Daily Devotion by Ray Stedman

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for May 31st​

The Folly of Pride​

Read the Scripture: Acts 12:19b-25

On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, This is the voice of a god, not of a man. Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

Acts 12:21-23

The Jewish historian, Josephus, also records the death of Herod. He describes this occasion when Herod met with the people of Tyre and Sidon in what we now call Lebanon. These people were dependent upon Judea, and especially upon Galilee, for food. So when the king came out, dressed in his royal robes, they flattered him. When he spoke to them they cried out, Why, this is a voice of a god, and not a man! And this pompous, vain king believed them. It is almost incredible — the tragic, twisted mentality of a man like this, who could actually believe that he had so much power that he had become a god.

But this was not uncommon in those days, nor is it in our own day. This, of course, is exactly what happens in any man's mentality when he begins to think of himself as what we call a self-made man. Sometimes you talk to men who own a lot of property and they will tell you, Well, I worked for it. I produced it all myself. Nobody helped me. They are falling into the same tragic error as this vain and fatuous king who imagined that he had power in himself to operate. But Luke tells us that he was immediately stricken by an angel of the Lord, and he was eaten of worms and died. I do not know what Luke's exact diagnosis is here, but some sudden catastrophe befell Herod and, as Josephus tells us, within two or three days he died.

What does this mean? This is God's way of demonstrating the ultimate folly of the person who thinks that he can live without God, who thinks that we are not dependent people. This is the tragedy of mankind. You can frequently discern from our newspapers or from our television programs that, as a people, we imagine that we have what it takes to produce all that life requires, and that we do not need anyone or anything else — especially God. The great tragedy of the American nation is that, more often than not, in a sense, we are saying to God, Please, God, I'd rather do it myself! We want to do it all ourselves. But God often strikes to remind us that our very life, our very breath, all that we have and are, is coming from him, and that we are fools to think that we can exist and live, act and react, on our own. This episode shows how blinded, how distorted, how tragically twisted becomes the thinking of men who depart from a sense of dependence upon God.

Father, forgive for the folly of my own pride and dependence on self. Teach that in everything I am dependent on you.

Life Application​

'Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.' Do we aim to have the mind of Christ, who emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, humbled himself, became obedient unto death on a cross? This is 'Christ in you the hope of glory'!

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for June 1st​

Why Pray?​

Read the Scripture: Luke 18:1-8

And the Lord said, Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?

Luke 18:6-7

It is sometimes taught that Jesus is here encouraging what is called prevailing prayer, which is often another way of describing an attempt to belabor God, to give him no peace, to picket the throne of heaven until we get the request we want. This is not Biblical.

Some years ago an article appeared in the newspaper concerning a man who announced that he was troubled about moral conditions in this country, and had determined to fast and pray until God sent a great awakening, a sweeping revival to correct the moral degeneracy of the day. He announced that he would keep on even until death, if necessary, expecting God to move. The papers carried the story day after day. His strength began to fail and he grew weaker and weaker and finally was confined to his bed. Bulletins were issued each day following his condition. He was evidently a man of unusual determination, for most of us we would have quit after the third day and settled for a good steak, but this man did not. He went on with his fast until he died. The funeral was widely covered and many lauded his persistence.

Was that really prayer? No, it was not! It was an attempt to blackmail God. This man was holding his own life as a pistol to the head of God and demanding all his money! He was insisting that God move on his terms and according to his time schedule. That is not prayer.

Jesus says God is not an unrighteous God demanding that we wheedle and struggle and persuade him to move. He is not grudging. No, prayer is forever the cry of a beloved child to his father, and frequently it is the cry of a lost child who does not know his way, who is lost in dark woods, with noises in the bush, strange, frightening noises. The child may cry out to be led to an open road or to be home safe in bed or at least to see a light in the distance so he can know his way, and that prayer, that particular prayer is not always answered that way, for God is a Father and, as Jesus said in another place, he knows already what we have need of before we pray.

Paul reminds us that we do not know what we have need of, we do not know what to pray for, but God knows. The Father knows, and because he is a father he knows if it is not yet time to answer in that particular way, or if it is even the best thing to do, or sometimes even the possible thing within the circumstance. No, while it is true that specific answer may indeed be long delayed, still there is no delay at all in God answering our prayer. This is what Jesus is saying, that when we cry out there is immediately an answer, without delay. Speedily God rushes to the help, to the succor, of his child. The answer is the squeeze of a Father's hand on ours, the quiet comfort of a Father's voice, the reassurance of a Father's presence even though the woods are still dark and the noises are louder still. There is an immediate answering reassurance that the Father is with us and in his own time and way, will lead us to the house and put us safely in bed or bring us to the light again.

Father, these words of Jesus have made me aware of the lack of faith in my life. I cry out to you now in my weakness and my failure to exercise faith and say, O Father, teach me to pray. Teach me to depend continually upon you, to pour out to you every aspect of my life without reservation and listening to you about all things.

Life Application​

How significant to us is the astounding relationship of God as our Everlasting Father? Are we learning to value prayer as communication with Him, or is prayer no more to us than an emergency S.O.S.?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for June 2nd​

True Prayer​

Read the Scripture: Luke 18:9-14

But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God.

Luke 18:13-14a

How this captures the true character of prayer. This man came into the temple and stood with his eyes cast down. He did not assume the posture of prayer. All he could do was beat his breast and say, God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

What do we learn about prayer from this man? Is it not obvious that real prayer, authentic prayer is an awareness of our helpless need? This man saw himself on the lowest possible level, a sinner. In fact, in the original language he calls himself, the sinner. The sinner, the very lowest kind, the worst kind. He believed that without God he could do absolutely nothing to help his position.

Is it not remarkable that he does not try to add anything by way of merit? He does not say, God be merciful to me a penitent sinner. He was penitent, but he does not urge that as any basis for God's blessing. He does not say, God be merciful to me a reformed sinner. I'm going to be different from now on. He does not even say, God be merciful to me an honest sinner. Here I am, Lord, willing to tell you the whole thing. Surely you can't pass by honesty like that. In fact, he does not even say, God be merciful to me a praying sinner. He casts it all away. He says, Lord, I haven't a thing to lean on but you.

How did he come to this place? Exactly the reverse of the Pharisee who Jesus spoke of earlier. He did not look down on someone else below him, he looked up to God. He judged upward, to God. He saw no one but God, he heard nothing but the high standard of God, Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy strength and all thy mind, (Matthew 22:37, Luke 10:37 KJV). Lord, I'm the sinner. I'll never be any better in myself, I'm simply a sinner.

In this tax collector we also learn that true prayer is always an acknowledgment of divine adequacy. Our help must be in God. This man looked for help nowhere else. He did not say, Lord, perhaps this Pharisee standing here can help me. No, he said, God be merciful to me. In that word have mercy is hidden the wonderful story of the coming of Jesus, the cross and resurrection. He used a theological word which means be propitiated to me, that is, having had your justice satisfied, Lord, now show me your love. And he believed that God's mercy was available, for, Jesus said, he went home justified. He was changed, he was different, he was made whole. He laid hold of what God said, and believed him.

