Paul began his letter to the Roman church with these words: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16). And thus begins one of the great doctrinal treatises on salvation and God’s righteousness. The book of Romans is a clear presentation of salvation by grace through faith. Today’s reading shows us the way: “For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved…Anyone who believes in him will not be disappointed…Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:9-13).

Salvation is a gift from God. Salvation was made possible by God the Father giving His only Son, Jesus Christ, that by believing in Him we might receive the free gift of forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Will you tell others about this gift from God? Someone needs to tell others. And that “someone” is you and me. Paul says, “how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?” (Romans 10:14). Who are you burdened for today? Paul was so burdened for his own people. Are you burdened for those around you? Ask the Lord to give you an opening, a way, an opportunity to tell someone about His gift of salvation, forgiveness of sins, and eternal life. Paul says, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!” (Romans 10:15). May the beauty of the Lord shine in and through you today to touch a lost, hurting world. God bless you.

As I came to the Word of God in my quiet time, I was feeling kind of down about a particular situation. Then, the Lord taught me something powerful in my reading from the Daily Walk Bible today. Maybe you noticed it also in your reading.

King Nebuchadnezzar was looking across the vast city of Babylon and came to the conclusion that he had built it by his own power as an expression of his royal splendor (Daniel 4:30). Well, as a result, he lost his power, his rule, and was driven from human society. A voice came from heaven saying, “Seven periods of time will pass while you live this way, until you learn that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone He chooses” (Daniel 4:32). Then, the text goes on to say that “after this time had passed, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven. My sanity returned, and I praised and worshiped the Most High and honored the One who lives forever…Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and glorify and honor the King of heaven. All his acts are just and true, and he is able to humble those who are proud” (Daniel 4:37). His kingdom was returned to him and he was reestablished as king.

Only eight verses of reading, but they reveal a powerful truth for us. When the king looked out into the world, he was led astray—when he looked up to heaven, he was restored, renewed, and reestablished. I wonder if you need renewal today? I believe that every day we need personal spiritual revival. And where can we find it? By looking up to heaven. When you look out in the world and that is all you see, you can come to wrong conclusions and miss the reality in a circumstance—when you look up to heaven, you see what is true and real—that God is on the throne, He is sovereign, He has a plan for your life, and He is in control. And so, let us together this day, look up to heaven—open the Word of God, talk with Him, and praise and worship Him with the words of Nebuchadnezzar: “His rule is everlasting, and his kingdom is eternal. All the people of the earth are nothing compared to him. He has the power to do as he pleases among the angels of heaven and with those who live on earth. No one can stop him or challenge him…” (Daniel 4:34-35).

I read something in Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost For His Highest that I haven’t been able to get out of my mind. His comments were in response to the words of Jesus to His disciples: “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26). OC says, “What a pang must have shot through the disciples–Missed it again! And what a pang will go through us when we suddenly realize that we might have produced downright joy in the heart of Jesus by remaining absolutely confident in Him, no matter what was ahead.” He goes on to explain that our sanctification will result in making us a deep joy to our Lord. I wrote in my journal, “I love this thought—giving the Lord joy by trusting Him in the darkness.”

Yesterday we read Lamentations in The Daily Walk Bible. Jeremiah must have brought great joy to the heart of the Lord for he was able to have hope in the midst of his own brokenness and wounded heart at the destruction of Jerusalem. Here is his shout of triumph, “The though of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The unfailing love of the LORD never ends! By his mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day. I say to myself, The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” (Lamentations 3:21-25 NLT). Oh may I bring joy to the Lord with a shout of faith, hope, and triumph like Jeremiah even in the adversities, challenges, and trials of life. “So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him” (2 Corinthians 5:9 ESV).

Our reading in Jeremiah 37-39 is a place of sadness where we see that the people of Israel were reaping the result of unfaithfulness to God. Oh what a difference there is between those who are faithful to God and those who are not. We do see it in our reading for today, Jeremiah 37-39 in the Daily Walk Bible. There were two who listened and trusted in God and a whole nation and a king who did not. The result for those who listened and trusted God was deliverance, relief, and protection in and through the trial. For those who were unfaithful there was desolation, devastation and destruction at the hands of the Babylonians.

Jeremiah and Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian trusted in the Lord and they discovered that God’s words are true: “Blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit” (Jeremiah 17:7-8). Mark it well, dear friend: it pays to trust in the Lord. These two men are proof of it. Even though there was turbulence and adversity on every side, Jeremiah and Ebed-Melech were like two trees planted along the riverbank with roots in God that held them strong in the storm. This is a great secret in life. You can trust God in the trial. Even though you may not see His Presence, He sees you and knows you by name. And He will hold you strong no matter what you are facing in life. Look at Jeremiah. He was thrown into the cistern and sank into a thick layer of mud. How much worse could it get for Jeremiah? Relief from God came from an unexpected source. There was another man who trusted in the Lord - an Ethiopian palace official named Abed-Melech. God moved him to boldly go to the king and pull Jeremiah out of the cistern. God rewarded that Ethiopian for his trust in the Lord - He gave Ebed-Melech his life, rescued him and kept him safe (Jeremiah 39:18).

