Daily Devotion by Ray Stedman

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for December 6th​

Restoring Dominion​

In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Hebrews 2:8b-9

This passage describes humanity's present state of futility. Here is the whole story of human history in a nutshell: God created us to exercise dominion, but we do not yet see everything in subjection to us. We attempt to exercise our dominion, but we no longer can do so adequately. We have never forgotten the position God gave us. Throughout the history of the race, there is a continual restatement of the dreams of humanity for dominion over the earth and the universe. This is why we cannot keep off the highest mountain. We have got to explore the depths of the sea. We have to get out into space. Why? Because it is there.

Humans consistently manifest a remarkable racial memory, a vestigial recollection of what God told them to do. The trouble is that, when we try to accomplish this now, we create a highly explosive and dangerous situation, for our ability to exercise dominion is no longer there. Even in the individual life this is true. How many have realized the dreams and ideals you began with? Who can say, I have done all that I wanted to do; I have been all that I wanted to be. Paul in Romans puts it, ...the creation was subjected to futility, (Romans 8:20 RSV).

But, we do see Jesus, the writer says. This is our one hope. With the eye of faith, we see Jesus already crowned and reigning over the universe, the man, Jesus, fulfilling humanity's lost destiny. In the last book of the Bible there is a scene where John beholds the One seated upon the throne of the universe while thousands of angels are crying out in unending worship before him. The call goes out to find one who is able to open the book with seven seals which is the title deed to earth, the right to run the earth. A search is made through the length of human history for someone worthy enough to open the seals, but no one can be found. John says he wept because no one was found worthy to open the scroll. But the angel says, Do not weep for the Lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered and he can open the seals (Revelation 5:5 RSV). When John turned to see the Lion, to his amazement he saw a Lamb, a Lamb that had been slain. As he watched the Lamb stepped up to the throne and took the book, and all heaven broke into acclaim, for here at last was found One worthy to own the title deed of earth.

This is what the writer sees here. Here we see Jesus, who alone has broken through the barrier that keeps us from our heritage. What is that barrier? What is it that keeps us from realizing our dreams of dominion? It is put in one grim word: Death! Death is more than the ending of life. Death, means uselessness; it means waste, futility. Death, in that sense, pervades all of life. You can see the signs of it all along.

But Jesus fulfilled the qualifications to realize humanity's heritage. He became lower than the angels, he took on flesh and blood, he entered into the human race to become part of it, Here we see Jesus, who alone experienced death. He tasted death for every man, and in doing so he took our place. He thus made it possible for those who throw in their lot with him to find that he has removed the thing that gives death its sting. In Jesus Christ mankind has that one ray of hope, given him to realize the destiny God had provided. Christ has come to begin a new race of people. That race includes himself and all those who are his, and to that race the promise is that they shall enter into all the fullness God ever intended man to have.

Thank you, Father, that you sent your Son to die for me, so that I could be restored and joined with you in that dominion that you created me for. Open my eyes that I might see him more clearly.

Life Application​

God's loving, sovereign plan is that we as His subjects should reign in life. How has He provided for this possibility? Are we living by means of the resurrection power of our indwelling Lord Jesus Christ? If not, why not?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for December 7th​

Perfect Through Suffering​

In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.

Hebrews 2:10

The earthly life of Jesus is referred to in one phrase, perfect through what he suffered. Was he not perfect when he came? When Jesus was a babe in Bethlehem's manger, was he not perfect even then? When he was tempted in the desert and Satan tried to turn him from the cross, was he not already perfect? When he was feeding the five thousand, in compassionate ministry to the hungry multitudes, was he not perfect? Why then does it say he was perfected by suffering?

There are, of course, two perfections involved. He was perfect in his person all along, but he was not yet perfect in his work. A person may be perfect in health, perfect in body, perfect in strength, perfect in soundness of humanity, but not yet perfect in the work they are called to do. Suppose Jesus Christ had come full-grown into the world a week before he died. Suppose he had never been born as a baby and grown up into adult life, but had stepped into the earth full-grown as a man. Suppose he had uttered in one week's time the Sermon on the Mount, the Olivet Discourse, the Upper Room Discourse and all the teachings that we have from his lips recorded in Scripture. Imagine that he came on Monday and on Friday they took him out and crucified him, hanging him on the cross, and that he died, bearing the sins of the world. Would he still have been a perfect Savior?

Certainly he would have been perfect as far as bearing our guilt is concerned — that only required a sinless Savior. But he would not have been perfect as far as bearing our infirmities, our weaknesses, is concerned. He would have been able to fit us for heaven, but never able to make us ready for earth right now. In such a case, we could always say, How can God expect me to live a perfect life in my situation? After all, I'm only human! Christ has never been where I am. What does he know of my pressures, what does he know of what I'm up against? But he was made perfect through his suffering. He does know, he does know!

He was a man who experienced fear and uncertainty. If we deny him this, we deny him his identification with us as humans. These were the temptations he faced, the pressures he withstood. Every fear is temptation, every sense of uncertainty is temptation. Of course he never acted out of uncertainty, he never spoke out of fear. The moment Jesus felt fear gripping his heart, he leaned back upon the full-flowing life of the indwelling Father and that fear was met by faith. The moment he felt uncertain, he rested back upon the indwelling wisdom of God and was immediately given a word that was the right word for the situation. Yet, because he fully entered into our fears and pressures, he is fully one with us and able to bring many sons and daughters to glory.

Lord, grant me depth, honesty, and earnestness that I may believe this marvelous ministry made available to me by the Lord Jesus in bringing many sons and daughters to glory through that which he suffered.

Life Application​

Jesus suffered intense temptation to sin, yet further chose to bear the sins of the world on the cross for our salvation. Do we grasp the depths of His suffering and His total identification with us in our sin and in our suffering?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

Devotion for Today — December 8th​

God's House​

Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house, bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. But Christ is faithful as the Son over God's house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.

Hebrews 3:5-6

Six times in this short section the word house appears, the house of God. There is a very common misunderstanding abroad in our day, especially among Christians, which uses the term, the house of God to mean a church building. There is nothing more destructive of the greatest message of the New Testament than that belief! A building is never truly called the house of God, either in the New Testament or the Old Testament, in the present or in the past. Certainly no church building, since the very beginning of the early church, could ever properly be called the house of God. The early church never referred to any building in that way. In fact, the early church had no buildings for two or three hundred years. When they referred to the house of God they meant the people. A church is not a building, it is people!

