THE FROG'S "BLACKBOARD"

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

OUR DAILY BREAD DEVOTIONS

The Frog’s “Blackboard”

Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things,,

and revive me in Your way.  Psalm 119:37

As a young boy, one of my favorite pastimes was hunting frogs along the banks of a pond near our home.  I was unaware of their unique visual poets that enabled them to elude me so easily.  Later I learned that the frog’s optical field is like a blackboard wiped clean, and that the only images it receives are objects that directly concern him.  These little amphibians are never distracted by unimportant things, but are aware only of essentials and whatever may be dangerous to them.

In the Christian life we frequently become preoccupied with the vain things of the world.  We allow our lives to become so cluttered with materialistic and insignificant concerns that we lose perspective of the things that endure.  In our text the psalmist asked God for help in fixing his attention on what is good and lasting (Psalm 119:37).

The words of the Lord should not depart from our eyes, but must be kept in our heart always (Proverbs 4:21).  Then our field of vision will be wiped clean of unnecessary things, and we will see clearly what God wants us to do.

Have you become distracted by sin so that you can no longer discern what is really important?  Then take a lesson from the frog’s “blackboard” and center your gaze on Christ and His will for your life.                  MD

The more attracted we are to Christ,

the less we’ll be distracted by the world.

TAKE ANOTHER LOOK AT JESUS!

Take Another Look at Jesus!

Read: Hebrews 3:1–6
Bible in a Year: 1 Kings 6–7; Luke 20:27–47

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 3:6

If there ever was a faithful person, it was Brother Justice. He was committed to his marriage, dedicated to his job as a postal worker, and each Sunday stood at his post as a leader in our local church. I visited my childhood church recently, and perched on the upright piano was the same bell that Brother Justice rang to notify us that the time for Bible study was about to end. The bell has endured the test of time. And although Brother Justice has been with the Lord for years, his legacy of faithfulness also endures.

Hebrews 3 brings a faithful servant and a faithful Son to the readers’ attention. Though the faithfulness of Moses as God’s “servant” is undeniable, Jesus is the one believers are taught to focus on. “Therefore, holy brothers and sisters . . . fix your thoughts on Jesus” (v. 1). Such was the encouragement to all who face temptation (2:18). Their legacy could come only from following Jesus, the faithful One.

What do you do when the winds of temptation are swirling all around you? When you are weary and worn and want to quit? The text invites us to, as one paraphrase renders it, “Take a good hard look at Jesus” (3:1 The Message). Look at Him again—and again and again. As we reexamine Jesus, we find the trustworthy Son of God who gives us courage to live in His family. —Arthur Jackson

Father, through Your Spirit, empower us to courageously love, honor, and follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

Looking to Jesus can give us courage to face the challenges in our lives.

INSIGHT: The book of Hebrews was written to encourage Jewish Christians who were facing persecution and hardship for their faith and who were now in danger of drifting away and reverting back to Judaism. The writer warns them against abandoning Christ (2:1-3; 3:7-15; 6:4-6; 10:26-31) and presents the absolute supremacy of Jesus as Savior. Jesus is superior to the angels (chs. 1-2), to Moses (chs. 3-4), and to the Aaronic priesthood (chs. 5-7), and He is the perfect High Priest (chs. 8-10). In today’s passage Moses is compared with Christ. While Moses was one of God’s most faithful servants, Jesus is far greater than Moses because Jesus is God’s Son (3:5-6).

How does reflecting on the supremacy of Jesus encourage you to trust Him in your trials? Sim Kay Tee

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THE PINE LOOPER

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

OUR DAILY BREAD DEVOTIONS

The Pine Looper

Read:  Jeremiah 17:1-10

He shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which

spreads out its roots by the river.  Jeremiah 17:8

In the summer of 1992, a fire blackened 4,500 acres of forest about thirty-five miles north of Atlantic City.  One homeowner saw a fireball with sixty-foot flames come roaring up across the street from his house, before veering away.  The Associated Press quoted him as saying, “I’ve worked twenty-five years of my life here.  The thought of having it gone in ten minutes makes you want to stay for the last possible minute.”

