Daily Devotional

It can be really hard to stand up for God, can’t it? What do you do, when all your friends are making choices to not follow after God? How do you stand up for what’s right when it feels like you’re the only one?

The main thing you can do is to be strong in your relationship with God. You should be desiring to spend time in His presence and in His word. Guard your relationship with God more than anything else.

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. – 1 Corinthians 16:13 (NIV)

Today’s verse tells us to stand firm in the faith. That means standing when it feels like you’re all alone. It means that you might have to say no to some things that aren’t godly things and be different than the majority. And that takes courage.

It’s not always easy standing up for God and for truth, but it is the right thing to do. So determine in your heart that you’re not going to be swayed by peer pressure. Instead, look to God, and let your relationship with Him hold you strong when it feels like you’re all alone.

You probably have some friends that aren’t following God. Perhaps, they know what’s right, but they’re choosing to not live for God. And that can make you wonder what you should do. Should you say something to them?

Or maybe you’re seeing things in the world around you that aren’t right. And you wonder, should I speak up? Should I stand up for others? Should I say the truth even if people don’t listen and maybe even make fun of me?

You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious. – Ezekiel 2:7 (NIV)

In today’s Bible verse we see Ezekiel encouraged to speak God’s words to the people around him. It didn’t matter whether those people listened or failed to listen. What mattered is that Ezekiel spoke the things God showed him to speak and spoke out God’s truth.

In our relationships, we can’t be afraid to speak the truth found in God’s word to others. It isn’t going to be always easy to do, but we should not be afraid of speaking the truth, but with a heart of love. Our goal in speaking Biblical truth isn’t to shame someone or to make them feel bad, but rather to lead them back to the God who loves them and wants His best for them.

Today, don’t be afraid. Speak God’s word in love to situations and see God use you to help lead others back to Him.

For some say, “Paul’s letters are demanding and forceful, but in person he is weak, and his speeches are worthless!” – 2 Cor 10:10

It seems like it’s human nature to focus on our weaknesses. We often look at ourselves and only see where we fall short and mess up. I want you to imagine for a moment what would have happened if Paul had focused only on his weakness. This verse talks about Paul not being that great at giving speeches.

What if Paul had only focused on the areas he was weak in? I can imagine Paul hearing things like this, and thinking, well, I guess you’re right. I’m not that amazing to be with in person. I’m not that good at giving speeches. I guess I should quit. I should stop here.

I’m so glad that Paul didn’t do that. If he had not focused on his gifts like writing, we might not have a lot of the New Testament.

Don’t Let Weakness Hold You Back From What God Has Called You to Do.

The same is true for us too. Yes, it’s a challenge to not focus only on our weaknesses. Most of us are very aware of all the ways we fall short. Here’s the truth, however, if you focus only on weakness, it can stop you from doing what God has called you to do.

So today, don’t let your weaknesses hold you back from doing the things that God has called you to do. If you learn to rely on God and His help, you’ll always succeed in whatever you put your hand to.

We all have a worldview. It influences how we see and view the world around us. We see it lived out in our decisions, our friends, our behavior, and our speech.

So when we talk about worldview, what really influences it? Who or what determines how you see the world?

Where you spend your time determines your worldview

When it really comes down to it, the main influencer of your worldview is time. Where do you spend most of your time? Is it at school? Then your school is influencing your worldview. Do you spend a lot of time with friends? If so, you’ll notice the way they think is influencing your worldview. Check out today’s verse.

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. – Romans 12:2 (NLT)

Regardless of where the majority of our time is spent, as Christians, we should be letting God transform us by changing the way we think. We should be aligning our thoughts with what God’s word says. Our goal should be to make our thoughts, speech, and actions become more and more like the Bible each day.

How do we do that? By spending time in the Bible. We should be reading it, thinking about it, and letting it change us into the people that God wants us to be. And yes, reading the Bible can seem overwhelming, but don’t let that stop you. Get into it, spend even a few minutes each day letting God transform the way you think!

Yesterday we talked about our worldview. Your worldview influences how you see the world, how you make decisions, how you interact with other people, and many different things about your life.

When it really comes down to it, there are two worldviews out there.

1. Biblical Worldview
2. Everything else.

That might seem oversimplified, but it’s true according to the Bible. Today’s verse tells us that we’re either for God or we’re against God. That means we’re either letting the Bible be the basis for making all our decisions, or we’re not. We’re either letting God determine truth and what’s right or we’re not.

Whoever is not with me is against me. And anyone who does not work with me is working against me. – Matthew 12:30 (ERV)

We see in this verse that if we’re not working with God, we’re working against Him. And we probably aren’t out there actively trying to go against God, but if we’re not actively working with Him, He says we’re against Him.