Even the temple or the tabernacle of old was not really God's house. Let someone point out the fact that no building today can properly be called the house of God, and some Bible-instructed Christian nearby wisely nods his head and says, Yes, you're right. The only building that could properly be called the house of God was the temple. It is true that those buildings were termed that in Scripture, but it is meant only in figure. They were never meant to be the place where God dwelled.

In the sixty-sixth chapter of his magnificent prophecy, Isaiah records the words of the Lord, saying, Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool — where is the house which you would build for me? ... All these things my hand has made, (Isaiah 66:1-2 KJV). Paul, in preaching to the Athenians, reminded them that God does not dwell in temples made by hands, (Acts 17:24 KJV). Even as he said those words the temple was still standing in Jerusalem. No, God does not dwell in buildings.

Then what is the house of God that is mentioned here? The answer is very clearly stated in Verse 6. We are his house. We people. God never intended to dwell in any building; he dwells in people, in men and women, in boys and girls. That is the divine intention in making men, that they may be the tabernacle of his indwelling. Paul refers to this in 1 Corinthians, Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you which you have of God? (1 Corinthians 6:19a). God's purpose is to inhabit your body and to make you to be the manifestation of his life, the dwelling place of all that he is.

In this house of God which is ever people, Moses ministered as a servant, but Christ as a Son. Therefore, the Son is much more to be obeyed, much more to be listened to, much more to be honored and heeded, than the servant. Moses served faithfully as a servant. What is the ministry of a servant? A servant is always preparing things. He must prepare meals, he must prepare rooms, he must prepare the yard. He is always working in the anticipation of something yet to come. His work is in view of that which is yet future. But Christ is faithful as the Son over God's house. What is the role of a son in a house? To take over everything, to possess it, to use whatever he likes. The house was made for him.

Thank, you, Lord, that you have come to dwell in me. What a privilege it is to be your house!

Life Application​

Incredibly, the Spirit of God has chosen the believer's body as His temple! Who, then, is to be worshiped? For what purpose does the Risen Christ honor us with all the resources and power of His Presence?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

Devotion for Today — December 9th​

Warning, Warning!​

See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.

Hebrews 3:12-14

We share in Christ if that faith which began continues to produce in us that which faith alone can produce, the fruit of the Spirit. This is an important warning of this book; a warning against the danger of hardening — of hearing the words and believing them, understanding what they mean, but of taking no action upon them. The peril of holding truth in the head, but never letting it get into the heart. But truth known never does anything; it is truth done which sets us free. Truth known simply puffs us up in pride of knowledge. We can quote the Scriptures by the yard, can memorize it, can know the message of every book and know the whole book from cover to cover, but truth known will never do anything for us. It is truth done, truth acted upon, that moves and delivers and changes.

The terrible danger which the writer is pointing out is that truth that is known but not acted on has an awful effect of hardening the heart so that it is no longer able to act — and we lose the ability to believe. This is what the Lord Jesus meant when he said to his disciples, If they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe though one should rise from the dead, (Luke 16:31).

A man said to me, If we only had the ability to do miracles like the early church did, then we could really make this Christian cause go. If we could perform these things again, and had faith enough to do miracles, we could make people believe. But I had to tell him that after thirty years of observing this scene, and studying the Scriptures, I am absolutely convinced that if God granted us this power, as he is perfectly able to do, so that miracles were being demonstrated on every hand, there would not be one further Christian added to the cause of Christ than there is right now! At the close of Jesus' own ministry, after that remarkable demonstration of the power of God in the midst of people, how many stood with him at the foot of the cross? A tiny band of women and one man, and they had been won, not by his miracles, but by his words.

This is why God says up in verse 11, I swore in my wrath, They shall never enter my rest. That is not petulance. That does not mean God is upset because he has offered something and they will not take it. That is simply a revelation of the nature of the case. When truth is known and not acted upon, it always, on every level of life, in any area of human knowledge, has this peculiar quality: It hardens, so the heart is not able to believe what it refuses to act on.

Father, may I heed this important warning and act upon that truth which you have shown me.

Life Application​

Are we trivializing the eternal loss to our souls of simply knowing, while deliberately failing to live, biblical Truth? What is the short term as well as long term loss?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

Devotion for Today — December 10th​

Living Out of Rest​

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.

Hebrews 4:9-10

Here is a revolutionary new principle of human behavior, on which God intends man to operate. It is from this that man fell, and it is to this, now, in Jesus Christ, he is to be restored. Unless this principle is operative in our life, we can have no assurance that we belong to the body of Christ. This is the clear declaration of this writer throughout the whole of the book.

We all have been brainwashed since birth with a false concept of the basis of human activity. We have been sold on the satanic lie that we have in ourselves what it takes to be what we want to be, to be a man, a woman, to achieve whatever we desire to be. We are sure we have what it takes, or, if we do not have it now, we know where we can get it. We can educate ourselves, we can acquire more information, we can develop new skills, and when we get this done we shall have what it takes to be what we want to be.

We do not have what it takes, and we never did have. The only one who can live the Christian life is Jesus Christ. He proposes to reproduce his life in us. Our part is to expose every situation to his life in us, and, by that means, depending upon him and not upon us, we are to meet every situation, enter into every circumstance, and perform every activity. We cease from our own labors.

This is the way you began the Christian life. You came to the place where you stopped trying to save yourself, did you not? You quit trying to be good enough to get into heaven. You said, I'll never make it, I'll never make it. You looked to the Lord Jesus, and said, If he has taken my place, then that is all I need. Thus, receiving him, and resting on that fact by faith, you stopped your own efforts, you ceased from your own work, and rested on his.

Paul says in Colossians, As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him, (Colossians 2:6 RSV). As you have received him, dependent on his death on the cross, so live in dependence upon his life in you to do all things through you. Step out upon that, and what is the result? Rest! Wonderful rest! Relief, release, no longer worrying, fretting, straining, for you are resting upon One who is wholly adequate to do through you everything that needs to be done. He does not make automatons of us, he does not turn us into robots. He works through our thinking, our feeling and our reasoning, but our dependence must be upon him.

Lord Jesus, thank you for this wonderful surgery that sets me free. I rejoice that there is a rest remaining into which I can enter. Grant that I will.

