​

Where Deliverance Begins​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: ROMANS 6:1-4

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
Romans 6:1-2

This is the place where deliverance begins. What this declares is that down at the very deepest level of your life, a fact has taken place from which all deliverance will stem. It means that whether or not you feel like a Christian, you still are a Christian if this has occurred; Christ's death for you, and your death with him, are unchangeable facts, and nothing you do, or don't do, affects them.

This is a truth we greatly need, for until we begin to believe what God says is true about what happened to us when Jesus Christ died, we never will have the confidence to accept the deliverance that he has based upon it. If you once died with him, you are not the same — you never will be the same again. Even though temporarily you do fall into sinful acts which are the same as those you committed before you were a Christian, still you are not the same — you cannot be. You have been transferred, the New Testament says, from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves (Colossians 1:13). The evil one cannot lay his hands upon you any longer. You are not in bondage; you are a believer and your deliverance rests upon an unchangeable fact.

I was talking with a young man who had been away from church for some time, and I asked him why. He said, I hesitate to come, because when I'm at work I can't seem to live like I ought to. There is so much failure in my life there. I lose my temper and sometimes curse and say things that I shouldn't. This is why I don't want to come to church. I feel like a hypocrite when I do. I said, You know, a hypocrite is someone who acts like something he isn't. When do you act that way? Well, he said, if I came to church after the way I live through the week, I'd be a hypocrite, wouldn't I? I said, Are you a Christian? He said, Yes, I am. All right, I said, if you are a Christian, then when is it that you do not act like one? In church, or at work? Oh, he said, I see what you mean. I'm being a hypocrite at work! Yes, I said, when you come to church, you're being what you really are for perhaps the first time during that week.

It is not hypocritical to come among the people of God in a sense of weakness and even failure. You belong there — that's what Christians are. You may be a hypocrite at work, and if you wish to avoid acting like a hypocrite, apply it there. The point is this: The death of Jesus Christ is an unchangeable fact in your experience if you have received him. God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it (1Corinthians 10:13). He will bring you through, if you rest upon the unchangeable fact of what he has already done in your life.

Father, thank you that my true identity is found in the fact that I have died with Christ. Help me to believe that.

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Life Application​

Do you struggle with feelings of hypocrisy? Once you receive Jesus Christ into your life, he provides a way for you to conquer sin. Thank him for this!

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JANUARY 20TH​

Birthed in Pain​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: 1 CHRONICLES 4:9-10

Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, I gave birth to him in pain. Jabez cried out to the God of Israel…
1 Chronicles 4:9-10

Consider the problems that Jabez faced. He was born under a cloud, for his name, Jabez, means sorrow or pain. Every child is born in pain; it is not unusual, of course. But evidently there is more involved here than just birth pains. This mother names this little lad Jabez because her life is embittered; she bore him in deep sorrow, more than just physical pain.

Why did this mother name her baby sorrow? The first clue is that evidently there is some disgrace in the family here. In this list of names in 1 Chronicles 4, the names of the fathers are invariably given, but when it comes to Jabez there is no mention of his father's name. That's important because 1 Chronicles is the official records kept by the priests. It was necessary to keep a close account of genealogy of the families of Israel, and the father's name was always given because that was the system of keeping account. This omission indicates that part of the sorrow, that hung like a heavy cloud over this dear mother's heart when her baby was born, was that her family name had passed under the shadow of disgrace. This is confirmed by the statement made of him: Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. It seems his brothers had suffered from this bad name. It is also indicated in that this family lived in distressing poverty. There's no mention of the place or the home where they lived. In the other names from this list, the place from which they come is recorded. This is important in Israel because the land was divided among the tribes and each family was allotted a certain portion within the tribal section. They never lost the right to that except under the most unusual circumstances, but here was a family who lost their patrimony and their homestead.

We can only guess at what this must have meant to this boy growing up, in terms of sensitivity, inferiority, social ostracism, and the cloud of family disgrace under which they lived. Here was a boy with two strikes against him in life: his family disgraced, his environment difficult. All of this unquestionably had an effect on Jabez growing up. And yet, remember that this little account breaks upon us with the announcement that Jabez was more honorable than his brethren.