This is where Jesus leaves us. Perhaps for the first time we can say, Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. Even after years of Christian life we can start again, and say, Lord, let me reckon upon your faithfulness to me, let me count upon your willingness to be in me and work through me to make my life all that it ought to be.

Holy Father, I ask now that I may, in this quiet moment, begin to live a life of prayer. I have no other help, but you art fully adequate. On this I rest.

Life Application​

Do we come before our Father as empty vessels, needing and expecting him to meet us in our weakness and inadequacy? Do we look to God alone to change us, and 'make us whole?'

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for June 3rd​

How Jesus Prayed​

Read the Scripture: Luke 11:1

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.

Luke 11:1

This is a very significant request, because these disciples were undoubtedly already men of prayer. When they say to him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples, they do not mean to imply that John had a superior school of ministry. They are not saying, In that traveling seminary that John conducted he had a course on prayer, but you have not told us anything about this yet. What they mean is, Some of us once were John's disciples and were taught by him how to pray, but Lord, we have been watching you, and we see that you are a master at prayer. Now as John once taught us how to pray, would you also impart to us the secrets of prayer? For, as we have been watching you, we have seen that in some manner the marvel and mystery of your character is linked with your prayer life, and it has made us aware how little we really know about prayer. Lord, would you teach us to pray? What did they see in his life that wrung this cry from their hearts? What was it that impressed them as they watched Jesus pray and convinced them that his prayer life and his amazing power and wisdom were somehow together?

They saw that, with Jesus, prayer was a necessity. It was more than an occasional practice on his part, it was a lifelong habit. It was an attitude of mind and heart. It was an atmosphere in which he lived, it was the very air he breathed. Everything he did arose out of prayer. He prayed without ceasing.

It was not always formal prayer. He did not kneel every time. He did not stand with bowed head in an attitude of prayer continually. If he did, of course, he could not get anything done. The amazing thing is that he fulfilled his prayer life in the midst of an incredibly busy ministry. He was subjected, like many of us, to a life of increasing pressure, of continual interruption. Yet, in the midst of this life of tremendous pressure, he was constantly in prayer. He was praying in spirit when his hands were busy healing. He gave thanks as he was breaking the bread and feeding the five thousand. At the tomb of Lazarus before he commanded Lazarus to come forth, he gave thanks to the Father openly. When the Greeks came and wanted to see Jesus his immediate response was one of prayer, Father, he said, glorify Thy name, (John 12:28a KJV). There was a continual sense of expectation that the Father would be working through him and thus he was praying by his attitude all the time.

Surely this is what our Lord is teaching us. This is what we must learn, that there is no activity of life which does not require prayer, a sense of expectation of God at work. Is not this what that disciple felt as he watched our Lord praying? He knew that, to him, prayer was an option. He prayed when he felt like it, he prayed when he thought it necessary, thinking that prayer was designed for emergency use only, for the big problems of life. Do we not need to begin right here? This phone call that I am about to make, I can't do it right except in prayer. It will never have the effect it ought to have except as my heart looks up to God and says, Speak through me in this. This email I am about to write, how can I do it right except as I look to you, Lord, to do it through me. This interview that I am about to conduct, this chart that I have to make for my studies, this report that I must turn in tomorrow, this room that I am sweeping, this walk I am going to take, this game I am about to play. These are the unending needs from which prayer rises.

Father, what can I say in this hour but to cry out as these disciples cried out, Lord, teach us to pray. Give me a conscious sense of dependence, an awareness that nothing that I do will be of any value apart from a dependence upon you.

Life Application​

Is prayer so important to us that we cry out with the disciples, 'Lord, teach us to pray'? What is the profound implication for us that Jesus consulted his Father about everything? Are we people of prayer?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for June 4th​

Prayer to the Father​

Read the Scripture: Luke 11:2-4

He said to them, When you pray, say: Father...

Luke 11:2a

The Lord's Prayer begins with a word of relationship, Father. May I point out that it is Father, not Daddy-o! There is a reverence about the word father that is absent in some modern expressions of fatherhood. It is essential to know to whom we are praying. We are not, when we come to prayer, talking about God. We are not engaging in a theological dialogue. We are talking with God. We are going to converse with him directly and so it is very essential that we understand to whom we are speaking. Our Lord gathers it all up in this marvelously expressive word and says true prayer must begin with a concept of God as Father.

Immediately that eliminates a number of other concepts. It shows us that prayer, real prayer, is never to be addressed to the Chairman of the Committee for Welfare and Relief. Sometimes our prayers take on that aspect. We come expecting a handout. We want something to be poured into our laps, something that we think we need, and in making an appeal we are but filling out the properly prescribed forms.

Nor is prayer addressed to the Chief of the Bureau of Investigation. It is never to be merely a confession of our wrong-doings, with the hope that we may cast ourselves upon the mercy of the court. Nor is it an appeal to the Secretary of the Treasury, some sort of genial international banker whom we hope to interest in financing our projects. Prayer is to be to a Father with a father's heart, a father's love, and a father's strength, and the first and truest note of prayer must be our recognition that we come to this kind of father. We must hear him and come to him as a child, in trust and simplicity and with all the frankness of a child, otherwise it is not prayer.

Someone has pointed out that this word father answers all the philosophical questions about the nature of God. A father is a person, therefore God is not a blind force behind the inscrutable machinery of the universe. A father is able to hear, and God is not simply an impersonal being, aloof from all our troubles and our problems. Above all, a father is predisposed by his love and relationship to give a careful, attentive ear to what his child says. From a father, a child can surely expect a reply.

We are not only to address God as Father, that is, simply taking the word upon our lips, but we are to believe that he is a Father, for all that God makes available to mankind must always come to us through faith, must always operate in our lives through belief. Belief invariably involves an actual commitment of the will, a moving of the deepest part of our nature. Therefore when we come to prayer, if we begin by addressing God as Almighty God, or Dreadful Creator, or Ground of all Being, this betrays our fatal ignorance or unbelief. The greatest authority on prayer says that God is a father! When I come home I do not want my children to meet me in awe, and say, Oh thou great and dreadful Pastor of Peninsula Bible Church, welcome home. It would be an insult to my father-heart. I want my children to greet me as a father. It is never prayer until we recognize that we are coming to a patient and tender father. That is the first note in true prayer.

Thank you that you invite me to call you Father. Teach me to trust that you are patient and tender, always welcoming me into your arms.

Life Application​

What attitudes are implied in addressing our prayers to God as our Father? Should we think of prayer as theological dialogue?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for June 5th​

His Name is Holy​

Read the Scripture: Luke 11:2-4

He said to them, When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name...

Luke 11:2b

The second petition of the Lord's Prayer is one of surrender, Hallowed be your name. I am quite sure this is the petition that makes hypocrites out of most of us. For we can say, Father with grateful sincerity, but when we pray Hallowed be your name, we say this with the guilty knowledge that, as we pray, there are areas of our life in which his name is not hallowed and in which, furthermore, we don't want it to be hallowed. When we say, Hallowed be your name, we are praying, May the whole of my life be a source of delight to you and may it be an honor to the name which I bear, which is your name. Hallowed be your name.