Life Application​

What is the operative principle of the Christian life which assures that we are authentically Christian? Are we affirming the all-sufficiency of Christ Jesus our Lord in our consistent reliance upon His Presence and power?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

Devotion for Today — December 11th​

The Throne of Grace​

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Hebrews 4:14-16

Four words in this brief passage sum up all it has to say: the throne of grace. A throne speaks of authority and power, while grace conveys the idea of sympathy and understanding. These two thoughts are combined in Jesus Christ. He is a man of infinite power, yet in complete and utter sympathy with us. He said himself, after his resurrection, All power is given unto me, in heaven and in earth, (Matthew 28:18 KJV). His title here is, Jesus, the Son of God possessing the fullness of deity. But more than that, he is the one who has passed through the heavens. In this space age, this phrase should catch our eye. Jesus not only passed into the heavens but through the heavens.

When we put people into a rocket and hurl them into space, we are throwing them into the heavens. They are still within this space-time continuum. Even if they traveled to the nearest planets or the outermost reaches of our solar system, which seems utterly impossible now, they would still be in the heavens. But the claim made for Jesus is that he has passed through the heavens, he has passed outside the limits of time and space. He is no longer contained within, limited by, those boundaries that hold us within physical limits. He is outside, above, beyond, over all, therefore there are no limits to his power.

The writer also makes clear that though the Lord Jesus has passed into the place of supreme power, and has absolutely no limits upon his ability to work, he also is tremendously concerned with our problems. He says, We have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He has already gone the whole course before us. He has felt every pressure, he has known every pull, he has been drawn by every allurement we face, he has been frightened by every fear, beset by every anxiety, depressed by every worry. Yet he did it without failure, without sinning. Never once did he fall. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. That is, every help you need, every time you need it!

Help us, Father, to obey these simple words of admonition: To come with confidence, with boldness, to the throne of grace from which all help comes, all light is streaming, all hope is flaming.

Life Application​

What audacious limitations do we presume to impose upon Jesus Christ, conqueror of time and space? Do we honor His amazing invitation to come boldly to His throne of both supreme authority and grace?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for December 12th​

Strength at Wit's End​

During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered...

Hebrews 5:7-8

How can Jesus sympathize, how does he understand our pressures, if he has never sinned? The answer to that leads us into the dark shadows of Gethsemane. There is no other incident in the gospels that fits the description of this passage where, with prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, he cried unto him who was able to save him from death.

Here we come face to face with mystery. Here is the total unexpectedness of unimagined agony to the Lord. In his anticipation of what he would be going through and his explanations of it to the disciples, he had never once mentioned Gethsemane, and there is no prediction of this in the Old Testament. There is much that predicts what he would go through on the cross; there is not one word of what he endured in the garden.

In the midst of his bafflement, puzzlement and distress of soul, he does an unusual thing. For the first time in his ministry he appealed to his own disciples for help. He asked them to bear him up in prayer as he went further into the shadows, falling first to his knees and then to his face, crying out before the Father. There he prayed three separate times and each prayer is a questioning of the necessity of this experience. Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. He was beseeching the Father to make clear to him whether this was a necessary activity, so unexpected and deep was his suffering, so suddenly had it come upon him, baffling him, confusing him, bewildering him, just as sudden experiences and catastrophes come bewilderingly to us.

To deepen the mystery of this it is implied that the Lord Jesus faced the full misery which sin produces in the heart of the sinner while he is yet alive. All the naked filth of human depravity forced itself upon him and he felt the burning, searing shame of our misdeeds as though they were his. No wonder he cried to the Father, Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, he adds, not my will, but thine, be done (Luke 22:42).

This explains the strange words, Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. He learned what it means to obey God when every cell in his body wanted to disobey. Yet, knowing this to be the will of God, he obeyed, trusting God to see him through. He learned what it feels like to hang on when failure makes us want to throw the whole thing over, when we are so defeated, so utterly despairing that we want to forget the whole thing. He knows what this is like, he went the whole way, he took the full brunt of it.

How did he win? He refused to question the Father's wisdom. He refused to blame God. He took no refuge in unbelief even though this agony came unexpectedly upon him. Instead, Jesus cast himself upon the Father's loving, tender care and looked to him to sustain him. When he did, he was brought safely through. So we read, Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. No matter how deep, how serious that need may be, he can fully meet it, though we may be at wit's end.

Father, thank you that the Garden of Gethsemane was not a mere play acting upon a stage. The Lord Jesus did not come into the world to perform a role, he fully entered into life. He went the whole way, he bore the full brunt. Help me to trust in him.

Life Application​

Jesus Christ entered into the full force of two of our lives' greatest mysteries: obedience and suffering. Where on the spectrum of obedience do we pray 'nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done?'

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

Devotion for Today — December 13th​

Arrested Development​

In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Hebrews 5:12-14

Here is a case of arrested development. Here are people who have been professing Christians for many years. By this time they ought to have been teachers, but they need yet to have someone teach them the very ABC's of the gospel. We have at our home a three-year-old daughter. It is the undivided opinion of our family that she is the smartest, brightest, and cutest little girl that ever lived. But if, at this stage of her life, something should happen and her body kept growing but her mind stopped, and she went on saying the same clever things she is saying now all the while her body matured and grew into full womanhood, we would no longer find delight in what she says. Our joy would be turned to sorrow; we would feel great grief at the sight of our dear one suffering from arrested development.

That is what this author feels as he writes to these Hebrews There is a cloud of threat hanging over these people due to their immaturity. The writer makes three very important and insightful observations about this problem. First, there is the clear suggestion that age alone does not produce maturity. It is amazing how many of us think it does. We love this thought of inevitable growth. How often we say, Just give us time. We will yet grow out of these hot tempers, catty tongues and jealous spirits. But time never brings maturity.

The second observation he makes is that immaturity is self-identifying. It has certain clear marks which provide a simple test that anyone can take to determine whether he belongs in this classification or not. There is an inability to instruct others. Though these have been Christians for years they have nothing to say to help another who may be struggling with problems. They can only understand the very simplest doctrinal treatment. They need milk, the writer says, instead of strong meat. They do not understand the divine program which results in right conduct, because they are themselves children and want only milk. There is also an inability to discern good from evil. It is such people who constitute what we may call consecrated blunderers, the ones who mean right and think they are doing right but are continually doing the wrong thing, creating problem situations, and difficulties with others.