Yes, amidst all of this, Jabez called on the God of Israel. Somehow Jabez learned that the key to life does not lie in the visible things of man, but in the invisible reality of God. What a tremendous lesson! The fact that so many today have failed to grasp that most significant thing is the explanation for the tremendous neurosis of emptiness which grips so many hearts these days. They've never understood this simple truth that Jabez discovered.

Father, despite the challenges that I have faced in my life, and am now facing, I pray that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.

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Life Application​

Do you focus on the difficulties in your life, or do you focus on God and his mighty power?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JANUARY 21ST​

Enlarge My Territory!​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: 1 CHRONICLES 4:9-10

Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain. And God granted his request.
1 Chronicles 4:10

As we read his prayer, it seems rather selfish at first; it's all centered on him. Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain. There's a great deal of me in there. But if we look closer at this, especially in light of his painful background, I think we can see that this is not a self-centered prayer; it's an agonizing plea for help because of the deep consciousness of his own inadequacy. I need help, he's saying. He's saying, Oh God, amid all this sorry tale of shame and sin and Godlessness that is my background, Lord, do something for me. Take me out of this, remove me from this situation, help me in it, deliver me.

It's obvious that as Jabez prays, there's an awareness of his need for provision. Here is a young man who has grasped the fact that prosperity comes only from God; that things in themselves are of no value unless God gives them to us; that if we attempt to get them apart from Him, they become a curse to us. And he prays, Lord, in everything in my life, enter into it and bless it, and make it not a curse but a blessing to me, and enlarge me and be with me, for thou are the key to life.

There's also an awareness of his need for protection. He says, Keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain. He is referring back to that blight on the family character, some hereditary weakness perhaps, that plagued him and threatened him as it threatens his brothers. He says, Lord, I recognize my fear in the face of this thing. How can I escape this debilitating power in my life that threatens to degenerate and disintegrate my personality as it did in my father and in my brothers?

He's praying for protection against this thing, and I don't think there could be a greater lesson learned than the fact that the world in which we live is so silken in its subtlety, that we all are exposed in the weakness of our heredity to these disintegrating forces which will certainly seize upon us, unless we rest in the protecting grace of God. Here is a young man who discovered that.

God heard Jabez and answered his prayer. Here is a lad who began on the wrong side of the tracks, but he found his answer in God. Life is utterly meaningless if we do not discover that God is the secret to its meaningfulness; that your life may be suddenly altered in its course, its direction suddenly changed. You are now committed to following God wherever He leads. That is the secret to the fulfillment and the enrichment of life, and that is the lesson that Jabez has here for us.

Lord, I pray that I would depend join you for provision and protection, and trust you to open the doors and lead the way to a life of fulfillment.

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Life Application​

Are you willing to ask God to be your sole protector and rescuer, instead of relying on your own abilities or situation in life?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JANUARY 22ND​

Faith's Determination​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: NUMBERS 27:1-11

The daughters of Zelophehad … came forward and stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the leaders and the whole assembly at the entrance to the tent of meeting and said, Our father died in the wilderness. He was not among Korah's followers, who banded together against the Lord, but he died for his own sin and left no sons. Why should our father's name disappear from his clan because he had no son? Give us property among our father's relatives.
Numbers 27:1-4

These five remarkable young women are a picture for us of the activity of faith. They came before Moses at a time when he was numbering the people of Israel in order to determine the allotment of land when they came into the promised land. And in the numbering, these girls came before him and they asked an unusual thing. They came reminding Moses that though their father had died in the wilderness, he had not been part of the rebellion of Korah. He was not part of those who forfeited their inheritance, and so they come asking for that inheritance. All of this takes place in the wilderness just before entrance into the land and, therefore, it is all done in faith. Israel does not have an inch of land yet. But by simple reckoning upon God's promise that they would have the land, they are already dividing it up by faith. And these girls come asking for a part of the inheritance.

Faith is the key note here. As in any age, faith is the watchword to blessing. There is nothing that will come into your life from God apart from the channel of faith. These girls are a demonstration to us of what faith is. The first step in faith is a determination. These young ladies were aware that God had given a promise of an inheritance in the land of Canaan to Israel. They knew that the promise involved a land of fruitfulness and blessing. And they desired to have the part in that which belonged to them. That land is a picture for us of the inheritance which is promised to us. Everyone who has come by faith to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior has available to them an inheritance.