The fire was difficult to contain because of dry conditions.  The forest was dry despite rainfall, partly because of an insect called the pine looper, which defoliates trees.

The dry-tree condition behind this New Jersey fire has a parallel in the history of Israel.  Jeremiah said that his countrymen had become like dry shrubs in a desert rather than green trees by a river (17:6-8).  Even more alarming, he said they had aroused the fire of God’s anger (v.4) by trusting in man and departing from the Lord (v.5). For Christians today, it’s life’s fiery trials that threaten to scorch our souls if we’re trusting in our own strength.

“Father, forgive us for making ourselves dry and leafless.  Without Your mercy, we would be consumed when the heat comes.  Teach us to root ourselves in the river of Your sufficiency.”                                          MD

The person who relies upon

The Lord’s sufficiency

Is like a tree that’s planted by

Deep waters flowing free. -Sper

The fires of life will not destroy you if

you’re watered by the River of Life.

ON-THE-JOB TRAINING

On-the-Job Training

Read: 2 Timothy 1:6–14
Bible in a Year: 1 Kings 3–5; Luke 20:1–26

Of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher.—2 Timothy 1:11

When my son’s teacher asked me to serve as a chaperone for their science camp, I hesitated. How could I be a role model when mistakes littered my past, when I still struggled, stumbled, and slipped into old bad habits? God helped me love and raise my son, but I often doubted He could use me to serve others.

Sometimes I still fail to recognize that God—the only perfect One, the only One who can change hearts and lives—transforms us over time. Then the Holy Spirit reminds me how Paul encouraged Timothy to embrace his on-the-job training, persevere in faith, and use the gifts God had given him (2 Timothy 1:6). Timothy could be courageous because God, his power source, would help him love and be disciplined as he continued to grow and serve those within his sphere of influence (v. 7).

Christ saves and empowers us to honor Him with our lives, not because we have special qualifications but because we’re each valuable members of His family (v. 9).

We can persevere with confidence when we know our role is to simply love God and others. Christ’s role is to save us and give us a purpose that extends beyond our small vision of the world. As we follow Jesus daily, He transforms us while using us to encourage others as we share His love and truth wherever He sends us. —Xochitl Dixon

Lord, thanks for affirming we can depend on You completely as we share You cheerfully, confidently, and courageously.

Knowing our Power-Source personally gives us confidence in our role as servants to the King.

INSIGHT: In today’s reading Paul notes how God has “called us to a holy life” (2 Timothy 1:9)—a life set apart for Him. Such a life involves God’s calling and our obedience. So Paul urged Timothy to “fan into flame” his spiritual gift (v. 6).

What does it mean to “fan into flame” our gift? One key is to acknowledge God in everything. Perhaps we need to trust Him in a big trial. We may need to acknowledge Him in “trivial” matters. As we give Him our huge challenges and the aggravating details, He completes His work in us. He loves us enough to work on us for a lifetime. Tim Gustafson

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AIN'T IT AWFUL!

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

OUR DAILY BREAD DEVOTIONS

Ain’t It Awful!

Read:  Lamentations 3:25-42

Let us search out and examine our ways,

and turn back to the Lord.  Lamentations 3:40

A friend told me about a man who shouted the same three words each day from his street-corner newsstand.  “Ain’t it awful!” he would say to passersby while extending a newspaper.  People bought a paper because they just had to know what terrible thing had occurred.

Tragedy and dire predictions always make the front page, but if we become preoccupied with bad news, we will succumb to what my friend calls “awfulizing”-a pervasive pessimism that clouds every situation with gloom.