The third observation the author makes is that arrested development is a very costly thing. About this, he says, we have much to say which is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. There is so much I want to tell you, he says, which would make your starved humanity burst into bloom like buds in the spring if you could but grasp it, but you would not get it because you are so dull of hearing. The immature lose so much, and they risk even more. There is a very grave danger threatening these who continue in this condition of prolonged immaturity.

Lord, these words have searched me, have found me out, have made me to see myself. Thank you for that. I do not want to be self-deceived. Thank you for telling me the truth even though it may hurt, for I know that it is always to the end that I may be healed.

Life Application​

If we no longer want to be self-deceived, what are three ways we may clearly identify our arrested spiritual development? Are we concerned to consider the serious consequences of this immaturity?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

Devotion for Today — December 14th​

Conception or Birth?​

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.

Hebrews 6:4-6

Here is the elaboration of an awful possibility. It is impossible to restore again to repentance these who experience certain Spirit-given blessings, if they shall fall away. The problem of the passage is: How can anyone experience all of this and not be Christian? If he is Christian, how can he fall away, without any hope of restoration? It is over these issues that the battle has waged hot throughout the Christian ages.

Can we take these expressions here as describing anything other than Spirit-produced, authentic Christian life? I would like to propose an explanation of this which has long haunted me. The Scripture frequently uses the analogy of human birth and growth to explain spiritual birth and growth. We have that even here. The use of milk by children is an analogy drawn from the physical life. Here is the question I would like to ask: Is it not possible that we frequently confuse conception with birth?

If the spiritual life follows the same pattern as the physical life, we all know that physical life does not begin with birth. It begins with conception. Have we not, perhaps, mistaken conception for birth, and, therefore, have been very confused when certain ones, who seemingly started well, have ended up stillborn? Is there in the spiritual life, as in the natural life, a gestation period before birth when true Spirit-imparted life can fail and result in a stillbirth?

Is there not a time when new Christians are more like embryos, forming little by little in the womb, fed by the faith and vitality of others? If this be the case, then the critical moment is not when the Word first meets with faith, that is conception; that is when the possibility of new life arises. But the critical moment is when the individual is asked to obey the Lord at cost to himself, contrary to his own will and desire. When the Lordship of Christ makes demand upon him and it comes into conflict with his own desire and purposes, his own plans and program. If any man will come after me, said Jesus, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me, (Matthew 16:24). In grace, the Lord may make this appeal over the course of a number of years. But if it is ultimately refused, this is a stillbirth. The months, and even years, that may be spent in the enjoyment of conversion joy was simply Christian life in embryo. This is what Jesus' parable describes as seeds sown into unreceptive soil, only to spring up and then die off. The new birth occurs, if at all, when we first cease from our own works, and rest in Jesus Christ. That is when the life of faith begins.

If this step is refused and the decision is made to reject the claims of Christ to Lordship and control, there follows a hardening, blinding process which, if allowed to continue, may lead such a one to drop out of church, and in effect, to renounce his Christian faith. Though only God knows the true condition of the heart, if that occurs, the case, he says, is hopeless.

This brings us to the impossibility of return. It is impossible to restore them if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt. Why is it that God will not permit them to go on in understanding more truth? It is simply because they are repudiating the principle of the cross. They become, as Paul terms it in Philippians, enemies of the cross of Christ, (Philippians 3:18). From that point on their lives deteriorate and they shame the profession they once made.

These are challenging words, Father, and I ask that I would be willing to follow you, even to the cross.

Life Application​

Are we committed to lifelong, life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ who lives with and in us as our Savior and Lord? Is our daily experience consistent with the light we have received? Are we being transformed by the renewing of our minds with Truth?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

Devotion for Today — December 15th​

Believing Is Seeing​

For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you. And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise.

Hebrews 6:13-15

Genesis records that God appeared to Abraham and made him a promise: Through your seed shall all peoples of the earth be blessed, (Genesis 22:17-18). The immediate seed was Isaac, born of Abraham's old age; but the ultimate Seed is Christ. It is through faith in Jesus Christ that this promise is fulfilled, and all the peoples of the earth are blessed in Abraham. This promise was later confirmed by an oath, God swearing by himself that he would fulfill what he had said. The writer is simply pointing out that Abraham believed God's promise and his oath.

Why did he believe it? Not because he immediately saw it fulfilled! There were twenty-five long, weary years before Isaac was born, and in the meantime, Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were growing older and had passed the time of life when it was possible to have children. Still the promise was unfulfilled. So, if Abraham did not believe it because he saw immediate results, then why did Abraham believe God's promise? Abraham believed that God had told the truth about himself, and that God must be true to his own character which he had expressed through both the promise and the oath.

Without seeing any results for twenty-five years, Abraham hung on to the character of God. He never said to himself during that time, I've tried it and it doesn't work, or I've got to convince myself that this is true, even though I secretly believe that it is not. He said, The God I know exists is the kind of a God who will do what he says he'll do. For twenty-five years Abraham hung on to that promise. And he won!

I've heard it said about prayer, I've tried prayer but it doesn't seem to work. It seems to me that is putting things the wrong way. That is really repeating the common myth of our day, seeing is believing. No greater lie was ever foisted upon the human race by the father of lies than this, that seeing is believing. We are utterly convinced that is the way to come to the knowledge of truth, but the man who sees no longer needs to believe. Faith is not sight, nor sight faith.

You ask why I believe in prayer? Well, not because I have tried it and it has worked. I believe in prayer because Jesus Christ says that prayer is the secret of life and I believe him. Jesus Christ says that man must either pray or faint, one or the other. Because it is Jesus Christ who says this, I believe him, and, therefore, I pray and find it works. The proof of prayer does not come from my experience; that is simply the demonstration of what I have already believed, and I believe it because of who said it. Believing, therefore, is seeing.

This is true on many levels of life. Albert Einstein did not come to the knowledge of relativity by performing a series of experiments which ultimately convinced him that relativity was true. He gradually saw the idea of relativity, and, convinced in his own mind that this was the secret of the physical universe, he performed experiments that he might demonstrate it to others. This is the way of truth. Believing is seeing.

This, therefore, is the secret of faith; it rests on the character of Jesus Christ. Either he is telling us the truth, and we can trust what this One who is like no one else who ever appeared in human history says to us, or we must reject him and repudiate him as a self-deceived impostor who attempted to foist some crude and foolish ideas upon the human race. That is where faith rests. From that ground everything must follow.

