2/20/2026 | Honesty
May God love us powerfully today as we make space to be more honest with him and ourselves.
As we continue our week focusing on honesty, today we’re going to look at how true honesty affords us the ability to be more fully loved. At the foundation of it all, we’re all searching for love. And the fullness of love can only be experienced when we allow true love to find its way into every part of us by bringing who we fully are into our relationships. May God love us powerfully today as we make space to be more honest with him and ourselves.
Isaiah 54:10 ESV
The ultimate result of honesty—the reason for being fully known—is that we might be fully loved. You weren’t made to live without a continuous, total revelation of God’s love for you. His love is the foundation. It’s the reason for being. Without his love we have nothing. And without honesty we’ll never fully experience his vast wealth of affection for us.
Isaiah 54:10 is God’s promise for you and me today. He says to us, “For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you.” The question today is not whether God loves us. And the question is not whether we have the ability to experience his love. Scripture commands us in Psalm 34:8, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!” The question is whether we’re receiving the love already made available to us.
You see, unless we come before God fully honest we only present part of ourselves for him to love. Unless we let him in to every area of our lives, we’ll live with a separated notion of God’s love. Most of us know that he loves us when we worship. We know he loves us when we serve. We’ve experienced his love when we engage in community, read Scripture, and pray. But do we know he loves us when we fail? Do we know he loves us when we say the wrong thing, doubt him, miss an opportunity to share the gospel, or run away from him?
God doesn’t just love us part of the time. He doesn’t just love us when we succeed. His love is complete and transcendent of us. He is love. He loves all the time. Romans 5:8 says, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God has loved you at your worst. If he loved you enough to die for you while you were without one ounce of good, he will love you now.
If you want to experience the full depth of God’s love for you, you must come to him fully. You must let him in to every part of your day. You must let him in to your past, your present, and your future. You must live out of a revelation of his unconditional love for you rather than living a works-based relationship with him.
May you encounter the fullness of God’s love for you today as you enter into guided prayer. And may his love for you draw you deeper into the unhindered communion that’s already available to you.
1. Meditate on the unconditional nature of God’s love. Allow Scripture to paint the picture of who God is rather than our limited, worldly perspective.
2. Come before God and be fully known. Open every part of your heart to him. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal how God wants to love you today. Journal his response.
“But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.” 1 Corinthians 8:3
3. Take some time to simply receive and rest in God’s love. Experience the unconditional nature of his love. Let his love lead you to a life founded on grace rather than works.
To live by grace is to choose to believe God at his word. It’s choosing to live based on Scripture over everything we’ve known from the world. Grace isn’t found here. It’s a product of heaven alone. But God has ransomed us from a life based on the ways of the world. We belong to heaven now. And we have so much more available to us than the world offers. We are totally and fully loved regardless of our weaknesses and failures. May you live out of a revelation of grace and receive God’s love in every part of your day.
Extended Reading: Romans 8 or watch The Bible Project’s video on Romans 5-16.
May you live out of a revelation of grace and receive God’s love in every part of your day.
]]>2/19/2026 | Honesty
May God replace fear with faith today as we experience his grace and love right now.
As we hit the middle of our week on honesty, today we’re going to explore how being truly honest, or living fully known, is critical to experiencing fullness of life. There may be nothing more terrifying to me than being fully known, but I also know there is nothing more liberating than being my full self with those closest to me. May God replace fear with faith today as we experience his grace and love right now.
1 Corinthians 8:3 ESV
While we absolutely serve an all-knowing, omnipotent, omnipresent God, there is a stark difference between God’s knowledge of everything and allowing ourselves to be known by him. To be known by God is a two-way street. It’s a conscious decision to open our hearts to this all-knowing God that we might experience him in even the deepest, most secret places of our lives. Galatians 4:8-9 says,
Being known by God is the birthplace of freedom. When we allow our Creator and Savior to truly know us he brings with him all his power, love, and deliverance. Only when we allow him to know the wounds of our past do we position ourselves to receive his healing. Only when we discover that he cries, mourns, laughs, and celebrates with us will our hearts be founded on the reality of true relationship with him.
Your God doesn’t just want to teach you, lead you, empower you, or use you—he wants to know you. You don’t have to go through this life on your own. You don’t have to process decisions, pains, relationships, or doubts on your own. You can be known by your Creator and know him. Unhindered relationship with your perfect, loving Father can be your source.
It is entirely possible to go through this life as a believer without letting God fully know you. As tragic as it may be, many Christians do it every day. We live as if God is distant from us. We live as if we don’t have full access to his heart, will, love, and presence in the Holy Spirit. We live as if all Christ came to do was give us a “get out of Hell free card” rather than restore us to right relationship with the Father. And when you live fully known by God you will experience a love more sure, more real, and more transcendent than any love you’ve experienced.
Take time as you enter into guided prayer to truly let God know you. Open up the secret places of your heart. Tell him about your insecurities, fears, doubts, and wounds. May you find a deeper level of intimacy with your loving Father than you thought possible.
1. Meditate on the importance of being known by God.
2. Are you living your life known? Or are you hiding pieces of your life from your heavenly Father?
3. Tell God about anything in your life that’s stayed in the dark. Bring it to the light with him. Allow him to fully know you. And experience powerful freedom as he reveals the depths of his love for you.
“The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts.” Proverbs 20:27
Ephesians 5:8 says, “For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” You can live with confidence and joy today. When you are fully known by God and still fully accepted and loved, your heart is unshakable. God will not reject you. He has loved you at your worst. Trust in him today and experience life in the light of his presence.
Extended Reading: 1 Corinthians 13 or watch The Bible Project’s video on 1 Corinthians.
God will not reject you. He has loved you at your worst. Trust in him today and experience life in the light of his presence.
]]>2/18/2026 | Honesty
Let’s come before God today with courage, trust, and humility.
In today’s First15, we’re continuing our focus on honesty by looking at how we can tear down walls we’ve built up in God’s presence every day. There is true life in vulnerability. And if we can trust God to be our shield, living with openness and love towards him, ourselves, and others, we’ll experience a greater abundance of life than we thought was possible. Let’s come before God today with courage, trust, and humility.
“I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.”
Acts 24:16 ESV
In order to protect our hearts from the pain and wounds of the world we both consciously and subconsciously build walls. These walls take all sorts of forms. Some walls are built for appearance so that outward beauty covers up inward brokenness. Some walls are built to be strong and tough so that pride and strength cover up inward vulnerability and self-consciousness. Some walls are built in order to blend in so that people pass us by altogether and never try to know us. Whatever wall we choose to build, one thing’s for certain: the walls might guard us from harm, but they also keep us from ever experiencing true life.
Abundant life comes from being both fully known and then fully loved. We can’t experience the love of God and others if we don’t allow ourselves to be known. We can’t experience God’s grace and affection for us if we shield ourselves from him out of fear that he will see us and reject us. And whenever someone tries to love us fully we will always reject their love by saying, “If you truly knew me, you wouldn’t love me.” Living with walls up isn’t really living; it’s surviving.
God knows our pains. He knows our wounds. Psalm 34:18 says, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” God is for you. He longs to be near to you and save you. But in order for you to experience the fullness of his love and healing you have to let him in. And in order for you to experience true life you have to stop trusting in your walls to protect you and start trusting in the powerful, capable hands of your loving Father.
In Psalm 57:7 David writes, “My heart is confident in you, O God; my heart is confident” (NLT). God is the one who protects our hearts. There is nothing we can do to fully shield ourselves from the wounds this world causes except allow our hearts to be fully open to God. Only in God can we have confidence. Only in God can we trust. And only in God will we experience true, abundant life.
Take time today to tear down your walls brick by brick. Stop placing your hope in that which can’t ever truly protect you. And look to God as your great protector that you might be fully known and fully loved today. May your time of guided prayer be marked by freedom and deliverance in the Holy Spirit.
1. Meditate on the importance of living without walls up.
“I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.” Acts 24:16
2. Where do you place your hope for protection? What walls have you built that you might not be truly known? In what ways are you guarding yourself?
3. Confess to God any places you’ve given your trust, and place your hope for protection in him alone. Journal about any walls you’ve built up and respond to God’s promise of nearness and healing by giving him your heart.
“My heart is confident in you, O God; my heart is confident.” Psalm 57:7 (NLT)
It’s important to take note when you begin to build walls around your heart. Run to God when you feel insecure. Rather than building up walls that have to be torn down again, seek to live openly and honestly. May you feel God’s hand of protection around your heart today.
Extended Reading: Psalm 57 or watch The Bible Project’s video on Psalms.
May you feel God’s hand of protection around your heart today.
]]>2/17/2026 | Honesty
May God show you how loved you are, just as you are. And may his love bring you freedom and life as we rest in his presence right now.
In day two of our series on honesty, today we’re going to look at the temptation to build a façade and invite God to tear it down as we seek to live more honestly. May God show you how loved you are, just as you are. And may his love bring you freedom and life as we rest in his presence right now.
Matthew 23:27 ESV
The greatest testimony you could possibly give is to have the audacity to live honestly. It takes courage to be yourself. It takes security in the unconditional love of your heavenly Father to acknowledge not just your strengths and successes, but also your weaknesses and failures. But in doing so your life will proclaim the powerful, beautiful work of God. And in doing so you will experience the peace and joy only freedom from building a facade can produce.
A facade is “an outward appearance that is maintained to conceal a less pleasant or creditable reality.” So often, to cover up what we know to be imperfect we devote ourselves to creating a false picture for others. We even devote so much energy to building a facade that we try and deceive ourselves. We muster up our pride and look only at what we’ve done well, all the while ignoring what we need help with. As a result, we spend all our time living a life apart from reality. And to live apart from reality is to live apart from the grace and love of our ever-present, wholly real Father.
In Matthew 23:27, Jesus passionately rebukes those who try and build facades: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.” God solely cares about the heart. He’s not worried about perception. He’s not worried about status or societal acceptance. He cares about what is real. He knows that any energy spent devoted to building a facade is energy you can’t devote to receiving help, healing, and grace for what’s real and important. He knows that all your efforts to be accepted aren’t of value because the opinions of others are nothing in comparison to his unconditional love for you. And he knows that ultimately all facades will be torn down, and we will be seen and known by him for who we truly are.
God longs for you to live fully known and fully loved. He longs for you to live out a revelation of his love and grace rather than striving for affection and acceptance by building up facades. Take time to experience his love and grace today. Assess your heart and tear down your walls. May freedom burst forth in your life today as you proclaim the glory of God’s grace by being who you really are.
1. Reflect on the importance of living in reality. Allow Jesus’ words to stir up your desire to tear down any facade you’ve built up.
2. Where are you striving for acceptance or affection by building up facades? Where are you portraying yourself to be something you aren’t? Why are you doing it?
3. Ask the Holy Spirit for the courage to be yourself today. Tell others of your weaknesses today. Don’t be afraid to be yourself with all your strengths, successes, weaknesses, and failures.
May God’s grace and love empower you today as you live honestly. May you stop devoting your energy to appearances and give yourself to what’s real. And in doing so may you encounter the unconditional acceptance and affection of your loving Father.
Extended Reading: Matthew 23 or watch The Bible Project’s video on Matthew 14-28.
May God’s grace and love empower you today as you live honestly.
]]>2/16/2026 | Honesty
May God give us the courage to be who we truly are with him, with ourselves, and with others today. And may newfound freedom be the fruit in our hearts and lives.
Today we’re launching a brand-new series, looking at the role of honesty in getting the most out of our time alone with God, and the most out of life. And we’re starting that series off by looking today at how honesty is the foundation. May God give us the courage to be who we truly are with him, with ourselves, and with others today. And may newfound freedom be the fruit in our hearts and lives.
1 Peter 3:10 ESV
Deciding to live openly and honestly is foundational to experiencing fullness of life in God. God doesn’t deal with our facades. He doesn’t speak to, love on, heal, deliver, or empower the fake self we try and portray. Rather, he faithfully pursues who we really are, drawing us out from the walls we’ve built up around our hearts.
1 Peter 3:10 says, “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.” When the Bible talks about honesty, it isn’t just talking about God’s heart for us not to speak lies, but also that we wouldn’t believe or live out lies. In living honestly we will love life and see good days. Nothing good comes from being dishonest. There is no life in trying to appear as something we’re not. Abundant life comes with communion with God, and God always meets us where we’re at.
Assess your life today. Are you living honestly? Are you trying to portray yourself as something you’re not? Are you deceiving yourself or looking at yourself honestly? Are you coming before God just as you are or trying to appear like you have everything together?
Honesty is at the foundation of encountering God, loving others, experiencing abundant life, and doing good, eternal works. Everything God does is about the heart. He’s about that which has substance, that which is real. He’s not calling you to share your “picture-perfect” life with others. He’s calling you to be vulnerable with others that they would see the unconditional, grace-filled nature of relationship with God. He’s not asking you to clean yourself up before you worship him or meet with him. He’s asking you to come as you are that he might reveal the love he already has for you, even in your imperfections.
Take time to make honesty a core value in your life. Reflect on the importance of being open and vulnerable. Allow the Spirit to illuminate any ways in which you are valuing appearance above reality. And choose today to be who you truly are. May you find new peace and joy today as you remove the pressure of appearance.
1. Meditate on the importance of honesty. May Scripture help you make honesty a core value.
“For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7
2. Assess your heart. In what ways do you value appearance above reality? Where are you working to try and appear as something you’re not. Ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate any ways in which you need to live more honestly.
3. Ask God to reveal his love for you even in your imperfections. Allow his love to fill you with the courage to be honest today. Rest in his unconditional love for you.
“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
The only confidence available to us to live honestly is the unconditional love of God. Christ died for you while you were in your sin. He gave his life just to have relationship with you just as you are. Choose to receive his love. Choose to value his opinion over others’ opinions. Let his love be your source over the fickle affections of people. May you find courage to be yourself today and thereby experience true freedom in your heart.
Extended Reading: 1 Peter 3 or watch The Bible Project’s video on 1 Peter.
May you find courage to be yourself today and thereby experience true freedom in your heart.
]]>2/15/2026 | God is After the Heart
May God use our time today to empower us to advance his kingdom in meaningful, authentic ways.
In the last devotional of this series on God’s pursuit of our hearts, we’re wrapping it all up by looking at what it means to live from the heart. There are so many places to live from, so many different ways to go about a day. But God, in his power and love, wants to free us to live from the heart, to share with the world who we truly are, and how he is fully meeting with us. May God use our time today to empower us to advance his kingdom in meaningful, authentic ways.
“Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.”
Psalm 62:8 ESV
God has formed us to be creatures of the heart. He made us to live from a place of communion with him—an eternal relationship with our hearts deeply connected. And in response to the communion you have with God you can choose to live from your heart. You can choose with confidence to think, feel, act, and believe not just with what’s logical, but with what God’s Spirit is speaking to you.
Oftentimes we disclude our hearts as if they are unfounded and fickle. We stop paying attention to our emotions because we doubt their validity and value. But God formed you with emotions. And it’s oftentimes your emotions that best reveal your beliefs. You don’t feel stress, worry, doubt, or anger without cause. You don’t experience joy, peace, passion, and purpose for no reason. Your heart is the window to your beliefs. It reveals where you’ve placed your trust and hope. It reveals what truly matters to you.
Psalm 62:8 says, “Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.” God longs to hear your heart. He longs for you to so trust him that you honestly and truthfully assess your heart and pour it out before him. He cares about the way you feel. He’s not all right with you going through life stressed, angry, doubtful, worried, or unconfident. He wants your heart to be filled with the fruit of communion with him that you might live an expressive, passionate, and satisfied life.
Acknowledging your emotions isn’t weakness. Rather, it’s a sign of confidence and security that you can take an honest look at your life and assess how you’re doing. Living from the heart is a crucial aspect to authentic, abundant Christianity. God doesn’t want robots. He doesn’t just want to influence our minds or just make us work for him. He wants all of us. He wants your mind to be renewed and your hands to be set to good work from a place of wonderful, life-giving communion with him.
Take time as you enter into guided prayer to value your heart. Assess how you’ve been feeling. Pour out your heart to your loving, patient, and understanding heavenly Father. And go out today in confidence that you might live openly, receptively, and passionately.
1. Meditate on the importance of living from the heart.
“Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.” Psalm 62:8
2. Assess how you’ve been feeling. What’s been bringing you life? What’s been causing you stress, anger, or frustration. What do your emotions tell you?
3. Pour out your heart to God on paper. Ask the Holy Spirit for revelation about anything you don’t understand. Write down his responses.
Oftentimes, if we will begin our quiet time by assessing our emotions we’ll be able to go deeper with God quicker. God longs for our time spent with him to be open, vulnerable, and honest. He longs to help us with those things that are truly robbing us of abundant life. And because emotions are often windows into our beliefs they are a great way to assess where we need a fresh revelation of what’s true. May your life be filled with the fruit of the Spirit today as you choose to live from the heart.
Extended Reading: Psalm 62 or watch The Bible Project’s video on Psalms.
May your life be filled with the fruit of the Spirit today as you choose to live from the heart.
]]>2/14/2026 | God is After the Heart
May he come and meet us right now, and reveal God’s love in a fresh way.
As we near the end of our week looking at how God is after our hearts, today we’re going to look at how the Holy Spirit connects with the heart, and take time to today to invite the Holy Spirit to do a meaningful work in and through us. There’s no greater gift God gives every day than the gift of relationship with him through the Spirit. May he come and meet us right now, and reveal God’s love in a fresh way.
1 Corinthians 6:19 ESV
Abundant life is given in the communion of the Spirit and the heart. It’s our hearts the Spirit speaks to. It’s our hearts he fills with love, joy, peace, and hope. It’s our hearts in which he dwells. To acknowledge the communion between the Spirit and the heart is to open ourselves to the wellspring of life abundant. And to live seeking a greater awareness of the union that was formed in us with the Spirit at salvation is to position ourselves to receive all that God longs to give us.
1 Corinthians 6:19–20 says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.” Scripture tells us of a greater level of communion with God than we are right now experiencing. Scripture tells us that when Jesus died God tore the veil in two from top to bottom. Prior to Jesus’ death, God’s glory had to be contained within the temple. Now through the sacrifice of Jesus we have become the temple of God. We now have union with our Creator in the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 6:17 says, “But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.” Romans 8:9 says, “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.” To say that God dwells in our hearts isn’t just a figure of speech. If you are a believer, you have been sealed and filled with the Holy Spirit. You have constant communion with God. All that’s left is to grow in your understanding of this wonderful, supernatural union you have with your Heavenly Father.
The Spirit longs to reveal how near he is to you. He longs to make you more aware of his manifest presence. He longs to lead you, speak to you, fill you, satisfy you, heal you, set you free, and empower you. He longs for your heart to find freedom and security in him. He longs to be your best friend, companion, and teacher.
Take time today as you enter into guided prayer to gain a greater revelation of God’s nearness. Ask him to reveal himself to you that you might know to greater depths how unified you are with him. May your time be filled with a greater measure of God’s presence and love.
1. Meditate on what Scripture says about the Spirit and the heart. Reflect on the communion you already have available to you with the Holy Spirit.
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
2. Ask the Holy Spirit for a greater revelation of his nearness. Open your heart to God and receive his presence. Take notice of how close he is to your heart.
3. Rest in the presence of God. Allow a revelation of his nearness to establish within you a new reality founded on God’s manifest presence.
Allow the Spirit to permeate everything you do today. Seek to live in constant awareness of his presence and love. You don’t have to strive to be with God. You don’t have to strive to encounter him. He is already with you. He is already in you. All that’s left is for you to simply open your heart to him moment by moment. Don’t live as if God is separate from you. Don’t talk to him or worship him as if he is distant. Rather, live in light of Scripture and experience all the abundant life he has for you in his nearness. May your life be changed by the powerful, constant, unfailing, and wholly satisfying presence of God.
“In your presence there is fullness of joy.” Psalm 16:11
Extended Reading: 1 Corinthians 6 or watch The Bible Project’s video on 1 Corinthians.
May your life be changed by the powerful, constant, unfailing, and wholly satisfying presence of God.
]]>2/13/2026 | God is After the Heart
As we open our hearts to his loving pursuit today, I pray that God would do a mighty work of freedom in our hearts.
In today’s First15, we’re going to look at the opportunity God gives us every day to simply be who we are. His pursuit of our hearts frees us as we experience his unconditional, all-encompassing love. So as we open our hearts to his loving pursuit today, I pray that God would do a mighty work of freedom in our hearts.
“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.”
Psalm 139:13 ESV
God will never ask you to be anyone other than who you are. He’s not asking you to be just like other believers. He’s not asking you to copy those around you that seem to be well-liked or accepted. So often we view God as a parent who spends all his efforts trying to fix us on the outside that we might keep up appearances. But it couldn’t be more the opposite. God doesn’t spend time trying to cover up who we are. Rather, he devotes himself to uncovering who we truly are—who he made us to be.
Psalm 139:13 says, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” God formed you wonderfully and uniquely. He gave you a personality and calling all your own. He sees past all the exteriors we create to try and fit in. He sees through all our efforts to cover up what makes us unique and different. He sees us for who we really are. And he is calling us to cast down our facades and live out of the revelation that we are already, right now, fully loved and accepted by our Creator.
Discovering your identity begins with a journey with God to your heart. If you’re wondering who you truly are, you need not look past yourself, but rather, with the Holy Spirit, take an honest look at yourself. Don’t shy away from your insecurities. Don’t shy away from that which makes you different. Allow God to reveal how he sees you. Allow him to reveal to you the true desires of your heart. And allow him to lay a secure foundation for you built on his unconditional love that you might live vulnerably and honestly.
Allow God to fill you with the courage to be yourself today. Stop trying to change yourself to fit in to the expectations of others. And live with your identity and value securely founded in the love of your heavenly Father.
Spend some time in guided prayer looking at your heart with the Holy Spirit. Allow him to reveal how he sees you. Ask him how he has formed you and made you unique. And allow him to empower you to be yourself today. May your time in guided prayer be filled with freedom and courage as you cease striving to be someone that you’re not.
1. Meditate on God’s call for you to be who you are. Allow Scripture to fill you with a desire to live honestly.
“As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man.” Proverbs 27:19
2. In what ways are you striving to be someone you’re not? How are you seeking to keep up appearances rather than live honestly?
3. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal how he sees you. Ask him to fill you with courage to cast down any facades and be who you truly are.
Matthew 6:21 says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” If you choose to place value and identity on what God says about you, then your heart will find freedom that transcends the ways and cares of the world. Treasure what God says about you. Store up his words and truth over you. Let them be your source of hope and life. May your heart be with your loving, kind heavenly Father as you seek to find freedom to live as you truly are today.
Extended Reading: Matthew 6 or watch The Bible Project’s video on Matthew 1-13.
May your heart be with your loving, kind heavenly Father as you seek to find freedom to live as you truly are today.
]]>2/12/2026 | God is After the Heart
May he fills us with courage and grace today as we experience his nearness together.
In the middle of our week looking at how God is after our hearts, in today’s devotional we’re going to focus on what it means to live with an open heart. Every day, every moment is an opportunity to live with an open heart, or to live with walls up around our hearts. And God’s pursuit of us, his steadfast love, affords us a pathway to open ourselves with confidence and security. May he fills us with courage and grace today as we experience his nearness together.
“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”
Proverbs 4:23 ESV
In order to experience all the fullness of life God has in store for us we must live with an open heart. Oftentimes, whether it be from wounds or simply bad teaching, we live closed off and self-focused. We go throughout our days with walls up around our hearts and rarely allow ourselves to receive the reality of God’s nearness moment to moment. But God is calling us deeper. He’s calling us to a lifestyle of encountering him. He’s calling us to tear down the walls we’ve built up and trust that living openly and receptively will bear life, peace, and joy.
John 15:4 says, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” God longs to be with you. He longs to speak to you, guide you, pour out his love on you, and remain with you throughout your day. He’s not just a God of Sundays. His presence isn’t only available at conferences, worship services, or monasteries. He is God of every moment. He is Lord of all eternity. And he longs to give you good gifts all the time. He longs to bear wonderful, life-giving fruit in you. But you must be willing to abide in him. You must receive all he has to give.
Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” Life comes from the heart both physically and spiritually. Just as the heart pumps blood out to the rest of your body, your heart pumps out spiritual life. Your heart is the place where God is constantly speaking. Your heart is what he cares about. It’s not enough to just give him your mind for understanding or your hands for good works; he wants you at your core. He wants your life to be wrapped up in his.
Take time today to open your heart to your loving heavenly Father. Look for any walls you’ve built up around your heart. Stop believing any lies or misconceptions that would keep you from experiencing God’s love moment to moment. May your time in guided prayer be filled with new life as your heart is open and receptive to the freedom of God’s presence.
1. Meditate on the importance of having an open and receptive heart to God.
“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” Proverbs 4:23
2. Do you have any walls up between you and God? Are you living at times as if he isn’t with you? Are you fully open and receptive to the things of God throughout your day?
3. Cast down any walls you’ve built up at the feet of Jesus and open your heart to him. Receive a revelation of his nearness and spend some time simply resting in his presence. Ask him to give you eyes to see all the good gifts he has given you today.
God is constantly blessing us. He constantly has good gifts to give us. James 1:17 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” God longs to demonstrate his love to you by giving you good and perfect gifts. Cultivate a lifestyle of noticing and receiving God’s blessings. Look for all the ways he is providing for you and give thanks to him. Live your whole life in light of the reality of his nearness and experience all his goodness throughout your day. May you be filled with abundant blessings as you seek to live with an open heart.
Extended Reading: Matthew 12 or watch The Bible Project’s video on Matthew 1-13.
May you be filled with abundant blessings as you seek to live with an open heart.
]]>2/11/2026 | God is After the Heart
May God call out from within us who he’s truly made us to be as we draw near to him in his presence.
In our third devotional discovering the reality that God is after our hearts, today we’re going to look at how our hearts reveal our identity. May God call out from within us who he’s truly made us to be as we draw near to him in his presence.
Isaiah 43:1 ESV
Many of us spend our entire lives just trying to answer one simple question: “Who am I?” We look to our accolades and our strengths and weaknesses to define us. We look to other people to determine who it is we are. We allow circumstances and open or closed doors to tell us who we’re supposed to be. We look everywhere but to the One who actually knows the true answer.
But God says to you and me, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1). 1 John 3:1 says, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” And in Ephesians 2:19, scripture says, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.”
We need a renewing of our identity. We need to look at the word of God and choose to believe that we truly are who he says we are entirely. We need to let our Creator define the identity of his creation. You serve a God who has called you his child. Regardless of anything you’ve done well or poorly, regardless of your successes or failures, you are first and foremost the redeemed child of the Most High God. It’s time to anchor your identity to the unshakable truth of Scripture.
You see, it’s not enough just to know what Scripture says. It’s not enough to be able to recite verses like, “we should be called the children of God; and so we are.” Until in your heart of hearts you believe the truth of Scripture, you will base your entire life on whatever it is you value most. If you value the opinion of man over God’s word, your identity will be founded on the fleeting and fickle opinions of others. If you look to your circumstances to define you, then your identity will change with the passing of seasons. But if the identity you believe in your heart is founded on God’s truth, then your self-worth, perspectives, decisions, and beliefs will be unshakable and yield abundant life.
Take time today to assess your own heart. Look honestly at your beliefs. Where are you looking for your identity? Place your trust in the truth of God’s word that the identity of your heart would come from your loving Creator. May your time in guided prayer be marked by a powerful revelation of truth.
1. Meditate on the truth of your identity.
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine” Isaiah 43:1
2. What are you allowing to define you? What, in your heart of hearts, do you value above the truth of Scripture?
3. Ask the Holy Spirit for a heart-level revelation of who you are in Christ. Open your heart to God that he might reveal to you the truth of his perspective. Align your beliefs with the truth of Scripture.
It’s absolutely critical to take an honest assessment of your heart when it comes to your identity. Don’t let going to church, talking about Scripture, or even spending time reading God’s word be enough. Take a look at what is actually sinking into your heart and changing your life. Don’t rest until your life—your emotions, actions, and beliefs—align with God’s truth. May you be energized and renewed to seek out the fullness of life God has in store for you.
Extended Reading: Psalm 139 or watch The Bible Project’s video on Psalms.
May you be energized and renewed to seek out the fullness of life God has in store for you.
]]>2/10/2026 | God is After the Heart
May God reveal his purpose behind our creation today, and may he make central to our lives his pursuit and love in a fresh way.
In our second devotional seeking to discover God’s pursuit of our hearts, today we’re going to spend time looking at our true purpose, why you and I were created. Every day, every moment is an opportunity to choose the purpose for which we’re living. But only living in line with our true purpose has the power to produce an abundant life. May God reveal his purpose behind our creation today, and may he make central to our lives his pursuit and love in a fresh way.
Jeremiah 24:7 ESV
We were made for relationship with our heavenly Father. We were made to know and be known by him. That one fact is meant to define both our identity and our actions. It’s meant to lay the foundation on which we live, think, feel, and do. And it’s only in living in relationship with God as our chief and central pursuit that our lives reflect his unceasing love and devotion.
For a long time I’ve lived with wrong things at the center of my life. I’ve allowed earthly success, admiration of others, identity in my works, and an image of perfection to be the things that drove me moment by moment. And in those pursuits I only found disappointment, exhaustion, and unfulfilled longings. Even within the context of Christianity there is temptation to be led by that which is worldly, that which will never satisfy.
But in God there is another way. In the love of a grace-filled heavenly Father we can cease striving and start enjoying life founded on relationship with our Creator. Jeremiah 24:7 says, “I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.” Within each of us is a longing to ground ourselves in our identity as the people of God. We are created to live out of the powerful knowledge that our God is real, knowable, loves us unconditionally, and has made his nearness wholly available to us.
You were made to live with the knowledge of God’s love in every season. You were made to taste and see that your heavenly Father is good. You were made to live in constant communion with your Creator, that every moment would be filled with the abundance of his presence. God has life for you. He has love for you. And he won’t rest until the entirety of your heart is his. God’s love is entirely jealous while at the same time wholly sacrificial.
Give God your heart today. Center your life around relationship with him. Root and ground yourself in his unceasing love and faithfulness. May your life be forever changed as you set your eyes on the author and perfecter of your faith (Hebrews 12:2).
1. Meditate on the truth that you were made for relationship with God. Allow Scripture to stir up a desire to center your life around God’s unconditional love.
2. What are you valuing above relationship with your heavenly Father? What are you spending all your energy on? What’s truly your greatest desire?
3. Tell God anything that you have valued above relationship with him. Know that his heart is not to condemn, but to set free and give abundant life. He longs to fill you with vision for the way in which you can most enjoy him and the life he’s given you.
Oftentimes we look to the world to tell us what we should value over the Creator of the world. But in reality the world is a place filled with dissatisfaction and unrest. It’s a place where even the rich, successful, and most loved must strive and work constantly to fulfill a longing only God can satisfy. Look to the Creator of heaven and earth for truth. Look to Scripture to decide what to pursue and value. And place your hope in God’s promise of eternal, tangible satisfaction if you will center your life around relationship with him. May your heart find peace and rest in the always open arms of your loving Father.
Extended Reading: John 15 or watch The Bible Project’s video on John 13-21.
May your heart find peace and rest in the always open arms of your loving Father.
]]>2/9/2026 | God is After the Heart
May we openly accept his gaze today, with faith in our hearts that he always looks at us with grace.
In today’s First15 we’re beginning a brand new series, focusing on the fact that God is first and foremost, after our hearts. In a world that defines us by what we do, God looks at who we are. May we openly accept his gaze today, with faith in our hearts that he always looks at us with grace. And may his pursuit of our hearts stir up a pursuit within us of his heart, setting out every morning to experience the fullness of his love and compassion.
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”
Psalm 23:6 ESV
The foundation for our faith is not meant to be built on our works or our understanding, but rather on God’s relentless pursuit of us. We have relationship with our Creator not because we sought him out, but because he is always pursuing us. Any elements of Christian spirituality at work in our lives are the result of his constant grace drawing us deeper and deeper into the abundant life Jesus died to give us. Faith built on anything else but God’s pursuit is faith built on our own strength—an unsure and consistently failing foundation. Ephesians 1:16-18 says:
If we need a fresh understanding of God’s pursuit we need only to pray as Paul did: asking God to enlighten the eyes of our hearts. We need only to look to the pages of Scripture and see story after story of God pursuing those who rebelled against him. The entire book of Hosea describes the heart of God to pursue Israel in a real-life metaphor of Hosea pursuing Gomer, who time and time again left him to prostitute herself.
There is nothing we could do to keep God from pursuing us. There is no sin too great, no distance we could run, that would discourage God from loving us. From the moment you were born God has been pursuing your heart. His greatest longing is for relationship with us. Don’t let a wrong understanding of who God is cause your relationship with him to be works-based. Don’t let your sin and failures get in the way of running to the open arms of your heavenly Father.
God is after your heart right now. He’s sweetly knocking on the door of your heart that you might simply let him in. More than he wants you to do something for him today, he simply wants you to know he is with you and for you. Respond to God’s pursuit today by giving him your heart. May your time of guided prayer be marked by a revelation of his loving-kindness toward you.
1. Meditate on God’s relentless pursuit of your heart. Allow Scripture to lay the foundation for a relationship built on grace.
“Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life.” Psalm 23:6 (The Message)
2. Where has your relationship with the Father been founded on works rather than his pursuit? Where have you been trying to earn his affection? What parts of your heart have you withheld from him thinking he would reject you or chastise you?
3. Give God your whole heart in response to his great love and grace for you. Open the door of your heart to him and rest in a revelation of his loving-kindness.
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20
In Psalm 17:8 David prays, “Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.” May your pursuit of God be built on the truth that you are the apple of his eye. May your security be founded on the truth that he hides you in the shadow of his great wings. May your heart find peace, joy, and fulfillment today in the fact that God will never stop pursuing you.
Extended Reading: Psalm 23 or watch The Bible Project’s video on Psalms.
In Psalm 17:8 David prays, “Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.” May your pursuit of God be built on the truth that you are the apple of his eye. May your security be founded on the truth that he hides you in the shadow of his great wings. May your heart find peace, joy, and fulfillment today in the fact that God will never stop pursuing you.
]]>2/8/2026 | Abiding in the True Vine
May we be filled afresh with joy today as we seek these answers out.
As we end our week today on abiding in the True Vine, today we’ll explore how to abide in God’s promised joy. What does it mean for us to walk in joy and be people marked by joy in this world? How do we even go about doing that? May we be filled afresh with joy today as we seek these answers out.
“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
John 15:11 ESV
The kingdom of our God is one of joy, rejoicing, and gladness (Romans 14:17). Our heavenly Father is the one who throws a massive party for the prodigal returned home (Luke 15:11-32). He’s the God of the angels who rejoices over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:10). He’s the God who celebrates with us, sings over us, and rejoices in us (Zephaniah 3:17). And at the end of this age he will throw a wedding feast in celebration of the joy he has over total restored relationship with us, his bride (Revelation 19:6-9).
Scripture is clear that our God doesn’t desire to keep his joy to himself, but longs to fill us with it to overflowing. Toward the end of the John 15:1-17 passage we have been studying this week, Jesus says, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). God’s plan is to fill us with the fullness of joy that is grounded solely in him rather than the ever-changing circumstances around us. That’s why Galatians 5:22 tells us that, “The fruit of the Spirit is . . . joy.” Joy is meant to come from the Holy Spirit within us. It’s in relationship with God that we experience his abundant joy. Let’s go wholeheartedly into the heart of God today and find the reservoir of joy he longs to guide us to. Let’s be believers marked by the joy of our heavenly Father rather than the dissatisfaction we experience from the world.
So how do we experience the joy of God? How can the joy of Jesus be in us as he spoke of in John 15:11? Philippians 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.” As children of God we must rejoice in our heavenly Father above all else. There is always joy to be found when our highest priority is God. Our God is always turning what the enemy meant for evil into our good if we will choose to love him above all else (Romans 8:28). When we lean on God as the source of our contentment rather than the opinion of man or success in the world, we will have a sure foundation on which to experience joy. But, when our emotions change with the tides of the world, our joy will come and go like the waves. Ground yourself in God. Rejoice in the Lord always because he’s always worthy of rejoicing in. And in placing him first you will experience vast and unshakable joy.
To experience the fullness of joy God has for us we must also trust in his plans. Psalm 118:24 says, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Each day of our life was created by God. And while the world operates apart from his leadership, when we trust in him and allow him to work in and through us he takes circumstances that would normally harm us and turns them into miraculous examples of his unceasing love. Acts 16:25-26 tells us a story in which Paul and Silas exemplify a lifestyle of trusting in God. Scripture says, “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.” Paul and Silas knew that God can and will work in our lives when we place our trust in him. So they were able to praise and worship God in joy through any circumstance, and God did the miraculous. James describes this principle in James 1:2-4 when he writes, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” We can have joy in trial when we trust in God and live for him above all else.
You and I were not created solely for this world. Our home is with our heavenly Father in heaven. Unceasing joy comes from living with the perspective of God rather than the world. Rejoicing comes from trusting that our God is perfectly loving, perfectly real, and perfectly powerful. Spend time in God’s presence experiencing his joy. Allow the Spirit to bear the fruit of joy in your life. Trust in God alone to bring about all that he has planned for you and live your life on the unshakable foundation of his love and joy today.
1. Meditate on God’s desire to fill you with abounding joy.
“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” John 15:11
2. Reflect on your own life. Where are you not experiencing joy? What do you think is stealing your joy in those areas? Ask the Spirit to lead you into the fullness of joy in every area of your life. Trust him as he guides you into a life of faith and submission to God.
“Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” John 16:24
3. Receive the joy of Jesus. Rejoice in him. Rejoice in his plans for your day. Thank him for his love and desire to celebrate in you. Spend time resting in his joyful and peaceful presence.
“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24
Seek out the joy of your heavenly Father all day today. When you begin to feel down, burdened, or depressed, spend time rejoicing in God. Allow God to reveal to you his heart for situations in your life. Respond to hard times with celebration in the fact that God will turn what was meant for evil into good if you will commit yourself to his plans and purposes. God’s plan is to fill you with unceasing joy every day of your life. He longs to lay a foundation of his love for you every morning so that you can go out into your day filled with unshakable joy. May his promise in Isaiah 55:12 come to fruition in your life today:
Extended Reading: Isaiah 55 or watch The Bible Project’s video on Isaiah 40-66.
Seek out the joy of your heavenly Father all day today. When you begin to feel down, burdened, or depressed, spend time rejoicing in God. Allow God to reveal to you his heart for situations in your life.
]]>2/7/2026 | Abiding in the True Vine
Discipline can often be a tricky subject, but it’s my hope our hearts would remain soft and open today as we remember how good and loving the God is that we serve.
As we start to wrap up our week on different ways we are to abide in the true vine of God, today we’ll look at how God prunes us in his love. Discipline can often be a tricky subject, but it’s my hope our hearts would remain soft and open today as we remember how good and loving the God is that we serve.
John 15:2 ESV
The world teaches that discipline is about shaming us into acting perfectly. Discipline from the world usually comes from a place of selfishness rather than love, a pursuit of perfection rather than godliness, and intends to lead us to the appearance of morality rather than molding and shaping the heart. For this reason, we so often run away from the discipline of our heavenly Father. But, Hebrews 12:5-6 says, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” God loves us, so he disciplines us. He has such incredible plans for us that he must mold and shape us into children ready and equipped for authority, influence, and the power of the Spirit. His discipline is always intended to lead us to abundant life, not to tear us down or shame us. As we look at God’s desire to discipline us, allow his love to open your heart and lead you into the process of pruning intended solely to refine, help, and produce fruit in you.
John 15:2 says, “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” The only way for us to bear more fruit in God is to allow him to prune us. The pursuit and cares of the world are like weeds that crowd out and steal nourishment from the good, fruitful branches rooted in God. God’s plan is to prune, heal and transform us into children who live in the world but are not of it (John 17:14-19). He longs to tear down the strongholds of pride and sin that have kept us from experiencing the fullness of his promises. And he plans to lead us to a lifestyle of important and eternal fruit which will fill us with the fullness of joy.
So how do we allow God to prune us? How can we engage in his process of healing and transformation? It all starts with seeing the depth of his love for us. Psalm 103:2-4 says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.” God’s process of discipline is so different than the world’s because it is all rooted in his unconditional love for us. In order to consistently engage in his loving discipline, we must consistently encounter his love. We have to spend time with the all-loving heart of our heavenly Father to separate his discipline from the unloving discipline of so many of our earthly fathers. His discipline is always solely for our benefit and completely to our good. In order for us to fully give ourselves over to his discipline, we must have continual revelation of the depth of his love for us.
Next we have to choose his ways over the ways of the world. We have to sacrifice what we thought mattered for what he says matters. Romans 12:1 says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” His discipline will be painful because it will lead you to look different from the world you grew up in. He will take our living sacrifice of the world’s opinions and transform us into children who solely value his opinion. Most of us have valued the ways and opinions of the world so highly that living apart from them feels completely foreign and frightening. So we must choose to trust God over what we have understood to be important or valuable. God will lead all of us to a lifestyle of humility in opposition to the world’s values of pride and success. He will lead all of us to a lifestyle of loving others rather than getting all we can out of others. He will lead all of us to a lifestyle of dependence on him rather than self-empowerment. And he will most certainly lead all of us to a life of relationship with him as our highest priority over the opinions and friendship of others. Every piece of the pruning process is difficult. But, every time you agree with and follow the Holy Spirit through the process you will come out more satisfied, joyful, free, empowered, and fruitful than you were before. Hebrews 12:11 says, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” After you throw off the weight of the world you will wonder how you ever lived under its burden.
Engage with your loving heavenly Father in the process of pruning. Open your heart and allow him to tear down the walls that have been keeping you from experiencing the flood of abundant life and works he has planned for you. See his love and respond to it by sacrificing your ways of thinking and living. He has plans to heal, transform, and free you today if you will simply follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit through the pruning process.
1. Meditate on God’s desire to prune you. Reflect on how God’s discipline is always rooted in his love. Compare God’s desire to discipline you to the world’s. Separate his desire from other discipline you have received in the past if it wasn’t done with his heart.
2. Open you heart to the Spirit and ask him to tear away any parts of your life that are not bearing the fruit of God. Follow his leadership as you think about parts of your lifestyle that aren’t filled with the abundant life God desires. What does he want to change about your perspective, time or relationships? What is he asking you to do or give up so that you might live more free, empowered and fruitful? Take as much time to listen to the Spirit as you need.
3. Agree with his pruning and follow-through with whatever he is leading you to do. Make plans to cut out of your life anything he has revealed to you. Call a friend and ask for accountability to hold you to the discipline God has for you. Commit to engaging in the process of discipline on an ongoing basis so that God can continually transform any areas of your life that are hurting you rather than guiding you to abundant life in your heavenly Father.
One of the greatest gifts of the Holy Spirit we can receive is a desire to be disciplined and pruned by our heavenly Father. May we all have the heart of the Psalmist who wrote in Psalm 51:10-12,
Extended Reading: Hebrews 12 or watch The Bible Project’s video on Hebrews.
One of the greatest gifts of the Holy Spirit we can receive is a desire to be disciplined and pruned by our heavenly Father.
]]>2/6/2026 | Abiding in the True Vine
Make room in your heart and mind to rest in the love of your heavenly Father as we look at the different ways we are to abide in true vine of God.
Did you know God has plans for your life specifically? He has dreams for you and vision for you. Things in store that would make your heart swell and soar. What does it look like to live a life that brings God glory? How does abiding in Christ bear fruit in our lives? As we explore these concepts and more, may our hearts be open to God’s word and all he has to say.
John 15:16 ESV
You have been chosen and appointed to bear eternal and impactful fruit. John 15:16 says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.” God created all of us with a longing to make an important and lasting impact with the intention of satisfying that longing in him. He has a plan for your life that doesn’t belong to anyone else. You alone can accomplish the works set before you, and you won’t find true satisfaction until you do. Your heavenly Father has placed desires in you which he has plans to satisfy in magnificent and joyful ways. He knows for what purposes you were created and longs to lead you into a lifestyle of good works that will fill you with all the abundance of life available to you through Christ.
Ephesians 2:10 says, “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” You were created to live a lifestyle of good works. It is not outside of your nature to accomplish amazing things no matter how you’ve lived your life up to this point. God takes what the world has deemed broken and useless and transforms it into the very likeness of his son, Jesus. He has plans to transform you into his disciple: ready, equipped, and useful for every good and fruitful work. Believe today that God would use you and discover the wealth of plans he has set before you. Surrender to the truth that God has better plans than you can ask or imagine in store for you if you will follow him. Come before him with expectation today, ready to receive all the he would guide you to. Let’s dive wholeheartedly into God’s word and presence as we learn from him how to live the fruitful life he has appointed for us.
In order to bear the fruit God has set before us we must abide in him. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit without the nutrients the vine provides, we cannot bear fruit without being connected to our only source of true life, our heavenly Father. God leads us into the plans he has for us as we spend time in his presence and his word. Psalm 1:1-3 says,
It’s in God’s presence and word that we are molded, refined, and transformed. It’s only in spending time with him that we become nourished and ready to bear fruit. Just as a tree must be pruned in order to bear more fruit, we must allow God to tear away parts of our life that are keeping us from the good works he intends for us. We must spend time in God’s presence being fashioned, healed, and transformed.
In order to bear the fruit God intends, we must learn to allow the Spirit to work in and through us. God not only transforms us as we spend time with him and his word, but empowers us through the Holy Spirit to do good works we could never accomplish in our own strength. It’s only through God working in us that our weaknesses are turned into strengths so we can truly love one another. And it’s only through the Spirit that hearts are changed and drawn to our heavenly Father. God longs to give you his heart for people. He longs to empower you to speak and work with his authority. He longs to do works through you that can’t be explained except by his reality. If you will choose to humble yourself before God and allow him to work in and through you, you will begin to bear the very fruit of the Holy Spirit dwelling within you. The disciples had no great gifts or power on their own. It was only by the working of the Holy Spirit that Christianity exploded in size and influence and changed the world. Co-labor with the Holy Spirit in all that you do. Allow him to move and work in every part of your life and experience all the incredible ways he desires to use you to bring the kingdom of God to earth.
Spend time abiding in the true vine of God today. Open your heart and mind to his word. And allow the Holy Spirit to teach you how he desires to work in and through you. May the amazing plans God has for you bring peace, purpose, and joy to your life today.
1. Meditate on God’s desire to produce important and lasting fruit through your life.
2. Spend time in God’s presence allowing him to nourish and empower you for good works. Ask him to reveal what he has set before you to accomplish for his kingdom today. Ask the Holy Spirit to work in and through you.
3. Commit to following the leadership of the Holy Spirit today as he guides you to producing good fruit. Choose to love others as God has loved you. Choose to live a lifestyle of agreeing with the Holy Spirit in every way that he leads you.
How vast is God’s love for us that he would not only save us, redeem us, and set us free, but he desires to use us, a broken and needy people, to change the world. God desires to anoint his people with his Spirit to accomplish his work. May your life be marked by the wonderful and lasting fruit of a child of God surrendered to and in love with our heavenly Father.
Extended Reading: Romans 8 or watch The Bible Project’s video on Romans 5-16.
May your life be marked by the wonderful and lasting fruit of a child of God surrendered to and in love with our heavenly Father.
]]>2/5/2026 | Abiding in the True Vine
May you fall deeper in love with God today as you learn what it means to abide in God’s friendship.
Today we will look at what it means to be a friend of God. Friendship with God is a beautiful, sought after thing. And he has made his friendship fully available to us. What a gift! May you fall deeper in love with God today as you learn what it means to abide in God’s friendship.