If anyone had a good reason for being despondent, it was the prophet Jeremiah.  For forty years he declared God’s judgment on the rebellious and unrepentant nation of Judah.  Jeremiah suffered because of their disobedience but he clung to his faith in God’s goodness.  Even after witnessing the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of his people, Jeremiah wrote:  “The Lord will not cast off forever.  Though He causes grief, yet He will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies….Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the Lord” (Lamentations 3:31-32, 40).

Disobedience to God can cause great pain, but the doorway out of discouragement leads to the Lord, who “is good to those who wait form Him” (v.25).                                                                           DCM

Turn not aside, discouraged one,

Stir up your gift, pursue your goal;

In God’s own time you’ll see Him work,

He’ll give you hope and lift your soul. -DJD

Awful circumstances cannot alter the goodness of God.

WISDOM'S CALL

Wisdom’s Call

Read: Proverbs 8:10–21
Bible in a Year: 1 Kings 1–2; Luke 19:28–48

Wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her.—Proverbs 8:11

Malcolm Muggeridge, the noted British journalist and social critic, came to faith in Christ at the age of sixty. On his seventy-fifth birthday he offered twenty-five insightful observations about life. One said, “I never met a rich man who was happy, but I have only very occasionally met a poor man who did not want to become a rich man.”

Most of us would agree that money can’t make us happy, but we might like to have more so we can be sure.

King Solomon’s net worth has been estimated at more than two trillion US dollars. Although he was very wealthy, he knew that money had great limitations. Proverbs 8 is based on his experience and offers “Wisdom’s Call” to all people. “I raise my voice to all mankind. . . . My mouth speaks what is true” (vv. 4-7). “Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her” (vv. 10-11).

Wisdom says, “My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses choice silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, bestowing a rich inheritance on those who love me and making their treasuries full” (vv. 19-21).

These are true riches indeed! —David C. McCasland

Lord, thank You for the riches of Your wisdom that guide our steps today.

God offers the true riches of wisdom to all who seek and follow Him.

INSIGHT: In the Old Testament the word most often translated “wisdom” (hokmah) refers to persons having an exceptional degree of “skill” in a given area—a speaker’s use of words or a composer’s skill in putting notes together to make music, for example. In Exodus 31:6 the skill of a craftsman is the focus.

In Proverbs the dominant word for wisdom is also hokmah. Wisdom in Proverbs is not simply one who possesses a masterful mind. It’s also a matter of the heart; it’s a moral quality. Wise persons are those who fear the Lord and subsequently make choices that honor God, oneself, and others. The wise person is one who is skilled in godly living. Wisdom (a feminine noun) is personified as a woman (see Proverbs 9). Her virtues are many and she pursues and rewards those who pursue her (3:13-18).

How attentive to the riches of wisdom are you in this season of your life?

For more on wisdom in the book of Proverbs, check out this free course at christianuniversity.org/OT507. Arthur Jackson

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UNFAMILIAR ROADS

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

OUR DAILY BREAD DEVOTIONS

Unfamiliar Roads

Read:  Psalm 119:105-112

Teach me Your way, O Lord, and lead me

in a smooth path.  Psalm 27:11

Trouble often lies ahead when we go down unfamiliar roads.  

I know a teenager who decided to take a different way to work one morning.  As he tried to navigate unfamiliar city streets, he went through an intersection without seeing the red octagonal sign that said “Stop.”

Within a few seconds, he did stop, but not for a stop sign.  He was pulled over by a helpful gentleman in a police car who reminded him that he should have stopped.  It cost him eighty dollars to learn about unfamiliar roads.

What would have happened if a guide had accompanied this young driver?  What if someone had been next to him to tell him which way to go and to alert him to danger ahead?  He wouldn’t be out the eighty dollars, that’s for sure.

In life, we often have to walk down unfamiliar paths-paths that may feel threatening.  So how do we do that without making costly mistakes?

We take Someone along who knows the way.   The psalmist recognized that Guide when he wrote, “Lead me,, O Lord, in Your righteousness…make Your way straight before my face” (Psalm 5:8).