I remember, Lord Jesus, how many times you said to your disciples, O ye of little faith. I hear these words again in my own heart, Lord. Grant to me that I may have the courage to believe and to step out upon what I believe.

Life Application​

Are our prayers faith-based? Is our faith based in our prayers, rather than the character of God to whom we pray? Are we learning to trust the wisdom of our Father in both answered and unanswered prayer?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

Devotion for Today — December 16th​

A Better Priest​

Now if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the Law), what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be designated according to the order of Aaron? For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also. For the one concerning whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no one has officiated at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests. And this is clearer still, if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life.

Hebrews 7:11-16

One thing clearly marked the fact that the old priesthood was no longer acceptable as help for men. It was the appearance of a new priest with a different address and a different ancestry. If the old priesthood went, the Law had to go too. This new priest had a quite different address; he came from the tribe of Judah instead of the tribe of Levi. Judah was not a priestly tribe at all, but a kingly tribe. The new priest was a king. If God recognizes Christ as a priest, then the Law which was part of the old priesthood has been set aside.

Also, the new priest has a different ancestry. It was not necessary for him to trace his genealogy back to Abraham. No, as a priest he has no genealogy, he ministers in the power of an endless life. He had no beginning and no ending. Therefore the Law, which is only temporary, must go. It had an inherent weakness in that it could not supply what the flesh in its frailty lacked. Every priest, every psychiatrist, every counselor, whether he realizes it or not, is continually working with the Law. How? By seeking to relate people to reality. That is what the Law is, the revelation of reality. It is the way things are. Any knowledgeable counselor tries to help the people who come to see things as they are, but that is sometimes a very difficult help to render.

Under the old order, a man would take a sacrifice to the priest and the priest would offer it, thus for the moment at least, removing the guilt of the act. Though the problem remained, the guilt from it was removed. That is what the modern counselor does. He attempts to dispel guilt by helping his client see his problem in a different light. If he is a Christian counselor, to help him to see that God has already forgiven him in Christ and thus to remove guilt. But the basic problem essentially remains, if resolving guilt is all that is done. The psychiatrist may rearrange the problem so it does not grate so strongly upon others, but the problem remains. As C. S. Lewis puts it, No clever arrangement of bad eggs will ever make a good omelet.

Self-discovery is the end of the line as far as the human counselor can go. But what lies beyond that? If you do not go any further, eventually, despair! This is what Paul reflects in Romans 7, Oh, wretched man that I am! Who can set me free from this body of death? (Romans 7:24) That is where this word of Hebrews comes in. There is a Priest who can go further. What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, judged sin in the flesh, that the righteousness that the law demanded might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit (Romans 8:3-4). That which is worthless, weak, and useless, has been set aside and a new hope introduced which brings us near to God.

Thank you, Father, that what I could not do in myself, and what no counselor or priest could do for me, you have accomplished through your Son.

Life Application​

What inherent weaknesses in the Levitical Law are met in the Priesthood of Jesus? How can we move beyond the futility of mere self-discovery to inner conflict resolution? Are we led in the triumphal procession of Jesus Christ, both Priest and King?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

Devotion for Today — December 18th​

The New Constitution​

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying, Know the Lord,? for all will know Me, from the least to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.

Hebrews 8:10-12

In the Upper Room, Jesus said, This cup is the new covenant made in my blood. This is the new arrangement, the new constitution, from which the life of all who know Jesus will be lived. This is a covenant made between the Father and the Son. It is not made between us and God. If any man is in Christ, everything in this covenant is available to him. For any individual on the face of the earth who is willing to be in Christ, to let Christ live in him, this agreement is valid.

There are four provisions of the new constitution: God says, I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts. There is the answer to the problem of human motivation. Have you discovered that the problem in your life is not uncertainty about what is right; you have known that a long time. It is a problem of motivation. We are not over-strained; we are simply under-motivated, but the new arrangement, this new constitution, makes provision for that. We are to look to Christ when we are confronted with the thing we do not want to do. We are to say, Lord Jesus, you have promised to write your laws in my mind and on my heart, that I may do what you want me to do. Then for his dear sake, we do it. There is a new motive, a motor, a new power to do what ought to be done. It is Christ Himself within us.

Then he says, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. What an answer to the search for identification, to the hunger to belong to someone. Here is the answer to the aching question of the human heart: Who am I? God says, You are forever mine. I will be your God, and you will be my people.

Then there is the promise, They shall not teach everyone his fellow or everyone his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest. Here is the answer to the sigh of humanity for a hero. There is in the human heart a desperate hunger for a hero. We want to look up to someone, we want to know some great one personally. God says, I will satisfy that in your life. You shall know me! Do you know the one thing that one true Christian can never say to another Christian, anywhere in the world is, Know the Lord, for this is the one thing that is always true of even the youngest Christian — he knows the Lord. That is where we start in Christian living. It is the least common denominator.

Then the last thing, For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. This is the answer to the universal sense of condemnation. A man once said to me, I have a very difficult boss. I never know where I stand with him. Do we feel that way about God? We say, I never know where I stand with God. But God says if you are looking to the great high priest who is ministering to you all the effects of his sacrifice, this is never a problem. For he has written it down in no uncertain words, There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, (Romans 8:1). None! He is always for you, he is never against you. It does not mean he ignores sin but he says, I will be merciful toward it. When you acknowledge it there is no reproach — and no rehash! He never gets historical, dredging up the past. God never does this!

Father, thank you for this look at the ministry of my great High Priest, a ministry that so many times I have not taken seriously. Instead I have looked about in all the broken cisterns of earth to try to find something as a substitute. Forgive me, and help me to claim my heritage in him, this new agreement for living.

Life Application​

What four vital and radical provisions in the New Covenant made between the Father and the Son are available to us in Christ Jesus? How does this address our need for motivation and power to live as new creatures in Christ?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

Devotion for Today — December 20th​

The Need for Death​

For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

Hebrews 9:15

You cannot avail yourself of all that Jesus Christ provides for you in terms of release from a guilty conscience, unless there is a death. The will is useless without it. In fact, he says, death is so important that even the shadow, the picture in the Old Testament, required blood. Not, of course, the blood of Jesus Christ, but the blood of bulls and goats. Blood is inescapable.

That brings us to the point: Why? We shall never come to the answer until we squarely face the implications of the substitutionary character of the death of Jesus Christ. His death was not for his own sake, it was for ours. He was our representative. This is what God is so desperately trying to convey to us.