John 15:14-15 ESV
Do you know that God calls you his friend? John 15:14-15 says, “You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” As a believer you have gained friendship with a God who exemplifies perfect, unconditional love. You have gained relationship with your Creator whose greatest desire is simply to spend time with you. Allow the love of your heavenly Father to sink in for a minute. Allow the Spirit to reveal to you God’s motives today as we look at what it means for us to abide in the friendship of God.
John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus committed the greatest act of love this world has ever known in laying down his life. And he did so willingly out of his desire for relationship with us. God desired friendship with you to the level that he would send his only Son to die in order to restore what sin had destroyed.
The questions before you today are: are you experiencing the fruits of friendship with Jesus? Are you receiving the satisfaction that comes from abiding in relationship with God? The Holy Spirit’s desire today is to lead you into a greater depth of friendship with your Creator, the one who laid down his own life for your sake. What he asks of you today is to make time to invest in your friendship with him as you would any other relationship. He asks that you would value relationship with him to the level that you would commit time and energy to it. Just as marriage cannot be fruitful or enjoyable without investment from both parties, we must invest in our friendship with God to receive all that relationship with him is designed to bring us.
John 15:14 makes it clear that true friendship with God is following his commands. Jesus has revealed the pathway to abundant life. And he’s led us to that path by laying down his own life that we might have the Holy Spirit working within us. To be friends with Jesus is to choose to lay down our own lives in response to his loving sacrifice. To walk in friendship with God is to choose humility over pride and follow the path set before us in Jesus. We are no longer servants unaware of the plans and will of our master, but friends who have heard, seen, and experienced the truth.
Will you choose friendship with God over the world today? Will you choose to follow the will of the God who laid down his life for yours? Will you walk down the pathway of life today, or will you choose to go your own way? True friendship with God is fully available to you today if you will follow the life-giving commandments of Jesus and make space and time to invest in your relationship with him. Nothing will bring you greater satisfaction than living out of the abundance of friendship with Jesus. Revelation 3:20 says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Open the door of your heart to the God of love today and spend time fellowshipping with him.
1. Meditate on your status as a friend of God. Allow Scripture to change your perspective on how God views you and how you should view God.
2. Reflect on your own life. What relationships do you invest in over your relationship with God? Who have you made the highest priority? In what ways are you not following the commands of Jesus?
3. Repent of any way in which you have valued other relationships over God. Confess any ways in which you have not been following the commands of Jesus and receive the forgiveness of God. Spend time investing in your friendship together.
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20
The only day we are promised is today. Don’t wait to invest in your relationship with God. Don’t set it aside while you take care of what seems to be more pressing. Loving God is always first priority. Spending time with him is always the most important thing. Choose to be a follower of Jesus who values his commands over any other. Choose his way over your own or the world’s. Walk today with the fruit of friendship with God as your source and guide. If you do, you will experience favor and grace on even the most mundane tasks set before you. You will experience a foundation of love on which you have the grace to follow God wholeheartedly and love others purely and fully. Value friendship with God above all else and experience the abundant life available to you.
Extended Reading: 1 John 1-2 or watch The Bible Project’s video on 1-3 John.
Value friendship with God above all else and experience the abundant life available to you.
]]>2/4/2026 | Abiding in the True Vine
Take a moment even now to open your heart to trust God afresh.
As we continue our week on abiding in true vine of God, today we’ll explore obedience and how it relates to abiding in God. Take a moment even now to open your heart to trust God afresh. He will always be for us, and know what is best for us in every part of life. He is so good. He is so kind. And he simply wants to walk with us.
John 15:9-10 ESV
The concept of obedience has become shrouded with a connotation of negativity. When we think of obedience we normally infer a feeling of doing a task apart from a desire or longing. We associate obedience with obligation rather than fulfillment. But when Jesus walked on the earth he carried out a very different lifestyle of obedience. Jesus’ life demonstrates what obedience to our heavenly Father is meant to look like. Obedience to God is choosing to live a lifestyle of love and devotion to our God who has loved us completely.
Jesus says in John 15:9-10, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” Too often we miss the heart of God when he calls us to obedience. Jesus illustrates here that he lived his life reciprocating the love he was shown by his Father. He lived his life in obedience to God out of the wealth of relationship he had, not out of obligation. And Jesus simply asks us to do the same. He invites us into the process of receiving and giving love as the foundation of our life that we might abide in the depth of relationship with our heavenly Father as he did.
In Luke 10:27, Jesus states the greatest commandments, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” How incredible is the heart of our God that he doesn’t call us to a lifestyle of obligation or undesired sacrifice, but a lifestyle in which we reciprocate the vast love we’ve been shown in Christ to all the earth. God doesn’t merely set rules before you but relationship as the goal. He’s after your heart totally and completely.
In a world wrapped up in a self-seeking, self-satisfying agenda, God sets us free to step outside of the burden of ourselves and frees us to live for others. In a world wrought with the weight of pride, God pours out his unceasing, selfless love which has the power to transform us into children who abide in our heavenly Father. If we will choose to abide in God’s commandments and love wholeheartedly, we will experience a satisfaction unknown to those with the attitude of selfishness and pride. We will experience the abundant life only those who abide in God can obtain.
So, abide in God’s commandments today. Choose to live a lifestyle of wholehearted love of God and others. Choose to live in obedience to God in response to his amazing love. And discover the power, purpose, and freedom that comes from ministering to others with the very love you’ve been shown in Christ.
1. Meditate on God’s commandment for us to love him and one another. Receive the call to a lifestyle of love as you reflect on God’s word.
2. Spend time receiving the love of your heavenly Father. God always desires to fill you up with the knowledge of his love before he would have you love him or others in return. Our obedience is always meant to be a response to his loving nature. So take time and receive a fresh outpouring of the love he has for you today.
“We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19
3. Ask the Spirit to guide you to a lifestyle of love today. Spend time allowing him to reveal different ways in which he would call you to love others. How can you love your spouse better today? How can you love your best friend, coworker, neighbor, etc.? Ask the Spirit to pour out the love of God through you today. And commit to loving others even when it goes against the tides of comfort and culture.
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” James 1:22
May we abide in the love of our heavenly Father today. May we choose to live a lifestyle of love. And may our prayer be like that of the Psalmist in Psalm 119:32-35 as we go about our days living to see God’s glory come on earth as it is in heaven:
Extended Reading: 1 John 4 or watch The Bible Project’s video on 1-3 John.
May we abide in the love of our heavenly Father today. May we choose to live a lifestyle of love.
]]>2/3/2026 | Abiding in the True Vine
As you learn to seek out the heartbeat of God, may you grow in confidence in his love for you and those around you.
As we look at the different ways we are to abide in true vine of God, today we’ll explore the concept of prayer. It is my hope today we walk away with simplified prayer lives. As you learn to seek out the heartbeat of God, may you grow in confidence in his love for you and those around you.
John 15:7-8 ESV
Jesus makes us an almost unbelievable promise in John 15:7-8. Scripture says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” Jesus promises that if we abide in him and allow his words to abide in us, then we can ask anything we desire of God and it will happen. Clearly this is a vital passage for us to understand today. I believe that the Lord has fresh revelation in store for us if we will take him at his word and allow him to transform our understanding of what it is to petition our heavenly Father. So, let’s open our hearts and minds and allow the Holy Spirit to come and do a work in us today as we place our trust in Jesus’ word.
I have spent a large part of my Christian life praying without understanding how to pray. I used to view prayer as time for me to ask God for what I thought would be good and then wait to see if my circumstances lined up with my prayer. Then only through my circumstances would I know if God’s answer to my prayer was yes or no. Then I read John 15:7-8. Jesus clearly teaches a very different model of prayer than I had been experiencing.
Jesus’ model for prayer is abiding in his presence, abiding in his words, and then asking God for our heart’s desires. God desires that we would be so in tune with his heartbeat and so saturated with his word that our desires would be transformed into his desires. His plan is to fill us with the knowledge of his perfect will for our lives in the secret place so that we can pray and live wholeheartedly with full expectation that our heavenly Father will bring to fruition the desires he has placed within us.
Does this model of prayer line up with your life? Is your prayer life marked by abiding in him and his word first? Have you discovered the heartbeat of your heavenly Father? Do you feel as if you know how he feels about situations going on in your life? Are you so saturated with his word that it is transforming your actions, beliefs, emotions, and prayers?
Scripture says in Jeremiah 33:3, “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” And Deuteronomy 4:29 says, “But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.” God longs for you to search out his heartbeat. He longs to reveal to you how he feels about you and every aspect of your life. He longs to transform your desires into his that you might desire and ask him for what is really best for you.
Asking God for something is meant to be as simple as abiding in his presence and word and praying in line with the desires he’s birthed in you. Discover today the wealth of desires he longs to share with you. Ask him to show you how he feels and thinks. Saturate yourself in his word. Allow the teachings of Jesus to transform your perspectives. And ask your heavenly Father to bring to fruition the desires he’s placed within you. May your desires be one with God’s today as you spend time abiding in the true vine of Jesus.
1. Meditate on Jesus’ process of prayer. Reflect on each phrase. Allow the words of Jesus to transform the way you view spending time with God and prayer.
“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” John 15:7-8
2. Spend time abiding in the presence and word of Jesus. Ask him to reveal how he feels about situations in your life where you need his help. Ask him to show you how he feels about anything you are curious about! Spending time with God is meant to consist of conversation, questions, and response. Seek and rest in his heart and word today.
“Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” Jeremiah 33:3
3. After discovering the heartbeat of God and the teachings of Jesus, ask God for your heart’s desire in confidence! Petition your heavenly Father to bring to fruition the desires he is planting within you. Pray in line with the Spirit and Truth. Take joy in your heavenly Father’s desire to answer your prayer.
“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.” Colossians 4:2
The Lord loves to answer the prayers of his children. He longs to give you every good and perfect gift. Trust in his goodness. Have faith that he will respond to your prayers in more magnificent ways than you could ever imagine. He is our loving Father, and he loves to bless us. Rest in his presence and word today, and allow him to mold and shape you into the image of Jesus.
Extended Reading: Matthew 6 or watch The Bible Project’s video on Matthew 1-13.
Rest in his presence and word today, and allow him to mold and shape you into the image of Jesus.
]]>2/2/2026 | Abiding in the True Vine
My prayer is that you would be marked by wonderful, satisfying, and fulfilling encounters with the presence of God as we look at John 15:1-17 this week.
The absolute, most important single act of the children of God is making space to encounter our heavenly Father in the secret place. Abiding in God is the foundation on which every other aspect of the Christian life finds success. It establishes roots which enable us to receive all that we need to bear the fruit of the Spirit. It guides us to constant refreshment and revival in God’s presence, thereby supplying and sustaining the abundant life God intends for us. My prayer is that you would be marked by wonderful, satisfying, and fulfilling encounters with the presence of God as we look at John 15:1-17 this week.
John 15:4 ESV
I am amazed at the ways in which all of creation visibly demonstrates important spiritual principles. Romans 1:20 says, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” Job 12:7-9 says, “But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?” All throughout the Gospels, Jesus likens spiritual principles to the surrounding creation. From the parables of the mustard seed (Matthew 13:31-32) and pearl of great price (Matthew 13:45-46) to his teaching on the grass of the field and birds of the air (Matthew 6:25-34), clearly God uses creation to illustrate important spiritual principles we need to adopt as believers.
One such important principle is found in John 15:1-17. In verse 4 Jesus says, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” Reflect for a minute on the process of a vine bearing fruit. It takes time, patience, and consistent nourishment for fruit to form on the branches of the vine. So it is with you and me in God. We have the most abundant source of life available to us in God. God waits, patiently beckoning us to simply come and abide in him that we might bear the fruit of abundant life. And once fruit is cut off from the vine it loses its source of life. In order to consistently bear the fruit of God, we have to go back to our vine time and time again to receive all that God longs to give us.
You are created for intimacy with your heavenly Father. Just as God designed grapes to only grow in connection to the vine, you are designed for intimacy with God as your one, true source. There is no other supply of true life. There is no other process by which we experience abundant life outside of abiding in him. Spending time resting in his presence and receiving what he longs to give us is the most important thing you can do on a daily basis. The days we try and bear fruit apart from him are the days we will be overrun with the cares and stresses of this life. The Holy Spirit longs to fill you with the fruit of his presence every moment of every day. All that is required of you is to submit to the reality of his presence rather than go your own way. Choose to listen and receive from him rather than leaning on your own understanding.
By God’s grace we can always return to him as our source. It is never too late for us to connect ourselves to the vine and receive the life only God can give. It is never too late to experience the revitalization that can only come through encountering him. And it is never too late for us to bear fruit of eternal value. God has wonderful plans for you that begin today. His mercies are new every morning. The Bible promises in James 4:8, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”
Take time to submit yourself to God as your source, receive all that he longs to give you, and find your satisfaction in the reality of his powerful presence.
1. Meditate on your need to be continually connected to God, your true vine.
2. Ask God to make his presence known to you. Believe his word that his presence is real and tangible and that you can experience him by his grace.
3. Draw near to your God and find life in his presence. Allow his nearness to heal the broken and weary places of your life. Let his Spirit flood the dry areas with his perfect love. Have patience and rest in God. Be slow to speak and move as the Spirit lays a foundation for you to continually bear the fruit of his presence in your life.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23
As believers we are created to live, think, act, and feel with the Holy Spirit. We were never intended to do life apart from God’s presence, and through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we don’t have to. We’ve been filled with the very Spirit of God himself who longs to shepherd us into the deeper things of God. May we have the humility to acknowledge our need of God and the faith to believe that he is real and will guide us into a better, more fruitful life in him.
Extended Reading: John 15:1-17 or watch The Bible Project’s video on John 13-21.
May we have the humility to acknowledge our need of God and the faith to believe that he is real and will guide us into a better, more fruitful life in him.
]]>2/1/2026 | God Longs to be Encountered
He alone is worthy of all our hearts. And today may you place your heart solely in his hands.
As we end our week on God’s longing to be encountered, today we’ll examine our hearts and ask the most important question, “Do we know him?” As we take time today to fix our hearts on the single pursuit of Jesus, may your heart swell with fresh love and devotion for him. He alone is worthy of all our hearts. And today may you place your heart solely in his hands.
Jeremiah 9:23-24 ESV
Of all that God longs to reveal to us, his children, he most desires that we would simply come to know him. Of all the great mysteries, truths, plans, and longings of his heart, he most desires that we would find all our satisfaction, joy, and purpose in relationship. Jeremiah 9:23-24 describes this profound desire in the heart of God. Scripture says,
What greater knowledge is there than that of God? What greater pursuit exists than knowing the heart of our Creator, the God who would lay down his life to make himself available to us? You and I can know God in deeper, more transformative ways than we can know anyone else. Through the blood of Christ, God has made himself more available and nearer to us than we have yet to discover.
Psalm 46:10 is a powerful and incredible command of the Lord. Our heavenly Father says to us, “Be still, and know that I am God.” In a world wrought with the hectic chaos of task after task, God says to us, “Be still and simply know me.” In a world founded on the principles of earn and receive, God has an open invitation before us to know him apart from any merit of our own. We can know God simply because he desires to be known. We can know God simply because he loves us right now, as we are.
More than God desires any work of our hands or any gifting he could place within us, he wants us to know him. So often we get caught up in the works of the kingdom and forget that our chief purpose in life is simply to be enjoyed by God and to enjoy him in return. This life is meant to be about relationship above all else. It’s meant to be about continually encountering the heart of our heavenly Father that we so often live without.
Out of all that we know, may we know God himself the best. Out of all the knowledge and wisdom we can gain from Scripture, may our highest pursuit be a true, intimate knowledge of its Author. Out of all the earth-shattering works set before us, may we know the God whom we serve. And at the end of our days, may our lives have been chiefly marked by a true, passionate, intimate relationship with our heavenly Father.
1. Meditate on the availability of knowing God. Allow Scripture to stir up your desire to know God above all else.
“Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10
2. What pursuits are higher in your life than knowing your heavenly Father? What is a higher priority to you than simply having relationship with God? Take an honest look at your heart, time, actions and perspectives.
3. Ask the Lord to help you be someone who is simply enjoyed by him and enjoys him. Ask him to help you cast aside all other pursuits that aren’t in line with this chief pursuit. Make space and time to “Be still, and know that [he] is God” (Psalm 46:10).
Recentering our lives around relationship with God is a process in which God has total patience and grace. He knows that you will only center your life around that which you chiefly enjoy. He knows it takes time for him to become your chief joy. But this is most definitely the highest, most important process you can pursue. When he becomes your chief joy, all other aspects of life find their proper place. When he becomes your chief joy, your emotions will no longer be subject to the fickle, fleeting things of the world, but rather grounded in the unshakable, unchanging nature of your heavenly Father. May you offer your whole heart to God today that you might fully enjoy him. May his love and presence be the foundation of your life. And may you seek relationship with him above all else.
Extended Reading: Psalm 46 or watch a video on Psalms.
May his love and presence be the foundation of your life. And may you seek relationship with him above all else.
]]>1/31/2026 | God Longs to be Encountered
May your questions and wonderings about God and his creation only push you farther into seeking him. Because he has made it clear that if you’ll seek him, you will find him.
So much of our faith is shrouded by mystery. It is impossible to fully comprehend the grandeur and elaborateness of God with our limited human understanding. But as we’ve seen this week, we have a God who longs to be sought out. May your questions and wonderings about God and his creation only push you farther into seeking him. Because he has made it clear that if you’ll seek him, you will find him.
“It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.”
Proverbs 25:2 ESV
The fact that God conceals things in mystery for his children to search out is one of the most curious and wonderful truths of Scripture. Proverbs 25:2 says, “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.” We who have been made kings and queens by the blood of Jesus have been granted access to the mysteries of God. God in his grace has given us the right to know the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16).
What would relationship with the God of the universe be without mystery? What would it be like to know the God who has formed galaxies and planets beyond anything we will ever discover without that which remains unknown? We are made to be enthralled by the mysteries of our heavenly Father. We are created to search out that which is not made plain to us. God is inviting us to ask, question, seek, and find that which transcends the natural and stretches into the unknown: the eternal.
Colossians 2:1-3 says,
All mystery finds its resolve in the person of Jesus Christ. Within him dwells “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” And the more we get to know the living, active person of Jesus through his Spirit, the more we receive important, transformative revelation. You see, even something as foundational to the Christian faith as grace is laden with mystery. The powerful effects of Jesus’ grace-filled sacrifice baffle the mind. How could one man in laying down his life make righteousness and salvation available to all? But in God’s grace this is wholly possible. And only when we truly seek out the mysteries laden within grace will we begin to experience all the powerful effects it has to offer us.
May we as God’s children grow to love the mysteries laid open for us by our loving heavenly Father. May we enjoy the process of searching out the deeper things within God’s heart with the help of the Holy Spirit. And may that which is unseen, heavenly, and eternal begin to have a profound impact on our perspectives, emotions, thoughts, and actions. Search out the mysteries of your faith today and discover just how vast and available the love of your heavenly Father is for you.
1. Meditate on the call before you to search out the deeper things of God. Allow Scripture to stir up your desire for the mysteries of your faith.
“It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.” Proverbs 25:2
2. What parts of your faith have you yet to fully search out? Ask God to reveal what mysteries he’s laying open before you that you might walk in a deeper revelation of who he is and what he’s done.
3. Take time to search out an aspect of your relationship with God. It might be something about his creation or an aspect like grace, forgiveness or love.
“You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, Lord, do I seek.'” Psalm 27:8
Coupled with God’s desire for us to seek out mystery is the truth that we are not meant to fully grasp every part of God and Christianity. Part of the beauty of our relationship with an omnipotent, omnipresent, and eternal God is that there will always be parts of him that are a mystery to us. How God has always existed and is both three and one are paradoxes too great for comprehension. We must simply trust the truth of Scripture for what it is at times and not dwell on that which we cannot attain. We must reconcile only that which is intended to be reconciled. May you search out all the mysteries opened to you by the blood of Jesus and the Holy Spirit who dwells within you, while at the same time enjoying all the unknowables meant to stir up awe and wonder within you.
Extended Reading: Colossians 1 or watch a video on Colossians.
May you search out all the mysteries opened to you by the blood of Jesus and the Holy Spirit who dwells within you, while at the same time enjoying all the unknowables meant to stir up awe and wonder within you.
]]>1/30/2026 | God Longs to be Encountered
May you gain some insight about next steps for you today, and fresh peace in the midst of whatever season you’re in.
The will of God is often a scary and difficult process to discern. But just as we learned earlier this week—God longs for us to know his voice. And God promises to speak his will to us in a way we’ll understand. My hope is that today you can rest at ease in total peace that your future is in God’s hands, and he’s got you. May you gain some insight about next steps for you today, and fresh peace in the midst of whatever season you’re in.
Isaiah 58:11 ESV
One of the most peaceful truths of Scripture is that God longs to share his will with his people. God is not one who leaves us to our own devices. He’s not even one who leaves us with the Bible and says, “Good luck. I hope you figure it out.” He’s the God who dwells within us, longing to speak into our lives and guide us into his perfect, pleasing plans.
Jeremiah 29:11-14 is an often quoted passage in Christian circles. But I pray that the powerful promise contained in its words will be revealed to you today in a fresh, transformative way. Scripture says,
We can place our hope in the revealed will of our heavenly Father. We can trust that we are not sheep without a shepherd, but rather those in the flock of a perfect, loving God who came to lay down his life for us. Through the Holy Spirit, God is perfectly capable of guiding us into his plans for “welfare and not for evil.” Behind his leading is always a more abundant, presence-filled life. Behind his leading is always more of him and more of who we are in him.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” God longs to make straight our paths. But in order to follow his leading, we must assess where our trust is and who we are acknowledging with our lives. We will never follow that which we don’t fully trust. If we are to be led by the Spirit we must trust that everything he tells us to do is absolutely the best thing for us.
Trust is meant to be the fruit of relationship. It’s meant to be birthed out of an experiential knowledge of God’s trustworthiness. If you haven’t given God much of a chance to prove himself trustworthy in your life, today is the day. We as the people of God must place our hope in him alone if we are to experience all the wealth of life his promises have to offer. We must place our trust in him if we are to receive a full knowledge of his will.
Take time to meditate on the trustworthiness of your God. Meditate on his desire to share with you his will. Take time to place your trust in him alone and commit yourself to following his leading. May your day be marked by all the fruit of God’s perfect, pleasing plans for your life.
1. Meditate on God’s trustworthiness and desire to share with you his will.
2. Where do you have a hard time trusting God? Where is your life not marked by his perfect, pleasing plans?
“The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” Proverbs 16:9
3. Ask God to reveal his will to you in those areas. Align your heart with his desires for you that you might experience the fruit of truly following his will. Place your trust in God alone for every area of your life.
Oftentimes God’s perfect, pleasing plans don’t conform to the desires and wants of the world. But we have to place our trust in him that his ways are higher than ours. His desires and wants for us are better than anything we can imagine. He has eternity in mind when he leads us along with our present circumstances and desires. Trust that as you align your heart with him and place your hope in him alone, his leading will perfectly satisfy the deep desires of your heart.
Extended Reading: Isaiah 58 or watch a video on Isaiah 40-66.
Trust that as you align your heart with him and place your hope in him alone, his leading will perfectly satisfy the deep desires of your heart.
]]>1/29/2026 | God Longs to be Encountered
As we look to Jesus as our model, may we be filled with courage and light to love not just in word but in deed and truth.
As we continue our week on God’s longing to be encountered, today we’ll dig deeper into how he desires for us to know his truth. God has given us everything we need to walk in his truth and ways this side of heaven. As we look to Jesus as our model, may we be filled with courage and light to love not just in word but in deed and truth.
“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
John 8:32 ESV
In the incredible, abundant blessings of Scripture and the Holy Spirit, God has demonstrated his longing for us to know truth. Truth is a powerful weapon against the schemes of the enemy. Truth has an ability to bestow confidence and freedom on all who find their satisfaction in it. And truth in the eyes of God is completely founded in relationship with the person of Jesus Christ. May God grant us a hunger for truth that is deeply satisfied in communion with our loving Savior today.