Does your path today seem unfamiliar?  Ask your Father to travel the road with you.                                                                                  DB

Take Jesus with you as your faithful guide,

You cannot fail when He is at your side;

You may encounter trouble on life’s road,

But He will help to lift your heavy load. -Hess

The Spirit within us will faithfully guide us.

THE WIDOW'S FAITH

The Widow’s Faith

Read: 2 Kings 4:1–7
Bible in a Year: 2 Samuel 23–24; Luke 19:1–27

The pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.—Matthew 6:32

It is pitch dark when Ah-pi starts her day. Others in the village will wake up soon to make their way to the rubber plantation. Harvesting latex is one of the main sources of income for people living in Hongzhuang Village, China. To collect as much latex as possible, the trees must be tapped very early in the morning, before daybreak. Ah-pi will be among the rubber tappers, but first she will spend time communing with God.

Ah-pi’s father, husband, and only son have passed away, and she—with her daughter-in-law—is providing for an elderly mother and two young grandsons. Her story reminds me of another widow in the Bible who trusted God.

The widow’s husband had died and left her in debt (2 Kings 4:1). In her distress, she looked to God for help by turning to His servant Elisha. She believed that God cared and that He could do something about her situation. And God did. He provided miraculously for the dire needs of this widow (vv. 5-6). This same God also provided for Ah-pi—though less miraculously—through the toil of her hands, the produce from the ground, and gifts from His people.

Though life can make various demands on us, we can always draw strength from God. We can entrust our cares to Him, do all we can, and let Him amaze us with what He can do with our situation. —Poh Fang Chia

Father, thank You for Your patience when I trust in my own resources and turn to You only as a last resort. Teach me to seek Your help in all I do.

We may face situations beyond our reserves, but never beyond God’s resources.

INSIGHT: Can you remember a time when you thought that without a miracle you might not make it?

The Old Testament story of Elijah and Elisha speaks to such fears and the need for faith. Through signs and wonders Elijah called a nation back to its God (1 Kings 18:21, 38-39). Elisha, in turn, inspired hope by miraculously purifying water, multiplying food, and raising the dead.

This is the backstory that according to the New Testament was preparing the way for Jesus. With echoes of Elisha, Jesus filled the stomachs of more than 5,000 hungry people with a little boy’s lunch (Matthew 14:15-21).

Are you troubled by overwhelming needs that keep you awake at night? How does reflecting on God’s miraculous power give you hope?
—Mart DeHaan

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NOTHING HIDDEN

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

OUR DAILY BREAD DEVOTIONS

Nothing Hidden

Read:  1 Timothy 5:24-25

Some men’s sins are clearly evident….Likewise,

the good works of some…and those that are otherwise

cannot be hidden. 1 Timothy 5:24-25

A woman had been maligned and misrepresented by an envious coworker.  She was frustrated because her attempts to confront the coworker in private had only made matters worse.  So she decided to swallow her pride and let the matter go.  She said, “I’m glad the Lord knows the true situation.”  She expressed a profound truth that both warns and comforts.

Paul pointed out that nothing can be concealed forever (1 Timothy 5:24-25).  This serves as a solemn warning.  For example, a news report told about a highly respected person who was arrested for crimes he had been secretly committing for years.

Yet the fact that nothing can be hidden can also be a great consolation.  I have known people who never held a position of honor, nor were they recognized for their service.  After they died, however, I learned that in their own quiet way they had touched many lives with their kind words and helpful deeds.  Their good works could not remain hidden.

We can hide nothing from God-that’s s solemn warning!  But it’s also a great comfort, for our heavenly Father knows about every encouraging smile, every kind word, and every loving deed done in Jesus’s name.  And someday He will reward us.                         HVL

Neither vice nor virtue can remain a secret forever.