The trouble is that we so frequently know there are great areas of our life that are not hallowed. There are certain monopolies which we have reserved to ourselves, privileged areas which we do not wish to surrender, where the name of our boss or the name of our girl friend or some other dear one means more to us than the name of God. But when we pray this, if we pray it in any degree whatsoever of sincerity or openness or honesty, we are praying, Lord, I open to you every closet, I am taking every skeleton out for you to examine. Hallowed be thy name. There cannot be any contact with God, any real touching of his power, any genuine experiencing of the glorious fragrance and wonder of God at work in human life until we truly pray, and the second requisite of true prayer is that we say, Hallowed be your name.

But we are not only aware that in each of us there are areas where God's name is not hallowed, but furthermore we are aware deep in our being that no matter how we may try to arrange every area of our lives to please him, there is a flaw that somehow makes us miss the mark. Even when we try hard we find ourselves unable to do this. But you will notice that this prayer is not phrased as simply a confession or an expression of repentance to the Father. We are not to pray as so frequently we do pray, Father, help me to be good, or Help me to be better. Throughout this whole pattern for prayer, not once do you ever find an expression of a desire for help in the sanctification of life. No, Jesus turns our attention entirely away from ourselves to the Father. This phrase, Hallowed be your name is really a cry of helpless trust, in which we are simply standing and saying, Father, not only do I know that there are areas in my life where your name is not hallowed, but I know also that only you can hallow them, and I am quite willing to simply stand still and let you be the Holy One who will actually be first in my life.

The person who lets God be his Lord and surrenders to him is drawn quite spontaneously into a great learning process and becomes a different person. Martin Luther once said, You do not command a stone which is lying in the sun to be warm. It will be warm all by itself. When we say, Father, there is no area of my life that I'm not willing to let you talk to me about, there is no area that I will hide from you, my sexual life, my business life, my social life, my school life, my recreation times, my vacation periods, that is saying, Hallowed be your name. When we pray that way we discover that God will walk into the dark closets of our life where the odor is sometimes too much even for us to stand, and clean them out and straighten them up and make them fit for his dwelling. If we walk in the light, John says, (and that is not sinlessness, that means where God sees everything), If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin, (1 John 1:7 RSV)

Father, teach me to say these words, Hallowed be your Name, with a heart of both complete surrender and faith that you are the only One who can make me holy.

Life Application​

What is our attitude toward the hallowed name of our Father? Do we use his name with shallow flippancy? Or evading the implications of being his name-bearers? Do we experience prayer as a personal, awesome encounter with our awesome, holy Father?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries. F

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for June 6th​

A Cry of Hope​

Read the Scripture: Luke 11:2-4

He said to them, When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.

Luke 11:2c

The third cry of true prayer, again concerned with God, is a cry of hope, Your kingdom come. Now this can be a sigh for heaven. Who of us does not get homesick for heaven once in a while, longing to be free from the boredom of life and to experience the glory we read of in the Bible. Or this can be, as it ought to be, a cry for heaven to come to earth. That is, Your kingdom come, meaning, may the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. There is much in Scripture about this, and who of us does not weary of the sickening senselessness of war and poverty, and misery and human despair, and long for that day to come when God shall rule in righteousness over all the earth?

But I think this prayer is more than that. It is more than a long, wistful look into the future, whether on earth, or off earth. It is a cry that God's will may be done through, and by means of, the blood and sweat and tears of life, right now. That is, Your kingdom come through what I am going through at this very moment. That is what this prayer means. Scripture reveals to us a truth that man would never know by himself, but which becomes self-evident as we look at life through the lenses of the Word of God, and that is that God builds his kingdom in secret, so to speak. When it is least evident that he is at work this is frequently the time when he is accomplishing the most. Behind the scaffolding of tragedy and despair, God frequently is erecting his empire of love and glory. In these trials, hardships, disappointments, heartbreak and disasters, when we think God is silent, and when we have been abandoned, when we feel God has removed his hand and we no longer sense the friendship of his presence, God frequently is accomplishing the greatest things of all.

I once sat down with a young man who told me the story of his life. He had gone through a fearsome accident which had left a physical mark upon him, but a broken marriage had caused an even deeper scar. He had been raised in a church environment and, before some of these things took place, his outlook was one of self-righteous judgment of others, sort of a pious disdain for those who could not keep free from troubles or problems. But he said, You know, the humiliation of my divorce cut the ground right out from under my self-righteous attitude. I know that I never would have come to my present joy and understanding of God's purpose if I had not been a divorce statistic. It is through these ways that God builds his kingdom.

What a glorious mystery this is! Out of darkness God calls forth light, out of despair, hope. From death comes resurrection. You cannot have resurrection without death, hope without despair or light without darkness. By means of defeat, the kingdom of God is born in human hearts. This is what this prayer means.

Oh, Lord, I am but a little child. I do not understand the mysteries of life. I do not know the ways in the world of men, but Lord, I pray that through these very circumstances in which I now find myself, through these present troubles, these present struggles, your kingdom come.

Father, how frequently I misunderstand life even though you have been at such great lengths to show me the secrets of it. How many times, Father, have I rebelled in some foolish resentment against you and your workings in my life? But I have also seen that through these hours of resentment and bitterness, you have been at work in love to bring me to an understanding of reality, to bring me back to your loving heart.

Life Application​

Do we pray with joyful anticipation for Christ's triumphant reign on earth? Do we simultaneously pray for his unbridled reign in our personal, daily walk with him?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for June 7th​

Praying for Your Body​

Read the Scripture: Luke 11:2-4

Give us each day our daily bread.

Luke 11:3

Jesus begins this section of the prayer with the needs of the body. I like that! We have such distorted ideas about prayer that we often feel there is something wrong with praying about physical needs. This is a reflection of a pagan concept of life. The Greeks regarded the body as unworthy of redemption and they therefore mistreated it. They beat their bodies and tormented them. You find this philosophy widespread today, this idea that the body must be subdued by physical torment or suffering, but you never find this in the New Testament.

Prayer must begin on this level. God likes bodies. God engineered and designed them. It is perfectly proper that we pray about the need of the body. Bread here is a symbol of all the necessities of physical life. It stands for all that our physical life demands — shelter, drink, clothing — anything that the body requires. The vital concern in this area is that there be available to us an immediate unbroken supply. So this prayer moves right at the issue when it says, Give us each day our daily bread. The only limit in this prayer is that we are never to pray for a warehouse — a full supply for a year ahead. We are to pray for one day's supply.

Do we pray daily for our physical needs? Do we pray about the supply of our food, clothing, shelter, and all the physical necessities of life? Do we take time to ask God for them or at least to give thanks for them? Perhaps this has become such a familiar request in the repeating of The Lord's Prayer that we do not take it seriously. It may be that this is the most flagrant and frequent area of Christian disobedience. For, after all, our Lord meant it when he told us to pray give us each day our daily bread.

