Daily Devotion
September 8, 2026
Hebrews 4:16 “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need”
Sometimes when people think about the throne of God, they picture a place of judgment like the Scriptures speak of in Revelation 20:11-15. And the white throne judgment is a real thing where, at the end of all things, people who have rejected God’s gift of salvation will stand before Him and be judged for their sins. But for believers, there is another throne that is promised to us in today’s verse, and we have an open invitation to come to that throne every day of our lives. It is called “The throne of grace,” and it is there that we find mercy and the grace of God to help us in our times of need. As far as the white throne judgment is concerned, Jesus abolished our sins on His cross of shame, and we no longer appear as sinners in the sight of God. The Bible says in 1 John 3:5, “And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin”. John the Baptist spoke of Jesus when he said in John 1:29, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”. Christians have then been delivered from God’s judgment and wrath, and have been invited to “come boldly unto the throne of grace”. There is no reason for us to live as if we are all alone with no help from God. There is no reason for us to carry our burdens, resigned to always live with discouragement and defeat, and feel as if we are victims of this world. We have a place of safety, a place where the mercy and grace of God flow freely like a life-giving fountain of water, and God calls us to Himself, into His very presence. We might think He will reject us or that we’re not good enough to be welcome. But the invitation to come boldly means without reservation, without fear or hesitation. The Bible says in Hebrews 10:19, “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus”, and it means we are welcome to continually come into the very presence of God. Do you need mercy and grace? Do you need God’s favor on you to help you in your time of need? Do you need answers to your prayers and comfort in your trials? Then you are invited with the Lord’s welcome to come to His throne of grace. It’s His amazing grace, how sweet the sound that’s waiting for you.
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September 7, 2026
Matthew 10:32 “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven”
When Jesus called His disciples, he did so publicly. He called to them at the seaside, and other places where they were out in the open, and then they openly followed Him. Publicly confessing our faith in Jesus Christ is part of the evidence that we believe in Him. It is so important that the Scriptures tell us in Romans 10:9-11, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed”. The thought that we can be believers but remain silent about our faith in Christ because of shame or embarrassment is unbiblical because the Bible says here, quoting Isaiah, “Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed”. The Lord said in 1 Samuel 2:30, “for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed”. Jesus said that when we confess our allegiance to Him, He also will confess His allegiance to us before God the Father. In today’s world, many churches have dismissed studying the catechisms, such as the Westminster, as part of their Bible studies, and stopped learning the Apostles’ Creed with its declaration of faith in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, seeing it all as unnecessary. And yet church pews are filled with people who do not understand God’s purpose and plan of salvation and who will not publicly confess their faith in Jesus Christ. It is not enough to merely entertain the thought or idea of believing, for the Bible says in James 2:19, “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble”. If you believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died, was buried, and arose from the grave, and if you trust Him as your Savior, then confess Him. Read today’s verse again: “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven” and act on it. Tell someone you believe Jesus is the Son of God, and that you have received Him as your Savior. Let your confession be evidence of your faith.
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September 6, 2026
Psalms 116:1 “I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.”
The desire to be with someone, to hear their voice, to care for them above your own self, and to participate in their life are all a part of relationships built on love. The Scriptures tell us that one of the fundamentals of our faith is to love the Lord. For most of us, loving the Lord is a growing, continuing pursuit we experience step by step, and it is to this we look in today’s devotion to encourage us all to love the Lord. The Psalmist says he loves the Lord because He listens to his voice and prayers, and this sets the groundwork for meditating on the goodness of God in our desire to love Him more. When we know that our Creator, the Creator of all that is, cares so much for us that He takes a personal interest in what we say and what we pray, He is no longer just a God we hear about in church or cry out to whenever we’re being bowled over in life. He is reaching out to us in a way that few people ever do by proving He is interested in us and listening. The Lord initiated the relationship we have with Him, and the Bible says in 1 John 4:19, “We love him, because he first loved us.” He made the first move by demonstrating love, mercy, and grace when we were unlovable. Our God is close to us, as He says in Jeremiah 23:23, “Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off?” It is by His desire and purpose that He determined to love us even while we had no desire for Him. On His side of the relationship, He is faithful, loyal, giving, kind, compassionate, patient, merciful, and understanding. He came to us when we couldn’t and wouldn’t reach out to Him, and then He promised to never leave us. Romans 8:38-39 reminds us that nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” He has all the bases covered and is completely doing what He promised by loving us as no one else can. Let’s reach out to Him at His invitation and declare with today’s verse, “I love the Lord!” God loved us first and continues to love us faithfully. When we recognize that He hears our voice, listens to our prayers, and cares about our lives, our love for Him should naturally grow. Today, let’s remember His goodness and simply say from our hearts, “I love the Lord!”