AMNESIA

Amnesia

Read: Daniel 4:28–37
Bible in a Year: 2 Samuel 21–22; Luke 18:24–43

My understanding returned to me; and I blessed the Most High.—Daniel 4:34 nkjv

Emergency Services in Carlsbad, California, came to the rescue of a woman with an Australian accent who couldn’t recall who she was. Because she was suffering from amnesia and had no ID with her, she was unable to provide her name or where she had come from. It took the help of doctors and international media to restore her health, tell her story, and reunite her with her family.

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, also lost sight of who he was and where he had come from. His “amnesia,” though, was spiritual. In taking credit for the kingdom he’d been given, he forgot that God is the King of Kings, and everything he had was from Him (Daniel 4:17, 28–30).

God dramatized the king’s state of mind by driving him into the fields to live with wild animals and graze like a cow (vv. 32–33). Finally, after seven years Nebuchadnezzar looked up to the skies, and his memory of who he was and who had given him his kingdom returned. With his senses restored, he declared, “I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven” (v. 37).

What about us? Who do we think we are? Where did we come from? Since we are inclined to forget, who can we count on to help us remember but the King of Kings? —Mart DeHaan

Father, we are so inclined to forget who we are, where we’ve come from, and that we belong to You. Help us to remember that in Christ we are Your children—known, loved, gifted, and cared for—now and forever.

When we forget who we are, our Father cares.

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GROUND SQUIRRELS

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

OUR DAILY BREAD DEVOTIONS

Ground Squirrels

Read:  Romans 8:27-39

I was at ease, but He has shattered me.

Job 16:12

Ground squirrels hibernate near our home during the winter, and they reappear when the snow melts in the spring.  My wife Carolyn and I enjoy watching them scurry back and forth from one hole to another, while others stand like tiny sentries watching for predators.

In mid-May, a man from a nearby golf course arrives on a little green tractor with a tank loaded with lethal gas.  The groundskeeper tells us that these little critters have to be eliminated because they dig holes in the fairways.  Some survive, but  most do not.  It always makes us a little sad to see the tractor arrive.

If I could, I’d chase the little animals away.  I’d destroy their holes and force them to settle some place else.  I’m sure they would resent my interference, but my actions would be solely for their good.

So it is with God.  He may break up our comfortable nests now and them, but behind every difficult change lies His love and eternal purpose.  He is not cruel or capricious; He is working for our ultimate good (Romans 8:28).  He wants us to be “conformed to the image of His Son” (v.29) and to give us glorious enjoyment in heaven forever.  How then can we fear change when it comes from someone whose love for us never changes? (vv. 38-39).  DHR

What tenderness the Father shows

To sinners in their pain!

He grants to them His strength to bear

The hurt that brings them gain. -DJD

God’s love can seem harsh until we view it with hindsight.

THE WAITING PLACE

The Waiting Place

Read: Psalm 70
Bible in a Year: 2 Samuel 19–20; Luke 18:1–23

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.—Psalm 37:7

“Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite. Or waiting around for Friday night . . . . Everyone is just waiting”—or so Dr. Seuss, author of many children’s books, says.

So much of life is about waiting, but God is never in a hurry—or so it seems. “God has His hour and delay,” suggests an old, reliable saying. Thus we wait.

Waiting is hard. We twiddle our thumbs, shuffle our feet, stifle our yawns, heave long sighs, and fret inwardly in frustration. Why must I live with this awkward person, this tedious job, this embarrassing behavior, this health issue that will not go away? Why doesn’t God come through?

God’s answer: “Wait awhile and see what I will do.”

Waiting is one of life’s best teachers for in it we learn the virtue of . . . well, waiting—waiting while God works in us and for us. It’s in waiting that we develop endurance, the ability to trust God’s love and goodness, even when things aren’t going our way (Psalm 70:5).

But waiting is not dreary, teeth-clenched resignation. We can “rejoice and be glad in [Him]” while we wait (v. 4). We wait in hope, knowing that God will deliver us in due time—in this world or in the next. God is never in a hurry, but He’s always on time. —David H. Roper

Dear Lord, thank You for Your loving presence. Help us to make the most of our waiting through trust in and service for You.

