Bring some Spirit-filled peace into your hectic schedule every weekday morning with this new Daily Devotional. Start your day with God Renew your spirit Refocus your faith
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Day 58 - Issue 41
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Proverbs 23.29-30 NLT 'Who has anguish? Who has sorrow? Who is always fighting? Who is always complaining? Who has unnecessary bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? It is the one who spends long hours in the taverns, trying out new drinks.' The abuse of alcohol is clearly not a new problem. These verses reveal a deep understanding of a challenge which continues to test our society. In the UK more than 8,000 people die from alcohol-related illnesses every year. Hospital admissions for …
Day 57 - Issue 41
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Proverbs 23.17-18 NLT 'Don’t envy sinners, but always continue to fear the Lord. You will be rewarded for this; your hope will not be disappointed.' Here the writer tells us that we shouldn’t envy sinners, but the tenth commandment is much wider than that. It tells us that we shouldn’t envy at all. The last commandment tells us that we shouldn’t covet our neighbour’s house, wife, servant, ox, donkey or anything else that they own. We may admire and appreciate everything about our neighbour’s …
Day 56 - Issue 41
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Proverbs 22.13 NLT The lazy person claims, “There’s a lion out there! If I go outside, I might be killed!” I love this wonderful book of Proverbs. There is so much blunt truth, and here the writer laughs his socks off at the lazy person who has always got an excuse for doing nothing. On this particular day he fears that there may be a lion outside, and is concerned that he may get killed. He considers that he’s got the perfect excuse for staying at home and doing nothing. The writer of …
Day 55 - Issue 41
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Proverbs 22.3 NLT 'A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.' This proverb, like so many of them, is just sheer good sense. It’s the kind of statement that could easily be turned into a good fridge magnet! At one level it is screamingly obvious, but we all know how incredibly easy it is to act the part of the simpleton and to hurtle through life blindly without doing the necessary research. We live in a world that is …
Day 54 - Issue 41
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Proverbs 21.26 NLT 'Some people are always greedy for more, but the godly love to give!' Longing for more money and possessions is a terrible disease, but our materialistic society is built on the assumption that that is how we should all live. Long ago, the Greek philosopher Epicurus wrote, “Nothing is enough to the man for whom enough is too little.” And yet the place of true peace and contentment is where you know you have enough, and can stop working to find more. The apostle Paul said …
Day 53 - Issue 41
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1 Peter 5.8-9 NLT 'Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith.' I have visited Africa on a number of occasions and have gone on several safaris. The fun of safaris is that you never know what you are going to see. They are not at all like safari parks in this country where you are guaranteed to see a wide range of animals. On a safari in Africa there are some …
Day 52 - Issue 41
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1 Peter 5.7 NLT 'Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.' Whether they are large or small, we all carry various cares and concerns. They may be focused on health issues for ourselves or those who are close to us. We may be concerned about the future, money, or what is happening in the world today. It is impossible to avoid a whole range of concerns, so the question isn’t whether we’ve got any, but what we do with them. If we hug them to ourselves, the likelihood is …
Day 51 - Issue 41
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1 Peter 5.5 NLT All of you, dress yourselves in humility as you relate to one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Some years ago I was privileged to attend a conference at St George’s Chapel, Windsor. We were given the task of identifying the most important personal qualities that were needed for strategic leadership. My small group included a chief constable, a general from the British Army, a managing director of a major engineering firm, a high-flying civil …
Day 50 - Issue 41
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1 Peter 5.1-2 NLT 'As a fellow elder, I appeal to you: Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly—not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God.' After Jesus’ resurrection, he shared breakfast with his disciples beside the Sea of Galilee and, there, he commanded Peter to take care of his sheep. In today’s verses, which were written thirty or forty years later, Peter recognises that this crucial responsibility is one …
Day 49 - Issue 41
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1 Peter 4.10-11 NLT 'God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies.' The New Testament is absolutely clear that we each have a gift, but it’s interesting that, so often, when we identify someone’s particular gift we focus our attention on …
Day 48 - Issue 41
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1 Peter 4.7-8 NLT 'The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other.' The idea of the world coming to an end is a challenging thought, but Peter wasn’t in any sense threatening his readers. The New Testament writers all spoke of this as the climax and fulfilment of God’s purposes. The end of the world was something which everyone should look forward to with great excitement. The last …
Day 47 - Issue 41
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1 Peter 3.15-16 NLT 'If someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way.' When Peter wrote his letter, Christianity was still quite new and so I am sure that many people were very curious about it. They wondered what this new- fangled faith was all about, and Peter was keen that his readers shouldn’t miss any opportunity to talk about it. But it had to be done in the right way. If they were aggressive and disrespectful it …
Day 46 - Issue 41
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1 Peter 3.9 NLT 'Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will grant you his blessing.' If you have ever been insulted, you will know that the immediate reflex reaction is to want to even the scores. In the pain of the moment, we are all inclined to cry out for justice because it’s just not right that people should get away with insulting us. It would seem that Peter’s …
Day 45 - Issue 41
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1 Peter 3.3-4 NLT 'Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewellery, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.' I don’t feel competent to comment on fancy hairstyles, expensive jewellery or beautiful clothes; I’ve never had any of them! However, I don’t believe that Peter was saying that these things were wrong in …