The cross is God's way of saying there is nothing in us worth saving at all, if we remain set apart from Christ. As we were, men and women quite apart from Christ, God says, There is nothing you can do for me, not one thing. But when Christ became what we were, when he was made sin for us, God passed sentence upon him, and put him to death. This is God's way of saying to us, There is not a thing you can do by your own effort that is worth a thing. All that we can ever be, without Christ, is totally set aside. Death eliminates us, wipes us out.

That is why our activity does not improve our relationship with him in the least degree. It does not make us any more acceptable. See what this does to our human pride. Who has not heard Christians talking in such a way as to give the impression that the greatest thing that ever happened to God was the day he found them. But we are not indispensable to him; he is indispensable to us. If we become bankrupt to do anything for God, we are then able to receive everything from him.

The point of the whole passage is: If we refuse to reckon this way, to count this to be true, if we refuse this, then there are no benefits of the new covenant available to us. A covenant is not in effect until there is the death of the testator, the death of the will maker. Christ the will-maker died, and it is we, through Christ our representative, who also died that death. But if we will not accept it, if we will not agree to this and accept God's sentence of death upon all that we are, then we cannot have the benefits of his covenant. If we fight this sentence of death, for the rest of our Christian lives we shall be troubled with a guilty conscience. We will never rest in any final acceptance before God. We shall always be wrestling with the problem of whether we have done enough and have been pleasing enough to God by our activity. But if we accept this reality, the effect is to render all our service to him pure delight.

Father, open my eyes to this new principle of human behavior. Teach me to grasp this and to accept thy sentence of death upon everything in me that is not of Christ.

Life Application​

Are we learning to be liberated from our own futile efforts to please God? Are we experiencing the heritage of God's new arrangement for living, replacing our dead works with the power of Christ's indwelling Presence?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for December 21st​

A Burned-Over Place​

For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own.

Hebrews 9:24-25

The writer points out that the old system required endless repetition of sacrifice. The effect of these sacrifices never lasted very long. A man had to bring a fresh sacrifice every time he sinned, and once a year the whole nation had to offer the same sacrifice, year after year. The old arrangement required repetition. But the new arrangement is beyond time, as well as beyond space. The cross of Christ is a contemporary sacrifice, it was offered at one point in history, but the effect of it, the results and blessings of it, are available at any time, forward or backward from that point of history. What a great advantage this is over the old system!

I was born on the wind-swept plains of North Dakota. I remember as a boy sometimes seeing at night the flames of a prairie fire lighting the horizon, sweeping across the grass of those prairies. Such prairie fires were terrible threats to the pioneers who crossed the plains in their covered wagons. Often these fires would burn for miles and miles, threatening everything in their path. When they would see such a fire coming toward them, driven before the wind, they had a device they would use to protect themselves. They would simply light another fire and the wind would catch it up and drive it on beyond them, and then they would get in the burned-over place, and when the fire coming toward them reached it, it found nothing to burn and went out.

God is saying that the cross of Jesus Christ is such a burned-over place. Those who trust in it, and rest in the judgment that has already been visited upon it, have no other judgment to face. That is why Paul can write with such triumph in Romans 8: There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, (Romans 8:1 KJV). In the realm of the spirit we have already been forgiven everything. We need now only to acknowledge wrong, confess it, and, the moment we do, forgiveness is already ours. We need only to say, Thank you for it, and take it.

Father, I pray that I may learn to rest upon this new arrangement and thus be equipped to enter into every situation, face any circumstance or any problem with the adequacy which is yours, available to me.

Life Application​

Are we burdened with continuing self-judgment for sin which is forever covered by Jesus' atoning sacrifice? How does confession of sins free us to experience His forgiveness and rejoice in the judgment He has borne for us?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for December 22nd​

What Does God Desire?​

After saying above, Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them (which are offered according to the Law), then He said, Behold, I have come to do Your will. He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Hebrews 10:8-10

Here is what God really wanted. God never cared a snap of his fingers for all the rivers of blood that flowed on Jewish altars. He had no interest in them except as they taught something. What did these sacrifices point to? A human body in which there was a human will which continually chose to depend upon an indwelling God to obey a written word! That was what God wanted. When Christ came he paused on the threshold of heaven, and said, A body hast thou prepared for me. Within that body was a human soul with the capacity to reason, to feel and to choose. That will, in that human body, never once acted on its own, never once took any step apart from dependence upon the Father who dwelt within. That is the principle that God has been after all along; that is what he wants.

He has no interest in ritual, in candles, in prayer books, in beads, in chanting, in any ceremony. Ceremonies mean nothing to God. What he wants is a heart that is his, a life that is his, and a body that is available to him. That is why Paul, in Romans 12, says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service (Romans 12:1 KJV).

When our Lord Jesus acted on that principle, he allowed the direction of his life to come from the Word of God: Behold, I have come to do Your will. Every temptation he entered into, every problem that came his way, he referred to what God had said, It is written, It is written, It is written... That program took him to the cross, calling on him to lay down his life. By means of that sacrifice, we are free now to join him on this program that is God's original intention for man.

In verse 10, this word sanctified is widely misunderstood. It is usually looked upon as some kind of religious sheep-dip that people pass through, and they come out holier and purer on the other side. But it is not that. The word sanctified simply means to put to the proper, intended use. That is all it means. You are sanctifying the chair that you are seated on right now. You sanctify your comb when you comb your hair. Sanctification simply means to put to the intended purpose. This verse is simply declaring that when we adopt the same outlook as Jesus Christ, when, in dependence on him, we are ready to obey the Word of God, we fulfill our humanity. We are being used in the way God intended us to be used. There is one mark of that which is unmistakable: We are willing to lay down our life in order that the will of God be done! I do not mean we rush out to die. It means giving of yourself, giving up for the moment something that you might desire to do. It means that we become content to lose standing, if necessary in the eyes of the world. We no longer regard that as important in our life. It means we give up material comfort or gain if this will advance the cause of Christ: We live in a simpler home in order that we might invest money in his enterprises. We are willing to be ignored, or slighted, or treated unfairly, if, in the doing of it, God's cause will get ahead.

This is what God wants, this is what he is after. Not great cathedrals and beautiful buildings and ornate ritual and ceremony, God does not care for these. God wants lives, bodies, hearts that are his, available to him to work in the shop and the office and the street and the schools and everywhere people are, that his life may be made visible in terms of that person, in that place. That is Christianity.

