Daily Bible Verse

Pride goes before destruction,
    a haughty spirit before a fall. – Proverbs 16:18 (NIV)

It’s easy to think that being popular equals success. You might think, the more friends you have, the better things will be for you. And while being friendly and having friends is a good thing, popularity isn’t the same as success.

Success in life comes from knowing Jesus and following His plan and purpose for your life. Anything else won’t bring you true happiness.

So today, focus on knowing Jesus. Spend time praying, reading your Bible, and finding out what Jesus has to say about things. As you know Jesus more, success will come. But success will never be lasting or fulfilling if it’s based only on popularity. Rather, base your happiness and worth on what Jesus says about you. Know that you’re loved and treasured by Him. So no matter whether you have lots of friends or just a few, it doesn’t matter because your worth is found in Jesus, not others.

Much of my teenage years were spent trying to be someone that I wasn’t. I wanted so badly to be liked, that I often acted differently based on who I was around to gain respect from others. Sometimes it meant hiding my Christianity, other times, it was being quiet to not draw attention to myself.

But regardless of how hard I tried to get people to like me, I always fell short. I was never happy and often I felt conflicted that I wasn’t being genuine with the people around me.

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices – Colossians 3:9 (NIV)

One of the best things you can do if you want good and lasting friendships is to be genuine. Hiding who you are or faking like you’re someone else won’t gain respect from others in the long run.

Be who you are. Be who God created you to be. Don’t hide your faith, hoping to gain popularity. Instead, if you’ll simply be genuine and real about your faith, you’ll find that more people respect you in the long run.

Have you ever thought about who your closest friends are? Not their names necessarily, but who are they? Are they people that are known for getting in trouble? Or are they people that push you to do good?

Your friends matter because they hold you accountable. Not in a formal kind of way, but your friends can help determine the choices you make. I know that I’ve made some poor decisions at times because of what my friends were doing.

Your friends can push you toward making good choices or they can push you toward making bad ones.

The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray. – Proverbs 12:26 (NIV)

So if you haven’t put any thought into who your friends are, you might consider doing what today’s verse says. Choose your friends carefully. Make sure they are people who are pushing you to make good choices and to follow after God and the Bible.

Today’s Truth: Choose your friends wisely.

If your friends aren’t good ones, ask God for help. He will show you ways that you can make new friends. Don’t be afraid to get His advice in prayer on your friendships, He will help show you how to make good decisions with your friends.

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!