God also says this: “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the LORD. They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, in an uninhabited salty land” (Jeremiah 17:5-6). Zedekiah was one whose heart turned away from the LORD and we see the result. He lost his sight and his sons and was bound in chains and taken into captivity. Things could have gone better for him if he would have listened to the Word of the Lord. What was the Word of the Lord to him? “If you surrender to the Babylonian officers, you and your family will live, and the city will not be burned down. But if you refuse to surrender, you will not escape! This city will be handed over to the Babylonians, and they will burn it to the ground” (Jeremiah 38:17-18). Just think, Zedekiah’s choice of trust affected his entire nation. This is an important lesson for us. We must realize that our trust in the Lord never occurs in a vacuum. It affects others. The Ethiopian’s trust in the Lord saved the life of Jeremiah. Zedekiah’s refusal to trust in the Lord resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem.

And so, let us trust in the Lord today. What will that mean? I like to think of trust as Total Reliance Under Stress and Trial. Rely on the Lord. Act on what you know to be true about Him whether you feel it or not. Trust in what He says, not what you feel. Then, you will discover His words are true in Jeremiah 17:7-8. You will not be anxious in a year of drought not cease to bear fruit. What a promise that is for us today!

Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision spoke in my Youth for Christ Rally when I was a teenager. He made a statement I will never forget: “Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God!” In those days, Bob Pierce shared a broken heart for children orphaned by the Korean War.

In the years since, I have never forgotten his comment because I believe it is at the heart of what God desires for each of us: “a heart that hurts where and when the heart of God hurts.”

Jeremiah was God’s prophet of the broken heart. He begged, pleaded, prayed and prophesied to God’s people, Israel. As you read through the book of Jeremiah, you will read the fifteen prayers that Jeremiah prayed for Israel. Many of them were prayed through Jeremiah’s tears. He felt the sadness and rejection for a nation that seemed oblivious to what God wanted them to know and do.

Jeremiah and Jesus were a lot alike. No old testament figure is so prophetic of Jesus as Jeremiah. Both suffered rejection by their own. Both were threatened with death by the priests of Jerusalem. Both were led as lambs to a slaughter. Both were men of sorrow and acquainted with grief, yet found consolation in prayer. Both were mystified over the ways of God.

Jeremiah sounded a little like Moses when he said “Ah, Sovereign Lord, I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.” (1:6) God responds to Jeremiah as he did with Moses by saying “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you, declares the Lord.” (1:8)

In the midst of Israel’s struggle in captivity, God speaks through Jeremiah with words of a promise that many of us know and often quote today. “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (29:11)

You and I are a lot like Jeremiah’s audience. We hear God speak, we know his promises, yet we stumble along on our own through chaos and confusion when God says “I have your answer. Listen and believe!”

Jim Smoke

Today we read one of my favorite passages in the entire Bible. When I need comfort I turn to Isaiah 40-43. Why? Because it reminds me Who my God is. In the heat of a fiery trial, I have the incredible ability to “forget.” I forget what I know to be true in the Word because my vision becomes clouded with the details of the circumstance. I forget especially what I have learned about my Lord. And so, when I need comfort, I love to turn to Isaiah 40-43 to “remember.” Here is what I see in these chapters about God:

God is Personal: He says, “I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown….For I am the LORD, your God…” (Isaiah 43:1-3). Whenever you see His name, “LORD” in capital letters, it means “Yahweh” and is the personal name of God for His people, meaning “I AM”–in this name He is saying “I am everything you need for every circumstance of life.” God wants you to know that He is with you no matter what you are facing in life. Oh, how this encourages me because in the heat of a trial who else can really know what I am going through? But He does. He is with me. He sees the “deep waters and great trouble” and “rivers of difficulty” according to these verses and promises that He is with us and He will help us in our circumstance. Take comfort in that today.

God is Present: So often in the heat of a trial we feel that no one sees or understands. And we see in the world that evil and godless people take advantage of the weak and powerful. But you can know that no matter what, the LORD sees your troubles (Isaiah 40:27). You and your situation does not go unnoticed by God but, in fact, is scrutinized by Him. I love Isaiah 40:28-31 and we would do well to memorize these powerful verses: “Have you never heard or understood? Don’t you know that the LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth? He never grows faint or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to those who are tired and worn out; he offers strength to the weak. Even youths will become exhausted, and young men will give up. But those who wait on the LORD will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.” There is such reward to “wait” on the LORD. Can you see it here? Because God is present in your circumstance, “wait” for His move in your life. My word this year is “wait” and I am learning that it means “Watching Always I Trust”. Rather than a knee-jerk reaction in the midst of trouble, I am learning to run to the Lord, ask Him for wisdom and discernment, and then ask Him to do something only He can do, show me what I am to do, then eagerly watch to see what He will do.