Father, may I know the joy of ceasing from my own efforts and resting quietly upon your ability to work in me.

Life Application​

Fulfillment of our entire destiny for time and eternity is possible because Jesus Christ our Savior said 'Here I am -- I have come to do your will, O God'. Do we realize the liberating power to live or die that comes to us through Him when we say: 'Thy will be done'?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for December 23rd​

Spur One Another On​

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Hebrews 10:24-25

How do you spur someone to love and good works? These two things are always the mark of true Christianity. Christians are never judged by the confessions they make, or the creed they recite; it is always by their deeds. How much practical love have you manifested? How far have you responded to the cry for help from someone near you, someone who is destitute or disappointed, who needs an encouraging word or a helping hand or a generous check? This is the ultimate test.

How do you achieve this? He suggests two ways: First, by not neglecting to meet together, that is very important: Not giving up meeting together, but encouraging one another. That suggests the character of the meetings. They are not to be discouraging meetings, they are to be encouraging meetings. They are to be meetings where you can hear again the tremendous, radical principles of Christian faith and to see again in human lives the mighty power of the One whom we worship and serve; and where you can understand how God works through human society, how he is transforming and changing men everywhere. To thus meet together is to encourage one another in these things. That is what Christian services ought to be like: To hear the Word of God so that it comes home with power to the heart, and to share with one another the results.

If our services were more like this, we would not have trouble in getting people to come. Too often church services are the kind pictured in the story of the father who was showing his son through a church building. They came to a plaque on the wall and the little boy asked, Daddy, what's that for? His father said, Oh, that's a memorial to those who died in the service. The little boy said, Which service, Daddy, the morning service or the evening service? But meetings of Christians are to be encouraging things, and this is one way we stir up one another to love and good works.

The second way is a watchful awareness of the time. All the more as you see the Day approaching. The Day is the certain return of Jesus Christ. As evil becomes more subtle, as it becomes more and more difficult to tell the difference between truth and error, good and bad, right and wrong; as the clamant voices of our age pour out deceitful lies, and we find the whole of society permeated and infiltrated with false concepts that deny the truth of the Word of God, we need all the more to gather together and encourage one another by sharing the secrets of life in Christ Jesus.

Father, thank you for the opportunity to spur others on to love and good deeds. Help me to not neglect meeting together with other believers and paying attention to the fact that the Day is drawing near.

Life Application​

As the media delivers its often bewildering, increasingly threatening news, are we faithfully and fruitfully meeting with others of the family of God? Are we holding one another accountable as living expressions of the Word of Truth and Love?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for December 24th​

Living By Faith​

Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

Hebrews 10:32-35

The author recognizes that most of these to whom he writes had already given proof of true faith and genuine birth. Their early Christian years were marked by love and joy and hope, despite hardships and persecution. They had followed Christ at cost to themselves. They had submitted themselves to the Lordship of Christ, even when their own will would have been different. That is the mark of reality, the proof of faith. They cheerfully and compassionately accepted the persecutions, deprivations, and hardships that came their way. They took Christ's yoke upon them, obeyed his Lordship, and manifested it by love and good works. They were living by faith.

You can do these things only when you live by faith. When you have accepted God's word and recognized that Christ is who he says he is, that the history of the world is going to turn out as he says it is, and that the values of life are what he says they are, then, and then only, can you do this kind of thing. They just need to do one more thing — keep on! That is all. They are doing the right thing, just keep on doing it. The road will end at the dawning of a new day and the coming of the living God.

Does your way sometimes seem hard and difficult? Is it, perhaps, often lonely and exposed to the reproach of others? Do not despair, do not give up. That pattern has been predicted. If you live by faith; if you accept what this word says as true, and you see that it is working out in history exactly as God said it would; if you are counting on his strength to bring about all that he promises; if you thus live by faith, then, though it be through perils and dangers, you will arrive for the just shall live by faith, (Romans 1:17 KJV). Not by circumstances, not by outward appearances, but by faith in what the Word of God says. You need only to continue to reach the goal, to endure. It could well be translated, in modern parlance, by the word toughness.

In Hebrews 11, there are some illustrations of men and women who have lived by faith. These are the tough people of history. They have endured, they have toughed it out, they have stuck it out. They faced all the pressures, all the problems, all the confusing duplicity of life, but, because they had their eye fixed on One who never changes, they were tough; nothing could move them aside or divert them. That is what the apostle is calling for, that inner toughness which meets life steadfastly, unshakably, is never driven off its position of faith. It constantly meets every encounter, every challenge by resting upon the Word of God.

Teach me, Lord, to live by faith, even when all seems to be going wrong in my life.

Life Application​

If or when the integrity of our faith is tested by hardships and persecution, does it qualify? Are we then alert to others' needs for encouragement so that we may stand side-by-side regardless of the circumstances?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for December 26th​

Faith That Anticipates and Acts​

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Hebrews 11:8-10

Faith believes that God has revealed something about the future; not everything, but something. And what he has revealed is quite enough for us to know. Faith seizes upon a revealed event and begins to live in anticipation of it. Therefore, faith gives our life a goal, a purpose and a destination. It is a look into the future.

We see this in Abraham. He is an illustration of the meaninglessness of time in the life of faith. It is amazing how far Abraham saw. Abraham lived about two thousand years before Christ. We live about two thousand years after him. Yet Abraham, looking forward by faith, believing what God had said would take place, looked across forty centuries of time and beyond to the day when God would bring to pass on earth a city with eternal foundations. Abraham saw what John sees in the book of Revelation, a city coming down out of heaven onto earth. That is a symbol of that for which we pray in the Lord's Prayer, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, (Matthew 6:10). That is what Abraham longed for, an earth run after God's order, where people dwell together in peace, harmony, blessing, beauty and fulfillment. Because of that he was content to dwell in tents, looking for that coming.

You can see this quality of anticipation also in Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. Isaac and Jacob both knew that God intended to make nations from their sons, and their final prayers were based upon that fact. They prayed in anticipation of what God had said would come, and blessed their children on that basis. Joseph, when he was dying, saw four hundred years ahead to the coming exodus from Egypt, and he arranged by faith for a funeral service in the promised land. He did not want to be buried in Egypt. Thus he symbolized his conviction that God was going to do exactly what he had said. And eventually it happened exactly that way.