Everything God is and does is truth personified. There is no lie or deceit in our God. And therefore it is only in centering our lives around relationship with him that we will begin to experience the fruit of truth in our lives. In John 14:6 Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The life of Jesus is our example of truth. Everything he did was a perfect demonstration of truth. If we don’t devote ourselves to the study of his life and experiencing who he is personally, we’ll find ourselves living on the rocky shores of indecision and half-truths. We need his example to follow.
We need the life of Jesus at the forefront of our minds if we are to enjoy the abundant life that truth has to offer us. 1 John 5:20 says, “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.” Jesus is the Word made flesh. And through the Holy Spirit and Scripture, we have access to not only learning about his life, but being transformed into his likeness.
Romans 8:29 says, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” You and I are created to seek truth and see it come to fruition in our lives. We are created to shine the powerful light of truth into a world filled with the darkness of lies and deceit. But before we can share the truth of God, we must allow it to fill and transform us. 1 John 3:18 says, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” Truth is meant to manifest itself in our actions. Truth is so much more about our deeds of love than the words we say. Anyone can say words and not truly mean it. No one can truly love someone without revealing to them Jesus, truth made manifest in flesh. We can’t love someone without the power of truth shining forth into the core of who we are, that God loves us unconditionally just as we are.
Take time today to allow the truth of God’s love and Jesus’ life to make its way into every part of your life. Continue the process of being conformed to the image of Jesus by meditating on Scripture and experiencing the living, active person of Jesus today. May the truth of God’s love lead you to a life of enjoying God’s presence and loving others well.
1. Meditate on the importance of knowing and experiencing truth. Allow Scripture to stir up your desires to seek truth.
“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32
2. Where is the truth of God not shining forth in your actions? Where are you not experiencing the fruit of truth in your life?
“Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” 1 John 3:18
3. Give that area of your life to God and ask him to transform you into the likeness of Jesus today. Meditate on truth centered around that area and allow it to sink down from your head to your heart. Make space to let God fully love you and ask the Holy Spirit to help you love others well throughout your day.
God longs to reveal himself to you and fully love you today. He longs for you to taste and see his goodness. To grow in godly truth isn’t like taking a class or learning a subject; it’s all about relationship. May the truth of Scripture be revealed to you in relationship with the living, active God. May you experience firsthand the God of the Bible and see truth in the man of Jesus. And may your life be a better reflection of God’s love today as his truth works its way into every part of your life.
Extended Reading: 1 John 5 or watch a video on 1-3 John.
May you experience firsthand the God of the Bible and see truth in the man of Jesus. And may your life be a better reflection of God’s love today as his truth works its way into every part of your life.
]]>1/28/2026 | God Longs to be Encountered
May you walk away today feeling more confident and equipped for intimate relationship with Jesus.
Hearing the voice of God can always be a tricky subject. Many feel inadequate or wounded when it comes to the topic of hearing God speak. Today we’ll discover the beauty and simplicity of God’s longing for us to know his voice, just as you know the voice of a parent, spouse or friend. Hearing from God is essential to encountering the Lord. May you walk away today feeling more confident and equipped for intimate relationship with Jesus.
Jeremiah 33:3 ESV
I’ve spent so much of my life as a believer thinking that God was silent, or at least only spoke through the Bible, others, and situations. While God most definitely does speak in those ways, he also longs to speak directly to his children. Scripture is laden with story after story of God’s people hearing his voice and responding in obedience. From the Old Testament to the New Testament, God clearly speaks to his people. The question before us today is, will we make space to listen?
John 8:47 says, “Whoever is of God hears the words of God.” And John 10:27 says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” We serve a God who desires his voice to be known. God is not silent. He is not quiet. Our heavenly Father longs to guide us, tell us his heart for us, and do life with us. He’s longing for a relationship with you filled with continual conversation.
Hearing God’s voice is not only for a select few. It isn’t only for the Christian elite or those who spend all day, every day meditating and praying. We as believers hear God’s voice first and foremost because he wants to speak to us. We can hear God’s voice by grace alone.
So what does it sound like to hear God’s voice? Through the Holy Spirit God is able to speak in clearer and more profound ways than a conversation between you and me. 1 Corinthians 3:16 says, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” The Holy Spirit is with you right now. And because he dwells within us he has the ability to speak to our heart. He can speak with words or give an intuition or knowledge about something. He can fill us with peace about a decision and give us a feeling of unrest when we’re doing something that isn’t his will. God can speak to us in ways more intimate and clear than any other conversation because there is nothing in the way of us and him.
But God will never force his voice on us. He is not a God who yells into the chaos and attempts to drown out all the other voices. He is a God of peace and patience who waits for us to open our heart to him and listen. Take time today to open your heart and acknowledge the voice of your Father. Make space in all the busyness to simply listen to whatever he would say. Ask him any questions you have of him and trust that he will speak perfectly whatever it is he wants to say to you.
May your day be filled with continual conversation with your loving, present heavenly Father.
1. Meditate on the availability of hearing God speak. Reflect on all the ways he speaks and allow Scripture to fill your heart with faith to have a conversation with your heavenly Father.
2. Take time to quiet your soul and receive God’s presence. Ask him to reveal his nearness to you. Have faith that the Holy Spirit is with you right now.
“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” 1 Corinthians 3:16
3. Ask God to tell you how he feels about you in this moment. Ask him to speak to you anything he wants you to know. Have patience and pay attention to any changes in your feelings or anything you hear in your spirit.
“Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” Jeremiah 33:3
While hearing the voice of God can sound a little “out there,” it is wholly biblical. Our God is alive and active. He is not distant, and he longs for us to truly know him. Allow Scripture to define your reality rather than past experiences or worldly perceptions. The spiritual is wholly real. God’s presence is real. The fact that he dwells within us, speaks, guides, gives revelation, heals, and saves is the reality all of us live in whether we acknowledge it or not. Open your heart to God today and allow him to guide you into a lifestyle of greater communion with him. Live today in the fullness of relationship available to you in the Holy Spirit. May you hear the loving, close voice of the Holy Spirit throughout your day today as you open your heart to him.
Extended Reading: John 10 or watch a video on John 1-12.
May you hear the loving, close voice of the Holy Spirit throughout your day today as you open your heart to him.
]]>1/27/2026 | God Longs to be Encountered
Every one of us needs to be reminded of the depth of his love on a regular basis, and it’s my hope that today we can take some time to do so. May you never be the same again.
As we focus this week on God’s radical desire to meet with his people, today we’ll explore his longing for us to know his love. There is nothing more transformative than encountering the love of God. It changes everything about us and our lives. Every one of us needs to be reminded of the depth of his love on a regular basis, and it’s my hope that today we can take some time to do so. May you never be the same again.
Romans 8:37-39 ESV
I’ve spent so much of my life striving to be loved. The overwhelming need to be loved by somebody, anybody, is at the heart of most every decision, thought, perspective, and action I make. We are created with a longing to be loved. God formed us with an insatiable need for love because he desires to satisfy that longing. You see, we no longer have to go through life wondering if we’re loved. Our God doesn’t hide his heart from us. He never holds back his love.
Romans 5:8 says, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God demonstrated his love for us on the cross. But the cross also serves as a reminder that God will, now and forever, continually pour out his love. Not only did he commit a powerful act of love then, but he also makes his love available to us now.
Psalm 26:3 says, “For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness.” And Psalm 36:5 says, “Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.” The love of God is continually available to us. His steadfast love is here, ready to be experienced. God longs to so satisfy our great need for love that we stop seeking it from the world. He longs to so fill us up with his unconditional affections that we would no longer strive to be loved, but simply find rest in him.
Romans 8:37-39 says,
There is nothing we could ever do to separate ourselves from the love of God. As soon as we feel the need to be loved we can always turn our hearts toward our heavenly Father and simply receive a fresh awareness of his powerful, unconditional love. Stop working to be loved. Stop striving for that which is already yours. What are the affections of man in comparison to the love of your Creator? What is the fleeting, fickle praise of man in comparison to the all-consuming, powerful, and truthful love of God? May your life be marked by a peace that comes from resting in the love of your heavenly Father alone.
1. Reflect on your need for love. In what ways do you strive to be loved every day? Who have you been seeking out love from to fill a need in your life? Where have you been striving for the opinion of man?
“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
2. Meditate on the unconditional nature of God’s love. Meditate on the availability of his presence.
3. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you encounter to love of God today. Ask God how he feels about you and wait for a sense of his love. Rest in the truth of Scripture and receive the love of your heavenly Father.
“For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness.” Psalm 26:3
One of the most powerful truths about God’s love can be found in 1 John 4:18. Scripture says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” God’s love makes us fearless. Who or what is there to fear when the God of the universe truly loves us? What cause is there for fear when God would send his only Son to die that we might simply have relationship with him? Rest in the love of God today and allow the truth of his affections for you to cast out any fear you have. There is no reason to fear. God has you and loves you. May you find peace and joy today in response to the steadfast love of your heavenly Father.
Extended Reading: 1 John 4 or watch a video on 1-3 John.
May you find peace and joy today in response to the steadfast love of your heavenly Father.
]]>1/26/2026 | God Longs to be Encountered
May your week focus on God’s desire to be encountered be marked by the reality of his presence and love.
One of the most scandalous truths of the gospel is that our Creator longs to be encountered by his creation. God longs to meet with us. His greatest desire is for relationship with us. God is pursuing each of us with his relentless love, seeking out those who might respond to his open invitation by opening the door of their hearts to him. My prayer is that in response to God’s desire to meet with his people we would be those who say yes to centering our lives around his nearness. May your weeklong focus on God’s desire to be encountered be marked by the reality of his presence and love.
Psalm 14:2 ESV
We serve a God who longs to be encountered. Our God is not distant. He is not a recluse. Every morning there is an open invitation set before us to encounter the peaceful, tangible presence of the living God. In fact, it’s because of God’s desire to be encountered that Scripture so often commands us to seek him. He is not a God who hides, but he is also not a God who forces himself on us. He quietly beckons us to a life marked by his nearness, asking us to seek him that our heart might be open and receptive to him.
1 Chronicles 16:11 commands us, “Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!” And Revelation 3:20 says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” May we be a people who center our lives around God’s longing to be encountered. May we seek him with all we are.
I’ve lived so much of my life as if I’m on my own. I was without a true revelation of just how close God is to me. I was without a true knowledge that the God I serve longs to be known by me. You see, the foundation for my spending time with God was that I should, not that he actually desired relationship with me. As soon as I got a glimpse into the heart of my heavenly Father to simply love me and enjoy me, I was hooked.
No matter who you are or what you’ve done, you serve a God who longs to meet with you. He is knocking on the door of your heart today, asking you to simply let him come in. He is quietly beckoning you with his love, simply speaking to you, “Don’t shut me out.” God has an incredible life filled with an ever-increasing awareness of his love for you. He longs for your heart to be wrapped up in his presence when the world rejects you, speaks lies to you, or tries to pull you away from the comfort of his love and peace.
Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Seek the presence of your heavenly Father today in faith that he longs to be encountered. Trust him at his word that he will reward your seeking with the wonders of his nearness. Seek a deeper, more intimate relationship with him in light of the truth that he is always fully available to you. May your life be ever filled with communion with your loving heavenly Father.
1. Meditate on God’s desire to be encountered. Allow Scripture to stir up your faith to meet with God.
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20
2. What have you believed about encountering God that doesn’t line up with his heart and his word? Where do you feel like you can’t encounter God? What parts of your life are absent of his presence and the fruit of his nearness?
3. Seek the presence of God today. Take time to open your heart and in faith trust that you can encounter God. Commit yourself to centering your day around his presence and doing nothing apart from an awareness of his nearness.
“The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.” Lamentations 3:25
How amazing is the heart of our heavenly Father that he longs to be encountered! Through the powerful sacrifice of Jesus we can live in communion with God. Jesus paid the highest price for us to simply have close relationship with our Creator. Let us not be a people who forsake the sacrifice of Jesus. If God would send his only Son to die that we might live in relationship with him, it must be absolutely the best thing in this life. Taste and see how good your God is today. Let him into all you do. May your life be filled with the presence of God as you open the door of your heart to the reality of his nearness.
Extended Reading: Revelation 3:14-4:11 or watch a video on Revelation 1-11.
Taste and see how good your God is today. Let him into all you do. May your life be filled with the presence of God as you open the door of your heart to the reality of his nearness.
]]>1/25/2026 | Centering Your Life Around Meeting with God
May you live each day aware of and benefitting from that union, and be forever changed.
As we finish up our week on centering our lives around meeting with God, today we’ll discover the beauty of living from union with him. Today may you discover and wonder at how incredibly connected and one with God you already are through Christ. May you live each day aware of and benefitting from that union, and be forever changed. It is my prayer that the reality of Christ’s finished work on the cross sinks into our hearts and minds today, and that our lives are turned upside down as a result.
Galatians 2:20 ESV
One of the greatest scandals of the Christian faith is that God himself, in all his holiness and love, would dwell in the heart of man. You and I have been brought into union with God by the blood of Jesus. Nothing can separate us from him any longer. He is closer than our breath. He is more real than the very ground beneath our feet.
The New Testament is filled with truth about our union with God. Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” Romans 6:4 says, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” And Colossians 1:27 says, “To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
There is never a single moment that you are apart from God. God is in you and with you through every trial, success, victory, and defeat. He is for you and available to you all day, every day. Even in our sin, God remains. Even in our rebellion, God dwells within us. What’s left for us to do is learn how to allow this union to permeate every area of our lives. To work out our salvation is to learn to cast aside that which belongs to our former self and live out of our new identity as unified with Christ himself.
If we’re going to truly center our lives around meeting with God, we must learn to acknowledge the fact that he is already with us. He is not a distant God who has to travel from his throne in heaven down to us whenever we make time for him. He’s not a God who only dwells in churches, fellowships, ministries, or clergy. He is the God who dwells within you, loves you, likes you, and longs to be with you in constant communion.
Take time today to renew your mind to the truth of your union with God. Ask him to reveal his nearness that you might “walk in newness of life” today (Romans 6:4). Make space in your heart and mind to allow the presence of God to permeate every area of your life. May today mark a radical change in your life as God himself begins to move, work, bless, and speak in all you do.
1. Meditate on your union with God. Renew your mind by placing your trust in Scripture rather than your feelings or past experiences.
2. What areas of your life are not marked by union with the Holy Spirit? Where are you doing life as if God isn’t with you? Where are you striving and working for that which is already yours in Christ Jesus?
3. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal his nearness. Ask him to help you be a person who receives rather than strives and who rests rather than toils.
“Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10
Oftentimes we take feelings of loneliness, rejection, shame, and guilt and believe that they must be truth. Truth isn’t found in our emotions, but rather in the word of God. Our mind is the gateway to our emotions. We feel the way we do because of what we perceive and believe. If we engage in the process of renewing our mind to God’s word, our emotions will get in line with truth. You and God are one. There is nothing you or anyone else can do to change that. May the truth of Scripture guide you into a lifestyle of centering your life around the union already available to you in Christ.
Extended Reading: 2 Corinthians 5 or watch a video on 2 Corinthians.
May the truth of Scripture guide you into a lifestyle of centering your life around the union already available to you in Christ.
]]>1/24/2026 | Centering Your Life Around Meeting with God
As you begin to examine your life today, may God give you eyes to see what’s hindering you and what truly brings you life. How we spend our time is foundational to how we center our lives around Christ.
As we begin wrapping up our week focused on centering our lives around Jesus, today we’ll look at how to make the most of our time. Where we spend our time is where we place our value. As you begin to examine your life today, may God give you eyes to see what’s hindering you and what truly brings you life. How we spend our time is foundational to how we center our lives around Christ.
Ephesians 5:15-16 ESV
Ephesians 5:15-16 warns us, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” Our time is of the utmost importance here on earth. We’ll never get back the days we spend frivolously pursuing the things of the world. We’ll never get back the time spent outside of God’s purposes of receiving and giving love. Our time here is too limited and too important to spend on burdens, stresses, sin, and worldly pursuits. If we’re going to make the most of this life, we must learn to center our time around the eternal value of meeting with God. It’s for this reason James 4:13-15 says,
Looking at the ways in which we spend our time is one of the best ways to assess the posture of our heart. If we spend all our time working for and thinking about the things of the world, we can know that we have not yet come into a right revelation of God’s purposes for us. If we spend the majority of our time simply getting through our days trying to find happiness rather than seeking the face of our heavenly Father that we might receive sustaining, transcendent joy, we can know that we have yet to surrender our lives fully to our King.
The great thing about the nature of time is that it is completely ours to do with what we will. We can, right now, decide to make the best use of our time according to the purposes of God as revealed to us through Scripture. We can, right now, decide to stop wasting precious minutes on that which is fleeting and temporal and instead invest our days in the lasting, eternal, and fruitful purposes of our heavenly Father.
Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” God longs to teach us how to use our days wisely. He longs to give us a heart of wisdom that we might center our lives around meeting with him. You have God himself dwelling within you, ready to guide you into a lifestyle of purposeful living. Choose today to open your heart and mind to the Teacher, the very Spirit of God, and live according to his will. May you find peace, joy, and purpose in the ways in which you invest your time today.
1. Meditate on the importance of using your time wisely.
“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:15-16
2. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you any ways in which you’ve been using your time unwisely. Know that he is not a God who takes away all the things you enjoy. He’s not anti-entertainment, friends, and parties. He’s a fun God who truly loves you. Don’t mix religion and the heart of your heavenly Father. Trust that whatever he leads you to change will result in the absolute most fun, fruitful, and satisfying way you can live.
3. Ask God to help you spend your time wisely today. Ask him to help you follow his direction as you go about the day set before you.
You can trust that God has the absolute best plan for your time. Matthew 6:8 promises, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” He has every one of your needs sorted out. He will provide for you perfectly. You can trust him with your life and know that your job, family, and circumstances will be better in the capable and loving hands of your heavenly Father. Devote your time, job, money, and relationships to him that they might be filled with the blessing of God.
Extended Reading: Ephesians 5 or watch a video on Ephesians.
Devote your time, job, money, and relationships to him that they might be filled with the blessing of God.
]]>1/23/2026 | Centering Your Life Around Meeting with God
Allow your heart to be stirred in adoration, worship and devotion to the only true King this world has even known.
Like we said at the beginning of the week, this life is marked by a single choice: who or what will we center our lives around? Today we will look to the person of Jesus Christ. He is the first and the last; everything was created for him, by him and through him. To center your life around anyone else is futile and empty. As we look to Jesus today, may our eyes be fixed on his eternal goodness and glory. Allow your heart to be stirred in adoration, worship and devotion to the only true King this world has ever known.
Isaiah 9:6 ESV
All of eternity centers around the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. He is the all-important, eternity-changing, and humanity-redeeming Son of the living God. Colossians 1:15 tells us, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” Hebrews 1:3 says, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” And at the time of his return, Revelation 19:16 says, “On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.”
To center our lives around meeting with God is to build our foundation on the unshakable center of all eternity. To build our lives around encounters with Jesus is to place the anchor of our hope in the King of kings and Lord of lords. Only Jesus is faithful to his word. Only Jesus will accomplish that which he has promised us.
1 John 2:17 says, “And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” The will of God is to center our lives around his loving presence. God’s greatest commandment is that we would simply love him with all we do. To live differently than the world around you by centering your life around encountering Jesus is to chart a new path that leads to the fullness of life.
It may appear foolish to the world to place your hope solely in the person of Jesus, but nothing could be more important. It may look different to cast aside the pursuits of society such as comfort, status, and acclaim, but no greater decision could be made. You serve a God who was, is, and is to come. You belong to a King who laid down his life that you might truly live. You’ll find no greater joy, peace, or purpose than in serving Jesus alone. There is no greater life than one lived in full devotion to the King of all the earth.
Take time today to recommit yourself fully to the King of kings and Lord of lords. Step away from the limited perspective and think about the divine, eternal kingdom of God. Allow the truth of God’s word and love to fill you with the courage to choose devotion to him over service to yourself and the world around you. May your day today be filled with the abiding presence of King Jesus.
1. Meditate on Scripture about the person of Jesus. Remember that Jesus is alive and near. He is the living God and Scripture says your life is wrapped up in him.
2. In what ways is your life not centered around Jesus? In what ways are you living for the earth rather than eternity?
3. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you center your life around who Jesus was and is. Ask him to fill you with the knowledge of his nearness and love for you. Open your heart and receive the presence of Jesus. Ask him to show you ways that you can center your life around him today.
“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Colossians 3:1
Napoleon Bonaparte is quoted as having said, “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself founded empires; but what foundation did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded an empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.” Is your life so wrapped up in Jesus that you would love and serve him at any cost? If not, know that there is grace. We only come to a place of full devotion by spending time consistently being loved by a selfless, servant-hearted God. May you rest in the grace of your heavenly Father today as you pursue a life centered around your loving Savior.
Extended Reading: Colossians 3 or watch a video on Colossians.
May you rest in the grace of your heavenly Father today as you pursue a life centered around your loving Savior.
]]>1/22/2026 | Centering Your Life Around Meeting with God
Tapping into Christ’s presence and power is what will allow you to bear good fruit in this life.
Every Christian I know wants to live an effective life for Jesus. The key to succeeding in this is abiding in him. Abiding in Christ is foundational to centering your whole life around God. Tapping into Christ’s presence and power is what will allow you to bear good fruit in this life. It is my hope that after today you are more equipped and empowered to live out a life centered about God.
John 15:5 ESV
So often out of a right desire to do good and God-honoring works we try and force fruit out of ourselves without taking the time to rest and receive the nutrients we can only get from abiding in our heavenly Father. A branch disconnected from an apple tree can no more produce good fruit than you and I can do good works apart from continual abiding in the love, grace, and presence of God. Without truly centering our lives around meeting with God, we’ll never produce the fruit we were created to make. Jesus taught us in John 15:1-5,
God’s heart is for us to abide in him all day, every day. How incredible is that! You and I can graft ourselves every day into the perfect, good, and powerful vine of our heavenly Father. We can wake up every day, open our hearts to God, and live out of the union afforded us by the powerful sacrifice of Jesus.
Rather than striving to do good works from the moment our feet hit the ground, we must take time to be loved by our heavenly Father. Rather than making our own opportunities to serve God, we must allow him to guide us to the works he’s set out for us. Rather than trying to lead others to Jesus by our own efforts, we must simply live openly and honestly with others, thereby revealing God’s heart to meet with those who are broken and in need of him. And rather than living as if God has left us to our devices, we must acknowledge our union with the Holy Spirit in every moment, thereby allowing his loving presence to permeate everything we do.
James 2:26 teaches, “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” Connect yourself to the wonderful vine of Jesus today. Center your life around meeting with him. It’s only in abiding in God that your faith will produce works that are alive, eternal, and filled with the transformational power of God’s Spirit. May you discover the freedom and love available to you in continual communion with your heavenly Father today.
1. Meditate on the importance of abiding in the vine. Allow Scripture to stir up your desire to rest in God today.
2. Where have you been striving to do good works apart from the abiding presence of your Creator? What parts of your life need to have a greater connection to the love of God?
3. Take time to rest in the presence of God. Abide in him. Don’t look to or think about the things set before you today. There will be plenty of time for tasks and relationships. Focus all your attention on the reality of God’s nearness and open your heart to receive all the love he has for you in this present moment.
The absolute most powerful and good work we can do every day is pursuing continual communion with God. More than God wants us to strive to serve him, he simply wants us to let him love us. More than he wants any work of our hands, he wants our hearts. His love comes without agenda. There is immense value in the children of God simply living in relationship with the Father. Don’t let the works-based systems of this world seep into the grace-based relationship you have with God.
Extended Reading: John 15 or watch a video on John 13-21.
There is immense value in the children of God simply living in relationship with the Father. Don’t let the works-based systems of this world seep into the grace-based relationship you have with God.