Some might argue that Jesus said elsewhere, Your Father knows that you have need of these things even before you pray (Matthew 6:8), so it is not to inform God of our needs. There are others who say it really makes little difference, whether they pray about physical things or not. They get the necessities of life regardless. Furthermore, some say there are many people who never bother to pray at all and who are eating steak and ice cream while we Christians are trying to get along on hamburgers and jello. What is the point, then, of praying?

If you want to see why, ask yourself, What happens to me when I neglect this area of prayer? If you are honest, you will see that a slow and subtle change occurs in the heart of a Christian who does not pray about material things, who does not take time to thank God for his daily supply of the necessities and the luxuries of life. What happens is that we take these things for granted, and gradually we succumb to the quite foolish delusion that we can provide these necessities ourselves. We become possessed with the incredible vanity that our wisdom and our abilities have really made these things possible. And when we begin to think that way, we find pride swells within us and a kind of blindness settles upon us, a blindness which darkens our spiritual insight, and we become moody, restless and depressed.

It is we who need to give thanks to God, it is we who must always be reminding ourselves that everything we have comes from his hand, and that any moment he can turn it off if for any reason he may choose, that it is only his grace and his goodness that keep it flowing unhindered to us. The only way that we can avoid this terrible sin of ingratitude is to pray daily for our physical needs.

Father, today I can't but echo these words the Lord Jesus taught me: Give us this day our daily bread.

Life Application​

Do we take for granted the daily supply of our physical needs? Are we neglecting both petition and gratitude? Is that negligence resulting in despair? Or self-congratulation?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for June 8th​

Forgiven and Forgiving​

Read the Scripture: Luke 11:2-4

Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.

Luke 11:4a

Here is the need for a cleansed conscience, for a sense of peace, of rest with God and man. This is the arena where the emotional clutter of our life takes a very deadly toll. Who of us has not experienced troublesome mental symptoms, morbid depressions and unreasoning fears and insecurity? Both Scripture and modern psychology, in its groping after truth, agree that underneath these symptoms lurk two frightening monsters: Fear and Guilt. If we can find a way to slay these fiery dragons, the whole emotional atmosphere of our life will pass into peace.

When we pray, Forgive us our sins, we are asking for the reality that God promises to every believer in Jesus Christ, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, (Romans 8:1a KJV). I do not know anything that troubles Christians more than a sense of guilt. But in this simple prayer is a fully adequate answer, for if we have laid hold of the forgiveness of God, we know there is nothing any longer between us and the Lord. Our hearts there are absolutely free before him and the result is a pervading sense of peace.

But notice, now, Jesus immediately adds a limitation to this. We cannot say to God, Forgive us our sins, unless we are willing and have said to others that they are forgiven for their sins against us. Jesus is not referring here to that divine forgiveness that accompanies conversion. The Lord's Prayer is meant for Christians — for only Christians can really pray it intelligently. No non-Christian ever receives forgiveness from God on the basis claiming to forgive everyone else. It is impossible for him to forgive until he himself has first received the forgiveness of God, and that forgiveness is offered because of the death of Jesus. We Christians come thanking him for what the death on the cross has already done in taking away the awful burden of our sin.

But, having received that forgiveness, we will still never rest in God's forgiveness for the defilements of our Christian walk unless we are ready to extend that same forgiveness to those who offend us. This forgiveness keeps us enjoying unbroken fellowship with the Father and with the Son, which is the secret of emotional quietness and rest. Jesus is simply saying that, if you are a Christian, then there is no use praying Father, forgive my sins if you are holding a grudge against someone else, or burning with resentment, or filled with bitterness. Your soul will always be distracted. What he says is, face that first, First be reconciled with your brother, then come and offer your gift at the altar, (Matthew 5:24b RSV). Forgive him, and then the healing forgiveness of God will flood your own heart and you will find there is nothing then that can destroy the God-given peace down at the very center of your being. If we refuse to forgive someone else we are really withholding from another the grace that has already been shown to us. It is only because we have already been forgiven the great and staggering debt of our own sins that we can ever find the grace to forgive the relatively paltry slights someone else has heaped upon us.

Father, thank you for the forgiveness you have promised through the work of Jesus on the cross, and thank you that knowing this forgiveness frees me to forgive others.

Life Application​

Are we blocking the fullness and freedom of God's forgiveness of our sins by refusing to extend to others the same grace of forgiveness God has made available to us?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for June 9th​

Unrecognized Temptation​

Read the Scripture: Luke 11:2-4

And lead us not into temptation.

Luke 11:4b

This part of the Lord's prayer deals with the realm of the spirit. In the unseen war of the spirit, the greatest needs of our life are deliverance and protection. But an immediate problem arises here, for Scripture reveals that temptation is necessary to us, a very real part of our life in this fallen, flawed world. No one escapes it in the Christian life. Furthermore, though God himself never tempts us to sin, yet he does test us in these difficult and discouraging circumstances, and these things become the instruments of God to strengthen us, to build us up and thus to give us victory. When we read this prayer, then we are confronted with this question: Are we really expected to pray that God will not do what he must do to accomplish his work within us? After all, even Jesus, we are told, was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. What then does he mean?

I confess I have puzzled and prayed and read about this, and I am convinced that what he means here is that this is a prayer to be kept from unrecognized temptation. When temptation is recognized as such, it can be resisted, and when we resist, it is always a source of strength and growth in our life. If I am filling out my income tax and I find that some income has come to me through other than ordinary channels and there is no way of anyone checking it, I am confronted with a temptation to omit it, but I know it is wrong. No one has to tell me; I know it is wrong. When I resist that, I find I am stronger the next time when a larger amount is involved. You see, when we recognize lust as lust and hate as hate and cowardice as a temptation to be a coward, this is one thing. It is a rather simple matter to resist obvious evil, if we really mean to walk with God. But temptation is not always so simple. There are times when I think I am right, and with utmost sincerity and integrity of heart I do what I believe is the right thing, and, later, look back upon it and see that I was tragically wrong.

Peter is an example on this. In the Upper Room, with brashness and confidence and utter naiveté, Peter said to the Lord, Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will (Matthew 26:33). They walked out of the Upper Room with the words of our Lord ringing in his ears, Truly I tell you, Jesus answered, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times (Matthew 26:34). Still confident, Jesus said to him there in the Garden, Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation (Matthew 26:41). But Peter did not heed that word. Instead he slept, and our Lord came and woke him again and asked him to pray. But Peter did not pray, and when he came into the court of the High Priest and was standing before the fire, Satan took him and wrung his courage out like a dish rag and hung him up limp, to dry in the presence of a little girl. There, with cursing and swearing, he found himself trapped, denying his Lord, and in the awful realization of what he had done he went out into the blackness of the night and wept bitterly.

This is what our Lord refers to in this phrase. This prayer is the recognition of our foolish weakness and our tendency to stumble on into blind folly. It is what we desperately need to pray.