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September 5, 2026
Philippians 1:20 “According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death”
We live with expectations about how things are going to be and how things will work out. Disappointments, or at least surprises, come when things don’t turn out the way we expect. When our server sets our meal in front of us, we expect things to taste a certain way. We climb into our car and expect it to start because that’s what it normally does. We expect our friends and family to behave and act in their normal ways, and when they don’t, we sense something is amiss. Today’s Scripture was written by the Apostle Paul when he was under arrest in Rome, awaiting his court appearance before Caesar. We might think he was worried sick, knowing his immediate future was in the hands of Nero, a man known for his hatred of Christians. Nero could either grant him freedom and life or command his death. But Paul’s resounding words were that he had an earnest expectation and hope, meaning a persistent, driving expectation and confidence that whatever happened to him, whether life or death, the result would be good. His faith in the Lord and his understanding of who he was as a believer led him to expect his future to be something that honored God and benefited the cause of Christ. That’s a startling thought because history tells us Paul was eventually martyred, yet his concern was not about his situation or what might happen to him. His concern was that his life would not bring shame to Jesus Christ. His boldness assured him that it would not, and that was his earnest expectation and hope. What is our expectation of our Christian life? Is the pattern we’re following one that brings honor to the Lord, or one that produces regrets and missteps? God has not called us to bondage and a heavy yoke, but to the faithfulness of an honest heart and Christ-like living. He has given us the Holy Spirit and equipped us to follow Him steadfastly, so that we might imitate our Savior and refuse to identify with the darkness of this world. We expect the Lord to be faithful to us, to keep His promises, to never walk away from us, and to order our steps. Our expectation for the future is founded on God’s Word and the assurance that our path can shine brighter and brighter with hope and encouragement. Our circumstances may not always turn out as we expect, but we can have an earnest expectation and hope in Christ. Whatever comes our way, may our greatest desire be that Christ is magnified in our lives.
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September 4, 2026
Lamentations 3:25-26 “The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD”
Jeremiah, sometimes referred to as “The Weeping Prophet,” wrote the book of Lamentations as he watched his nation being destroyed. He wept for the hopelessness of the people he loved and said in Jeremiah 9:1, “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” Just like many people today, Israel had stood proudly in their arrogance and stubbornness, believing God would not dare to punish them for their sin. They had even convinced themselves it wasn’t really rebellion at all because if God existed, they were His “favorites,” and He wouldn’t have the audacity to come down hard on them. But they were wrong, and He did. Yet in the middle of all Jeremiah’s lamenting came a message and glimmer of hope, as stated in today’s verse. When we look to God with expectation, waiting upon Him for His will and timing, He promises that we can be sure of His goodness to us. The Lord then says it’s a good thing when we put our hope in Him and bring it all down to a place of quietness while we wait upon His deliverance. For us, this means lowering our voices of anger at the current system, knowing that no matter how big the problem is, God is bigger. It means stopping our engagement with the tornadic forces of confusion and blame that sow the seeds of fear, distrust, and despair, and instead, we believe what the Word of God declares. God sets leaders up and brings them down. He will never forsake His people, no matter the condition of the world they’re in. Everything was foreknown by our God, and He isn’t stressed out, wringing His hands and wondering how to fix earthly messes. And everything that’s happening is pointing us to the return of our Lord. To both hope and quietly wait for God’s deliverance was the Word of God given to Israel in their time of certain destruction, and it’s the same Word that speaks to us, no matter how dark the clouds appear. Our hope is real and certain and carries the promise of Psalm 46:1-2, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.”