]]>1/21/2026 | Centering Your Life Around Meeting with God
As we grow in understanding of God’s perfect love and relation to us, may centering your life around his presence come naturally.
Seeing God correctly is essential to centering your life around him and his presence. Many of us have a tainted view of earthly fathers, but today God wants to renew your view of him as your perfect heavenly Father. As we grow in understanding of God’s perfect love and relation to us, may centering your life around his presence come naturally.
1 Corinthians 8:6 ESV
If there’s one name for God that has the power to dramatically transform the lives of believers, it’s that we can call God “Abba” or “Father.” To see God as our Father changes everything. In Brennan Manning’s book, The Furious Longing of God, he asks a pertinent and powerful question:
"Is your own personal prayer life characterized by the simplicity, childlike candor, boundless trust, and easy familiarity of a little one crawling up in Daddy’s lap? An assured knowing that the daddy doesn’t care if the child falls asleep, starts playing with toys, or even starts chatting with little friends, because the daddy knows the child has essentially chosen to be with him for that moment? Is that the spirit of your interior prayer life?"
When I first read these questions I thought to myself, “Surely it can’t be this simple. Surely this can’t be all God expects of me.” We’ve missed the mark on what it truly means to be children of a good, near, and loving Father. We’ve projected our own insecurities, perspectives, and experiences on a God who is love embodied. There is nothing we can ever do to make God love us any more than he already does. And there is nothing we can ever do to make him love us any less. God loves us because he loves us. He enjoys us because he enjoys us. He wants to be with us because that’s how he is, not because we somehow earn his desire for us.
John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Even while we were in sin and separation from God, he loved us enough to pay the highest price to have us. So great was his depth of love for us that Jesus laid down his own life as the atonement for our mistakes, failures, weaknesses, and frailty. If God loved us then unconditionally, he loves us now unconditionally. If God would choose us then, he chooses us now. If God desired us then, he desires us now.
If we’re going to center our lives around meeting with God, we must understand the nature of his love for us. We must begin to relate to him as our good and loving Father above all else. We must cast aside any notion that he is angry with us, far from us, or void of affection or desire for us. We will only be drawn to our heavenly Father to the degree that we take him at his word and trust in his love for us. Take time today to receive the overwhelming, unconditional love of God for you. Allow his love to reorient your perspectives and beliefs. And respond to his great love by opening your heart and having fellowship with your Creator, Sustainer, and all-loving heavenly Father.
1. Meditate on the goodness of God being your perfect Father. What does it mean for your relationship with him if you would truly see him this way? How are you to reorient your perspectives in light of his word?
2. In what ways have you viewed God other than a loving Father? In what ways have you seen him as a taskmaster, distant Creator, or angry or passive Father?
3. Ask God to help you encounter the depths of his love today. Take time to receive his presence and rest in his goodness. Open up any parts of your life that aren’t bearing the fruit of his unconditional love and receive all the affection he has to give.
You are the child of a good, near, and loving Father. Seeing God as your Father not only impacts your perception of him, but also of yourself. You are loved. You are liked. You are enjoyed. The God who only thinks, feels, and says truth values relationship with you enough to send his only Son to die for you. Never let the world or the enemy shake the foundational love of your heavenly Father. No failure, weakness, or sin could ever change the fact that you are loved, accepted, and valued. May you find peace today where there has been only loneliness, pressure, and dissatisfaction.
Extended Reading: John 17 or watch a video on John 13-21.
May you find peace today where there has been only loneliness, pressure, and dissatisfaction.
]]>1/20/2026 | Centering Your Life Around Meeting with God
As you are reminded today of God’s great love and desire for you, may your heart be stirred with fervor to seek him and center your life around his presence.
As we continue our week on centering our lives around meeting with God, today we’ll explore how this is always preceded by the longing of God to meet with you. God’s affections for us are always meant to be our starting place in seeking him. As you are reminded today of God’s great love and desire for you, may your heart be stirred with fervor to seek him and center your life around his presence.
Psalm 139:17-18 ESV
I used to view my time spent in secret with my heavenly Father as something for which I needed to drum up desire. I pictured God waiting for me in a room, ready to bless me for sure, but I felt the weight of choosing him was all on my shoulders. The truth of God’s heart is far from my previous misconceptions.
We serve a God who constantly, sweetly, and powerfully pursues us. Revelation 3:20 says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” God is knocking on the door of your heart right now. With every gentle fall breeze that moves sweetly across your face, with every beautiful sunrise, with every breathtaking star in the sky, God is declaring his love for you.
God pursues us in any and every way he can. The greatest desire of his heart is for communion with his people. So it’s in knowing and receiving his overwhelming affections for us that our hearts will be stirred to meet with him. It’s in taking time to notice his constant pursuit of us that we will naturally begin to center our lives around meeting with our heavenly Father.
You see, the reason we should center our lives around meeting with God is because at the center of his heart is a deep, insatiable longing to meet with us. The Creator of the universe deeply longs to continually, consistently meet with you. God, who is Almighty, all-knowing, filled with grace, and is the fulfillment of perfect love, longs to be known by you. We are created to be drawn by the desire of our Creator. We are made to be known and to know our heavenly Father. We are created to walk with him every moment of every day. It’s not that we “should” center our lives around meeting with God, it’s that we were created to and must.
Song of Solomon 7:10 says, “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.” May you grow in the awareness of God’s desire for you today. May you come to know yourself as “my beloved’s.” May your life be marked by the natural response to your Creator’s unending pursuit of you. And may you center your life around meeting with God, not out of obligation, but because he so desperately longs to meet with you.
1. Meditate on God’s desire to meet with you.
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20
2. What does it mean for your life that your loving Creator continually pursues you? What would it be like to live a life marked by responding to God’s love in every moment?
3. Take time to meet with God. Ask him how he feels about you. Ask him to reveal his desire for you. Respond to his affections with your own. Tell him honestly how you feel.
All you have is today. Centering your life around meeting with God is all about the choices you make today. The way you choose to live right now will impact your days to come. Don’t worry about your track record. Don’t concern yourself with the idea of meeting with Jesus every day for the rest of your life. Simply choose to enjoy him today. “Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34).
Extended Reading: Psalm 139 or watch a video on Psalms.
Don’t worry about your track record. Don’t concern yourself with the idea of meeting with Jesus every day for the rest of your life. Simply choose to enjoy him today. “Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34).
]]>1/19/2026 | Centering Your Life Around Meeting with God
May your life be marked by union with your Creator as we explore what it means to center our lives around meeting with God this week.
This life is marked by a single choice: who or what will we center our lives around? This choice takes each of us down a path of decisions that shape who we are, what we feel, who or what we value, and what we will have accomplished at the end of our days. To center our lives around ourselves or the things of this world leads only to destruction. But, to center our lives around meeting with God fills each moment with the glorious abundance of God’s love, provision, and transcendent peace. May your life be marked by union with your Creator as we explore what it means to center our lives around meeting with God this week.
Ecclesiastes 12:13 ESV
What would our lives look like if we truly centered our time, energy, emotions, and pursuits around meeting with God? All of us choose to center our lives around something or someone. Every decision is made through the filter of what we most value. For some of us, we center our lives around ourselves. For others, we center our lives around the opinions of others. Still others choose to center life around a notion or concept, believing it to be of the highest value. My prayer is that we as the body of Christ would begin to center our lives here on earth around meeting with our Creator because he is absolutely the most worthy recipient of our highest value.
To center our lives around meeting with God is to place value on the absolute best thing. Psalm 84:10-12 says, “For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!” When we place our trust and value in God, we position ourselves to live in blissful communion with the Father who loves us. Our God longs to meet with us. He longs for us to taste and see his goodness. It’s only in living for communion with our Creator above all else that we will experience the incredible, abundant life God longs to give us.
For most of my life I would have told you God was my center. I would have said that Jesus was my highest value. But my actions, time, thoughts, and emotions in no way reflected those statements. You see, we spend time with those we most love. We center our emotions, actions, and thoughts around whatever person or thing we most value. Unless our lives truly reflect a posture of being centered around Jesus, we must take an honest assessment of ourselves and ask God to help us make changes. We must bring our brokenness and sin before God and ask for his perfect help in transforming us into children marked by his presence.
Centering our lives around anything but Jesus will only lead us to disappointment and dissatisfaction. This world has nothing good to offer us. To center our lives around ourselves will only increase the burdens and stresses of this world. To center our lives around people will only lead to an emotional rollercoaster driven by the brokenness and frailty of others. And to center our lives around an idea or concept will only store up treasure as lasting as this already passing world.
Take time today to look honestly at your heart. Allow the Holy Spirit to reveal any ways in which your life isn’t centered around meeting with God. Confess any worldly or selfish pursuits and seek to center your life around incredible, boundless communion with your good and loving heavenly Father.
1. Meditate on the importance of centering your life around meeting with God. Allow Scripture to stir up your heart to place the highest value in communion with your Creator.
“The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.” Lamentations 3:25
2. Where is your life not centered around meeting with God? Where have you been placing your value, energy, time, and emotions other than Jesus?
3. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you recenter your life today. Ask him to show you what it looks like to truly center your life around meeting with God. Make the decision to value relationship with God above all else.
To truly center our lives around God is to free ourselves from the constraints of both the world and religion. God does not desire legalism in meeting with him. He is not angry with you for spending time with friends, entertainment, or other things you enjoy. He simply wants to be the chief longing of your heart. He wants to be with you as you spend time with friends, family, entertainment, and anything else your heart desires. Of course he wants you to meet with him in the secret place. Of course he wants you to follow his leadership if he guides you away from something. But as your heart grows to be truly his, you will begin to want the things he wants. You will begin to spend your time as it can best be spent. And you will begin to truly center your life around the goodness you can only find in the presence of your heavenly Father. May your day today be marked by the simplicity and joy of communing with a good, near, and loving God.
Extended Reading: Psalm 84 or watch a video on Psalms.
May your day today be marked by the simplicity and joy of communing with a good, near, and loving God.
]]>1/18/2026 | Why Spend Time Alone with God?
I hope and pray that chains weighing you down to the cares and sins of the world fall off of you today as we follow the Spirit down a path to more fully enjoying God.
As we wrap up this week-long focus seeking to answer the important question, why should we spend time alone with God, today we’re going to look at how God provides freedom through simply enjoying him. I hope and pray that chains weighing you down to the cares and sins of the world fall off of you today as we follow the Spirit down a path to more fully enjoying God.
2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV
You were created to enjoy God. The Westminster shorter catechism says, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” David wrote in Psalm 16:11, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” We were designed to seek enjoyment in God. We were made to delight ourselves in his goodness, his provision, the wonders of his creation, and the simplicity of his unconditional love.
So important—so powerful—is finding enjoyment in God that it has the power to set us free from sin. You see, when we don’t seek enjoyment in God we will naturally seek it in the world. We can’t live our lives apart from pleasure. We aren’t created to live without happiness, love, passion, and joy.
Most of us have been indoctrinated to the idea that we sin because we aren’t controlled enough. We believe that if we could just get rid of a need for pleasure or enjoyment, we’d be free. Self-control is absolutely crucial in experiencing freedom from sin, but we will never be able to rid ourselves of our immense need to enjoy life. We will never stop seeking pleasure because we were made to be satisfied in the riches of God’s love.
Until you establish a daily rhythm of enjoying God, you will never experience true freedom from sin. Until your longing to be fully known and fully loved is satisfied in the wealth of God’s affection for you, you will never stop seeking it elsewhere. Until you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are cared for, thought about, liked, and wanted by your Creator, you will never stop trying to satisfy those needs in others.
Psalm 34:8 says, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” Take time today to taste and see that your heavenly Father is truly good. Allow him to fill you with a revelation of his love. Rest in his presence. And as you enjoy God, allow him to draw you deeper in toward his heart and away from the cares and pursuits of the world.
1. Reflect on your need for joy and pleasure. Look at your own life and acknowledge your need for passion, purpose, happiness, peace and joy.
2. In what ways are you seeking fulfillment in the world? What sin in your life is the result of not being fully satisfied in God? Who or what are you turning to for fulfillment in opposition to God?
3. Take time to let God to satisfy your longings. Open your heart to God and let him reveal the depths of his love. Ask him for a revelation of how he likes you, wants you, and enjoys you. Let his love for you begin to draw you near.
“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” James 4:8
1 Corinthians 2:9-10 says, “But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him’—these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.” Through the Holy Spirit, you can know how God feels about you. You have access to a limitless wealth of affection and unconditional love. God has unimaginable things prepared for you simply because he loves you. May you find total fulfillment today in the goodness and love of your heavenly Father.
Extended Reading: 2 Corinthians 5 or watch a video on 2 Corinthians.
May you find total fulfillment today in the goodness and love of your heavenly Father.
]]>1/17/2026 | Why Spend Time Alone with God?
I hope today that we both learn a little about the value of living in surrender, and experience the life that comes through actually dying to ourselves, that we might live in Christ more fully.
As we near the end of our week long focus of why spending time alone with God is so important, today we’re going to look at the value of living in surrender. Every day there is an opportunity to hand over the burdens and cares of this world that we might pick up the peace and joy of relationship with God. And for me, that opportunity has presented itself most often in the rhythm of spending time alone with God. So I hope today that we both learn a little about the value of living in surrender, and experience the life that comes through actually dying to ourselves, that we might live in Christ more fully.
Matthew 7:13-14 ESV
There is a life available to us as believers that few find—a life free from burden, fear, boredom, and emptiness. The problem is that the road to life requires a complete sacrifice of ourselves. The road to purpose, passion, joy and freedom requires that we die to ourselves every hour of every day. Jesus made the way to freedom open and clear for us. Scripture serves as the perfect practical handbook to walk that narrow road. And the Holy Spirit serves as the perfect guide and friend along the way. We have everything we need available to us, however, most of us lack a willingness to sacrifice fully so that the seeds of our surrender lead to the fruition of an abundant life.
Jesus charges us to lose our lives in order to gain life with God. In Matthew 10:39 he says, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” The only way for you to truly find abundant life in God is to surrender your life for his sake. In fact, all of creation testifies to this truth. Think for a second of those trying to find their lives on their own instead of in God. Humans have an insatiable lust for affection, purpose, security, and love. No matter how loved a person is by society, it’s never enough. No matter how much money a person makes, they could always make a little more. No matter how driven a person is, there is always more they could be doing. We are lost without God.
Seeing these people makes me evaluate my own life and search for areas I haven’t surrendered to God yet. Thinking about their insatiable lust for more makes me look for my own. I need my life to have purpose. I need to be loved, to have freedom, and to feel satisfied. I experience satisfaction only inasmuch as I have surrendered my life to God. God will not fill what is closed off to him. He does not force his will upon us. Rather, he waits patiently, quietly beckoning us to lose our lives so that he can lavish on us a life greater and more filled with his goodness than we could have ever imagined.
Our Father longs for us to be loved completely. He longs for us to be completely secure by trusting him. He longs for us to be fully satisfied. Will you answer his beckoning today? Will you choose to trust him? He is so faithful—more faithful than you will ever fully know. You cannot count all the ways in which he desires to love you. The immense depth of his love is bottomless. But will you spend your life trying to search it out? Proverbs 25:2 says “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.” Will you search out the depths of God’s love today? Will you make as much room in your heart as possible for him to come dwell? Will you lose your life today so that you may find it in him? The road is narrow. It will take work. It will take sacrifice. It will take everything. But you will gain immeasurably more in return.
Listen to the Spirit today as you enter into guided prayer and respond in whatever ways he leads you.
1. Take a minute to quiet your heart and mind. Open your hands as a sign of being ready to receive anything God would show you.
2. Ask the Lord to show you anything in your life that isn’t in his will. Pay attention to anything that comes up in your mind. It could be a person, place, thing, habit, recurring thought, etc.
3. Surrender anything in your life that isn’t God’s will for you. Confess any sin that’s holding you back from the fullness of life available to you in Jesus. Ask God for wisdom on how to end a relationship or a commitment. Ask him for grace and help to mend any relationships that he desires to heal. Surrender the entirety of your heart that you would be fully his today.
You can only experience the fruit of the Spirit through things born of the Spirit. God cannot bless sin and selfishness because it isn’t good for you. If God were to bless something that wasn’t best for you, you would keep doing it! If a dating relationship isn’t blessed, if it isn’t born of the Spirit, get out of it. If a friend leads you away from God instead of to him, stop hanging out with him or her. If a lifestyle choice you are making doesn’t have the peace of God in it, quit doing it. Surrender seems to cost so much at the time, but it will be the best decision you ever make. Set your life on the narrow path God has laid out for you. Live your life in response to the Spirit and to his word. The life you find in God will be immeasurably greater than any life you could find on your own.
Extended Reading: Matthew 7 or watch a video on Mathew 1-13.
The life you find in God will be immeasurably greater than any life you could find on your own.
]]>1/16/2026 | Why Spend Time Alone with God?
God has a better beginning to every day in store for us if we’ll follow him.
As we continue our week-long series looking answering the important question, Why should we spend time alone with God, we’re going to look today simply at the value of having time alone. In a world where we’re inundated with media, people, stress, and work from the moment we wake up, God has a better beginning to every day in store for us if we’ll follow him.
Luke 5:16 ESV
Why is time alone with God so important? Why can’t just going to church, a community group, or a Bible study be enough? Those of us who have grown up in church or have been going to church for many years have been told that time spent alone with God is vital to our relationship with him. Many of us, however, were never given a reason why. And in order for us to consistently and effectively engage in this crucial practice, we must understand why it is so important.
Here’s what we learn from Scripture about having time alone with God. Scripture makes it abundantly clear that Jesus spent time alone with his heavenly Father. Luke 5:16 states, “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Mark 1:35 states, “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.” Often in Scripture, Jesus withdrew from the crowd to pray. So the first reason to spend time alone with God is because Jesus did. If Jesus needed time alone with his heavenly Father, we can all be sure we need it even more. Jesus walked in God’s presence constantly. Jesus constantly responded to God’s will for his life. He is our perfect example. And even still, he needed time alone with God.
We also see from Jesus’ example that time alone with God empowers us to carry out God’s purpose for our life. It was after withdrawing into the wilderness in Luke 4 that he began performing miracles. Jesus entered the Garden of Gethsemane filled with grief and sorrow, asking God for a way other than his own death to achieve salvation for his people. After spending time alone with God, he came out of the garden empowered to endure the worst atrocity in history. Spending time alone with God empowers us to live a life filled with a knowledge of God’s purposes and the ability to faithfully see them through.
Lastly, Jesus is clear in Matthew 6:5-6 how we are to pray. Scripture says, “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” God rewards time spent alone with him in prayer. It’s by praying in secret that we clearly and tangibly encounter God’s love for us. It’s by spending time engaging in conversation with the Spirit that we learn what his voice sounds like. It’s by asking God questions that we discover his will. And it’s by spending time alone with him that our lives become centered around his nearness and goodness.
All of the money in the world cannot buy the rewards God longs to give you. All the favor of men will not satisfy your insatiable desire to be fully known and fully loved. Receive right now the best gift you could be offered, one-on-one communion with your heavenly Father.
1. Wherever you are, find a place to get alone and pray. Seek out a place that you can find solitude that will be uninterrupted.
“Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Luke 5:16
2. Read and pray through this Scripture. May God give you a revelation of his provision and love for you as you pray Jesus’s model prayer.
3. Engage in conversation with God. Ask him how he feels about you. Come before him with anything that is weighing you down and lay your burdens at his feet. Rest in the peace that comes from his presence.
God’s desire to spend time alone with you is not meant to add stress or pressure to your life but to relieve you from it. He is not a God who is after you religiously checking off a quiet time box, but a good Father who longs to fill your life with his grace, power, and love. Spend some time today mulling over these important questions from Brennan Manning written in his book, The Furious Longing of God. May your day be marked by the love of your kind, good Father.
“Is your own personal prayer life characterized by the simplicity, childlike candor, boundless trust, and easy familiarity of a little one crawling up in Daddy’s lap? An assured knowing that the daddy doesn’t care if the child falls asleep, starts playing with toys, or even starts chatting with little friends, because the daddy knows the child has essentially chosen to be with him for that moment? Is that the spirit of your interior prayer life?”
Extended Reading: Matthew 6 or watch a video on Matthew 1-13.
May your day be marked by the love of your kind, good Father.
]]>1/15/2026 | Why Spend Time Alone with God?
I pray that after today’s time, your mind is clear and focused on truth, and that your emotions and actions are marked by abundant life as a result.
In today’s First15, we’re going to look at how spending time alone with God every morning provides a daily opportunity to renew our minds to the goodness of God, the goodness of this life, and the moment by moment potential of living in real relationship with God. I pray that after today’s time, your mind is clear and focused on truth, and that your emotions and actions are marked by abundant life as a result.
Philippians 4:8 ESV
Your mind is the battleground on which the war for your emotions, purpose, effectiveness, and fullness of life is won or lost. It’s your mind that is attacked daily by the enemy. It’s your mind that the world is trying to influence for its own benefit. And it’s your mind that the Lord desires to renew daily in order for you to live in abundant relationship with him. So if the mind truly is a battleground, how do you come out the winner? How do you come out victorious over Satan and his schemes?
Scripture says clearly that to achieve victory over your mind it must be continually renewed by the power of God’s word. Romans 12:2 states “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” God puts conforming to the world and being transformed by the renewal of your mind in opposition. There is no grey area. Your mind is either being won for the kingdom of God or lost to the world. You are either thinking pleasing thoughts to God or not. You are either experiencing the abundant life Jesus made available to you or not.
For a long time, the idea of renewing my mind felt exhausting. Honestly, reading the Bible was incredibly boring for me. But I discovered that the Bible is only as life-giving to me as I am willing to be transformed by it. Until we actually sit down, open our hearts, and allow ourselves to be transformed by God’s word, we will never experience the life that comes from victory in our minds. The thoughts that plague you—the thoughts that rob you of freedom, peace, and joy—will never leave you until you allow your mind to be renewed by God’s word.
To ignore the war being waged around us is to lose the war. Our enemy longs for us to become complacent against his attacks. He longs for us to believe sinful thoughts, wrongful attitudes and lies are just a part of life on earth. He knows he has no power against the ability of God’s word to transform us.
So, how do you renew your mind? Philippians 4:8 says “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Set your thoughts on the things of God. Begin every day by setting your mind on the wonderful character of the living God and your new identity in Christ. If you will allow God’s word to be the foundation of your thought life by spending your first moments meditating on Scripture, the battle for your mind will be won for the kingdom. The negative thoughts and insecurities you face daily will flee from you in the glorious light of God’s truth. That’s God’s promise for you today and every day.
Take time today to meditate on Scripture and experience the transformative power of grace over your thoughts as you enter into guided prayer.
1. Meditate on 2 Corinthians 5:17. Repeat it over and over again, even out loud. Put yourself in the Scripture, and allow its truth to impact the way you see yourself and your world.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
2. In what ways do your thoughts or life not line up with the truth of 2 Corinthians 5:17? In what ways do you see yourself as anything but a new creation? In what ways do you identify with your sin rather than the freedom afforded you by the blood of Jesus?
3. Journal what God shows you. Take these areas of your life and submit them to the truth of Scripture. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see yourself as he sees you. Allow your perspectives to be changed by the Lord in order to see yourself as he does.
God’s word is truer than how you feel, and if you will align your life with the truth of Scripture it will begin to powerfully affect your emotions. Emotions are the result of the way we think. We feel loved because we believe we are loved. We feel joy because we believe there is cause for joy. In the same way, when we believe a lie from the enemy our emotions are powerfully impacted. When we believe we’ll never get victory over a sin, that no one loves us, or that we’re not good enough, our lives begin to bear the fruit of those lies. But there is power when we root ourselves in the word of God. Transcendent joy and peace come when we establish God’s word as our basis for truth. May your day be marked by a new freedom as the result of renewing your mind.
Extended Reading: Colossians 3:1-17 or watch a video on Colossians.
May your day be marked by a new freedom as the result of renewing your mind.