Lord, I confess my utter helplessness apart from you. Lead me not into unrecognized temptation.

Life Application​

Are we self-confident about our own ability to recognize the subtleties of temptation? Do we follow our own instincts or do we honestly, consistently pray for the discernment of God's Holy Spirit?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for June 11th​

Praying Together​

Read the Scripture: Matthew 18:18-20

For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.

Matthew 18:20

The expression of the power of Jesus Christ is never fully seen in an individual Christian, but only in the church as a whole. The simplest form of the church is here described, Where two or three gather in my name. You and I, as individual Christians, cannot fully reflect Jesus Christ. It is only when two or three, or two or three hundred, or two or three thousand are gathered in his name that in a full and complete sense the power which is committed to Jesus Christ, who is above every name which is named, both in this age and in the age to come, is fully manifested in this life. This means we can never fully know Jesus Christ unless we know him in relation to someone else.

In Paul's great prayer in Ephesians 3, he prays that we may know what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and come to know with all saints the love which is in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3:17-19). With all saints. We will never know it by ourselves. We can take our Bible and study it by ourselves, we can analyze it and saturate our minds with it and memorize it, but till we begin to share it with other Christians we never grasp what Jesus Christ fully is.

Furthermore, we can never learn how mighty and glorious he is unless we begin to make demands upon his power and his glory, and thus learn that we can never touch bottom. That is the thing that gives meaning to the gatherings of believers today. Where two or three gather in my name, Jesus says, there I am with them. The power of the church does not lie in the numbers that it can gather together. What a mistaken idea it is, that if we can get enough people together to pray, we shall have enough power to correct the things that are wrong in the world and set them right again. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Nor is the power of the church the status which it occupies in a community. We think if we can get so many people who are in positions of authority or leadership or stature in a community, the leaders of civic life, the Mayor, the bankers and those in business, the titans, the tycoons, into our church then we will have enough status that we can wield great power in the minds and hearts of people. How foolish we are. The power of the church does not rest in its numbers, its status, its wealth, its money, its position. The power of the Church of Jesus Christ is stated here. Where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them.

Out of him alone flows this marvelous power to bind and to loose, and this tremendous unity by which the mind of the Spirit becomes known and God moves through Christian lives to alter the course and destiny of the world around us. Let us glory in that! If we wish to glory in anything, let us glory in the fact that the indwelling Jesus Christ lives and moves in our midst, that we belong to him, that his life is expressed through us. It is through him that prayer has meaning and value.

Father, How wonderful it is to come back to the simplicity of that relationship of a mighty, overpowering, victorious Lord in the midst of his Church. Lord, teach me to glory in this and to pray on this basis alone.

Life Application​

Have we falsely assumed the power of God's response to our prayers will be measured by the numbers or the status of people praying? Or do we take the lone ranger route, ignoring both our need and the effectiveness of prayer with fellow believers?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for June 12th​

In My name​

Read the Scripture: John 14:12-17

And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

John 14:13-14

Whatever ... anything ... I will do it. We sense immediately that this is too wide. If we take this as absolutely unlimited, a sort of magical Aladdin's lamp that we can rub and ask for any possible thing in the world, certainly we have missed the true point of this passage. It is too wide to take unreservedly. We sense also that it is too contradictory if taken without limit. We can see problems arising. What if a Christian athlete is praying for clear weather and a Christian farmer is praying for rain? Which one wins?

No, this promise cannot be limitless. There is a condition here. Our Lord means exactly what he says but we must understand what he says. This is a magnificent promise of vast scope, of tremendous encompassment, but what he says is if you ask in my name. This is the condition.

That certainly means a great deal more than a magical formula to tack on to the end of our prayers. There is nothing quite as pagan, or silly, as this meaningless phrase, this we ask in Jesus' name, added to our prayers without any understanding if the prayer is actually being asked in Jesus' name. We do this because it is traditionally acceptable, and we do not understand what in his name means. In Christ's name means in his authority and on the basis of his character.

All of us are familiar with the phrase, In the name of the law. Policemen do their business in the name of the law. Suppose a policeman goes into a cheap slum area of the city at three o'clock in the afternoon. He is called there because of some murderous activity that is going on, and he comes up to the address that has been given him, and knocks at the door, and says, Open in the name of the law. No one opens the door, so after he knocks again and requests that it be opened in the name of the law and there still is no answer, he breaks it down and goes in. But what if that same policeman is drunk? He is out in a residential area and for some reason on his own, in his drunken stupor, he stumbles up the steps of a house, and knocks on the door, and says, Open in the name of the law. Those within hear the thick voice and recognize that it is a drunk and refuse to open. So the policeman breaks down the door, and when he does, he is arrested and taken to jail himself.

Why? It is the same action, and exactly the same man. What is the difference? One was truly done in the name of the law, the other was done outside the law, even though the same words were used. One was authorized activity, the other was unauthorized. That is what Jesus means. When we ask in Jesus' name we are to ask within the realm and scope of his work and his character. Whatever he is interested in having done on earth, then we, as the instruments of his activity, are involved in accomplishing it. Whatever you need, he says, ask for it and it shall be done. Whatever! Anything! If it is a need within this limit, you can ask for it and it shall be done, without failure.

Lord, search my heart and save me from talking truth and not living it, of echoing orthodoxy but refusing to submit in practical ways. Keep me from this, that I may know the fulness of the glory of these promises fulfilled in my life.

Life Application​

Have we been naively tacking the name of Jesus onto our prayers? Is this equivalent to using his name in vain -- a manipulative gimmick? How can we truly honor the name of our Lord Jesus in our prayers?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for June 13th​

The Hour Has Come​

Read the Scripture: John 17:1-3

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: Father, the hour has come.

John 17:1a

The hour has come. With these words Jesus looks forward with obvious anticipation to a time of boundless opportunity that lies before him. Surely these words, the hour has come, mean a good deal more than the phrase we employ when we face the end of life, My time has come. By that we mean we have come to the end of our rope, the end of life. Dr. J. Vernon McGee once told of a man who had been studying through the doctrine of predestination and had become so entranced by the idea of God's sovereign protection of the believer under any and every circumstance that he said to Dr. McGee, You know, I am so convinced that God is keeping me no matter what I do, that I think that I could step right out into the midst of the busiest traffic at noontime and, if my time had not come, I would be perfectly safe. Dr. McGee said, very characteristically, Well, if you go down and stand in the middle of traffic at noontime, brother, your time has come!

To use a phrase like, my time has come is resignation, but this is not what Jesus does. What he is speaking of here is realization. He is speaking of the time he had been looking forward to all his life. Throughout His ministry, Jesus continually refers to this hour. In the beginning of John we have the story of the first miracle in Cana of Galilee when he turned the water into wine. There his mother came to him and said, Son, they have no wine, and his answer was, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come, (John 2:3-4 KJV). He meant that, though he would perform what his mother had suggested, it would not have the results that she anticipated, for the hour had not yet come, the time had not struck. Repeatedly he said to the disciples, My hour is not yet, (John 7:30, 8:20). He was awaiting a time when opportunity would abound, and now, as he comes to the cross, he lifts his eyes unto the heavens and says, Father, the hour has come. By that he meant the hour had come in which all that he had lived for would begin to be fulfilled.