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September 3, 2026
Psalms 146:5 “Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God”
Are you happy? I heard a minister once say that God didn’t save us to make us happy, and I wanted to ask him then, why did He give us His Word such as Psalms 144:15, “yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD”? The teaching that happiness is a state of emotion that we have now and then, but is not permanent or normal, is not the teaching of the Scriptures. Some people want to use the verse about our Lord in Isaiah 53:3: “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,” and tell us that if we want to be like Jesus, we must walk afflicted and sorrowful with a sense of grief. But Jesus became sin for us and tasted sorrow and death in our place so that we could have the fullness of joy and peace. Today’s verse spells it out clearly: when we have the Lord and our hope is in Him, we are happy. The Hebrew word here for happiness is “esher” and occurs in the Psalms more than anywhere else in the Bible. Sometimes, such as in Psalms 1:1, it is translated as “blessed,” and one of its literal meanings is the interjection, “How Happy!” Happiness is not just the state of being blessed but is really from the conscious awareness that we are blessed. We can have all we need, be in good health, be surrounded by people who love us, and still be miserable. On the other hand, we can be in the middle of a life storm, going through a stressful trial, or having a great need, yet remembering the Lord is with us, and that He will bring us through. We can be as happy as if we were sailing through life with clear skies. It depends on what we choose to believe and fill our minds with. Those who fill up with the world’s news, its opinions, and the negativity of those around them, and allow the whispering of the enemy to be their voice of consolation, will usually live in a state of unhappiness. They will not be confident and comforted that the Lord is in full control and that He is working all things for their good. But I ask you: Are you saved? Has the Lord promised to never leave you, provide all your needs, work all things for your good, and cover you with His favor? Did He fill the pages of His Word with everlasting promises to you? Then let the awareness of the truth rise up within you and declare, “He has made me happy!”
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September 2, 2026
Hebrews 13:3 “Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.”
This verse in Hebrews 13:3 tells us to think about those Christians who are suffering persecution because of their faith. We are reminded that the persecution of Christians began shortly after the church began on the day of Pentecost. Through the book of Acts, the historical record of the church’s beginnings, believers were imprisoned, beaten, threatened, and even killed. As the church grew, so did the threats against it and the violence against Christians. For a time, the hatred against Christians increased until the slaughter of believers became public entertainment. In the Roman amphitheaters, spectators watched faithful followers of Jesus, sometimes entire families, being beheaded, fed to lions, burned alive, and massacred as if they were watching a theatrical production. We are encouraged by this verse to consider those imprisoned and suffering greatly in places like China, North Korea, Burma, Eritrea, Pakistan, and Vietnam as if we ourselves were imprisoned. To do so requires a willing effort to allow the Holy Spirit to help us visualize what they are enduring for their faith. It means we can no longer take our precious freedom for granted or lightly value it. When our heart is fixed on their circumstances, we will cry out to God on their behalf. We also consider those who are suffering, where the phrase in this verse “suffer adversity” also means to be tortured, injured, and held as worthless, as if we can feel their pain in our own bodies. Many believers are daily harassed, wounded, publicly mocked, and shunned. Some have their possessions taken, their houses looted and burned, their churches desecrated and destroyed, and are unable to find employment because employers will not hire them. Their families are threatened, their children bullied, and every move they make is watched, scrutinized, and reported. When we feel their sorrow and join in prayer to our God on their behalf, we enter into the presence of the Lord, sharing in their persecution. In our abundance of freedom, our prayers often center around our personal discomforts, lists of requests for ourselves and our families, and a small circle of needs and wants. This isn’t a bad thing, but it can leave a void that should be filled by prayers for others, especially those persecuted for their faith, some of whom will be martyred as a testimony of their allegiance to Christ Jesus. May we begin considering them in our thoughts and prayers, looking forward to the day when Jesus returns and the people of God will suffer no more.
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September 1, 2026
1 John 2:15 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
The world spoken of here is not the earth, but it refers to all the things of this life that do not belong to God but are a part of the world system around us. The Lord is telling us to stay away from all it offers because it will bring us nothing but sorrow. This teaching is often not mentioned or expounded because it makes people cringe, uncomfortable, and might even seem unkind to a church-world wallowing in social and political correctness. Our call as believers is in 2 Corinthians 6:17-18, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” It immediately follows the teaching in verse 14 where the Lord says, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” There should be no doubt in a Christian’s mind and heart about what their response should be concerning right and wrong. While none of us always choose God’s will with every choice we make, we must own our actions. And when we deviate from what God has declared is right, we should be ready and willing to repent. To live in a pig’s sty as a prodigal when our Father has the best for us is inexcusable. Right and wrong are not determined by current trends, fashionable preaching, human opinions, our emotions, or anything else, but by the Word of God. When we hear the call, as in today’s verse, to “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world,” God isn’t trying to keep us from enjoying life, but to take us away from the entrapment of a system that the Lord will judge and destroy. The Christian’s call and duty to refuse to be a part of the world’s views, manners, and methods are, for the most part, no longer a consideration in modern theology and teaching. There has been a swarm toward inclusiveness across all denominations and non-denominational groups and ministries, accompanied by the abandonment of the moral high ground that once characterized the church. That path passes itself off as the truth, claiming to be able to win lost people by pantomiming the culture. Bot, it leads to compromise and lukewarm folly. The Lord said, speaking to the weak and faithless Laodicean church in Revelation 3:16, “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”
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