]]>1/14/2026 | Why Spend Time Alone with God?
May he guide us into a deep discovery of who we are in him, and how we can live our lives filled with the passionate pursuit of love.
In today’s First15, we’re going to look at what it means to live for love, to build our lives on the foundation of giving and receiving love. You and I were made in God’s image, and his very nature is love. So may he guide us into a deep discovery of who we are in him, and how we can live our lives filled with the passionate pursuit of love.
Mark 12:30-31 ESV
If there is one major theme in the narrative of Scripture it’s the power of God’s love. It was his love that caused our creation. It was in love that he offered mankind grace even in our continual rebellion. It was his love that sent Jesus to rescue us, and it’s his love that will win at our final redemption—the gathering of all of God’s people for the great wedding feast.
God is love. He can do nothing apart from love. Jesus says in Mark 12:30-31 that all of the commandments are summed up for us in one word—love. You were created to be loved by God and to love him and others in return. And you will never find satisfaction until you rest in the unconditional love of your heavenly Father. You will never find true purpose until you live to love God and others.
To live for love is to step outside of the ways and cares of this world and live for the kingdom of God. It’s to choose to root yourself in the unconditional affection of your heavenly Father rather than seeking fulfillment from the fickle love of mankind. It’s to choose to serve and give rather than looking to receive from a world that has so little to offer. To live for love is to seek first God and his ways and thereby receive the fullness of life only he can give.
When you begin your days in the presence of God, you lay for yourself a foundation of God’s unconditional love. To allow God to invade the first moments of your day with the truth of his love for you will strengthen you to stop looking for fulfillment in the things of the world. It is impossible to live for love as Jesus commands unless we first receive daily the perfect, powerful love of our heavenly Father. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
My hope and prayer is that First15 could be a beneficial resource for you to encounter the love of God. I pray this love fills your heart to overflowing, and then in response to the love of God you advance his kingdom of love on earth. God’s love for you is so intense, so purposeful, and so abundant that just a taste of it has the power to shift your life from one lived selfishly to one lived sacrificially. May his love stir your affections for him and others. May you live a life transformed by the love of your heavenly Father today. May you live for love.
1. Receive God’s presence. Take time to focus on his nearness, on how it changes your outlook and emotions. Spend the majority of your prayer time today on this point, just being overwhelmed by the depth of God’s love.
2. Give God your affections in return. Tell him you love him. Tell him you love how he makes you feel. Thank him for the work he is doing in your life.
3. Ask God to help you live for others. Ask him to show you where he is working in the lives of those around you. Ask him to reveal how he would have you partner with him today in advancing his Kingdom.
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10
Take a moment to read Ephesians 3:16-19, which so perfectly sums up the power and reality of love:
Extended Reading: 1 John 3 or watch a video on 1-3 John.
Take a moment to read Ephesians 3:16-19, which so perfectly sums up the power and reality of love.
]]>1/13/2026 | Why Spend Time Alone with God?
May God guide us into a passion for investing our lives in his kingdom, that we would have the most joy and peace possible here on earth as well as in heaven.
As we continue our series looking at the heart behind spending time alone with God, today we’re going to look at the daily opportunity to store the treasure of our he arts in heaven. May God guide us into a passion for investing our lives in his kingdom, that we would have the most joy and peace possible here on earth as well as in heaven.
Matthew 6:19-21 ESV
In Matthew 6:19-21 Jesus teaches us an important spiritual principle we need to know in order to give God the entirety of our hearts. Scripture says:
You are the child of a loving God who is desperately jealous for the entirety of your heart. Matthew 6:19-21 illustrates a truth that spans beyond this world and into the fullness of eternity. You and I have an opportunity in this life either to give our hearts to God and receive an eternal reward, or to give our hearts to the world, which will only lead to destruction. We can either surrender all that we are and have to the perfect, pleasing plans of our heavenly Father or seek fulfillment, pleasure, status, and wealth in that which belongs to the world alone.
The absolute best way we can ensure our lives are fully surrendered and available to the Father is to spend the first moments of our day alone with him. If we are going to make the most of this life, we must set aside time to assess our thoughts, actions, and emotions. We must make time to take an honest look at our lives and discover whether we are truly living for God or for the world. And in response to a daily assessment, we must consistently engage in the process of confession so that our lives may be empowered by the forgiveness and love of the Father.
God longs for your life here on earth to impact eternity. He is a Father who has perfect plans to bless you in ways you cannot imagine. But God cannot bless that which is not best. He cannot reward you for doing that which is destructive. Choose to center your life around meeting with God that you might store up a wealth of eternal treasure. Open your heart to the Holy Spirit every morning that he may reveal anything that’s keeping you from experiencing the fullness of life Jesus died to give you. Surrender your life to the God who has greater things in store for you than you can ask or imagine. And experience the peace and joy that comes from allowing God to have the entirety of your life to bless and fill with his glorious nearness.
1. Meditate on the truth of God’s word. Allow Scripture to fill you with a desire to surrender your life fully to God’s plans and love.
2. In what ways are you laying up treasure on earth? Where are you seeking fulfillment and provision from the world rather than God? What parts of your life are not God’s best for you?
3. Confess any sin in your life to God and take time to receive his forgiveness. God hates sin because it robs us of the fullness of life he longs to give. Once we confess our sins to him he truly forgives us. Don’t dwell on your sin, but rather on the goodness and grace of God.
Oswald Chambers wrote, “Joy means the perfect fulfillment of that for which I was created and regenerated.” You were created and regenerated for unhindered communion with your heavenly Father. Experiencing true joy in this life will be the result of casting aside anything that chains your heart to this world. Live today for God alone and discover the wealth of life that comes from storing up your treasure in heaven.
Extended Reading: Ephesians 1 or watch a video on Ephesians.
Live today for God alone and discover the wealth of life that comes from storing up your treasure in heaven.
]]>1/12/2026 | Why Spend Time Alone with God?
I pray that your life would be marked by a new grace to consistently and powerfully encounter the living God.
Why should we spend time alone with God? Why is meeting with God in the secret place so important? Until we gain an understanding of the immense value and availability of encountering God, we will never consistently engage in this foundational, vital practice. As we discover God’s heart to meet with us in order that we might experience the depths of his love, I pray that your life would be marked by a new grace to consistently and powerfully encounter the living God.
“Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you.”
Psalm 31:19 ESV
As Christians we know we are supposed to start our day off with God. If you have been a believer for any length of time, you have likely been encouraged by a pastor, teacher, mentor or friend to spend time every morning in God’s presence. However, many of us have never been told why God wants us to spend time with him in the morning. We’ve never discovered all God longs to do in the first moments of our days. We just carry the weight of knowing we should spend time alone with God. We spent last week in First15 going over how to practically spend time with God. This week we’re going to talk about the why. Why should you spend time with God every morning?
God longs for your day to begin with the absolute best thing, and the best thing is his presence. If encountering God’s presence is the best part of your day, then you already know the impact it has made on you. I’m glad you’re using the tool of First15 as a part of encountering him, and you are incredibly welcome here. For most of us though, I am going to bet that we’ve yet to fully discover how great spending time with God is. Take a look at your life. How often do you spend time with God? This isn’t a report card where the people with the most consistent quiet times get a gold star. Be real with yourself. This is for your benefit. Take a moment and assess how often you actually spend time meeting with God.
You see, we will only ever consistently do that which we want to do, especially with our free time. We might have to go to work. We might feel obligated to people or practices. But with our personal time, our wants will always win out over our obligations. For many years I tried to spend time with God out of obligation. As a result, I hardly ever did it. It wasn’t until I encountered the incredible love and peace inherent in God’s presence that I began to actually desire to spend time with him. Once I felt the satisfaction only his presence can bring, I began to crave time with him out of a need to satisfy my longings for love, purpose, and relationship. I discovered that my time spent with God was the absolute best part of my day.
Psalm 16:11 says, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” And Psalm 84:1-2 says, “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.” I can attest that consistently receiving a revelation of God’s love has been the single most transformative part of my life. The days I don’t start with the best thing, being in his presence, are my worst days by far. His presence ignites me with passion, love, purpose, and a sense of belonging that nothing else can give.
Wherever you are in relation to God today, do you want to know him more? Do you want a deeper revelation of his goodness and love? Take time to open your heart to God and allow him to satisfy your eternal need for communion with the Father. Allow him to fill you with his presence that you might experience the reality of his love. And let a true, transformative encounter with the living God fill you with a greater hunger to consistently encounter God in the first moments of each day.
May your time spent today encountering God in guided prayer be filled with the “fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11).
1. Take some time to receive God’s presence. Meditate on the truth of Scripture and allow God to reveal the reality of his nearness.
“Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you.” Psalm 31:19
2. Assess your own heart. How consistently do you spend time with God? Do you feel like spending time with him is in any way an obligation rather than a desire? Be honest with God! He longs to pour out his limitless grace over anything that is holding you back from experiencing the fullness of his love.
3. Ask God to reveal his desire to meet with you. Ask him how he feels about you. Ask him to reveal the desires of your heart that he longs to satisfy in spending time alone with him. Journal anything he shows you.
Before you go to bed tonight take a minute to get in God’s presence. Let his goodness be the last thing you think of before you go to sleep and the first thing you wake up to in the morning. Throughout the day, if you feel down, passionless, or weary, take a minute to reflect on the goodness of God. He longs to spend time with you throughout your day, filling you with joy, passion, and purpose for bringing his kingdom to earth in all you do. May your day be filled with the fullness of God today.
Extended Reading: Psalm 84 or watch a video on Psalms.
May your day be filled with the fullness of God today.
]]>1/11/2026 | Building Blocks for your Time with God
May the encouragements of Scripture and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit lead each of us to an embracing of this incredible opportunity in Christian meditation.
In our last day focusing on getting back the basics of a quality time alone with God, we’re going to focus on what it means to meditate as a Christian. There is so much life to be had in the practice of meditation. And there is so much history within Christianity around this wonderful practice of meditating. May the encouragements of Scripture and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit lead each of us to an embracing of this incredible opportunity in Christian meditation.
Psalm 1:1-3 ESV
For many years I believed the word of God was meant just for reading and studying—like a textbook on life. I believed it was authored by a good God, and I tried to read it, as I knew I should, but it never made an impact on my life to the level God desired. It wasn’t until I discovered the practice of meditation that my life began to be transformed by the powerful, applicable truth of Scripture.
For many of us the idea of meditation is a confusing one. Modern Christians, notably Protestants, seem to have lost the practice of this important spiritual discipline. We confuse it with practices of other religions, such as Buddhism, and therefore cast it aside as too mystical or even wrong. But Christian meditation does not involve emptying your mind as in Eastern religions; rather it fills us with the knowledge of God and his presence. Meditation is about receiving, not casting out.
So what does meditation look like in the Christian context? To meditate is simply to spend time mulling over a verse, phrase, idea or characteristic of God. It’s a process where we open up our hearts and minds to receive revelation from the Holy Spirit. To meditate on Scripture is to take a phrase such as “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want,” and really take time to think about all it means for us personally. For the Lord to be your shepherd means that he will lead you perfectly and lovingly to everything you need. It means that you will not want for what you need in this life. So in the process of meditating you can apply this attribute of God to your present circumstances that you might experience transcendent peace in all situations.
Psalm 1:3 promises that if you meditate on Scripture you will be “like a tree planted by streams of water that yields fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.” Scripture has the power to securely ground you in the steadfast love of your heavenly Father. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Root yourself in the word of God, and watch as your life is filled with the fullness of God. Allow Scripture to be an avenue by which you daily meet with its Author. May your time spent meditating on God’s word in guided prayer be marked by his nearness.
1. Begin by simply listening as I read Psalm 1:1-3. Pay attention to any words or phrases that stand out to you.
2. Take time to reflect on the parts of Psalm 1:1-3 that grab you. Allow the Holy Spirit to give you revelation on how his word can affect your life today.
3. Take time to reflect on what Psalm 1:1-3 says about your heavenly Father. Think about how God gave you his word that you might prosper and bear fruit. Think about his goodness and provision. Allow his character to stir up your affections for him.
The joy of Scripture is that its Author is alive, active and dwells within you. You have direct access to the Holy Spirit who inspired every word of the Bible, and he longs to give you revelation. God longs for his word to not just fill you with knowledge but to dwell in your heart. He longs to use it to lead and guide you into an abundant life filled with love and joy. But you must make time to meditate on it. You must make space in your day to allow Scripture to impact every facet of your life. You must open your heart to God’s word as your source of truth so it can transform you. May you be planted by the living water of God’s nearness today and bear the fruits of joy and peace in light of God’s love.
Extended Reading: Psalm 1 or watch a video on Psalms. Also, check out Studies on Prayer Volume 1 & Volume 2 by Janet Denison.
May you be planted by the living water of God’s nearness today and bear the fruits of joy and peace in light of God’s love.
]]>1/10/2026 | Building Blocks for your Time with God
My hope is that today the presence of God is demystified a bit, and becomes a regular part of every day we set aside to meet with him.
As we near the end of our week getting back to the basics of a quality time alone with God, we’re going to take time today to look simply at the presence of God.
As mysterious as it may sound, God’s presence is meant to be a regular part of all our lives. Just as we experience the nearness of those we do life with every day, and the fruit of them simply being with us, God wants us to experience his nearness as well.
My hope is that today the presence of God is demystified a bit, and becomes a regular part of every day we set aside to meet with him. He’s done so much to be close to us, and I can’t wait to see how he fills the space we set aside for him today.
“Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?”
Psalm 139:7 ESV
One of the most important pieces of spending time with God is encountering his presence. His presence is meant to be at the core of all that we do. God so hated separation from us that Jesus was sent to pay the ultimate price. And at Jesus’s death the curtain separating the Holy of Holies from mankind was torn in two—signifying that God’s presence was no longer contained but made available to everyone.
Psalm 139:7-8 says, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!” And Psalm 84:3-4 says, “Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise!” God’s presence is everywhere. There is nowhere you could go that he won’t be with you. There is no situation, conversation, job or place in which you can’t meet with God.
So how do we encounter the presence of God? How do we experience his nearness? Encountering God is similar to encountering another person. I don’t seek an experience with a friend; I simply seek to know him by spending time with him and gain an experience as a result. I don’t seek to hear the voice of a friend; I simply engage in conversation with him as an act of wanting to know him and hear his voice as a result.
The only thing about seeking God that makes it different is that he is spirit rather than flesh. John 4:24 says, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” But it’s for that very reason that we can truly know him! Scripture is clear that God is everywhere and that the Holy Spirit dwells within us. His presence is already with you. Encountering him is as simple as taking some time to become aware of his nearness.
God longs for you to know him. So great is his desire to meet with you Spirit to spirit, heart to heart, that Jesus gave his life. Take time to simply seek God. Meditate on his word. Allow Scripture to fill your heart with faith. And make space to rest in God’s presence that your heart might come alive at the revelation of his nearness.
1. Meditate on Scripture about God’s presence.
“And he said, ‘My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.'” Exodus 33:14
2. Allow Scripture to fill you with faith to encounter God. Center your understanding of encountering God around simply seeking to know him.
“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Romans 10:17
3. Make space to rest in God’s presence. Ask him to show you how to abide in him. He desires to make himself known to you all throughout your day. He wants to be involved in everything you are doing! Nothing is too mundane for the Lord! His desire is to be with you.
“Abide in me, and I in you.” John 15:4
Once you begin consistently encountering God’s presence you will find it becomes easier and easier to set aside that time to meet with him. So many Christians are calling the time they spend reading the Bible “time they spend with God,” without actually encountering him. We preach as Christians that Jesus is alive; our faith hinges on that fact. Yet we go so long without encountering our God who is alive and present. If we’re not regularly encountering the God we serve, we are living and preaching a false gospel by our actions. God’s presence is meant to be encountered. He is present, near, active, and full of love for you. May your time spent with him be marked by his satisfying presence as you experience the transforming power of encountering the living God every day.
Extended Reading: Psalm 16 or watch a video on Psalms. Also, take a look at In Step with the Spirit. bible study from Janet Denison.
May your time spent with him be marked by his satisfying presence as you experience the transforming power of encountering the living God every day.
]]>1/9/2026 | Building Blocks for your Time with God
May God guide us ever closer to him as we create room for him to fill right now.
Today we’ll explore what I hope is the fruit of every day’s devotional, communion with God. We serve a God who is simply after being with us. Every moment of every day is a chance to let God in, to live in real restored relationship with him. May God guide us ever closer to him as we create room for him to fill right now.
John 15:4-5 ESV
The Christian life is meant to be marked by union with God. By the powerful sacrifice of Jesus, the Holy Spirit now dwells within us—longing to make his nearness known. He longs for his perfect love and peace to be the foundation of everything we do, think, and feel.
Brother Lawrence wrote about a life lived in continual communion with God in the book, The Practice of the Presence of God. He said “I cannot imagine how religious persons can live satisfied without the practice of the presence of GOD. For my part I keep myself retired with Him in the depth of centre of my soul as much as I can; and while I am so with Him I fear nothing; but the least turning from Him is insupportable.” The more we grow in our knowledge of the profound union that exists between our spirit and the Holy Spirit, the more we will discover our great need of his tangible, constant presence.
Maybe you are at a place where you don’t feel like you really know God. Maybe you know about him but don’t know him like a friend. In describing the process of coming to know God, Brother Lawrence wrote, “In order to know God, we must often think of Him; and when we come to love Him, we shall then also think of Him often, for our heart will be with our treasure.” An amazing transformation takes place in our hearts as our souls awake to our union with God. His love has the power to ignite us toward a lifestyle of seeking greater communion with him.
In many ways our God is infinitely more knowable than any person. Because God is spirit and now dwells within the hearts of believers, he is perfectly able to reveal himself in deeper, more knowable ways than you have access to with anyone else. He has the ability to reveal his thoughts, feelings, power, love, and will moment by moment and in ways that surpass the miscommunication that language often brings. He speaks straight from his Spirit to yours that you may truly know him to greater depths than anyone else. The question is not can we know God, but are we willing to center our lives around the knowledge of him.
Take time in guided prayer to experience union with God. Ask him to reveal his nearness that you might know him in deeper, more tangible ways. May your day be marked by God’s presence and love moment by moment as you seek to walk with him in all you do.
1. Meditate on Scripture about God’s nearness. Allow the word of God to build up your faith to meet with God.
2. Do you live in moment by moment union with God? Is your whole life marked by his nearness? Know that God has the fullness of grace and mercy for you no matter what your relationship with him looks like. He desires that you know his love to greater depths.
3. Ask God to reveal his nearness to you. Take time to simply seek a greater knowledge of him. By seeking his face you will experience everything that comes from union with him.
Your God is both patient and kind. He longs to be with you so you might know his peace. He longs for the foundation of your life to be his love. Seek his face throughout your day today that your life may be marked by his nearness. Don’t settle for an ordinary day, but strive for the fullness of life God has for you. May your life be marked by a moment to moment knowledge of God’s nearness and love.
Extended Reading: Jeremiah 29 or watch a video on Jeremiah. Also, Take a look at Janet Denison's Foundations bible study.
Don’t settle for an ordinary day, but strive for the fullness of life God has for you. May your life be marked by a moment to moment knowledge of God’s nearness and love.
]]>1/8/2026 | Building Blocks for your Time with God
My hope is that today clarifies a pathway for us that we can walk every day into deeper relationship with God.
Today we’re going to look at what I believe is the most life-giving aspect of daily time alone with God, prayer. There are so many ideas out there about what prayer should be. Today my hope is to clarify what prayer can mean for you and me in this space we’re creating for God’s presence by looking at Scripture together. And then ultimately, making space today to really pray. My hope is that today clarifies a pathway for us that we can walk every day into deeper relationship with God.
1 Corinthians 14:15 ESV
Prayer is one of the most fulfilling aspects of Christian spirituality. It’s time set aside to simply listen to God, to place our lives in his hands, and to pray in response to the desires of his heart. In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Scripture tells us to “pray without ceasing.” In John 14:13-14 Jesus states, “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” But perhaps the most important Scripture on prayer is when Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6:5-15.
Because First15 is meant to stir your affections for God and lead you to a transformational encounter with him, I won’t walk you through an exegesis of verses 9-15. There are numerous resources (one of which I will point out in the extended reading) to assist you in coming to a better understanding of the depth and applications of Jesus’ model prayer. However, I want to focus your attention on verses 5-8 and lead you to a broader definition of prayer so that your prayer life would be marked by God’s nearness. Let’s walk through that text and then apply it as a model we will use daily in First15. In Matthew 6:5-8, Jesus says:
First, Jesus teaches us that we are to pray in secret. What an amazing God we have that he desires to meet with us in secret! All of us have a longing to know our Creator in a way that no one else is allowed into. We each need a secret place with our Maker. It’s vital to our relationship with God that we set aside time to listen to him and talk with him one on one. It’s in this secret place that our relationship with him will go deeper and our lives will be radically transformed.
Next Jesus teaches not to “heap up empty phrases” just to be heard for our “many words.” Jesus makes it clear that prayer is more about relationship with the Father than the words we say. Prayer is more about the heart than the lips. It’s about opening our hearts to God and letting him show us his plan for transformation in both our lives and in the world around us. Mother Theresa said, “Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.” C. S. Lewis wrote, “I don’t pray to change God. I pray because I have to. I pray because I can’t help myself. It doesn’t change God. It changes me.”
Do you need God today? Do you need his presence in your life? Do you need to be changed through an encounter with your heavenly Father? Take time in guided prayer to “place [yourself] in the hands of God” and allow him to change you by his goodness and love.
1. Take a moment to place yourself “in the hands of God.” Open your heart to God and surrender your life to him that all of you would be completely his.
2. Take some time to listen to God. Ask him to lay something on your heart that he wants to accomplish in prayer today. It could be prayer for yourself, for someone you know, or for the nation in which you live. Sometimes God speaks with words, sometimes an inclination or a thought. Pay attention to anything the Spirit lays on your heart and trust his leading.
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20
3. Pray for whatever the Spirit puts on your heart. Ask God how to pray for it. Ask God for his will. Through prayer we align ourselves with the heart of God and agree with what he wants to do in us and in the world around us.
Oftentimes we make prayer far more complex than the Lord ever intended. The weight of change does not rest on our shoulders. It’s God alone who heals and transforms. Just as salvation is about receiving the gift Jesus already paid for, prayer is about saying yes to what God already wants to do. We never have to beg him for mercy or compassion. He is a Father filled with grace to a level we will never comprehend. But it’s in prayer that we discover the grace God has and open ourselves up to be transformed by it. And it’s in prayer that we agree with God’s heart for others that we might co-labor with him in what he longs to see happen in the world around us. May your prayer life be filled with the fullness of God and his powerful love.
Extended Reading: The Lord’s Prayer as a Paradigm of Christian Prayer by N.T. Wright or watch a video on 1 Corinthians and Studies on Prayer Volume 1 & Volume 2 by Janet Denison.
We never have to beg him for mercy or compassion. He is a Father filled with grace to a level we will never comprehend. But it’s in prayer that we discover the grace God has and open ourselves up to be transformed by it.
]]>1/7/2026 | Building Blocks for your Time with God
May our time together help you get even more out of this space for God’s presence.
Today in our week-long focus on the foundations of a quality time alone with God, we’re going to look at the devotional piece of our times together. I’m so excited to share with you our heart behindwhat you hear every day, and I know that our time together will help you get even more out of this space for God’s presence.
1 John 4:16 ESV
The devotional section of First15 began with the belief that we need our affections for God to be constantly stirred. In the chaos of life, we need a reminder of God’s goodness and loving kindness towards us. With all the darkness that surrounds, we need help remembering that God has overcome the world and brought us to the light. This devotional exists to serve that need.
Many wonderful and anointed devotionals line our bookshelves. We can access a seemingly limitless amount of incredible teaching available today. I hope that First15 will faithfully draw you into a daily encounter with the heart of God and fill you with a desire to know him more.