God is Powerful: God can do amazing things–more than any man can do. Listen to these incredible verses: “You are witnesses that I am the only God, says the LORD. From eternity to eternity I am God. No one can oppose what I do. No one can reverse my actions” (Isaiah 43:12-13). As we read through these amazing chapters in Isaiah we see that God can open a way in the rough waters. He make a dry path through the sea. Let us believe Him for great and mighty things in our lives because He is our great and mighty God.

God Plans, Provides, and Produces: God is the God of the “new thing” and the “new day.” He says, “I am about to do a brand-new thing. See I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness for my people to come home. I will create rivers for them in the desert!” I LOVE these verses. They tell me something incredible about my God. The wildernesses and deserts of life are not FOREVER. It’s never OVER. When we find ourselves in a desert or wilderness, it feels as though there is no hope. However, God can do something new in the very place where it seems as though it’s over. So, the encouragement here is not to look at the circumstance but look up to your LORD. EOJ (Eyes On Jesus) as I always say. Perhaps that is why the writer of Hebrews tells us to “run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish” (Hebrews 12:1-2). The best way to “look up” is to open the pages of your Bible and live there. The things you read in God’s Word are true and eternal. Isaiah tells us this in Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withers, and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.”

God is Protective: In the heat of a trial, it is comforting to know that you have a protector, one who will help you no matter what. He says, “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.” The “I wills” of God are a sure thing and you can count on Him!

God is Passionate: Sometimes in the adverse circumstances of life you may feel that God doesn’t love you. Never interpret the character of God by your circumstance, only by what you know is true in His Word. Isaiah 40:4 says, “…you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you.” Here in these verses we see the great heart of God who sent His only begotten Son to die in your place so that your sins might be forgiven and you might spend eternity with Him. Always interpret the love of God by the Cross of Jesus Christ. Here is the promise: “God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins” (1 John 4:9-10).

God is Purposeful: There is great comfort to know that we are made with purpose and that God has a purpose for us. You see this in Isaiah 43:7 and 10: “All who claim me as their God will come, for I have made them for my glory. It was I who created them…You have been chosen to know me, believe in me, and understand that I alone am God.” You were made for the glory of God. Your design is such that as you grow in an intimate relationship with your Lord, others may see what it means to know Him. The light of your life will cause others to desire to know the Lord. Oh what an incredible purpose this is! May our life reflect His glory and make a difference in the darkness of the world.

And so, dear friend, I invite you today to take comfort in these truths about your God from Isaiah. And the next time a circumstance or a person seems to be asking you that question “Who is your God?” you will be prepared to give an answer for the “hope that is in you!” (see 1 Peter 3:15). God bless you.

What if the Lord came to you today and said, “Ask what you wish me to give you.” What would you say? This is actually a true story because the Lord came to Solomon and extended that very invitation to him (see 1 Kings 3:5). Solomon replied, “…give your servant an understanding heart to judge your people to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of yours?” (1 Kings 3:9). The Lord loved Solomon’s prayer request! The text tells us that “it was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing” (1 Kings 3:10). In fact, it was so pleasing that God granted his request and gave him more than he asked.

We’ve been reading in Proverbs and if you could sum up the subject of our Bible reading these days, it’s all about wisdom. What is wisdom? It means “deep knowledge, moral insight, and deep understanding.” I like to think of wisdom as “applied truth.” Wisdom knows what to do with the knowledge God gives you in His Word. Wisdom is something you always want to have in every circumstance.

How can you get wisdom? Just ask the Lord for it. We know from Solomon’s example that it is a prayer request that the Lord loves – it’s “pleasing in the sight of the Lord.” Then, James encourages us this way: “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking” (James 1:5 NLT). Matthew Henry writes about the importance of asking for wisdom in the midst of difficult times: “We should not pray so much for the removal of an affliction as for wisdom to make a right use of it. And who is there that does not want wisdom under any great trials or exercises to guide him in his judging of things, in the government of his own spirit and temper, and in the management of his affairs. To be wise in trying times is a special gift of God, and to him we must seek for it.”

So every morning it’s a good idea to ask the Lord for wisdom. Then, you’ll be certain to not leave home without it! God bless you as you continue on in this great adventure of knowing Him.

Many of you who are reading through the Bible are probably breathing a sigh of relief at getting beyond the wars of Israel. You are now in the more familiar zone of the Psalms. As you read through and meditate on the various Psalms, you will notice that human conflict has not disappeared but the solution to those conflicts has been added through utilizing the power of God in every and all situations.

