Daily Devotion
June 5, 2026
Job 21:15 “What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?”
Job is describing the mindset of people who do not follow God, and they seem perfectly content with their lives as they are. Job’s accusing friends in previous chapters had argued that when people do not follow God’s way, they suffer great calamities and die early deaths. Their arguments were aimed at Job, accusing him of being evil, and that’s why he was suffering. But Job responds with the facts that many people who do not follow God’s ways live long lives, seem relatively happy, and are blessed with prosperity. On the other hand, many people like him who live by faith in God go through hardships and tests that don’t seem fair. It seems a confusing thing: After all, shouldn’t the God of believers stop all their trouble? The question in today’s verse, posed by those who do not trust in God, might be a question nagging in the back of all our minds. Skepticism for the unbeliever that’s doing fine without God says, “Why do I need God?” Skepticism for people of faith, when their faith gets worn down by long, seemingly never-ending situations, tries to creep in and says, “What’s going on here? Where is the fortress, the shield, and the deliverer?” But believers have been on both sides. We have walked in unbelief, and we know that path and what it produces within us. Walking by faith in the Son of God is entirely different because the new birth, as strange as that thought may be to the world around us, changes everything in ways that only make sense when the Word of God comes alive in us. We see life’s trials through a different lens, and the Holy Spirit brings us wisdom and peace that are not available to those who do not follow the Lord. I know this firsthand, having had 2 cancer diagnoses and surgery and treatments for my neck, and now, heading into radiation treatment again for a mass in my lung. Wayne Watson wrote song lyrics: “I could live without You. I know I could get by. Millions of people do: Why couldn’t I?” Then he responded: “But why should I merely survive, content with just being alive? The best life can offer, the world and its gold, is nothing to the treasure of Your hold”. Maybe you’re reading this devotion, and you are a skeptic of Jesus, the Bible, and the ways of God. Maybe your life seems ok without any of that, and you choose not to believe. I urge you to reconsider and push aside all you don’t like about religion, churches, or any bad experiences you’ve had with people who claimed Christ, but were nothing like Him. Reconsider His story, His Words, and His ways. He is peace, He is life, and He is love.
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June 4, 2026
Luke 1:74-75 “That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.”
Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, spoke these words in a wonderful prophetic message about Jesus before his birth. To Israel, the promise is that their Messiah will deliver them from the hand of their enemies. This part of the prophecy has not yet been fulfilled for Israel because when Christ came, the Jews rejected Him as their king and crucified Him. But it also speaks to us Gentiles in that we have been delivered out of the power of sin and Satan. The Bible says in Acts 26:18, “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.” We respond that all the days of our lives, we are free to serve the Lord without fear and walk in holiness and righteousness. For Israel, without fear means that one day Jesus will deliver them from the constant fear they have always had from being hated, threatened, and persecuted on all sides. No matter what chapter of history we read, it’s always the same concerning the Jews: Hatred, destruction, and death. For believers, living without fear speaks to the victory over all circumstances, and no fear of death and eternal destruction. What does it mean to walk holy and righteous before God all the days of our lives? It means we are covered, clothed in God’s eyes with the imputed righteousness of Jesus. Then it means to live honestly and deliberately apart from the deception, lies, and contamination of this world. We live and walk in the love of God. We push away greed, selfishness, destructive pride, and habits and addictions that would enslave us. We reach out with human hands and a spirit-filled heart to help others with words of faith and encouragement, acts of kindness, mercy, and a willingness to forgive and bless even those who oppose us. Holiness is not how we wear our hair or the way we present ourselves: It’s having the mind of Christ and the boldness to walk in His ways. The Pharisees were meticulously careful about how they dressed and the details of their religion. Jesus said they were ornamental graves, filled with evil and corruptness. That is not who we are. We represent a Savior who sets people free and who guides them in a path of God’s grace!
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June 3, 2026
Luke 18:1 “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint”
The parable Jesus gave here is about a woman who wanted a judge to take up her case against someone who was wrongly treating her. The judge pushed her aside for a while, but she was so persistent in her pleas that he finally acted on her behalf. The teaching is not that God will finally answer us if we keep pestering Him, but that we should keep praying and never give up, even when it seems God is not answering us. All of us could become better and more faithful in our prayers. One way to mature in that capacity is to study prayers recorded in God’s Word as examples. Throughout the Scriptures, people prayed, and their prayers were recorded. They show us the heart of praying people just like us, and they are fully suitable for us to meditate on and help us when we approach the Lord. For example, David’s prayer of confession in Psalm 51 helps us understand the cry of a man the Bible calls a man after God’s own heart. When we pray this prayer or parts of it back to the Lord in our times of confession, it places our own heart on solid ground with the Lord, allowing the Holy Spirit to search our intentions and desires. When we see the sin around us and begin to intercede for the souls trapped in unbelief, how wonderful it is to turn to Ezra 9 and cry out to God as Ezra did, praying for mercy for people. It is said there are 650 prayers in the Bible, and when we look to the Word and pray the Word, it adds another element to our prayer life. We grow in our knowledge of the Lord, and the Word of God searches our hearts because the Word is alive, powerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword. When it is prayed back to its Author, the Spirit and the Word agree. The prayer of Daniel in Daniel 9 is one of the most searching prayers in the Bible and tells us the prophet’s determination and method of praying: “And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes”. This reveals his was no spur-of-the-moment, say a few words, and then get back to whatever you are doing type of prayer. F.B. Meyer says of this type of prayer, “The blank checks are drawn and signed in our favor, but they must be presented at the bank for payment”. Bible prayers show us that if we would only take our praying seriously, and besides the impromptu, customary, and usual prayers, if we would give ourselves to purposeful prayer, using God’s Word as our model, there are unlimited prospects of great and wonderful answers we could receive from heaven’s storehouse.