You were created for real, tangible relationship with God. You were created with longings that cannot be satisfied until you experience the fullness of God available to you through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. I firmly believe that if you will simply make your heart available to be stirred up by the truth of God’s nearness and love, then you will experience whatever it is you’ve been looking for.
If you will engage with the devotional section of First15 and open your heart that God might speak to you, the Holy Spirit will guide you into an encounter with your omnipotent, omnipresent Creator. God longs to be encountered. He longs for you to know his love. If you will begin each day simply seeking to meet with him for fifteen minutes, your heart will soften and be stirred to live wholly centered around God’s goodness.
Encountering God leads to life transformation. Trivial things that seemed to matter before will no longer matter. That which robbed you of joy, purpose and abundant life will no longer have a hold on you. God’s love is powerful and real. His desire is for you. His presence is available to you. Take the next few minutes to open your heart and receive a transforming knowledge of God’s love.
1. Reflect on the depth of God’s love for you. Allow Scripture to stir up your desire for God as you meditate on his word.
2. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you a revelation of his nearness. Quiet your mind and open your heart to receive his presence. If you have questions about God’s presence, reflect on this Scripture.
3. Take a little time to write down or reflect on how you feel after encountering God's love. Reflecting on the effects of encountering God will stir up your heart towards his reality and help you seek him more often.
Evelyn Underhill writes, “This is adoration; not a difficult religious exercise, but an attitude of the soul.” May all our lives be marked by an attitude of adoration. May we seek to simply love God moment by moment rather than in infrequent bursts. And may experiencing glorious union with the Holy Spirit as afforded us by Jesus’ sacrifice be the foundation for all we do, think, and feel. I pray that your day today would be marked by humble, simple adoration of the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Extended Reading: 1 John 4 or watch a video on 1-3 John.
May all our lives be marked by an attitude of adoration. May we seek to simply love God moment by moment rather than in infrequent bursts. And may experiencing glorious union with the Holy Spirit as afforded us by Jesus’ sacrifice be the foundation for all we do, think, and feel.
]]>1/6/2026 | Building Blocks for your Time with God
Worship is perhaps the most foundational part of a quality time alone with God.
Today we’ll continue our week looking at the foundation of a quality time alone with God by looking at the value of worship. Worship is perhaps the most foundational part of a quality time alone with God. It takes what can so often be a self-centered time, and empowers us to put God, with all his love and goodness, right at the center of our time instead. May God stir each of our hearts to engage with him in worship today.
“But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning.”
Psalm 59:16 ESV
What is worship through song? When we go to church or gather with other believers, why do we sing? Clearly not everyone finds singing or music to be their greatest passion, so why do we do it?
Worship is first and foremost about the longing of God for unfettered relationship with his people. In authentic worship we can touch the heart of our Creator—satisfying the desires of he who paid the highest price simply to have us. Scripture is clear that God loves when we sing to him and about him. Ephesians 5:18-19 tells us to “be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.” John 4:23 states, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.”
God loves worship. He longs for it. Think of that! You have an opportunity every day, through worship, to satisfy the heart of the one who paints sunsets, breathes life into dust and forms mountains, galaxies, animals, angels and humankind with just the power of his voice. You bring your Creator immense joy and satisfaction when you worship through singing.
You see, God is after your heart. He’s after direct connection from his Spirit to yours. Music has this profound ability to reach past our limited understanding and help our heart connect with he who is limitless and eternal. It serves as an avenue for this cyclical, reciprocal act of love and devotion between the Creator and the created. In worship we discover the reality of God on a level different than reading Scripture or spending time in prayer or community. In worship we can sing to God songs of adoration, thanksgiving, high praise, and unadulterated love in response to his character, nearness, and devotion. Simply put, in worship we give and receive that which is most important—love.
Whether you normally engage in personal worship right now or not, know that you were created to worship. You were made to connect directly with the heart of God. As you engage in the act of worship you will discover the nearness of a God so filled with steadfast love and devotion for you that everything changes. As you consistently touch the heart of the Father your life will be transformed by his limitless grace and passionate pursuit. Engaging in worship will result in an overflowing, unquenchable joy, as there is no greater experience than that of a perfect God meeting with an imperfect person.
Take time in guided prayer to reflect on the importance of worship and connect directly with the heart of your heavenly Father. May your time be marked by a greater revelation of his nearness and love.
1. Allow Scripture to fill you with a longing to connect directly with your Creator through worship.
2. Ask God to show you how much he loves your worship—to give you a revelation of his great love for you. May his desire for worship be the foundation of your devotion.
3. Spend some time resting in the presence of God. Ask him to reveal his love to you in a fresh way and worship him in response.
“But for me it is good to be near God.” Psalm 73:28
If you feel the weight of the world resting on your shoulders at any point today, take a few minutes to engage in worship. A small time of worship has the power to reprioritize our lives and make the stresses and burdens of life diminish in light of God’s eternal love. May your day today be marked by the peace and joy of one who knows the love and nearness of the Father.
Extended Reading: John 4 or watch a video on John 1-12.
May your day today be marked by the peace and joy of one who knows the love and nearness of the Father.
]]>1/5/2026 | Building Blocks for your Time with God
This week we will get back to the basics and learn some spiritual disciplines that will help us encounter God.
This week we’ll spend time breaking down the individual components of First15 by sharing God's desire for each of them. The majority of First15 is dedicated to encountering God and learning about his character, but every now and then we will cover some teaching and tools that will help in pursuing God to greater depths. This week we will get back to the basics and learn some spiritual disciplines that will help us encounter him in deeper, more transformative ways.
“You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, Lord, do I seek.'”
Psalm 27:8 ESV
We all have a hunger to know why we’re here. We all possess an insatiable desire for love, passion, and purpose. Maybe you’ve had a relationship with God for years. Maybe you’re still trying to figure out if God even exists or if he is knowable. Wherever you are in your journey with God, know this—God longs to satisfy your hunger. He knows everything about you. He’s counted every hair on your head and thinks about you more than the grains of sand (Psalm 139:18). And he loves you more than you could ever comprehend. So great is his steadfast love for you that he has a perfect plan for every one of your days. He longs to transform your thoughts, emotions. and actions with his loving kindness that your life may be filled with passion, purpose, satisfaction, and the wonderful peace of his presence.
We all require transformation. We all need the freedom and healing that comes from relationship with our Creator. And we serve a God of miraculous transformation. Scripture says, “God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive – a living soul!” (Genesis 2:7 MSG). Psalm 139:13 states that God knit you together in your mother’s womb. You are fearfully and wonderfully made for relationship with your heavenly Father (Psalm 139:14). Your heavenly Father longs to bring about miraculous transformation every day of your life so that you would be increasingly marked by the powerful work of his presence.
So how does God desire to bring about transformation? What are his perfect plans for filling your days with passion, purpose, and love? God’s main avenue for transformation is through spending time alone with him every day. No matter where you are in your relationship with God, time spent in the presence of your Creator receiving a tangible revelation of his steadfast love will be the catalyst to living a life transformed. Just as a candle must be ignited with a flame to burn, so you must continuously encounter the fire of God’s love to live a transformed, joy-filled life. He is the only constant source that you have. You will only find lasting satisfaction through his nearness. Nothing else will supply all you need to live the life you truly desire.
That’s what First15 is all about. First15 was created to give you a practical resource to meet God every day. No matter how busy you are, you can set aside fifteen minutes to connect with your Creator and Sustainer. God longs to meet with you. He waits patiently to spend time with you. Think of that! The Creator of the universe, of all things wonderful and good, is patiently waiting right now to spend time with you!
The choice of how you will spend this year is entirely up to you. I pray that you would be filled with the longing and strength to spend time with your heavenly Father. I pray that this resource is helpful in connecting you to the Father that your longings would be fully satisfied in meeting with him. God is a limitless ocean of grace and help. And all that’s necessary to receive from him is some time, open hands and an open heart. God calls you his beloved and longs for you to know to greater depths “the breadth and length and height and depth” of his great love for you (Ephesians 3:18).
Spend some time in guided prayer receiving the love of God. Answer the call to seek his face as David did in Psalm 27 saying, “Your face Lord do I seek.”
1. Take some time to ask God how he feels about you. God still speaks today. Jesus is still alive and at work through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit loves to speak to us. He loves to reveal God’s heart. God is not silent. Simply make space to listen. Don’t be frustrated if it’s difficult at first. Listening to God can take time. You are on a path to a deeper relationship with him. Just as it takes time to truly get to know someone, it will take time for you to get to know the Holy Spirit. But it is time spent investing in eternity.
2. Write down how you feel in God’s presence. What senses did you get about his heart? Writing down what God says helps in stewarding what he is so faithful to reveal. You may wish to keep a journal close by to record what God is showing you so you can read back, be reminded and implement what he has spoken.
3. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the desire, self-control, and faithfulness to spend time each day in his presence developing your relationship with God.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” Galatians 5:22-23
The best way to consistently encounter the transformative love of God is to set aside time early each morning that you’ll never miss. Creating a habit can often be difficult. But there is no greater pursuit than a deeper relationship with God. The time you spend with God is of eternal value. Pick a time you can consistently meet with him. Before you go to sleep ask God to give you grace and desire to wake up and encounter him. The more you do it the easier it will become. And as you grow in the knowledge of God and his goodness, time spent with him will become your favorite time of the day. May your day be marked by his transcendent peace and tangible nearness.
Extended Reading: Psalm 139 or watch a video on Psalms.
May your day be marked by his transcendent peace and tangible nearness.
]]>1/4/2026 | Begin the new year with God
As we discover God’s heart to meet with us in order that we might experience the depths of his love, I pray that your life would be marked by a new grace to consistently and powerfully encounter the living God.
For our final day of this week, we’re going to ask God to awaken the hearts of our nation and culture. The need for a move of God has become more obvious than ever, yet he often moves in response to the faithful prayers of his people. Let us be those people today and ask for the great awakening our world so desperately needs.
2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV
I’ve often heard people pray for God to bring revival to our nation, yet rarely have I heard prayers for a great awakening. But throughout its history, the Western world has actually seen four “great awakenings.” What’s the difference, you may ask?
Revivals change people and churches. Awakenings change cultures and nations.
The First Great Awakening happened in 1734 under the teaching of pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards and the British evangelist George Whitefield. Before it began, only 5 percent of colonial Americans identified with a Christian church. At its height, 80 percent were active followers of Jesus.
The next Great Awakening was in 1792 and was sparked by a prayer movement led by a Baptist minister named Isaac Backus. This movement led to more than a thousand large gatherings, called camp meetings, held across the country. Churches doubled and tripled in membership, and William Carey began what we now consider the modern missions movement.
The Third Great Awakening was in 1858, resulting from a “businessman’s prayer meeting” movement that began the previous year in New York. Out of a national population of thirty million people, more than a million came to Christ in a single year. And at one point, fifty thousand were turning to Jesus for salvation every week. This revival even continued into the Civil War when more than one hundred thousand soldiers came to Christ.
And, the Fourth Great Awakening began in Wales in 1904. This awakening impacted every sphere of culture and industry. Police formed barbershop quartets to sing in churches since there was no one to arrest. Saloons went bankrupt. And this awakening spread to the US: for example, out of fifty thousand residents in Atlantic City, New Jersey, only fifty were unconverted. Two hundred stores in Portland, Oregon, closed every day so people could attend prayer meetings.
I share all of this because now, today, the world is seeing a Fifth Great Awakening.
More Muslims have come to Christ in the last fifteen years than in the previous fifteen centuries. China’s underground church is exploding in growth. Churches are growing exponentially in Cuba and across Latin and South America. And sub-Saharan Africa is witnessing a remarkable advance of the gospel.
Will we see this awakening in America? Is an awakening of this magnitude even possible today? We believe it is. And we are praying that First15 can be one such catalyst in the movement we so desperately need. So today, would you join us in this prayer?
God’s promise is clear in our Scripture for today:
If we will, our Father promises to hear us, forgive us, and heal our land.
1. Meditate on God’s gracious desire to “heal our land.”
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 33:12).
2. Pray for the Lord to bring the Fifth Great Awakening to our land. Ask that God would move powerfully in our nation and our world.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).
3. Ask God to show you how you can participate in his plan for renewal.
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Peter 4:10).
James 4:8 promises: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” So let’s close this week with a practical way to accept his invitation.
Rodney Smith was an evangelist in the US and Great Britain for seven decades. He was once asked how revival begins. His answer: “Go home, lock yourself in your room. Kneel down in the middle of the floor, and with a piece of chalk, draw a circle around yourself. There, on your knees, pray fervently and brokenly that God would start a revival within that chalk circle.”
As we go today, let’s draw that circle around our hearts.
Extended reading: Acts 2
May your day be filled with the fullness of God today.
]]>1/3/2026 | Begin the new year with God
Even today, even now, God is working to redeem our pain and heartache for his glory and our good.
As we continue our first week of the new year, today we’re going to look at how God redeems all that he allows. Each of us faces difficult seasons in our lives, but thankfully, God does not leave us there alone. Even today, even now, God is working to redeem our pain and heartache for his glory and our good.
Romans 8:28–29 ESV
What comes to mind when you think about your greatest fears for the future?
I could list several. So, as we look at trusting the Lord for today and our new year, let’s focus on this promise: God redeems all he allows.
Our God is a good Father who knows all of the problems you face and assures you that in Him, “all things work together for good.” In its original Greek language, this phrase could be literally translated as “every event in your life will cooperate with every other dimension of your life for your benefit.”
God is working through all things because He wants us to be “conformed to the image of his Son.” He uses every area of our lives to make us more like Jesus.
And in this way, God redeems all he allows. Let’s unpack this fact just a bit more.
Matthew 10:29 explains that because our God is sovereign, he must allow or cause all that happens in our world. But just because He allows certain things doesn’t mean he approves of them. And, because “God is love” as stated in 1 John 4:8, he can only want our best. And because he is “holy,” as Scripture tells us in Isaiah 6:3, he can never make a mistake.
But God would be making a mistake if he allowed or caused anything he did not redeem for a greater good, either in this world or the next. Since he can’t make a mistake, his character requires him to redeem all he allows to make us more like Jesus.
To be clear, this doesn’t mean we will always understand God’s redemption in this world. I don’t fully understand the car I drive or even the phone I use every day. But one day, you and I will understand what we can’t comprehend today (1 Corinthians 13:12).
All that is required of us is to have faith to receive the grace God desires to give. Those who love God and want to become like Jesus are the ones who most fully experience his redemption in their lives.
So today, will you put your life and your new year in the redemptive hands of your loving Father? If that feels difficult for you today, then let’s start by asking for His help.
1. Meditate on the reality that God redeems every area of your life that you entrust to him.
God “saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began” (2 Timothy 1:9).
2. Ask your Father to show you how to be more like Jesus today. Pray that he will show you what you need to stop doing and start doing to be more like your Savior.
“Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked” (1 John 2:6).
3. Ask God how you can partner with him in his work of redemption today.
“We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).
Becoming like Jesus includes helping others to become like Jesus. Mark 10:45 says he came “not to be served but to serve,” and he calls us to do the same (John 13:14). And as we help others follow Christ, we actually become more like Christ as well.
There is no greater purpose than being like Jesus and helping others do the same. Will you open the door of your heart to him today? Is there someone else that you can help know Him better as well?
Extended reading: Romans 8
There is no greater purpose than being like Jesus and helping others be like Jesus.
]]>1/2/2026 | Begin the new year with God
God promises us that we can trust his heart even when we can’t see his hand.
Today we’re going to explore what it means to truly trust God. Life is full of incredibly difficult circumstances, and in the midst of disappointments and pain, it can be hard to trust that he is good and loving. But thankfully, God promises us that we can trust his heart even when we can’t see his hand. Let’s look today at what it means to trust God in the midst of our circumstances.
“I know the plans I have for you, declares the
Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Jeremiah 29:11 ESV
As we focus on practical ways to begin our year with God, let’s pause today to ask an honest question: Why should we want to trust our year and our lives to him?
There’s no avoiding the fact that our world is a broken place. And for many of us, the tragedies and disappointments that we face can cause us to question whether or not God is truly good. That questioning is only natural since Christians believe in an all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful God. Because of that, he knows all about our problems, loves us enough to help us with them, and is powerful enough to do so.
And yet you and I still live in this fallen, broken world.
If you’re like me, God has not answered all your prayers in the way you wanted. Philip Yancey’s book, Disappointment with God was a bestseller because it spoke of what many of us have sometimes felt: disappointed.
Where has God disappointed you?
The first audience of today’s Scripture shared our struggle. They were exiles in Babylon, living as slaves to an enemy that had stolen them from their homes and destroyed their temple.
And yet, in the midst of their suffering, their Lord promised them that he had “plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” He fulfilled those plans when he raised up the Persian Empire to destroy the Babylonian Empire and return his people to their promised land. There, they would rebuild their temple and reestablish their nation. Five centuries later, their Messiah would teach in that same temple and lay down his life for their sins and ours.
But how does the Bible connect God’s “plans for welfare” with the evil and suffering we experience? Here are some approaches:
Whichever approach is most relevant for you today, here’s the reality: the harder it is to trust God, the more we need to trust him.
On our most painful days, when we are most tempted to turn from him, we most need his help. The sicker the patient, the more urgent the physician.
What are your greatest challenges today? What fears or worries are burdening your heart?
Spend some time naming them, and then trust them to your Lord. Remember that no matter your circumstances and challenges, he wants an “abundant,” joy-filled, transformed life for you.
In his book The Promised Land, the Scottish minister John MacDuff made this profound statement: when you can’t trace God’s hand, trust his heart.
Let us do the same.
1. Identify a way you are disappointed with God today. Be specific and honest.
“Why, O Lord, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1).
2. Ask him for the faith to trust him with your problem. When we lack faith, we can pray for the faith to have faith.
“I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)
3. Trust your challenges and your day to your Father’s providential plan and love.
“Delight yourself in the Lᴏʀᴅ, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lᴏʀᴅ; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday” (Psalm 37:4–6).
Henri Nouwen made popular the concept of the “wounded healer,” the person who helps others with the same struggles they have experienced personally. As you trust God with your hard places this year, look for ways to serve others facing similar challenges. Remember: God “comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” ( 2 Corinthians 1:4)
How can you share the comfort you have received today?
Extended reading: Jeremiah 29:1–14
As you trust God with your hard places this year, look for ways you can serve others facing similar challenges.
]]>1/1/2026 | Begin the new year with God
Worship is perhaps the most foundational part of a quality time alone with God.
As we begin a brand new year, we’re going to explore what it looks like to create New Year’s resolutions that matter. Many of us feel the pressure to make changes that will positively impact our lives, yet we often struggle to find resolutions that are truly valuable and sustainable. But God, in his love, promises to make us new creations when we surrender ourselves to him and his plans. So, as we dive into this brand new year, let’s explore what it looks like to receive this great gift of transformation today.
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV
As each year begins, we often wish our families and friends a “Happy New Year.” But did you know that those words, or at least their equivalents, were first spoken by the ancient Babylonians around four thousand years ago? Yet fast-forward to today and New Year’s Day is the most universal of all holidays, celebrated by people of all religions and cultures around the world.
When I think of the new year, I often think of making resolutions. And even this tradition, as old as the holiday itself, was invented by the Babylonians. Their most popular New Year’s resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment (which is not a resolution I’ve ever needed to make). But like them and like most people, I typically begin each year by creating goals around what I want to start doing and what I want to stop doing.
In that spirit, let’s begin our new year by making the resolution your heart most wants to make.
Bob Buford’s bestselling book, Halftime: Changing Your Game Plan from Success to Significance, helps us understand the difference between the two. Success is for now; significance is forever. Success is fleeting; significance is transcendent.
You and I were made for significance. We were made to outlive ourselves, to leave a legacy beyond ourselves. As we begin this year, there is something in us that wants this year to matter when the year is done. But there’s only one pathway to true significance.
The Apostle Paul declared, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). And this promise is for you—no matter the guilt you may carry from the past, challenges you face in the present, or the fears you have for the future.
The moment you choose to be “in Christ,” which means to have a personal relationship with Jesus, you become a “new creation.” You are “born again,” as Jesus said in John 3:3.
Now, you have the honor of helping someone else experience the same grace. The truth is, God made you for this simple purpose: to know Christ and to make him known. Everything else is a means to this end.
There is nothing you can do to make God love you any more than he already does. But there is a catch: this gift of God must be received. Like Christmas presents under the tree, the gift of salvation must be opened.
Have you opened your gift yet? Are you a “new creation”? Have you been “born again”? Do you remember the day when you asked Jesus to forgive your sins and failures and turned your life over to him as your Savior and Lord?
If not, why not today?
If you are a new creation in Christ, begin the new year by seeking to know him and to make him known. Allow his presence and his word to heal and transform you as you get to know him more deeply this year. This is the path to true significance.
And it’s the resolution your heart most wants to make today.
When you receive an incredible gift, it’s natural to want to tell people about it. And of course, eternal life is the greatest gift of all.
Who do you know that needs to hear about the gift of relationship with Jesus? As you go about your day today, pray for them by name, and ask God to give you the opportunity to share your story with them.
One of the greatest gifts we can give is to share what God has done in us.
Extended reading: John 3
One of the greatest gifts we can give is to share what God has done in us.
]]>12/31/2025 | End of the Year
Whenever we make a little room in our day, and in our hearts for God, it always amazes me how he can fill us with exactly what we need.
For the last day of the year, we’re going to take time to simply make space for God to fill. Whenever we make a little room in our day, and in our hearts for God, it always amazes me how he can fill us with exactly what we need. So today, simply make room for God for whatever you need most, and allow him to fill that space with his good and perfect nearness.
Psalm 46:10 ESV
The story of Mary, Martha, and Jesus found in Luke 10 encapsulates God’s longing for simple, unfettered relationship with his children. As this year comes to a close I pray that this story would set a fire in our hearts to live out of unhindered union with our heavenly Father. I pray that we would seek to continually make space in our lives for the one thing that truly matters. Scripture says in Luke 10:38-42,
I want my life to be centered around “the good portion.” I want all my days to be marked by choosing to sit at the feet of Jesus rather than living a life based solely on works. At the end of my life, I want to look back and know that I sought relationship with my God above all else, and that I gave him my heart in and out of every season, no matter the cost.
The simple truth of Christian spirituality is that God longs to fill whatever space we make available to him with his nearness. The gift he gives us that far surpasses a spouse, a job, a family, earthly success, or financial stability is simply himself. The heartcry of our heavenly Father is simply this, “Abide in me, and I in you” (John 15:4).
What would it look like if your chief New Year’s resolution was making space for God to fill? What other desires of your heart would that take care of? How wonderful would it be to experience the transcendent peace and joy that comes from centering your life around meeting with God? How continually satisfied would you feel in consistently receiving the powerful love of your heavenly Father?
Take time today to reflect on what truly matters. Take time to choose “the good portion” that your life might be centered around he who alone has the power to truly satisfy your every longing. May your year be marked by unhindered union with the God who fills you with his greatest gift: himself.
1. Meditate on God being “the good portion.” Allow the story of Mary, Martha, and Jesus to fill you with a longing to seek relationship with God above all else.
2. Take time to make space for God to fill. Open your heart to him and center your focus on his nearness. Allow Scripture to fill you with faith to receive all he has to offer.
“Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!” 1 Chronicles 16:11
3. Rest in the nearness of God. Cast aside all other concerns, fears, and reservations and simply be with God. He will guide you into all you need, but relationship with him should always be centered around simply sitting at his feet.
If you center your life around abiding in God, your year will be filled with remarkable, heavenly, and eternal impact. May John 15:1-5 fill you with a desire to abide in God that all you do this year may yield lasting fruit:
Extended Reading: Luke 10 or watch the Bible Project’s video on Luke Ch. 10-24. Take a look at Janet Denison's A Shepherd's Christmas Bible Study.
May John 15:1-5 fill you with a desire to abide in God that all you do this year may yield lasting fruit.
]]>12/30/2025 | Emmanuel
May your heart be filled with the fruit of his incredible plans today.
