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
Also available on:
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Stitcher
Podbean
Day 87 - Issue 38
Play in Edifi Player
Matthew 7.3 NLT “Why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?” This comical illustration is taken from the carpenter’s workshop and Jesus uses it to press home his teaching about being critical. It’s so easy to spot the shortcomings of other people. Jesus isn’t suggesting that their inadequacies aren’t real. They do indeed get lots of things wrong. But Jesus encourages us to look at ourselves and recognise that our failings may be vastly bigger than the …
Day 86 - Issue 38
Play in Edifi Player
Matthew 6.26-27 NLT 'Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?' The most useless thing that you can say to a person who is worrying is, “Don’t worry.” No doubt it is meant kindly but you are actually increasing the person’s problems, because you have done nothing to stop their worrying and now added a layer of guilt on …
Day 85 - Issue 38
Play in Edifi Player
Matthew 6.20-21 NLT 'Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.' What matters most to you in your life? It could be any number of things – your family, possessions, relationships, career, hobby, sport, reputation, political convictions or your faith. The point that Jesus is making here is that whatever matters most to you will shape the way in which you …
Day 84 - Issue 38
Play in Edifi Player
Matthew 6.16-17 NLT 'And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and dishevelled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get. But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face.' Fasting formed a significant part of Jewish life. Solemn fasts were held every year on particular days such as the Day of Atonement, the New Year and the anniversaries of notable calamities in …
Day 83 - Issue 38
Play in Edifi Player
Matthew 6.13 NLT 'Don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.' When we prayed for our sins to be forgiven and for us to forgive others we were looking to the past. Now the Lord’s Prayer looks to the future. Once again the prayer is fiercely realistic. Although we have had the privilege of our sins being forgiven, we haven’t overcome the problem of sin. Every day we will still face temptation to be less than the best. We will be tempted to cut corners, to be selfish and …
Day 82 - Issue 38
Play in Edifi Player
Matthew 6.12 NLT 'Forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.' The Lord’s Prayer has its feet firmly planted on the ground! It talks about our everyday life and here it faces up to the horrible but undeniable fact that sin forms a big part of our lives. But here’s the good news. Through our faith in Jesus, sin is no longer an overwhelming problem. Before we met Jesus sin defeated us but now, through his death on the cross, we can claim his forgiveness. We no longer …
Day 81 - Issue 38
Play in Edifi Player
Matthew 6.11 NLT 'Give us today the food we need.' Have you ever wondered why we ask God for food on a daily basis? Why not ask him to supply us for a week or even a month? It’s a perfectly sensible question and the answer is clearly that God wants a relationship with us. He wants us to live in continual partnership with him. Every day we need to turn to him to obtain the nourishment that we need. This applies in both a physical and a spiritual sense. Just as we need to eat each day so too …
Day 80 - Issue 38
Play in Edifi Player
Matthew 6.10 NLT 'May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.' The Lord’s Prayer, in common with the whole of Jesus’ ministry, is focused on the Kingdom of God. So we need to have a very clear idea what this kingdom is. In essence, the Kingdom of God comes wherever God is recognised as King. When his rule is accepted, the results will be immediately seen because it will be marked by peace, love, joy, truth and justice. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer we …
Day 79 - Issue 38
Play in Edifi Player
Matthew 6.9 NLT 'Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.' The Lord’s Prayer is a wonderful model prayer and has been central to Christian worship from the earliest days. In the previous verse Jesus told his disciples that they didn’t need to inform God of anything in their prayers, because he already knows everything. Here he spells out what they should pray about. In the first century there was a guide for Christian living called the Didache which recommended that …
Day 78 - Issue 38
Play in Edifi Player
Matthew 6.7-8 NLT 'When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!' Prayer is often described as being like talking to a friend. There is much that is right about that description apart from the fact that God is totally unlike any friend that you or I have ever had. For a start, he knows everything. One of …
Day 77 - Issue 38
Play in Edifi Player
Matthew 6.6 NLT 'But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.' Jesus was reacting against the people who made a great show of their praying. They prayed in the synagogues and at street corners because they were looking for an audience. Jesus obviously wasn’t saying that it was wrong to pray in synagogues and at street corners but that it was wrong to turn prayer into a religious …
Day 76 - Issue 38
Play in Edifi Player
Matthew 6.3-4 NLT 'When you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.' Is there anything worse than hypocrisy? Jesus certainly hated it and had the harshest things to say about the hypocrites of his day. He wanted everyone to have the joy of a real relationship with their heavenly Father, and he knew that putting on an act to impress other people totally missed the …
Day 75 - Issue 38
Play in Edifi Player
Psalm 68.28 NLT 'Summon your might, O God. Display your power, O God, as you have in the past.' There’s a Russian proverb which says, “Dwell in the past and you’ll lose an eye. Forget the past and you’ll lose both eyes.” That’s a wise saying in any context but it is particularly important for those who follow God because we learn so much about him from history. As we look back at the way in which he has led his people through thousands of years we see his faithfulness, love, kindness and …
Day 74 - Issue 38
Play in Edifi Player
Psalm 66.1-2 NLT 'Shout joyful praises to God, all the earth! Sing about the glory of his name! Tell the world how glorious he is.' When we think about worship we will naturally focus on the church community with which we meet regularly. That’s not only entirely understandable but deeply precious. We thank God for our brothers and sisters and the relationship that we share with them. But we need to be careful because worship belongs to the whole world and not just to the group with whom we …