This is not just something to come after death. This inheritance is for believers right now in this life. All things are already available to us in Jesus Christ. This is our inheritance. But we take it by faith. In other words, we can have as much as we determine to have. These girls determined to have their inheritance. They decided that they would take it. That is where faith begins. So vital and practical is this matter of faith, that each one of us is exactly as victorious as we want to be — no more. We have taken what we wanted, and we will never take more until we want more. That is what the whole fabric of Scripture sets before us.

Father, awaken my faith anew. Help me to realize that all is waiting for me to take it. There are no limits on your side; the limitations are only of my own imposition.

​

Life Application​

How can you accept a greater portion of all that is promised? Find a promise in Scripture and ask God to make its meaning clear in your life.

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JANUARY 23RD​

Faith's Daring​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: NUMBERS 27:1-11

The daughters of Zelophehad … came forward and stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the leaders and the whole assembly at the entrance to the tent of meeting and said, Our father died in the wilderness. He was not among Korah's followers, who banded together against the Lord, but he died for his own sin and left no sons. Why should our father's name disappear from his clan because he had no son? Give us property among our father's relatives.
Numbers 27:1-4

Following the determination that these girls evidenced, there is immediately the second characterization of faith: not only determination, but daring. They stood before Moses and Eleazer the priest and the leaders and all the congregation, at the door of the tent of the meeting which numbered well over a million people. It must have been an unusual sight to behold. It was unusual enough for women to come, but what they asked was unheard of. I wish that I could have seen Moses' face when these girls made their request. Moses was used to solving problems among this murmuring, discontented people. But, when these girls came, they floored him with their request. He did not know what to do. They asked that the inheritance might pass to them even though there was no male issue, and Moses had nothing to say. He brought their case before the Lord and asked what God would say.

Faith always dares to do something different. It may be an ordinary thing, but done in an extraordinary way. But faith always must step out beyond the usual, and this is what these girls do. There stood in their way the most powerful obstacle to advance ever known to the human race — one of Satan's favorite weapons here. They were up against the monumental bulk of tradition, the immovable obstacle which has thwarted many, and many a well laid plan. The most discouraging words that men ever hear is the phrase, We have never done that before. It was this that these girls were up against. Faith always challenges tradition, and we must therefore be ready to move out against traditionally held views in some way or another if we are going to walk by faith. When a new concept is first propounded, man says, It is not true. When the probability of its truth is supported by the experience of many, then people say, It will not work. When workability is established beyond doubt, people say, It is not important. But when its importance can no longer be ignored, they say, We knew it all the time. This is what these girls are up against. They are moving against the invested interests of tradition. But they are reckoning on a promise which is based on grace. And with that, they dare to come.

Lord, teach me to take by faith what I need for personal victory; to take what I need for personal witness; to take what I need for strength to face problems, whatever they may be. Lord, teach me to walk by faith.

​

Life Application​

Do your circumstances require you to exercise daring in your walk of faith? Ask God to show you his will in the matter, and then obey what he shows you to do.

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JANUARY 24TH​

Faith's Influence​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: NUMBERS 27:1-11

So Moses brought their case before the Lord, and the Lord said to him, What Zelophehad's daughters are saying is right. You must certainly give them property as an inheritance among their father's relatives and give their father's inheritance to them.
Numbers 27:5-7

Moses brought Zelophehad's daughters' case before the Lord, and the Lord told him they were right. Later this became for Israel a statute and ordinance. Not only did these five girls receive the inheritance of their father, but their act of faith formed the basis of a new law. When I was a boy back home on a ranch in Montana, we used to have a great big red can of baking powder on the shelf, and the can was labeled as double acting baking powder. Faith is like that. Faith not only acts upon us, but faith stimulates others as well. What our act of faith has accomplished for us becomes an open door for others to follow after.

The amazing thing about this activity of these girls is that centuries later, this act of faith established the principle which made possible the right of Jesus Christ to the throne of David through his mother Mary. Luke tells us that Jesus was commonly supposed to be the son of Joseph, though those on the inside of the story knew that He was not the son of Joseph. As His sonship with Joseph was generally accepted, it became the basis for His legal right to the throne of David. But had that right been challenged, He would still have had a right to the throne of David through His mother, Mary, on the basis of this law established by the daughters of Zelophehad. For all the rights and prerogatives of the house of David came to Mary on the basis of this principle established in Israel.