As we near the end of this year, today I want to create space to simply dream with God. God has so many incredible plans for you next year. He has so many dreams in his heart for you. And today as we create space for him, my hope is that he shares those dreams with us, that we could partner with him in running after the abundant life he has for each of us. May your heart be filled with the fruit of his incredible plans today.
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Psalm 37:4 ESV
God longs for his children to dream. He longs for us to set aside time with him to wish and wonder about what life could be. I fear that many Christians have lost the art of dreaming with God out of a misunderstanding of his heart. While God most definitely has a will for our lives, he also longs for us to dream with him so that his desires become our own. While he most definitely has perfect plans for us, he longs for us to want his plans that we might co-labor with him rather than being dragged by him like an ill-tempered child into what’s best. May we make time today as the new year approaches to dream with God that our hearts may be filled with his longings and desires.
The chief way in which God wants to lead you is by planting dreams in your heart and then satisfying those dreams. Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Our Father longs for us to be so delighted in him that we would want what he wants. He longs to fill us with right desires and then satisfy those desires in his perfect timing and in his perfect way. He longs for us to trust him as our good Shepherd to such a depth that we joyfully follow him wherever he leads.
You see, Psalm 37:4 is more about delighting ourselves in God than getting what we currently think we want most. It’s more about the pursuit of him as our chief joy than anything we could receive from him. God alone knows what’s best for us. He alone has the perspective and wisdom to shepherd us to a truly abundant life. And we will never follow someone we don’t trust has our best will at heart.
To make God our chief joy is to surrender our lives to the overwhelming goodness and grace of an omnipotent, omnipresent, and fully loving Father. God is both willing and able to lead us into the fullness of abundant life. He is both willing and able to fill us with right longings and desires if we will simply open our hearts and trust him.
Until we center our hearts, and therefore our lives, totally and completely around the goodness and will of our heavenly Father, we will never experience all this life has to offer. The gateway to living filled and satisfied is simply enjoying God and allowing our hearts to become like his.
Know today that your heavenly Father longs to dream with you. He longs to hear what it is you most desire. He longs to have conversation with you about what’s best. And he longs to be your chief joy, that the greatest cry of your heart is to delight yourself in him and receive whatever comes with fully restored, unbridled relationship with him. May your day be marked by a filling of new desires from your loving Father.
1. Meditate on God’s heart to be your chief joy and to dream with you.
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4
2. In what ways do you need to make God your chief joy? What have you placed above him in your heart? What are you looking to for joy, security, and fulfillment above God?
3. Take time to enjoy God and ask him to fill you with dreams and desires. In his presence take note of what you long for. Ask him to transform your heart that you may desire what he wants.
“For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.” Psalm 33:21
Psalm 37:23-24 says, “The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand.” There is no greater pursuit than simply delighting in the Lord. When we delight ourselves in him, life becomes incredibly simple. It’s in the mixing of God and the world that our hearts feel burdened and confused. Assess the status of your heart today. To what level are you delighting in God? Will the chief pursuit of your life be God or the world? Get lost in the love of your heavenly Father today and allow your life to become swept up in his overwhelming goodness.
Extended Reading: Psalm 37 or watch the Bible Project’s video on Psalms. Take a look at Janet Denison's A Shepherd's Christmas Bible Study.
Get lost in the love of your heavenly Father today and allow your life to become swept up in his overwhelming goodness.
]]>12/29/2025 | End of the Year
As we make space for his presence today, I pray that he fills us with a new measure of hope and life in his nearness.
Today we’re going to take a look at the fresh hope we have in God’s nearness. God’s promise to be near to us as his people, and the great lengths he’s gone to commune with us in the Holy Spirit, has the power to change every moment of our lives. And one of the most powerful changes his nearness provides is hope, and the peace that comes with it. As we make space for his presence today, I pray that he fills us with a new measure of hope and life in his nearness.
"Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you."
Psalm 33:22 ESV
As sons and daughters of the living God, faith founded on God’s nearness should be at the core of our hope for next year. Psalm 139:7-12 says,
There is no greater source of hope than God’s resounding declaration of his nearness. Jesus paid the ultimate price that you and I might be no longer separated from God. His presence now dwells within us through the Holy Spirit. And that fact brings a pervasive hope that has the ability to profoundly impact every aspect of our lives.
As you look forward, know that the God who dwells within you knows every little thing that will happen next year. He dwells within all of eternity. Time for him is not as it is for us. And he promises to be with you in the midst of any trial, pain, victory, or defeat. He longs for you to know his presence moment by moment in everything you will do.
Your heavenly Father says, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). You can have the fullness of hope for next year because the God who fashioned time is “your God.” He will help you and be there for you. He will never “leave you or forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6).
While the rest of the world sits in fear and worry over what the future holds, your God is leading you in the path of peace that comes from trusting in his presence. But the choice is yours. Will you place your hope in yourself, others, the world, or in God? If you try and build your hope on the foundations of this world, you will find yourself tossed about by the ever-changing waves of man’s opinion. But if you choose to found your hope on the rock of God’s nearness, your life will be filled with all the goodness and mercy of God’s steadfast love.
Take time right now to place your hope in the loving nearness of your heavenly Father as you enter into guided prayer.
1. Allow Scripture to fill you with hope founded on the nearness of God.
2. Where do you need the peace and comfort that comes from knowing God is and will always be near to you? What are you worried about for next year? What unknowns are causing you stress or fear?
3. Take time to place your hope in the nearness of your heavenly Father. Place your trust in him that he will always be with you through thick and thin.
Why do we live as if God isn’t near to us? Why do we fumble through life on our own when Jesus paid the ultimate price that we might have restored relationship with our loving Creator? God has made available a better way of living and has called us to walk in it. He wants us to know his will, love, and power moment by moment. He wants our thoughts, emotions, and actions to be fully founded in his unshakable nearness. Paul’s prayer in Romans 15:13 is my prayer for you today: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” May your day be filled with the peace that comes from trusting in God’s nearness.
Extended Reading: Psalm 139 or watch the Bible Project’s video on Psalms.
May your day be filled with the peace that comes from trusting in God’s nearness.
]]>12/28/2025 | End of the Year
My hope is that we’re filled with courage and hope today for what God can and will do in us as we make space to live and work in him in this new year.
As we continue our series allowing God to prepare us for the new year, today we’re going to look at the promise of God that we can do all things in his strength. My hope is that we’re filled with courage and hope today for what God can and will do in us as we make space to live and work in him in this new year.
Philippians 4:13 ESV
“I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). Do you know that your God longs to strengthen you? This verse illustrates a powerful spiritual principle that our heavenly Father longs for you to know today. You were never meant to go through this life alone, living in your own strength. The God who formed the mountains, filled the seas, breathed life into dust, and sustains every living creature longs to strengthen you for whatever lies ahead.
Ephesians 3:20-21 says, “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” God can do “far more abundantly” than you could ever dream in your life, “according to the power at work within [you].” The Holy Spirit, the power of God for all the earth, dwells within you. Just as he empowered the Apostles for the advance of the gospel through trial and tribulation, he will empower you. Just as he spoke to the Apostles, telling them where they should go and what they should do, he longs to lead you.
You can do all that God has called you to. Whether it be victory over sin, engaging in difficult confession, working biblically rather than according to the world, seeking unity and fellowship with those that bother you, or simply seeking God with all your heart, the Holy Spirit will strengthen you today if you are willing to receive.
To be strengthened by God begins by declaring our inability. God says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). When we try and live in our own strength, we become unable to receive the grace of God. God’s grace is never forced on us, but rather it is readily available to all those who acknowledge their need of it. God cannot empower you to experience unity with a fellow believer if you try and engage in relationship apart from the inner work of the Holy Spirit. He cannot empower you to experience victory from sin if you don’t take time to receive his love and follow his leadership moment by moment.
To be strengthened by the mighty hand of God is to stop living in your own strength and instead wholly rely on his. God longs to “do far more abundantly than all [you] ask or think” if you will lean into him for his love, power, and guidance. He has plans far above anything you could ever dream of, and the path to those plans begins with following him moment by moment today. He will faithfully guide you into all the abundant life he has for you, but you must be willing to follow him and live by his strength.
Take time in guided prayer to meditate on the strength of God available to you, acknowledge your need of his help, and receive his grace.
1. Meditate on God’s desire to empower you to do all he has planned for you.
2. Acknowledge your need of God’s help in every area. Tell him you need his help for victory over sin, your relationships, and for the tasks set before you.
“For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” Romans 6:14
3. Take time to receive God’s presence and experience his grace. Ask him to fill you with a desire for holiness. Ask him to fill you with love for others. Ask him to reveal his path to you today that you might follow his leading moment by moment.
In the context of our verse for today, Paul describes an important spiritual principle in Philippians 4:11-13:
Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.Trust God in whatever season he’s leading you through. Whether you find yourself with plenty or little, difficulties or ease, you can find your contentment in the gift of abundant relationship with your heavenly Father. All that is good comes from his hands alone. May you be strengthened to find joy, peace, and contentment in the presence of your loving Father.
Extended Reading: Philippians 4 or watch the Bible Project’s video on Philippians.
May you be strengthened to find joy, peace, and contentment in the presence of your loving Father.
]]>12/27/2025 | End of the Year
May you get a real sense of redemption and grace today as we seek the heart of God together.
As we continue our series, allowing God to prepare us as the new year approaches, today we’ll make space for God to create new beginnings in our lives. Every one of us needs a new beginning in some way, a fresh start in some area of our life. And this season heading into the new year is a perfect time to allow God to fill us with new life. May you get a real sense of redemption and grace today as we seek the heart of God together.
Lamentations 3:22-24 ESV
A new year marks a new beginning: a time for the children of God to reground themselves in the love of the Father. God loves to use new seasons to remind us of his desire to continually make us new. From winter to spring we see that which appeared dead burst forth into beautiful arrays of God’s glorious work. And God longs for the same fresh start in our lives as he does for his creation. He longs to make things new as the new year begins.
Lamentations 3:22-24 says, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.'” We have hope in the steadfast love of God. His powerful love can make new all that needs restoration. God’s heart is to free you from that which weighs you down and robs you of the abundant life Jesus came to bring you.
With this year coming to a close and a new year fast approaching, it’s time for us to gain perspective on that which needs rebirth. Whatever sin has entangled you this year does not have to gain victory over you in the next. Whatever lie you’ve believed that’s wrecked your emotions, thoughts, and actions does not have to win the battle over your mind next year. Whatever wound or disappointment that has hurt you can be healed and reborn to empower you for that which is to come.
God’s heart is to meet you where you are today. He longs to meet you at your greatest point of weakness and pain and wrap you up in his love. He longs for you to know he is with you, for you, and will walk with you into newness of life. “His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:22-23). God has limitless, powerful grace for you today. Run to him with your sin. Run to him with your failures and struggles. Run to him with the pain of others’ words that he might speak his healing truth over you.
Your heavenly Father loves you and is for you. He has new beginnings in store for you. But just as a tree needs fresh sunlight, warmth, and rain to bear fruit again, you need the refreshing rain of God’s grace and the warmth of his steadfast love to be made new. You can’t do it on your own. You weren’t made to do it on your own. All you need for a new beginning is wholly available in the arms of your loving Father. Open up your heart to him today and receive the newness of life he paid the highest price to give.
1. Meditate on God’s desire and ability to lead you to a new beginning. Reflect on his power over sin, his heart to comfort, and his ability to shepherd.
2. Where do you need a new beginning? What sin do you need freedom from? What wound do you need healed? Where do you need new life?
3. Run to God with your sin, pain, failures, and frustrations and open your heart to receive his powerful presence. Ask him to show you the path to victory over sin. Ask him to reveal his plan for healing your wounds. Rest in his loving arms today and allow his presence to be enough.
Oftentimes the road to a new beginning is wrought with a host of mistakes and defeats. But know that to continue on the path side by side with the Holy Spirit is a victory in itself. Don’t give up on new life. Seek the fullness of God’s goodness with all your might. Allow him to help you, forgive you, and strengthen you along the way. He will be faithful to shepherd you into all his wonderful plans. All you have to do is follow his leadership and enjoy his nearness. May you find comfort and hope in the powerful presence of your loving Father today.
Extended Reading: Psalm 23 or watch the Bible Project’s video on Psalms.
May you find comfort and hope in the powerful presence of your loving Father today.
]]>12/26/2025 | End of the Year
May your time with God this week be filled with the loving presence of your heavenly Father.
As this year comes to a close, it’s vital that we take time to both reflect on what God has done and allow him to prepare us for what’s to come. A new year marks a fresh opportunity to center our lives around the goodness of God. I pray that as you begin looking toward what is to come you will make space to gain God’s perspective, ground your hopes and pursuits on his grace, and celebrate all that God has done and is doing. May your time with God this week be filled with the loving presence of your heavenly Father.
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1 ESV
The seasons of the year created by the powerful hands of our heavenly Father speak of the need to slow down, stop, and reflect. Times of reflection create space for God’s Spirit to speak, helping us remember what he has done, making us aware of what he is doing, and stirring our hearts for what he wants to do next. God loves to use a change in season to remind us to center our lives around his pervasive works. Whether it be a change in jobs, weather, moving, or the approaching of a new year, it’s crucial that we make space for God to speak to us and prepare us for the wonderful things he has planned.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-5 illustrates this principle in saying,
The best place to begin reflection is in remembering. I don’t know whether this year was one filled with heartache or laughter for you. I don’t know whether you experienced loss or new beginnings. I don’t know whether you cried tears of joy or sadness. But your heavenly Father does. And it’s in quiet remembrance that he wants to comfort you, rejoice with you, and wrap you in his arms. It’s in remembrance that he wants to bring about healing, grace, love, and perspective. Take time today to remember.
Next, take time to ask the Holy Spirit for revelation on the present. Just as seasons help us to remember the past, they beg of us to live in the present. God is doing a mighty work in and around you right now. This is a time for faith and deep encounters with the transforming love of God. This is a time to savor the beauty of the current and to rest in the goodness of the immediate. God is present to meet with you, love you, and fill you. He has strength, grace, comfort, and joy for you if you will make space to receive the fullness of what he wants to give. Take time today to savor.
Lastly, God longs to fill you with hope and expectancy for his future plans. The new year, filled with its possibilities and new beginnings, is quickly approaching. Your heavenly Father, who dwells in all of eternity, longs to prepare you for what is to come. He longs to lay a foundation for your year with a fresh revelation of his love, faithfulness, and presence. He longs to fill you with hope and desires that he will see through to fruition. Take time today to allow him to prepare you for all next year holds.
May your time in guided prayer be marked by clarity and revelation in the Holy Spirit as you engage in these three practices.
1. Reflect on this past year. What were your triumphs? What were your failures? How did God meet you in both? Allow him to comfort you in any pain and rejoice with you in any victory.
2. What is God doing right now? What is he teaching and instilling in you? What is he calling you to savor?
3. Ask God to plant hopes and dreams for next year in your heart. What do you want to see happen personally next year? What do you hope God does in and through you? What works has he prepared for you?
May Galatians 6:7-10 stir within you a commitment to fully engage in the season in which God has you:
Extended Reading: Psalm 1 or watch the Bible Project’s video on Psalms.
May Galatians 6:7-10 stir within you a commitment to fully engage in the season in which God has you.
]]>12/25/2025 | Christmas
May your heart be filled with joy this Christmas day.
In today’s First15 we’ll be celebrating Christmas, Christ come for you and me, by allowing the reality of his coming to fill our hearts with overflowing joy. Whatever is happening in your life today, there is joy to be found in the reality that Christ came for you, wants to make his presence known in your life, and that he will come again. May your heart be filled with joy this Christmas day.
1 Peter 1:8 ESV
In Luke 2:8-14, the Bible describes a beautiful event around the time of Jesus’ birth. Scripture says,
This passage contains my favorite phrase in the Christmas story: “good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” The birth of Jesus was intended to be a celebration of great joy for everyone. With all of humanity in his heart, God sent his only son. With an overwhelming desire to have restored relationship with his people, God came down in the flesh that we might learn of the good news of his unconditional love.
God’s intention for you and me is to be a people of great joy. We’ve been given the greatest gift the world has ever known in Jesus. New life, eternal redemption, and unhindered relationship with our Creator are ours.
But in order for you and me to receive the overflowing joy available to us in God, we have to choose to center ourselves around who Jesus is. We have to choose to center our emotions, actions, words, thoughts, and decisions around God’s unceasing mercy and steadfast love. The world tries to pull our hearts in every direction. Stress, earthly pursuits, and constant pressure mark the hearts and minds of so many. But we can set our eyes on God himself. We can see and know who God truly is and gain perspective on even the hardest of circumstances.
Overflowing joy is yours today in the Holy Spirit. Real, abundant life is available to you. Just as Jesus died for you, he was born for you. Just as he gave his life on the cross, he gave his throne in heaven to take on flesh. Everything you truly need has been provided for you in the heart of God. May your day be filled with overflowing joy and ceaseless praise as you set your eyes on Jesus, the author of “good news and great joy that will be for all the people.”
1. Meditate on Jesus’ heart to fill you with overflowing joy. Set your eyes on him and look at his face of love.
2. Where do you need joy today? Where do you need peace that transcends circumstances?.
“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.” 2 Thessalonians 3:16
3. Open your heart to God and receive what he longs to give. Rest in his unfailing love and boundless joy.
May you find joy in every little gift God’s given you today. Whether it’s in opening presents, spending time with family, eating good food, or simply enjoying his presence, God has good and pleasing gifts for you today and every day. May his love for you be a foundation on which you can fully enjoy everything in your life. May his grace sustain you through any circumstance. May his face shine upon you that your heart might be filled with peace.
Extended Reading: Luke 2 or watch the Bible Project’s video on Luke Ch. 1-9.
May his grace sustain you through any circumstance. May his face shine upon you that your heart might be filled with peace.
]]>12/24/2025 | Christmas
May this time together help us center our celebrations around the goodness of Emmanuel, God with us.
It’s easy during the Christmas season to get so caught up in the busyness and gifts that we forget the immense sacrifice Jesus made to dwell with us. The truth is that Jesus gave of himself joyfully so that we may experience the beauty of God with us. So across the next two days we’ll both celebrate and reflect on the joyful reality of Christmas. May this time together help us center our celebrations around the goodness of Emmanuel, God with us.
John 6:51 ESV
On this wonderful Christmas Eve let’s take a moment to reflect on the heart of Jesus. Let’s take a moment to meditate on the depth of his love for us. It must have been love and love alone that would cause God to take on flesh and dwell among us. It must have been love alone that would give him the desire to leave perfection and take on the suffering and limitations of a human being. Think of the differences! Think of the implications of his decision! Can you imagine being the Maker of heaven and earth and choosing to make yourself low unto the point of death for the sake of humans who have gone astray?
For us Christmas is a time of great rejoicing. It’s a time of joy, nostalgia, and fond remembrance. For Jesus, it was a time of great sacrifice.
Jesus says in John 6:51, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” You and I have been afforded eternal life in utter perfection because of the magnitude of Jesus’ love for us. We’ve been granted boundless communion with our Creator simply because he made a way for us where we couldn’t. Isaiah 53:4-6 says,
As we celebrate this Christmas Eve, let’s remember what Jesus carried in his heart for us prior to his birth. Let’s remember the depth of his love for us that he would subject himself to flesh. Let’s press into communion with God and give God the only gift he’s after: our hearts. And let’s worship our Bread of Life in whom we’ve been granted the eternal gift of relationship with our heavenly Father.
1. Meditate on John 6:51. Reflect on the life you’ve been given because Jesus chose to be born for you.
2. Take time to meditate on the depth of love Jesus has for you. Allow a revelation of his love to sink past your mind and into your heart that you might find purpose and joy in God’s presence.
3. Worship Jesus in response to his great love. Allow his sacrifice to stir up your heart to give him what he was after all along: relationship with you.
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” Luke 2:14
Christmas is a unique opportunity where so much of the world stops and in some way acknowledges the celebration of Jesus’ birth. It’s a time where hearts are softer to receiving the reality of God’s love. Look for opportunities today with your family and friends to join in God’s pursuit of their hearts. Look for opportunities to proclaim the availability of life-giving relationship with God. Love them well. Speak life and grace over them. And discover the profound joy God has over those he is drawing to himself, including you. May this Christmas Eve be filled with laughter and celebration given to you as good gifts from the heart of God.
Extended Reading: Matthew 6 or watch the Bible Project’s video on Matthew Ch. 1-13.
May this Christmas Eve be filled with laughter and celebration given to you as good gifts from the heart of God.
]]>12/23/2025 | Christmas
Today let’s explore a facet of Christ’s incarnation–what it means for us to be interdependent with God and each other.
Yesterday, in the first day of our Christmas series, we explored the incarnation of Christ, that in ways beyond the coming of Jesus God has and continues to fill and dwell among us. Today let’s explore a facet of Christ’s incarnation–what it means for us to be interdependent with God and each other. And how in interdependence, in seeing ourselves more through the lens of relationship, we find true abundant life.
1 Corinthians 12:25–26
In our western world, we see ourselves and others through the lens of individualism. We pride ourselves on self-sufficiency, and expect others to do the same. We systematize the value of personal success, valuing freedom for individual gain at times over the well-being of the world around us.
But if we remove the lens of our western perspective before looking at Scripture, if we free ourselves from our value system of individualism before coming to God, I think we’ll find his way to be quite different from ours.
There is no image of God that does not factor in free and paradoxical relationship. God himself is three and one. Father, Son, and Spirit in perfect relationship comprise the idea of God, a concept we cannot grasp on this side of heaven. You and I are both the imago dei, the image of God ourselves, but also as part of God’s body in which he is the head. Jesus tells us that he is the vine, and we are the branches. It is in relationship alone that we bear fruit.
While God has made us all unique, and expresses himself in our uniqueness, he has not made us self-sufficient.
In God’s incarnation at Christmas, we see most visibly the lengths God is willing to go to show that he dwells among us. But it is not in the person of Jesus alone that God has made himself available. In fact, it’s through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross that God has redeemed what was lost, and now in fact dwells in you and in me.
So my encouragement for you today as we near Christmas is this: this Christmas take off the lens of your individualism, even for a few days, and begin to see yourself as a part of a whole.
See yourself as a branch connected to the vine of God. That apart from him we wither. Connected to him we bear fruit. Not just in your time alone with him, but throughout your day, seek to maintain a depth of connection in all you do. Do no work apart from an awareness of him. See others through his eyes. Recognize that it is in God that we “live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). And enjoy a different way of living, the way of a triune God that invites us into his perfect relationship.
Today in prayer practice your interdependence. Lay down your notions of individualism. Pick up your identity as a part of a whole. Sense the connection between your spirit and the Spirit of God. And seek to live today as a beautiful and unique part of the family and work of God in, through, and around you.
1. As we begin, take some time to lay down your individualism. Surrender your pride. Surrender a value of self-sufficiency. And rest in the freedom of needing and wanting God.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3
2. Next, reflect on the notion of being a branch attached to the vine of God. Think about the times you’ve tried to produce fruit on your own. Then think about the ease and peace of producing fruit as a natural byproduct of abiding in God. Rest in the freedom from needing to accomplish, to produce, to support all on your own.
3. Last, meditate on the reality of being a part of the whole. Allow your focus to expand to think about those you love, your church, your neighborhood. Think about believers and people stretched around the world. Allow God to give you his heart for his people, and to help you gain a sense of loving connection and interdependence.
“That there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” 1 Corinthians 12:25-26
In No Man is an Island Thomas Merton writes, “The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then we do not love them: we only love the reflection of ourselves we find in them.”
As we move into Christmas Eve tomorrow, take time today to allow the notion of interdependence to prepare you to love those you might spend time with just as they are. While retaining a healthy notion of boundaries, seek to develop a true empathy and awareness of the state of those around you. Try to simply notice while reserving judgement, and develop the capacity to love them in whatever way you feel they need most.
Take time today to allow the notion of interdependence to prepare you to love those you might spend time with just as they are.
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