I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die. – Gal 2:21 (NLT)

As a kid I never could understand why my mom got so excited about an old set of Nancy Drew books she had. She wanted me to look at them and read them. The books smelled musty and old, the pictures were outdated and honestly, I really wanted nothing to do with them. However, to my mom, they were valuable because she had one of the first sets ever printed. To me, they were meaningless because I didn’t understand the value of owning original copies of the books.

A lot of the time, we treat the grace of God the same way. We haven’t taken time to find out it’s value in our lives and so it becomes meaningless to us.

Jesus came to the earth to take away our sins and to make us right with God. If our sins could be removed by following the Old Testament law, or doing good works, then there was no need for Jesus to come. What Jesus did was given to us freely. We didn’t have to earn it, we simply have to believe in Jesus. The grace of God isn’t based on what we can do, but rather in what Jesus has already done.

Today’s Truth: God’s grace isn’t based on what we do, but rather what Jesus has already done.

This should free us up to love God more and devote our lives in a deeper way to Jesus. Don’t let what Jesus did become meaningless in your life. Choose to spend some time thinking about God’s grace today!

We’ve talked a lot this week about reading your Bible this new year and praising God. Another good habit to develop is prayer.

You might feel a little intimidated when it comes to praying to God. It can be easy to wonder what to say or how to say things. The good news is that God loves you. He wants to hear from you. So anything you say to Him, He will be excited to hear.

So instead of getting worried about whether you have all the right things to say, decide to just talk to God. Don’t worry about it being right or wrong, just act like you’re talking to a friend. Tell Him your concerns. Let Him know you love Him. Find things to thank Him for.

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. – 1 John 5:14 (NIV)

God wants to hear from you. He loves you, so don’t be afraid to go to Him and begin praying. From the small things to the big ones, God loves you, and He hears you when you pray!

You probably saw our challenge encouraging you to read the Bible this year. And you might think: why should I read the Bible? More importantly, why should I read the whole thing?

And those would be good questions. The Bible is a huge book. The idea of reading it can seem overwhelming. Then there are the parts that are hard to understand, and you might question if diving into it is really for you.

Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. – Proverbs 30:5 (NKVJ)

To answer those questions, let’s look at our verse for today. It tells us that every word of God is pure. That means they’re all important. From the strange ones to the ones that you really love, the Bible is God’s word. As followers of Jesus, we should be wanting to know what God says, every word.

So if you haven’t before, challenge yourself to read the Bible this year. Don’t be discouraged by how big it is. Reading through it takes 3-4 chapters a day. You can even find it on YouTube or the YouVersion app and have it read to you. That can be helpful if you don’t like the idea of reading it yourself.

Challenge yourself this year to see if you can read the Bible cover to cover. You’ll be excited to see how much you learn!

Have you ever thought about the fact that you can love God, but not really love the Bible? That might sound strange, but it is possible. There are Christians that go to church, love Jesus with all their hearts, yet don’t read their Bibles.

And while reading your Bible won’t keep you from heaven, it’s an important spiritual practice as Christians we should do.

Those who love your instructions have great peace and do not stumble. – Psalm 119:165 (NLT)

Loving God and being thankful for your salvation is awesome. However, getting into the Bible and loving God’s word is important too. There’s a lot that can be learned about God by reading His word. You begin to see who God is, His love for you, and His true nature.

So if you haven’t yet, decide that this year, you’ll try to read more of the Bible. Something as simple as listening to a couple of chapters a day on YouTube will get you through the Bible in a year.

It’s a new year. And you might be thinking about resolutions. Maybe there’s a habit you want to break. Perhaps you want to learn something new. In the middle of all the resolutions, however, I’d like to add one for you to consider.

How about reading through the Bible? Lots of us pick up the Bible and read a favorite verse and think about it a bit. And then a few days later maybe we pick it up again and read a favorite chapter or passage. But have you considered reading through it this year?

There’s something powerful about reading the entirety of the Bible as a whole. The way it all fits together and all the things you can learn from even the less exciting parts of it are simply amazing. Today’s verse talks about hiding God’s word in our hearts. One way we can do that is to read through the Bible this year.

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. – Psalm 119:11 (NIV)

If you haven’t before, consider reading through the whole Bible this year. You can find a plan to follow on YouVersion or online, or just keep it really simple. You could simply read 3-4 chapters a day, which will allow you to finish in the course of a year.

Even if you follow a plan and get a few days behind, don’t give up. Maybe it will take you a year and a half, but however long it takes, determine to make reading through the Bible one of your goals this year.

Then Peter replied, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. – Acts 10:34 (NLT)

Have you ever had a friend that was one of your teacher’s favorite students? Maybe your teacher always was friendly to them and seemed to go out of their way to treat them well. It’s easy to want to get jealous of those students that are the teacher’s favorites and feel like because you’re not the favorite that you’re not going to be treated the same as another student.

Did you know that regardless of whether you’re a teacher’s favorite or not that God doesn’t show favoritism? If He did something great for one of His kids He will do the same thing for you. God loves you and wants you to experience His best in life.

He wants to bless you like He’s blessed others. He wants to have you walk in peace like you’ve seen others walk in. He wants you doing well in life. So today be encouraged. God wants good things for your life. So choose to believe and expect God to do good things for you.

“Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. – Mark 11:23

Today’s Bible verse starts with Jesus talking about the power of our words. He shows us the power of our words and that if we speak to something it has the power to change. Our words can change things in our lives. The words that we speak each day about ourselves and our circumstances matter.

If we speak doubt, unbelief, and negative words, then we’ll have negative results in your life. Simply, put, our words matter. They set the course and tone for our life.

Today’s Truth: Your words matter. They set the course and tone for your life.

If you don’t like what you’re seeing in your life begin to change the way you speak. Speak words of life, words that build up and are full of faith. Choose today to put a guard over your mouth. Don’t just speak whatever thoughts or emotions enter into your head. Choose to speak words of faith and build the realities you want to see in your life.

The Bible says that if we believe what we say will happen, that it will be done for us. So speak good things over your life and situation today!