This is always the dynamic of faith. Others are stirred to new endeavors when we step out in faith. Remember Paul, writing to the Philippians, said that though he was in prison, chained to a Roman guard day and night, Others have been made more bold by my imprisonment to preach the gospel throughout the city. As they saw his faith exercised in the midst of those discouraging circumstances, their own faith was strengthened and they went to work. The result was that the gospel flourished throughout the city of Rome while Christians were being persecuted.

Who knows what God is going to do when small steps of faith are taken? God is calling us to live by faith, and all through the Scriptures we see that when we venture out upon some promise of God, we claim what God has offered to us in Christ. The most tentative effort in this direction can open a door that will grow into glorious possibilities. This is the dynamic of faith. Who knows what God will bring into your life if you open your home, you try a new approach to an old problem, you give up an old habit, you step out in faith? You come before God and say, Lord, I have found this in your word. It is not a part of my life now, but by Your grace, I claim this. I want this. This is God's way of changing human history.

Lord, as I step out in faith I ask that others will be strengthened in their own faith, and together we will see the glorious possibilities you have in store for us.

​

Life Application​

Accept this challenge to step out in faith in a particular area of your life, and watch God use your faith to expand the lives and actions of others!

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JANUARY 25TH​

When Faith Hits Rock Bottom​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: 1 KINGS 19:1-9

Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them. Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. … He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. I have had enough, Lord, he said. Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.
1 Kings 19:1-4

As a result of the Lord's tremendous victory against the prophets of Baal, Elijah expected that Ahab and Jezebel would be shaken in their unbelief. The message from Jezebel that comes to him, threatening his very life, takes Elijah by great surprise. So tremendous has been the victory that Elijah felt that the power of evil in this country would be broken. But now comes the message from Jezebel that says, By tomorrow morning, I will have your life. As a result, Elijah fell apart at the seams.

Is it not true that most of the black moods of despair that grip us come at times when we have been disappointed in some result that we have expected? Things do not turn out as we hoped and we hit rock bottom. We feel the dark cloud of gloom pass over our spirit and we are in the grip of this despondency. But there is also a deeper reason. If you look beneath this account of Elijah, you can see that behind the unexpected results and their affect upon him is a revelation of an incomplete trust in God. What Elijah was doing was going along with God, as long as God was doing what Elijah expected him to do. There was no doubt, as you read the previous chapter of the great victory on Carmel, that Elijah knew that God was going to answer with fire. There is no shadow of doubt in his heart. But this latest event has shaken him, because he does not expect it. This is frequently the cause of our despondency, is it not? We discover that it is not that we are really reckoning upon God to do anything that He wants to do, but we are reckoning upon what we expect God to do and when He does not act the way we think he ought to act, our faith hits rock bottom.

Father, I confess that oftentimes I expect you to act in ways that I think are appropriate and right, rather than bowing before your wisdom in all things.

​

Life Application​

Has God recently done something in your life that you did not expect? How can you adjust your response and submit to his perfect wisdom in every circumstance?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JANUARY 26TH​

The Cure for Despondency​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: 1 KINGS 19:1-9

Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, Get up and eat. He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you. So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days …
1 Kings 19:5-8a

Notice the wonderful cure that God sets forth for us. Here we discover that God, in His grace, moving to meet our need, always meets the whole man. The first step in God's program of resuscitation for this prophet is to feed him and put him to bed. He meets the physical first. I love that. How intensely practical God is! For half of Elijah's problem here is simply that he was suffering from sheer physical weariness. He needed a good night's sleep and a good full meal. I am convinced that much of the time, when we suffer from despondency and dejection, the first step in the cure will be this very thing — that we simply get a good night's sleep. This is a perfectly religious activity, there's nothing wrong with it at all. If it bothers you to get a good night's sleep, I suggest you read this passage again and again, for God put the prophet to bed. That is the way it started.

