Daily Devotional Free

  "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." Being crucified with Christ means in Him, we have shared His crucifixion. It is not by physical crucifixion, but spiritual. It is being one with Christ, which means Christ is living in our bodies and hearts. Our ego is no longer central. When we are crucified with Christ by faith in Him, we are to completely surrender every selfish desire and ambition to the perfect will of God. Self-promotion and self-pleasing desires are the greatest obstacle between man and salvation because it is the nature of man to want to please himself, and this self-recognition is a building block for sin. All sin erupts from the desire to please self, and this is what must be crucified with Christ in surrender to the will of God before salvation can bear fruit.

  Dear Lord, I call to You and name You as eternal, ever-present, almighty, and boundless in love. In the daily round from sunrise to sunset and to sunrise again, remind me again and again of Your holy presence hovering near me and in me. Free me from shame and self-doubt in expressing my faith.  Help me to see You in the fleeting moments of possibility and be filled with Your courage and Your word. Help me to love with both words and deeds, to reach out to others and meet their needs. Burden my heart for those lost in sin, with mercy and love that flows from within. Support me all the day long of this troublous life, until the shadows lengthen and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over and my work is done. Then of Thy mercy, grant me a safe lodging, and a holy rest and a peace at last. In Christ's name I pray. Amen

  When I was a child, one of my favorite pastimes was playing on the teeter-totter in the nearby park. A kid would sit on each end of the board and bounce each other up and down. Sometimes the one who was down would stay there and leave his playmate stuck up in the air yelling to be let down. But the cruelest of all tricks was getting off the teeter-totter and running away when your friend was up in the air - he would come crashing down to the ground with a painful bump. Sometimes we may feel that Jesus does that to us. We trust Him to be there with us through the ups and downs of life. However, when life takes a turn and leaves us with bumps and bruises, it may feel as if He has walked away leaving our lives to come painfully crashing down. But Lamentations 3 reminds us that "the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end" (v. 22) and that God is faithful to the end even when everything seems to be falling apart. This means that in the midst of...

  Dear God, I am just beginning to realize how much You love me. Your son, Jesus was humble and obedient. He fulfilled your will for him by becoming human and suffering with us. I ask You for the desire to become more humble so that my own life might also bear witness to You. I want to use the small sufferings I have in this world to give You glory. Please, Lord, guide my mind with Your truth.  Thank You, Lord, that we can trust in Your faithful presence even when we feel alone. Help us to wait patiently for You to manifest Your steadfast loving presence. Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip us with every good thing that we may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight; through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen

  It has been said that the Roman Empire ran on olive oil. It was used in cooking, bathing, medicine, ceremonies, lamps and cosmetics. For decade, olive oil from Southern Spain was shipped to Rome in large clay jugs called amphorae. Those jugs, not worth sending back, were discarded in a growing heap of broken shards known as Monte Testaccio. The fragments of an estimated 25 million amphorae created that man-made hill, which stands today on the bank of the Tiber River in Rome. In the ancient world, the value of those pots was not their beauty but their contents. Because of this, the first-century followers of Christ would have clearly understood Paul's illustration of the life of Jesus in every believer. "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, than the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us" (2 Cor. 4:7). Our bodies, like amphorae, are temporary, fragile, and expendable. In our modern world that highly values outward beauty, we would be wise to remembe...

  Dear God, have patience with me. Forgive me from my sins. Do not spew me out, as You have warned You might do with the lukewarm. Fill my soul with the fire of Your Word. Help me grow, to put more and more confidence in You and less and less in the world before me. Forgive me my sins and help me to live in them less and less today, and every day, that I might more perfectly follow Your commandments. Finally, may I go forth filled with the joy and confidence of Your Spirit. And may everything I do this day, in word or deed, be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. In Christ's name I pray. Amen

  Day after day for years, Harry shared with the Lord his concern for his son-in-law John who had turned away from God. But then Harry died. A few months later, John turned back to God. When his mother-in-law Marsha told him that Harry had been praying for him everyday, John replied, "I waited too long". But Marsha joyfully shared: "The Lord is still answering the prayers Harry prayed during his earthly life". Harry's story is an encouragement to us who pray and wait. He continued "steadfastly in prayer" and waited patiently (Rom. 12:12). The author of Psalm 130 experienced waiting in prayer. He said, "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits" (v. 5). He found hope in God because he knew that "with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is abundant redemption" (v. 7). Author Samuel Enyia wrote about God's timing: "God does not depend on our time. Our time is chronological and linear but God . . . is timeless. He will act at the fu...