So when it comes to making decisions, seeing the world around us, things like that, we’ve got to be aware that we’re either doing those things looking through the lens of the Bible or we’re not. And anytime we’re not, then we’re not working with God.

So today, take some time to think about that. Have you let the Bible influence your thoughts? Do you let it be your source of truth? Or do you rely on what your friends think, or what you hear on TV? Today, determine to get the Bible’s thoughts on the issues. See what God says and then let Him become the main source for your worldview.

Have you ever given any thought to the way you see the world? Why do you make the decisions that you make? How did you make the friends that you have? You might say by accident, or maybe even just due to chance. But really, when it comes down to it, we all make our decisions based upon something. That something is often referred to as your worldview.

Your worldview influences every area of your life. It influences your decisions, how you see things, and the course you take in your life. And depending on your worldview, you’ll make decisions differently than someone who has a different worldview than you.

Your worldview is a little like a pair of sunglasses. If you put those sunglasses on, things are going to look different to you than they might to someone else who isn’t wearing them. You might see things darker than they really are due to the tinted lenses, or perhaps if they’re colored lenses, you might see things different colors than someone who isn’t wearing the same glasses.

Your worldview is how you see the world. And it influences every decision and everything that you do. And as Christians, we’re encouraged to place our thoughts and mind on the things of God. That means that we should be striving to base our worldview on God’s word. Check out this verse.

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. – Colossians 3:2 (NIV)

So if we’re to be following after Jesus, we should let Him help us set our worldview. We should be getting His thoughts, His ideas, and His direction for our future.

Rather than rely on our own knowledge, which can be flawed, we should be seeking to know Him. We should be aligning our thoughts and ideas with the Bible, and let the Bible be the source of our worldview.

Read: God the One Definer of Truth

We have courage in God’s presence, because we are sure that he hears us if we ask him for anything that is according to his will.  – 1 John 5:14 (GNT)

Do you ever struggle with prayer? Do you wonder what to pray, or how to know if God really hears you when you pray?

Prayer can feel a bit weird when you get started, but it’s like most things, the more you practice it, the easier it gets. One way to make prayer easier is to start by doing what this verse says, to ask or pray for things according to the will of God.

How can we know God’s will? One of the easiest ways to learn God’s will is by spending time reading the Bible. The Bible is the will of God. So when you pray about something, search the Bible for verses that back up what you’re praying about.

For example, if you have a friend you’d like to lead to Christ, but you are scared to tell them about God, find verses on fear or boldness. Pray those verses over yourself in your times of prayer. Praying God’s word is one of the best ways to be effective in your prayers.

Think for a moment. What’s your motivation for the things that you do? Do you run for your track team because you like running? Or do you run because you have lots of friends that go out for the sport and you want to have fun with them?

In life, there can be many different things that motivate us. Sometimes we’re motivated by peer pressure, money, fear, all different kinds of things. Let’s take a look at what motivated Jesus.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace ⁸ that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, – Ephesians 1:7-8 (NIV)

Jesus was motivated by love. He loves us, so He gave it all for us. He wanted good things for us, so He gave everything He had so we could get redemption, forgiveness, grace and so much more.

It can be easy to forget with all that is going on in life, how amazing Jesus really is. He gave up everything so we could have it all. He really was motivated by love.

We’d like to give a big thanks to Lucas Beron for creating the image for today’s devotion. If you like his designs, you can see more of his work by following him at @yosigonmd. He’s also written several devotions for us in the past: How to Live Fear-Free During Coronavirus and Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Psalm 4:8.

Do you hate waiting for things? I know I do! I remember I just couldn’t wait to finish my schooling. I counted down the days until I graduated and couldn’t wait to start the next phase of my life.

You might not be looking forward to graduation, but there’s probably something in your life that you wish would happen faster. Maybe you prayed for something, and it’s just taking so long to come to pass in your life. That reminds me a lot of today’s Bible verse.

I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” – Genesis 28:15 (NIV)

God reminds us in this verse that He will not leave us until He’s done what He promised us. So if you’re waiting on a promise of God, know that it is coming. It doesn’t always come in the timeframe that we want, but it does always come. God knows where you are. He knows how to get the things you need to you. So don’t give up. Don’t lose heart.

God loves you, He has a plan and a future for you that’s good. Stay with Him, stay close to Him. Let Him lead, guide, and help you each step of the way.

We’d like to give a big thanks to Lucas Beron for creating the image for today’s devotion. If you like his designs, you can see more of his work by following him at @yosigonmd. He’s also written several devotions for us in the past: How to Live Fear-Free During Coronavirus and Daily Bible Verse and Devotion – Psalm 4:8.