The second step is emotional. God evidently sent the prophet to Mount Horeb, which is another name for Mount Sinai, where the law was given. Why does he go there? Because Sinai is the place of holy memories. Sinai stood forever as the reminder to Israel of God's power and God's grace. As Elijah went back to the place where Moses stood before the rock and the great rock gushed forth water, as a picture of the rivers of living water that Christ our Rock pours out into the life of those who come to Him; as he stood at the foot of the mountain that shook and trembled under the might and power of God and from which the law thundered forth, he could not help but be reminded — emotionally, now — of the tremendous adequacy of God — of all that He could do. It is a wise person who flees to some Horeb when life turns black on his hands. He went back to the place, which, even in its very associations, reminded him — every stone, every rock, every crag, every cave of the mountainside spoke in eloquent terms of a God who cared and a God who could do anything.

Lord, you are the great shepherd who restores both my body and my soul.

Life Application​

Do you struggle with despondency? Reflect on all the ways God has provided for you, then trust that he will continue to do so.

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JANUARY 27TH​

How God Works​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: 1 KINGS 19:9-18

The Lord said, Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by. Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. … After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
1 Kings 19:11-13a

Elijah's great lesson is to come to a clear understanding of the processes of God's working. The prophet went out and a tremendous hurricane swept around the mountain of Sinai, so strong and powerful that it began to loosen the very rocks and they crumbled and fell around him. I doubt if this bothered Elijah in the least. I think the power and brutal force of that storm matched the storm that was raging inside the prophet. Following the great tempest came an earthquake. The ground trembled and moved and rolled and shook under him. But he is still not afraid. After that, a tremendous electric storm came, with lightning leaping from crag to crag around him and the sky split asunder by these tremendous white hot sparks of lightning. After the fire, there comes what the Hebrew calls, the gentle voice of stillness — absolute silence. And in that silence, the prophet is aware that God is moving.

This reveals to us much of what was going through the mind and heart of Elijah. This great prophet, with his eagerness for God's welfare, doubtless had been longing, as we often do, for a mighty wind of the Spirit to blow through this nation — the wind of the Spirit, sovereign, mysterious, mighty in its moving. The prophet had longed that this would happen to the nation, but no wind came. Nothing was happening. He hoped for a political earthquake that would overthrow the throne of Ahab and the godless queen Jezebel and destroy the idols around; but no earthquake came. He longed for a searching, scorching blast of the fire of judgment, coming down and consuming the forces of heathenism in the nation; but none of it happened. But he was to learn that the still, small voice of an awakening conscience is the most powerful force in all the world — that God moves there. It is quite wrong for us to assume that whenever God is at work, there must be blood and fire and noise and smoke and power. No, God works when things, apparently, are at a standstill.

Does He not teach us that in nature? I remember how, often, as a boy, in the winter in Montana, I used to look out upon that bleak and wintry landscape covered with three or four feet of snow, not a leaf on the trees, everything so bare and dreary and desolate-looking, and I would long for spring. It seemed impossible that anything could break the icy grip of winter's hold upon the land. But, you know, spring never did come with a roar. It always came gently and quietly — that invisible force at work that put the leaves back onto the trees and brought the grass out of the ground and melted all the snow and sent it away. This is the way God works. Invisible, noiseless, irresistible — this is the way God works. This is what He wants us to learn.

Lord, teach me to trust that you are working when it seems like things are at a standstill. May your still, small voice awaken consciences.

​

Life Application​

Let go of your expectations of how God should work and let him speak through the stillness and silence in your heart.

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JANUARY 28TH​

God's Resources​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: 1 KINGS 19:9-18

The Lord said to him, Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal …
1 Kings 19:15-18a

While Elijah was despairing of the future, God was planning for it. There was a new scourge raised up in Syria to punish Israel. There was a new king in Israel to purify the land. There was to be a new prophet to proclaim the Word of God in greater power than Elijah had, with double the spirit of Elijah resting upon him, plus 7,000 men throughout the land, who were faithful to God and never bowed the knee to Baal. Elijah was saying, I, only I, am left. How little he knew of God's resources. And how little we reckon on the might of God when we think that the circumstances of our present day are more than He can handle, or the circumstances of your life.