You can see how faith anticipates in the case of Moses' parents who, when he was born, saw that he was beautiful in God's sight ( Acts 7:20-21 ) and they acted by faith to save him from the edict of the king that all male children should be slain ( Exodus 1:16,22 ). This was more than the natural desire of parents to preserve their children from death. But these parents knew there was a promise of deliverance from Egypt for their people, and they knew that the time was near. God had foretold how long it would be. They were given assurance that this boy had been singled out by God, they trusted God's word and, acting on that, they defied the king and hid the child for three months ( Hebrews 11:23 ).

Related to this quality of faith which accepts as certain a promise of the future is a second quality, that faith always acts. There is today a very common misconception that thinks of men and women of faith as so occupied with the future that they sit around, twiddling their thumbs, doing nothing. We have all heard of those who are so heavenly-minded that they are of no earthly good. That is the common concept of faith. But that is not faith; that is fatalism! Faith works! Faith is doing something now, in view of the future. If you are folding your hands and waiting for the Second Coming you are not living the life of faith. The life of faith is that which acts now in view of that coming event.

Thank you, Lord, for the opportunities you give to anticipate and act upon what you have promised. Teach me to see that city from above which one day will come down.

Life Application​

Is our faith rooted in Biblical revelation which produces our life expectancies, purpose and destination? Are our prayers and actions guided consistently by that purposeful faith?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for December 27th​

Fix Your Eyes on Jesus​

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:1-2

We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, he says. That does not simply say that people who have died and gone on to heaven are looking down on us from above. It means that these people are saying something to us, they are testifying to us, they are witnesses in that sense. Their lives are saying that we ought to lay aside every weight, i.e., whatever hinders faith. You never say, Yes to Christ without saying, No to something else!

And the sin that so easily entangles. What is that? That is unbelief. That is the failure to take revelation seriously. Then, what? Run with perseverance, with persistence, keeping on no matter what happens. How? By fixing our eyes Jesus, that is the answer. The others we read of here can inspire us, challenge us, and some of the men and women of faith who have lived since these days can do the same. I read the life of Martin Luther — what a challenge he is to me; and of John Wesley, and D. L. Moody, and of some of the recent martyrs of faith, Jim Elliot and others. How they have challenged my life and inspired me to make a fresh start; to determine anew to walk with God, and to follow their example. They challenge us to mobilize our resources, clench our fists, set our jaws and determine that we shall be men and women of faith. But if that is our motivation we shall find that we soon run out of gas. It all begins to fade and after a few weeks we are right back in the same old rut.

The secret of persistence is in this phrase, fixing our eyes on Jesus. Look at these men and women of faith, yes, but then look away on Jesus. Why? Because he is the author and finisher of our faith. He can begin it and he can end it, complete it. He is the pioneer, he has gone on ahead. He is also the perfecter of faith. He himself ran the race. He laid aside every weight, every tie of family and friends. Every restraining hand he brushed aside that he might resolutely walk with God. He set his face against the popular sin of unbelief and walked on in patient perseverance, trusting the Father to work everything out for him. He set the example.

But there is more than example in this phrase; there is empowerment. We are to fix our eyes on Jesus because he can do what these others cannot do. They can inspire us, but he empowers us. Moment by moment, day by day, week by week, year by year, if we learn to look to him we find strength imparted to us, because he indwells us! That is the secret.

You can find strength to venture out and start this life of faith today in him. You also discover strength to continue. He is not up there somewhere. As this book has made clear, he is within us, by faith. If we have received Jesus Christ, he dwells within. He has entered into the sanctuary, into the inner man, into the place where we need strength, and is available every moment for me. Therefore, in Christ, I have all that it takes to meet life.

Father, thank you for a living Lord Jesus who is no distant person, one that I cannot know and talk to, and draw strength from and lean upon. But he is my living Lord, ready to make available to me all that I need in every hour.

Life Application​

Are we grateful for the testimonies of exemplary lives of faith, many of them martyrs, now with Christ? Who is our ultimate example of endurance, and our sole empowerment to follow His example?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for December 28th​

A New Kind of Living​

Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

Hebrews 12:12-15

Here the writer summarizes the practical results of trials in our life: They make possible the demonstration of a new kind of living, which is what the world is looking for. The world is not at all impressed with Christians who stop doing something the world is doing. But they are tremendously impressed with Christians who have started living the kind of a life they cannot live. That stops them! That is the life he is setting before us here.

First it starts with correction. ...strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your feet, That is, if you keep on going the way you are going it will only get worse — that which is lame will be put out of joint. But stop it and strengthen these things. Stop being so weak, stop being so anxious, so worried. How will the world get the impression that Christ is victor if they look at you and you are always in defeat? Strengthen these things and learn how to live in peace with your neighbor, to live in peace with everyone. And above all, seek to be holy because, without holiness no one will see the Lord.

What does this word mean? Holiness is the exact Greek word that is also translated in this letter sanctification. To sanctify means to put to its proper use. When a man or a woman is believing that Christ indwells him and gives him everything he needs for every minute, he is being put to the proper use, the use for which God intended man. This is holiness, this sense of dependence and availability to God. This is what makes the world sit up and take notice as they see Christians living the kind of life that is always adequate for every circumstance.

The second phrase has to do with our concern for others: See to it that no one fall short of the grace of God. We are not to live our lives to ourselves. Others are looking to us and we have a responsibility to them. He points out the something that will stop the grace of God in any person's life — bitterness. Bitterness is always wrong. No matter how justified the cause of bitterness may be, to have a bitter attitude as a Christian is always wrong, for resentment and bitterness are always of the flesh. The trouble is, they are highly contagious diseases. If one person is bitter and continues in an unforgiving, bitter spirit, others are infected by this and it spreads and defiles many. This is the problem in many a church today. So, if you see someone around you that has this problem, help him to see that this is a terrible thing that will wreck his life, making it impossible to grow as a Christian.

Here, then, is the ministry we are to have: To have a life in ourselves that is characterized by a display of that holiness, that sanctification, that proper use of our humanity that makes God visible in us, and to manifest it in a deep concern for the welfare of others, that no one else miss the grace of God.

Father, by your Spirit teach me this new kind of living, which will result in me being set apart for exactly those purposes you have created me for.

Life Application​

Are we intentionally dependent and available to the power and Presence of the indwelling Lord Jesus Christ? Do we allow bitterness toward others to obstruct God's grace in us, and through us to others?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.