God is with us in our waiting.

INSIGHT: David wrote Psalm 70 (a song of lament or complaint) from a place of waiting. He waited for God to deliver him, to save him from “those who want to take [his] life” and “desire [his] ruin” (vv. 1-2). We don’t know the setting and circumstances of this lament, but we do know that for years David ran from King Saul and his army who wished to kill him (1 Samuel 19:1-2, 11; 20:30-33; 21:10-15; 23:15). David also waited for years to rule Israel, even though the prophet Samuel had anointed him king while David (Jesse’s youngest son) still watched his father’s sheep and Saul still reigned (16:1-13). We see Psalm 70 stated (in slightly different words) in Psalm 40:11-17. Though David waited for deliverance—and endured hardship as he did—he was still able to exclaim wholeheartedly, “The Lord is great!” (40:16; 70:4) and “You are my help and my deliverer” (40:17; 70:5).

When have you cried out to God, longing for Him to rescue you from a difficult situation? How can you praise Him as you wait?
—Alyson Kieda

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A BITTER ATTITUDE

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

OUR DAILY BREAD DEVOTIONS

A Bitter Attitude

Read:  Deuteronomy 32:44-52

Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today…

it is your life.  Deuteronomy 32:46-47

Great emphasis is being placed on living longer and better.  Advances in medical science are making it possible for more and more people.  Yet in spite of this, none of us can avoid growing old.  One day aging will overtake all of us, and our bodies will shut down.

What is preventable, however, is an attitude of bitterness and regret as we grow older.  Look at the life of Moses.  When he was 120 years old, he stood with the Israelites before they crossed the Jordan River and entered the Promised Land.  He could not go with them because he had disobeyed the Lord when in anger he struck the rock in the wilderness (Numbers 20:11-12, 24).

How easily Moses could have slipped into a self-pitying and resentful frame of mind.  Had he not borne the burden of a stubborn and stiff-necked people for forty years?  Had he not interceded for them time after time? Yet at the end of his life he praised the Lord and urged a new generation of Israelites to obey Him (Deuteronomy 32:1-4, 45-47).

As we grow older, we can dwell on the failures and hardships of our past, or we can remember God’s faithfulness, accept His discipline, and keep looking to the future in faith.  It’s the only way to avoid a bitter attitude.                                                                 DJD

Though wrinkles and weakness come with age

And life with its stress takes its toll,

Yet beauty and vigor can still be seen

When Jesus gives peace to our soul. -DJD

We cannot avoid growing old, but we can avoid growing cold.

THE SECRET OF PEACE

The Secret of Peace

Read: 2 Thessalonians 3:16–18
Bible in a Year: 2 Samuel 16–18; Luke 17:20–37

The Lord of peace himself give you peace.—2 Thessalonians 3:16

Grace is a very special lady. One word comes to mind when I think of her: peace. The quiet and restful expression on her face has seldom changed in the six months I have known her, even though her husband was diagnosed with a rare disease and then hospitalized.

When I asked Grace the secret of her peace, she said, “It’s not a secret, it’s a person. It’s Jesus in me. There is no other way I can explain the quietness I feel in the midst of this storm.”

The secret of peace is our relationship to Jesus Christ. He is our peace. When Jesus is our Savior and Lord, and as we become more like Him, peace becomes real. Things like sickness, financial difficulties, or danger may be present, but peace reassures us that God holds our lives in His hands (Daniel 5:23), and we can trust that things will work together for good.

Have we experienced this peace that goes beyond logic and understanding? Do we have the inner confidence that God is in control? My wish for all of us today echoes the words of the apostle Paul: “May the Lord of peace himself give you peace.” And may we feel this peace “at all times and in every way” (2 Thessalonians 3:16). —Keila Ochoa

Dear Lord, please give us Your peace at all times and in every situation.

To trust in Jesus is peace.