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June 2, 2026
Galatians 5:13-14 “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
My attempt to paraphrase the meaning of these verses to consider them personally might sound something like this: Jesus has set me free from any attempt to attain righteousness on my own. But He doesn’t want me to use this freedom just to do whatever I want, pleasing myself. He wants me to love others and be good to them whenever I have the opportunity. But sometimes the fact that we are free is still so unbelievable to us that we have never been able to just walk in liberty. So, we’ve constructed elaborate doctrines, denominations, written and unwritten codes, and painted ourselves, by our own unbelief, into organized, religious corners. Through the centuries, we have created our own sects of “Christian Pharisees” and cling to all the accompanying tomfoolery as if it’s the gospel truth. Maybe one of the fears of legalists is that when people embrace their freedom, they will believe there are no restraints. After all, since their sin has been forgiven and removed to never be remembered, their righteous standing before God is complete, and their salvation is eternal. But the Lord gives us an example in Himself as the Scriptures say in Philippians 2:7,” But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men”. It’s not that He only served the will of His Father, but everywhere He went, His mission was completely centered on the needs of others, and He gave us this teaching in Luke 6:31,” And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise”. The irony is this: Liberty expressed in selfish ambitions never satisfies us like it seems it would. Real victory and joy come when we use our liberty to consider one another, to encourage and help each other (Hebrews 11:24). Our world is plagued with the “lovers of their own selves” mess, and whenever they speak of freedom, it doesn’t mean they want everyone to be free. They just want the freedom to do whatever they want, even if it means offending and harming others. Strangely, many of those who accuse believers of being intolerant are themselves intolerant of anyone who dares to disagree with them. No, the world never sets people free. Only in Jesus Christ are we truly free, and those the Son sets free are free indeed!
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June 1, 2026
Ephesians 5:15-16 “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”
We are to live “circumspectly,” meaning carefully, with deliberate purpose and good judgment, because it will all come to pass. God loves us, and He does not want us to make careless, foolish choices that pull us away from His best. He has a plan for each of our lives that leads in the direction He knows is right. Yet despite His compassion and care, we live with the freedom of our own wills, and the Lord will not always stop us from wandering away from the places of blessing He has prepared. A prime example is Lot. If you know his story, then you know what he thought he would gain by moving into Sodom and the well-watered Jordan River valley, and what he actually ended up with. It is a heartbreaking account of loss, destruction, and sorrow. He led his family away from the safety and security of a faith like Abraham’s and shipwrecked his entire household. When Jesus warned about choices in the last days, He said in Luke 17:32, “Remember Lot’s wife.” We can only wonder how different Lot’s life might have been if, after leaving Abraham, he had built an altar, called on the name of the Lord, and purposed to follow the ways of God as he had seen his uncle do. Surely the outcome for him, his wife, and his children would have been different. The Lord is saying to us the same thing He says in today’s verses: Be careful to make good choices. Yet even in Lot’s tragic story, God’s grace was still at work. That does not mean God erased the consequences of his decisions or that everything turned out well in the end. Lot and his family paid a costly earthly price for their unbelief and poor choices. Still, God opened a door of mercy and provided a way of escape when judgment fell all around them. Perhaps we have made foolish decisions, wandered from the Lord’s will, and wonder if He can still restore us and lead us into a better path. Yes, He can. If we take responsibility for our mistakes and purpose to live more carefully, seeking His will, His grace will help us move forward. Making faith-based choices and living with a desire to honor and please our Lord above all else will lead us into a life that reflects His goodness, His blessing, and His glory. The choices we make today shape the direction of our lives tomorrow. Lot’s story reminds us that even believers can suffer painful consequences when they follow what looks good instead of following God. Yet it also reminds us that God’s grace remains available to those who turn back to Him. Walk carefully, seek the Lord’s will, and trust Him to guide your steps into His best path.
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