God moves with undeviating purpose throughout history, both nationally and individually. The ultimate cure for despondency is to reckon on His adequacy whether you can see it or not. That is the great lesson here. Some years ago, I read of an old Navajo Indian who was very wealthy. He had made a lot of money by the discovery of oil on his property, but he kept all his money in the bank in town. Every now and then, he would come in off his ranch, into the bank, and he would come in to the president of the bank and he would say to him, Rain all gone, streams dry up, grass all gone, sheep all die. The banker knew exactly what to do. He would go into the vault and he would get out great stacks of silver dollars and stack them up on the table and invite the old man to come in and sit and look at them and say, This is your money. And the old Navajo would go in and sit down in front of this money and eye it and finger it and count it and feel of it. After a bit, he would get up and go out to the banker and say, Rain coming now, plenty of grass, plenty of water, sheep all fine. And back he would go to the ranch. Now, that old Indian was quite wrong about his dependence upon that money as his ultimate resource — it could have faded away as rapidly as the grass … but one thing he had learned was that the cure for a dejected spirit is to take account again of your resources.

This is the great lesson of Elijah's, that when we come to the place where things seem to be going bad and nothing seems to be happening — those times that press great trials upon our spirit — when things seem to be going quite counter to what we expect, we are to lift our eyes from the situation unto the Savior and reckon upon his resources, remembering this account of Elijah: that God accomplishes His purposes and cannot be stopped.

Father, what a reminder this is to my feeble faith, to rest upon you. Teach me in times when nothing seems to be happening to look to you and reckon on your faithfulness.

​

Life Application​

Do you need to turn your eyes away from the fearfulness of your circumstances and look toward the resources of God? He is faithful and he will take care of you!

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JANUARY 29TH​

Walking With God​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: GENESIS 5:21-24

When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.
Genesis 5:21-24

Twice it is recorded of Enoch the supremely important thing about this man: he walked with God. But it's also recorded that he didn't always walk with God. For the first 65 years of his life, his life was no different than those around him, and then suddenly a change occurred. There came a circumstance which caused him to turn right around. And for the next 300 years it's recorded of him, as the supreme value of his life, that he walked with God. This does not mean that God appeared to him in any form at all, or that he saw him in any visible way, or that he took walks with such an incarnated personality. It simply means exactly what it means when we say of someone today, What a godly person, he walks with God.

It meant that Enoch was going in the same direction that God is going. When you walk with somebody, you must go in the same direction that they're going. What direction is God going in? God is always unhesitatingly moving in the direction against sin, contrary to evil in human life. This is because the deepest fact about God is that he's a God of love. His love, like a burning fire, is continually blazing out against anything that destroys, brutalizes, harms and blasts the humanity that He loves. If we walk with God, we will walk always against these things, against this principle of independence, this destroying principle of rebelliousness against a sense of dependency continually upon God. That's the direction God moves in human history.
When it's said of Enoch that he walked, it also meant that he kept step with God. For after all that's what a walk is, a series of steps. You can't walk by taking one step today, and another one six months from today, and then another one six months later. That's not a walk. A walk is a series of steps taken one succeeding another. We all know what it means to take a step toward God. But that's not a walk. A walk is a series of steps taken day, after day, after day, after day, with God. Therefore, any moving with God is a continual life of activity for God. It's taking on every responsibility that shows up before us, or as much as we can, at least. It's moving out to meet needs that are immediately before us.

Furthermore, for Enoch it meant that there was agreement with God. It's one thing to be in agreement with the divine direction of God through history, but to walk means to walk in step with another in which there's full agreement as to the particular step. There was no controversy between Enoch and God. Enoch wasn't agreeing to the general provision of God's moving, but actually resisting him in the immediate step. It meant the total collapse of all revolt against his will, and the cessation of any resistance to what he felt, this very day, God was wanting him to do. He kept in step.

Walking is exactly the activity to which we are called in the New Testament. Walk as children of light, Paul said. Walk worthy of God, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. This is the very thing we're called to do.

Father, my heart's desire is to walk with you. Teach me to keep in step with you.