INSIGHT: Paul, Silas, and Timothy were the first to share the gospel in Thessalonica. The response to the gospel of free grace in Christ was remarkably positive (Acts 17:1-4), but—as is often the case—the positive response to the gospel was accompanied by opposition and persecution (Acts 17:5-6; 1 Thessalonians 1:6; 2:2). Thus Paul was forced to leave the city of Thessalonica sooner than he had hoped (Acts 17:9-10). His concern for the new congregation there motivated him to write two inspired letters to that young church. As he completed his second letter, Paul stressed the peace that only Jesus Christ can offer (2 Thessalonians 3:16). The apostle was no stranger to trials, yet his confidence that everything would work out in God’s sovereignty gave him a deep, abiding peace that he wanted other believers to experience. The Prince of Peace is the source of the believer’s spiritual rest.

For further study on experiencing peace in the midst of trials see Navigating the Storms of Life at discoveryseries.org/hp061. Dennis Fisher

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ANYWHERE

Anywhere

Read: Jeremiah 2:1–8; 3:14–15
Bible in a Year: 2 Samuel 12–13; Luke 16

I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness.—Jeremiah 2:2

As I flipped through a box of my old wedding photographs, my fingers stopped at a picture of my husband and me, newly christened “Mr. and Mrs.” My dedication to him was obvious in my expression. I would go anywhere with him.

Nearly four decades later, our marriage is tightly threaded with love and a commitment that has carried us through both hard and good times. Year after year, I’ve recommitted my dedication to go anywhere with him.

In Jeremiah 2:2, God yearns for His beloved but wayward Israel, “I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me.” The Hebrew word for devotion conveys the highest loyalty and commitment possible. At first, Israel expressed this unwavering devotion to God, but gradually she turned away.

Despite the undeniably powerful feelings in the early stages of commitment, complacency can dull the sharp edge of love and a lack of zeal can lead to unfaithfulness. We know the importance of fighting against such a lag in our marriages. What about the fervor of our love relationship with God? Are we as devoted to Him now as we were when we first came to faith?

God faithfully allows His people to return (3:14-15). Today we can renew our vows to follow Him—anywhere. —Elisa Morgan Author

Dear God, help me to keep the promises I’ve made to You. I will follow You anywhere.

You don’t need to know where you’re going if you know God is leading.

INSIGHT: Jeremiah is sometimes known as the weeping prophet. He’s saddened by the messages God has asked him to take to the people of Israel. In essence, the Lord is asking the people of Jerusalem, “Why don’t you love me like you once did?”

Sometimes familiarity can create complacency. What can we do to keep our flame of passion for the Lord burning bright?
—J.R. Hudberg

POWER OUTAGE

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

OUR DAILY BREAD DEVOTIONS

POWER OUTAGE

Read:  2 Timothy 1:6-12

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love

and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7

The silence awakened me at 5:30 one morning.  There was no gentle whir of fan blades, no reassuring hum from the refrigerator downstairs.  A glance out the window confirmed that a power outage had left everyone in our neighborhood without electricity just as they would be preparing for work.

I realized that alarm clocks would not sound, and there would be no TV news.  Coffee makers, toasters, hair dryers, and many telephones would be useless.  Beginning a day without power was simply an inconvenience and a disruption of routine-but it felt like a disaster.

Then I thought of how often I rush into the day without spiritual power.  I spend more time reading the newspaper than the Bible.  Talk radio replaces listening to the Spirit.  I react to difficult people and circumstances in a spirit of fear rather than the spirit of “power and of love and of a sound mind” that God has given us (2 Timothy 1:7).  I must appear as spiritually unkempt as a person who dressed and groomed in the dark.

Our power outage was short-lived, but the lesson remains of my need to begin each day by seeking the Lord.  His strength is not for my success or well-being, but so that I will glorify Christ by living in His power. DCM

There’s never a lack of God’s power

In prayer and reading His Word,

For Jesus in heaven is listening-

Your prayer will always be heard. -Hess

The human spirit fails us unless the Holy Spirit fills us.