This was an anticipation based upon the principle, as he once put it, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. (John 12:24). This is why his hour had not come previously, for Jesus knew that God's work is never accomplished apart from the principle of death, that all that he did of mighty miracles and all his mighty words, all the marvelous power of his ministry among men would be totally ineffective until he had passed through the experience of giving up all that he was. Unless this kernel of wheat dies, it remains alone; it never will do anything else; it cannot! Only when it dies does it bring forth fruit.

This is why we also must pray this prayer, for we are always coming to hours like this in our own lives. We come to places where we must say, with Jesus, Father, the hour has come — the hour where I must make a choice as to whether I shall hold my life for myself to act in self-centeredness as I have been doing all along, or whether I shall fling it away, and, passing into what is apparent death, lay hold of the hope and the glory and the realization that lies beyond it. These hours are always coming to us. For us they are disappointments, setbacks, tragedies. Here is where God works his best in us, but we think of him as invading our privacy, our right to live our own lives. Yet if we see them as Jesus saw them, we will recognize that each moment like this is an hour of great possibility which, if we will act on the principle of giving away ourselves, we shall discover an open door to a vast and an almost unimaginable realm of service and blessing and glory. That is what Jesus means when he says The hour is come. It was a time of abounding opportunity.

Father, strike away the shackles of my unbelief and teach me to make the choice to die to myself in hope and faith that this will result in blessing and glory.

Life Application​

If we ask, 'What would Jesus do?', we must be prepared to be the grain of wheat that dies in order to bear fruit to His glory and our Joy. Do we consider each of our circumstances opportunities to die with Christ in order to live in the power of His indwelling Life?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for June 14th​

The Cost of Disobedience​

Read the Scripture: John 17:4-8

I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

John 17:4, 5

This prayer was prayed prior to his going the cross, but, in its scope, it reaches beyond and includes the cross. Our Lord knew where he was going, he knew what he would be doing in the next few hours and what would be accomplished. That work included more than the cross. It encompassed his ministry of healing and mercy, and even those thirty silent years back in Nazareth. They were all part of his life, his work, which the Father had given him to do.

He includes this in his prayer to indicate to us the character of his work while he was here. He is suggesting that his work was characterized by a continual self-emptying, that is, a laying aside of glory. Now that he has reached the end, he is ready to resume the glory which was properly his, but he is thinking back over thirty-three years of his life and recognizing that all during that time he had voluntarily surrendered his right to be worshipped, his right to the glory that belonged to both the Father and the Son. Jesus is pointing out that his work that glorified the Father was essentially one of self-emptying.

We are so confused about this. We think that God is interested in our activity, that there are certain religious pursuits which we can perform which God will be pleased with no matter in what frame of mind we do them. That is why we sometimes drag ourselves out to church week after week when we have little interest in attending church — because we think that attending church is what God wants. How little we understand God! It is not activity that he desires. It was not merely that which Jesus did which glorified the Father. It was not his ministry of mercy and good works. Others have done similar things. But it was the fact that throughout his life he had a heart that was ready to obey, an ear that was ready to hear, a will that was ready to be subject to the Father. It was his willingness to be always available, to forever be giving of himself, that glorified God.

There are many books written about the so-called cost of discipleship. They declare, in one way or another, that to have power with God we must pay a high price. In various ways they state that to become a victorious Christian, an effective Christian, requires a difficult and demanding discipline. I am not impressed with this type of literature at all. We have gotten the cart before the horse. I do not mean that such an approach is untrue, for the fact is that obedience to God does mean saying, No to a lot of other things. I do not mean that living for the glory of God does not indeed cost us certain fancied pleasures and relationships which perhaps we want to hold onto. But greater than the cost of discipleship is the cost of disobedience! There is where the emphasis should be placed.

How well we know that cost. What a tremendous toll our disobedience, our unwillingness to give of ourselves, takes in our lives in terms of frustrated, restless spirits; the shameful, degrading acts that we hope nobody discovers; the skeletons that rattle around in our closets; the irritated, vexatious dispositions that keep us in a nervous frenzy all the time; the weak, spineless, crowd-following ways that we often exhibit; the self-righteous, smug, religiosity which we call Christianity that is a stench in the nostrils of the world and an offense unto God and men. Are these not the terrible price that we pay for an unwillingness to yield ourselves to the Lordship of Christ? We say we want to do God's will — as long as it is what we want to do. At the center of our lives Self is still king, and that is the problem. Our own glory is in view. We still want what we want and we are not willing as Jesus was, to walk in glad obedience. But it is only this obedience that glorifies the Father.

Father, may I be among those who are ready to fling our lives away for Jesus Christ, to be utterly careless of what happens to us in order that he may be glorified.

Life Application​

Do we consciously, or otherwise, count on our 'good works' to compensate for our self-serving attitudes? Is the glory of God motivating a glad obedience as he leads us in paths of righteousness for his name's sake?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for June 16th​

The Prayer for Unity​

Read the Scripture: John 17:20-26

I in them and you in me — so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

John 17:23

Note the strategy by which God intends to accomplish his objective of reaching the world: that they may be brought to complete unity. There are those who tell us that this prayer of Jesus concerning the church must now begin to be answered, that it is now time to answer this prayer after twenty-one centuries of it remaining unfulfilled, that we must now forget all the differences and distinctions that have separated us into various denominations and sectarian groups through the centuries and join in one great organization or union. But let us first raise the question, Is this prayer really unanswered today? Can it be possible for twenty-one centuries to roll by before God the Father begins to fulfill this last request of Jesus?

No, this prayer has been answered ever since the Day of Pentecost. This strategy is not of human making. This business of making all Christians one does not depend upon us, it depends upon the Spirit of God. Paul's great chapter on the Holy Spirit in First Corinthians clearly establishes the fact that in the Spirit's coming he accomplished what Jesus prayed for. This is the divine strategy by which the world may be led to believe in him. All Christians are one, not in union, but in unity. Union is an outward agreement, an alliance, formed by the submerging of differences for sake of merging. But this artificial union, this joining together in an organization, is this the answer to Jesus' prayer here? The test, of course, is, Does it accomplish what Jesus says will be accomplished when the church is one? Does it cause unbelievers to believe that Jesus is the authentic voice of God? There is little evidence that this is the case. My observation is that when churches or denominations join together (though there may be good in much of this), it creates a vast, monolithic power structure which causes men and women of the world to fear the church as a threat to their own power structures, as a rival force in world politics and world affairs.