David bewails and bemoans his “falling short” of God’s best but is learning he can trust God in any and every situation. The strength of God’s care and God’s power comes through clearly in the Psalms. His tenderness and love beak into view in Psalm 1 when the writer says “The Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need.” That is about as inclusive as you can get. In Psalm 34:18, David reminds us of the compassion of God when he writes “God is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” I have quoted that verse hundreds of times to those who are trapped at broken places in their lives. You can literally take Psalm 1:1 and Psalm 34:18 and use them as bookends for the 150 Psalms. You can put your life between those two verses and understand how God meets your needs and heals your hurts.

Is there someone today that you can share those powerful verses with? Someone who needs to know that God is faithful and in charge of our lives.

Jim Smoke

This month we have had the great privilege to read through the book of Job. First, I want to say that I am very thankful that the Lord included Job in the Bible. There is both mystery and clarity in Job. And the mystery of suffering that I see in Job makes me thankful the Lord included his life in living color for all of us to see. I find that element of mystery in my own suffering. There is an aspect of suffering I cannot explain including the reasons and the varying degrees of it.

I love the words of Oswald Chambers in his book, Christian Disciplines: “The awful problem of suffering continually crops up in the Scriptures, and in life and remains a mystery. From Job until now, and from before Job, the mystery of suffering remains…Perhaps to be able to explain suffering is the clearest indication of never having suffered. Sin, suffering, and sanctification are not problems of the mind, but facts of life—mysteries that awaken all other mysteries until the heart rests in God, and waiting patiently knows ‘He doeth all things well.’ Oh, the unspeakable joy of knowing that God reigns! that He is our Father, and that the clouds are but ‘the dust of His feet’!”

That’s the mystery, what C.S. Lewis calls, “the problem of pain.” But then there is an inescapable clarity in Job. Job was brought to a deep trust in God, a trust he had not known before. This is evident in two cries of faith: “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him” (Job 13:15). “But He knows the way I take; When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10).” After Job’s trial of faith, he was given a new and high view of God, one he had never seen before. When Job saw God as God revealed Himself to him, Job said, “I had heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance” (Job 42:5). It is an unparalleled experience to be taken into a deeper relationship with God in the midst of a deep time of suffering. There is an intimacy with Him that is found in no other way.

One of my favorite readings in My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chamber speaks of the cry of faith and trust by Job: “God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of sentimental enjoyment of His blessings. Your earlier life of faith was narrow and intense, settled around a little sun-spot of experience that had as much of sense as of faith in it, full of light and sweetness; then God withdrew His conscious blessings in order to teach you to walk by faith. You are worth far more to Him now than you were in your days of conscious delight and thrilling testimony. Faith by its very nature must be tried, and the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God’s character has to be cleared in our own minds. Faith in its actual working out has to go through spells of unsyllabled isolation. Never confound the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life. Much that we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive. Faith in the Bible is faith in God against every thing that contradicts Him—‘I will remain true to God’s character whatever He may do.’ “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him”—this is the most sublime utterance of faith in the whole of the Bible.”

May we continue to trust God in the midst of things we cannot explain and rejoice in the clarity of vision we receive of our great and mighty God as we stand firm walking by faith in what He says in His Word. God bless you all as you continue on in this great adventure of knowing Him.

There is a move of God that we see in the first chapter of Ezra that brings about His plans and purposes. There came a day when it was time for God’s people to return to Jerusalem. We see that God stirred the heart of Cyrus to command that the temple be rebuilt in Jerusalem and He stirred the hearts of God’s people to return to Jerusalem. That word for “stir” is “uwr” and means to awaken, excite and open the eyes. The Theological Wordbook Of The Old Testament says this: Here one sees the active involvement of God in history. He is not aloof or passive. He is not simply a spectator. He is in complete charge, manipulating his plan. All his actions are purposeful. Events do not happen by chance.

And so, what does this mean for us? As you are walking with the Lord, you may find yourself faced with such adversity that it seems impossible to make it through. I’m sure that the people of Israel felt a certain defeat sitting in exile in Babylon. But there did come a day when God stirred hearts and orchestrated events to turn the tide and get His people back to Jerusalem. And in the same way, God can turn the tide of your situation either by changing an event or stirring in your heart or the heart of someone else.

I love the promise of Ephesians 2:10 - “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” This promise assures me that God has good works in mind for me as “His workmanship.” I was created for these things. And though I may be “down” at times, I am by no means “out” because God is at work. And in His time, with His “stirring”, He brings about His plans and purposes in my life. So dear friend, you can know that it is always too soon to give up. Fix your hope on your Lord and His promises in His Word. God bless you dear friend as you continue on in this great adventure of knowing Him.