Life Application​

Evaluate your current walk with God. Are you keeping in step with him, or are you choosing to obey only when you agree with his leading?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JANUARY 30TH​

The Man Who Never Saw Death\​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: HEBREWS 11:5-6

By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: He could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Hebrews 11:5-6

I love the story of the little Sunday school girl who, after Sunday school, said to her mother one day, Mother, we heard about the most wonderful man in Sunday school today. His name was Enoch, and he used to go on long walks with God. One day they walked so far that God said to him, It's too far for you to go back, you better come home with Me now. And he just walked on home with God.

That's exactly what this implies. Why was this man taken without seeing death? Of all the long line of humanity, why is he the great exception? Genesis says Enoch walked with God. Is this a promise that if we walk with God we shall never die? Yes, in a sense it is. You remember those words of Jesus: I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die (John 11:25-26).

There's a sense that when we walk with God we never really see physical death. But let me suggest something else. Is this not a lesson on the physical level intended to illustrate for us something on the spiritual level? We are told very plainly that Enoch was taken in order that he would not see death, and death, as you know, in scripture has a double meaning. There's that word death, which means the end of life, the cessation of the body's existence. But it also has the meaning of the end of life, such as abundant life, such as we describe as really living. Therefore, it means futility, barrenness, dullness, drabness, meaninglessness and emptiness. That's death. That's what it means in Romans 8:6, The mind governed by the flesh is death — drabness, barrenness, emptiness. The question that this brings before us is this: Are you living in death even as a Christian, because you do not walk with God? Enoch's life is a testimony to us, that if we walk with God we shall not see death; that the answer to barrenness, drabness and dullness is this daily stepping out by faith on the promises of God; this daily testing of his promises of his presence, and reckoning upon them. It was by faith that Enoch walked with God, by testing what God said, and discovering it was true as he stepped out upon it.

What a surprising thing this is, Father, to see in this man of the ancient past such a vivid picture of your workings with us in our own lives today. As we see something of the brevity of life, may this call again our attention to walk with you.

Life Application​

How are you testing, and believing in, the promises of what God has said?
Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JANUARY 31ST​

The Bludgeoning of Chance​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: LUKE 23:26

As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.
Luke 23:26

Why is this story here? None of these stories appear in Scripture simply to entertain us; they are all there to instruct us. Can you not see, as you read through this story, that here is a picture for us, acted out in life, of the process of taking up our cross in our own experience? Here's a man who took up his cross, took up the cross of Christ, and followed him, not only figuratively but literally. It's given to us to indicate our Lord's meaning in this way, to illustrate it for us. If any man will come after me, he says, he must deny himself. This is the beginning of the Christian life. You never come to Christ without finding that this coming has done a revolutionary radical thing in your relationship to yourself. When you surrender to Jesus Christ, he becomes your Lord. He replaces yourself as your final authority. That's denying yourself.

But the Christian life is lived on that principle as well. He must deny himself and take up his cross daily. What does that mean? The answer is given to us here in Simon's experience. The fact that our Lord used the word daily suggests that these experiences are not a once-in-a-lifetime thing. This is the bludgeoning of chance that comes into our experience and makes us reverse all our plans, and we resent that. These are the interruptions which coming into our life challenge our egos, the kind that we could do nothing about except fume and fret. What he's saying is that when we accept them, taking them up daily as they come to us in the unraveling of time, they are the source of blessing and of strengthening to us — the daily experiences, small or great, a crisis of suffering, of loss, of frustration or of deep desire.

There are three things we can do when these frustrating things come into our lives. We can either break out, that is, we can rebel against them — and this covers everything from the temper tantrum to the violation of law — or we can break down. We become neurotic, and this is the from a sick headache to a nervous breakdown. Or we can break through! We can accept them as from God. This is what Jesus means. Take up the cross! Accept these unexpected invasions into your plans as from God. And when you do, as Simon did, you discover they are invariably disguises for God's blessings. A. B. Simpson wrote: This is the secret of divine all-sufficiency, to come to the end of everything in ourselves and our circumstances. When we reach this place, we will stop asking for sympathy because of our hard situation or our bad treatment, and we will recognize that these things are the very conditions of our blessings. And we will turn from them to God, and find in them a claim upon him.

Father, may I learn this principle and cease my senseless struggle against the events I cannot control and disappointments that come.

​

Life Application​

Are you struggling with circumstances you did not expect and do not like? Accept them as given by God and thank him for leading you where he wants you to go.

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.