Unity, as indicated here, is the sharing of a life. Look at Verse 23 again: I in them and you in me — so that they may be brought to complete unity. That is quite different, is it not? The divine strategy by which the Lord intends to bring the world to an awareness of Jesus Christ is to create in the midst of the world a family, a family life, a shared life, so that men and women all over the earth, becoming by new birth members of that life, enter into a family circle which is so unmistakable and so filled with joy and warmth that unbelievers observing it will envy it and, like homeless orphans with their noses pressed up against the window, will long to join the warmth and the fellowship of the family circle. The remarkable thing is that when the church is like this there is no more potent evangelistic thrust.

Father, you are the God of love. When I look at the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ I see that love poured out for me. Lord, this is the nature and character of the love that is shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit. Teach your people to love one another.

Life Application​

As members of God's own redeemed family, mutual partakers of his life and his love, does our family witness honor this distinctive heritage? Do they know we are Christ's ones by our united witness to His redeeming love and amazing grace?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for June 17th​

The Beginning of Prayer​

Read the Scripture: Genesis 3:8-13

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, Where are you?

Gen. 3:8-9

This is the beginning of prayer. It is suggested here that this was a habitual thing in the lives of Adam and Eve. It is rather remarkable, but the first prayer is recorded only after the fall. Yet the account suggests very plainly that prayer had been a continual delight and blessing to Adam and Eve, and was daily a part of their experience. This seems to be a habitual action on God's part. He comes into the garden in the cool of the day to converse with the two that had come from his creative hand, and together they talked in the garden.

The most remarkable thing about this incident is that the initiative for beginning this prayer comes from God. It is the Lord who comes into the garden. It is the Lord who calls out for man. Prayer, therefore, begins with God. In many ways, that is the greatest truth about prayer that we can learn from this incident, because all through the rest of Scripture that truth underlies every prayer that is ever uttered from here on. So we must always read the accounts of Scripture from that point of view.

A lot of false teaching has gone out that pictures prayer as something man does to God. In the messages I have heard on prayer, at times it seems that it is man who rescues God from his own proclivity to judge by praying at the right time. But people are never more compassionate than God. Compassion is born of God and only shows up in human beings when it is implanted by the Spirit of God. You cannot feel compassion and mercy and pity without the moving of the Spirit of God. It is always a mistake to think that we are called on in the act of prayer to do something to God, or that we are being summoned to persevere in prayer to such a degree that we pray through and persuade a reluctant God to do or not to do something that he has set his heart upon. That is not prayer. Prayer, as in this first instance in the Garden of Eden, begins with God. It is God who calls. It is God who helps. That is why, when we feel a need or a desire to pray, or to set up a disciplined habit of prayer, it is God who has begun that. He has planted that desire in us and we are responding. We must remember that, because that is the first great truth about prayer in the Scripture.

Father, there are times when I hide myself, as Adam and Eve did. Thank you for the voice that refuses to let me go, but gently calls me out to deal with my infirmities and enables me to find the place of cleansing and forgiveness and restoration.

Life Application​

Does knowing that our desire and need to pray results from God's initiative generate confidence in his willing response to our prayers? Do we dishonor his loving initiative by presuming to manipulate his response? Are we learning transparency and trust in our communication with our Father?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for June 18th​

Prayer's Anchor​

Read the Scripture: Genesis 18:22-33

Then Abraham approached him and said: Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

Gen. 18:23

Abraham has been informed that the hour of judgment for Sodom has come. He is appalled by this, but it is very important for us to see what is really troubling him. If you ask, Is Abraham really trying to save these cities? the answer has to be, No, that is not really his concern. Abraham knows that God's hour of judgment has struck, that there has been long record of his patience up to this point. He knows that it is only unrighteousness that will ultimately be judged, so he is not trying to save the cities. He expresses his concern in these words: Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Are you going to treat righteous people the same way you treat wicked people? That is what is troubling him.

There is a cold fist of fear gripping the heart of Abraham. He fears he is going to find that God is not quite who he thought he was. Perhaps he understood that righteous people have a way of salting the world, preserving it from corruption and from judgment. Perhaps he is troubled that if God destroys a whole city full of wicked people, with some righteous among them, the word will go out that righteousness is of no effect and a wrong impression will be left. Abraham has a troubled heart, questioning whether God really is the kind of God he has thought him to be.

Have you ever felt that way? In your prayers, or in your confrontation with life, have you suddenly seen God moving in ways you did not anticipate, allowing things to happen that you did not think he ought to allow? Have you thought, Lord, can you really do this? Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? This is not right. We are getting very close to how Abraham felt at this point, when we sense that sudden horror that God is not going to act as we expected him to. Abraham is really raising the question here, Does righteousness make any difference? If God wipes out these cities filled with both wicked and righteous people, if they are all treated alike, isn't it telling us that righteousness really does not make any difference?

In the rest of his prayer, you can see how timidly he ventures, Lord, just a moment. Supposing there are fifty righteous in that city, will you then destroy it? Immediately the response comes, No, I'll not destroy it for fifty. Again, timidly he ventures. How about forty-five? No, says God immediately, if I find forty-five I won't destroy it. Then Abraham girds up his courage and says. Lord, now don't get upset, but I'm going to press this a little further. How about forty, or thirty, or twenty? Finally, he goes as far as he dares, feeling the end of his sense of concern when he says, Lord, how about ten? If there are ten righteous will you save them and the city? God's immediate response, as all along is, As far as you go, Abraham, I will go. If there are ten righteous I will not destroy the city.

Each prompt answer of God eases the fist of fear that is gripping Abraham's heart. Each answer is a reassurance that God will honor his promise, that he will preserve the righteous in the hour of crisis and danger. Abraham is reassured that God means what he says, that righteousness does make a difference, that God's promises are valid in the hour of crisis, and that he does not treat the righteous as he does the wicked. When he reaches that place, Abraham is satisfied.

Lord, thank you that you have given to me great promises of love, acceptance, guidance and protection. I pray that as the world watches the righteousness in its midst, they will see that your hand and your heart are committed to those who respond to your offer of grace, and your judgment awaits those who resist the patient pleading of their God.

Life Application​

Since it is obviously true that our minds cannot fully contain all God is, does that limitation diminish our trust in his response to our prayers? Do we fully trust what has been revealed in his Word, and trust him to act accordingly?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for June 20th​

A Poor but Good Prayer​

Read the Scripture: Numbers 11:4-34

He (Moses) asked the Lord, Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors? Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, Give us meat to eat! I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me.

Num 11:11-14

It is obvious that this prayer is filled with a great deal of self-pity, reproach, and petulance. It is the expression of a man who feels he had been put upon. Moses comes very close to rebuking and upbraiding God for ever giving him the job of taking care of these ungrateful people. This is one of the poorest prayers in the Bible, but it is a prayer that is very like ours.

Moses had an extremely rich prayer life. His prayers are uttered with an artless eloquence which gathers up majestic thoughts about the greatness of God, which reflect man's faith and God's power to act, but this is surely not one of them. This is a very weak prayer, uttered at a time when Moses felt that he had been taken advantage of. He wanted to quit, so he lays it all before God, and says, Why ever did you give me a job like this? Where am I to get meat to give to all these people? Why should I bear them on my heart? I didn't bring them into being.

We do not get this picture of Moses very often. He was a towering figure in the Old Testament, a mighty prophet and leader of the people. He affected the laws of nations for thousands of years, therefore we tend to think of him as high above all of us in his relationship to God. We are familiar with the stories of Moses exercising the mighty power of God — stretching out his rod to roll back the waters of the Red Sea so that the people of Israel walked through on dry land, striking the rock so the waters flowed out in the midst of a howling desert to slake the thirst of the people. It is clear from many of these stories in the Bible that he was a mighty man of God.

But here in this prayer we get the other side of Moses. In this and other accounts like this we get glimpses now and then of Moses as he lived his daily life, and the amazing thing is that, when we get close to him, we see that he is a surprisingly unimpressive figure in himself. Here we see him angry and upset and feeling sorry for himself. There is nothing heroic about him at all. Moses is, by natural temperament, an irresolute, shrinking personality, distrustful of self, easily discouraged, ready to resign and even die when the pressure is heavy. This is the human instrument used so mightily by God.

The remarkable thing about this is that even this self-pitying reproachful request of Moses was answered. It is the poorest prayer he ever prayed, far from a model of prayer, but, whatever else it was, this prayer was an attempt to draw upon divine resources. It recognized Moses' own personal insufficiency, and it had an awareness of the incredible resources of God; therefore God honored it and answered it. That is what prayer is, a reliance on God, which brings forth great possibilities.

Lord, I confess I often feel like Moses. I feel like my problems are too big for me, my circumstances are too complex for me to work out, and I resent being asked to do so. Forgive me Lord. Teach me that you are a God of infinite resources, of incredible wisdom, of infinite patience, and that you work out these matters if I but trust.

Life Application​

Are we quick to blame God for life's problems, but slow to accept his ways and means to their solutions? Could this indicate misplaced confidence in ourselves, rather than confident expectation in God and his will?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for June 21st​

Prayer's Practicality​

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

At first glance that looks like a self-centered prayer. It sounds like the man who prayed, Bless me and my wife, my son John and his wife, us four and no more. But Jabez is really not being selfish. He is praying for something God wanted him to have. That is the difference between being personal and being selfish. Selfish prayers are prayers which ask God for something he does not want us to have, at least not then, demanding prayers that are interested only in our own immediate welfare, for our own satisfaction. But God promises great and mighty things to us personally that we may lay hold of, so to pray in this way is not selfish, but personal.

Look more closely at these four requests. First he asks, Oh, that you would bless me. What do you mean when you pray to be blessed? This is a request for an inner sense of relationship with God. Blessing is drawing near to God, finding him, knowing him personally. He is praying, Lord, first, above all else, let there be this consciousness that you are my God, that I belong to you and you belong to me.

Second, Jabez prays, Enlarge my territory. This is a prayer for opportunity, for the restoration, in his case, of his lost inheritance, for a place to stand in the midst of the culture of his day in which he might gain some sense of status and respect. For us it means to find a way to break out of whatever may be limiting us, hemming us in and enslaving us. You may feel that you are in a situation in which you have no opportunity to grow, to advance, to be fulfilled and satisfied. If that is the case, this is the proper kind of prayer to pray, Lord, give me that opportunity.

Third, he asks, Let your hand be with me. This is a prayer that comes naturally to his lips as he thinks of the uncertainty of the future he faces. All of us feel this way at times. We do not know what sudden, unexpected changes may occur in our lives in the future. What we often want to ask for is a glimpse ahead. What we really need is not knowledge, but a guide. This is what Jabez is praying for: Lord, be with me. Go into the future with me. Guide me that I may know that each step of the way I can trust the fact that you are with me.

The last request was, Keep me from the harm so that I will be free from pain. Here is a deep awareness of a tainted heredity in this young man's life. He senses a weakness in himself within that frightens him. I see this in many people. It may be a tendency towards a hot temper, which destroys many opportunities that could be used for advantage. Maybe it is avarice, some desire for the acquisition of material gain so that you will be safe and secure, have abundance, and do what you want. Whatever it was, he knows that God is able to handle it.

I do not think he prayed this prayer just once. It is the kind of prayer that comes repeatedly to human lips if you really are concerned about where you are, and you recognize how impossible, how difficult the situation looks from the human standpoint. This is the time to lay hold of the formula which Jabez found and which God used to bring him out of his circumstances.

Thank you, Lord, for this look at this young man's life. I rejoice now in the promises that surround me, the love that upholds me, and the grace that leads me along.

Life Application​

What are the four aspects in Jabez' prayer we can wisely use as guidelines in our personal petitions? Do we ask with bold expectation for God to open and close doors, so that we may glorify him by fulfilling his purpose for our lives?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for June 22nd​

Prayer and Peace​

Read the Scripture: 1 Samuel 1:1-2:11

In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. And she made a vow, saying, Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.

1 Sam. 1:10-11

At first glance it would appear that this is a kind of bargaining prayer of Hannah's — that she is offering to give the boy back to the Lord only if the Lord will give him to her first so she can enjoy him. It is possible to read this account that way, but, if we look closely at it, we can see what is really happening here, for I am sure this is not the first time that Hannah has prayed at Shiloh for a son. All along she dreamed of having a son of her own, a little boy to love and cuddle, to teach him to walk, to read stories to, to watch him grow to manhood to become a strong, clean, fine young man, the pride of her life. She wanted him for herself, and she prayed often for that, but her prayer was not answered.

On this occasion, however, her prayer was different. Having worked through years of barrenness and having thought deeply about the problems, she realized for the first time something she had never known before. She realized that children are not just for parents — they are for the Lord. They are given to parents, loaned for a while, but the reason they are given is for the Lord to use. Certainly this account indicates that this little boy who was ultimately born (Samuel) was God's man to meet the need of a nation. Undoubtedly God had taught Hannah deeply through these hours of struggle over her barrenness, so in great distress and with intense earnestness she prays that God would have what he wanted, a man for his glory and his purposes, and that he would let her be the instrument of that blessing.

Immediately we read of a remarkable change in Hannah's heart, for the account says, Eli answered, Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him. She said, May your servant find favor in your eyes. Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast. (1 Samuel 1:17-18)

Immediately, God's peace had begun to guard her heart and spirit. Now, the birth of the baby did not occur until months later, but when the baby was born she named him Samuel, which means, Asked of God. God had granted her request, but there was peace in Hannah's heart right from that very moment of her prayer. This is a beautiful commentary on that well known passage in Philippians 4 where Paul says, Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7). That is what Hannah experienced here. This is the mystery of prayer that is available to us to speak peace into our hearts when we are troubled by the circumstances of our lives.

Thank you, Father, for the peace that you can give me as I yield to you in prayer. Thank you that you know what I need and you know when I need it.

Life Application​

Our Father wisely denies petition motivated by self-interest. Rather than sulk, or blame God, shall we ask him to re-focus our hearts toward his will and glory? Have we been circumventing his peace by insisting he do it our way?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.