Daily Devotional

It’s not easy being courageous. Fear sometimes seems so real. So how do you stand up and be courageous when you feel like all odds are against you?

Often being courageous won’t make sense to your senses. You might see all the reasons you can’t do what God is calling you to do or go where He’s calling you to do. Yet, if you feel like God has called you, then you’ve got what you need.

Be courageous, and let us show ourselves courageous for the benefit of our people and the cities of our God. And may the LORD do what is good in His sight.” – 2 Samuel 10:12 (AMP)

In today’s Bible verse, we see an army getting ready for battle, and they are choosing to be courageous. That wouldn’t be easy, would it? Think about going to fight someone. That wouldn’t be easy. However, when you know God, courage becomes easier.

As you read through the Bible, you see that God has always loved humankind. God has always provided and come through for the people who trusted Him and loved Him. And the same is true for you. God wants to provide every need you have for the calling He has for you. It’s just up to you to trust Him, and that when He speaks, it’s truth. Regardless of what you feel or see around you if you have a word from God, it has to come to pass in your life!

That’s good news. So encourage yourself today. God loves you, sent His son to die for you, and wants to provide for you in every way. That means you can be courageous, knowing that you’ll have everything you need for the battles that you face.

It can be easy to think that all the prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament don’t really have much to do with your day-to-day life. How does knowing Jesus fulfilled a bunch of prophecies really help you with your math test? Or how does that help you in your struggle with fear?

Here’s the thing. It gives more weight to the rest of the Bible. So if you can believe that the Bible is accurate because the prophecies are specific and point to Jesus, then it helps you believe that Jesus is your solution to fear or that dreaded math test.

When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. – 2 Samuel 7:12-13 (NIV)

God said that He would establish his kingdom forever in today’s prophecy. And while that might not directly relate to math or fear problems, it does show us something important.

It shows us that there’s a bigger story going on. It’s easy to get caught up in all the daily problems that we forget that life is bigger than just us. God has been working behind the scenes to bring us a solution to our fear, our pain, our misery. And not just ours. He’s the solution for the entire world.

So today, know that God has been working behind the scenes, since the beginning, bringing the world a solution to all their problems.

We’ve been looking at examples of God’s plan to rescue us from our sin found in the Old Testament. As we count down to Christmas, we see that there are many prophecies and patriarchs that spoke about Jesus.

Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, “We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.” – John 1:45 (NLT)

In today’s verse, we see that Philip was familiar with many of these. When Philip learned of Jesus, he realized that Jesus was the one the Old Testament and the prophets had written about.

What good news! Jesus is the one that the Bible is all about. It’s the story of how He came to be the solution for the problem Adam had created. God the creator stepped into our story and decided to make things right. He was going to do what we could not do on our own. He was going to pay the price once and for all for our sins.

The message of the Bible is that our creator became our savior. We were undeserving, helpless, and without hope. And yet God loved us. The Bible points to Jesus. As we read more each day as Christmas approaches, realize that the reason for all of this is love. God loved us. When we didn’t get it. When we didn’t deserve it, in spite of it all, He came. That’s good news! And it’s what Christmas is really all about!

Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” – Exodus 14:13-14

God has always been about setting people free. In today’s verse, He set the nation of Israel free from slavery to Egypt in a wonderous miracle at the Red Sea.

God hasn’t changed from then to now. He’s still setting people free from the things that enslave them. So whatever it is that has bound you, know that God desires to fight on your behalf. He wants to set you free.

So whatever has bound you, you can be free. You simply have to place your faith in Jesus and know that He wants to fight for you. He wants you to walk in the freedom He provided for you at the cross.

So whatever has bound you in the past, look to Him for your freedom today.

Abraham was called by God to leave His home and all that was familiar to Him. He was called to be a father when He had no children. All of those things seem crazy, right? Can you imagine what he must have felt like? Still, Abraham trusted God in a deep way. He knew that God loved Him and would provide what he needed when he needed them.

Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. – James 2:21-23 (NIV)

After God miraculously gave him a son, Abraham was willing to offer that son on the altar. Abraham’s sacrifice showed us a picture of what God would do through Jesus. Abraham didn’t spare his son, and God didn’t spare His son either.

God demonstrated His great love for us as He gave His Son to be the solution to our sin problem. This is the greatest love story of all time, woven throughout the Bible. God loved His people and was doing everything He could to bring them to Him.

People had gotten really bad. God was still wanting to rescue people, but people had forgotten about God. They forgot he loves them and began to chase after their own desires. As a result, humanity had strayed far away from God and was very wicked.

God judged sin on the world at that time with a flood. The whole world was destroyed except for one man and His family. But because Noah loved God, God continued His love story to humanity. 

It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith. – Hebrews 11:7 (NLT)

God provided a way of escape from the flood in the ark. The ark provided salvation from the flood and was a picture of what God would one day do through Jesus.

Just as Jesus provided us with salvation from our sin, the ark provided a door of salvation from the destruction of the world at that time. 

Once again, god was making a plan to rescue mankind one day. By destroying the world that was at that time, He was able to save a remnant of people so that one day the Messiah would come and save the whole world.

Genesis 3:15 You and this woman will hate each other; your descendants and hers will always be enemies. One of hers will strike you on the head, and you will strike him on the heel.” (CEV)

Adam messed up. As the representative for the human race, Adam’s sin made us all sinners. And while that might seem like bad news, it’s the beginning of God’s love story toward humanity. 

From here on out, God worked to bring a solution to the sin problem. That solution was Jesus. One day, the one who created us would come as a man. He would lay His life down to rescue us.

From the beginning, God had a plan back to Him. And that plan was prophesied in today’s verse. One day God himself would come and strike the devil. He would be the one who would rescue us from sin.

So no matter how bad you’ve messed up, God provided a solution for your sin in Jesus. Jesus paid the price for all your sin, and once you accept Him as the Lord of your life, you can walk in freedom, knowing the price for sin has been paid.

Every story has an author or a creator but in our story, the creator of our story stepped in and became the hero.

He saved us. That’s what it’s all about. Our creator stepped into time and became our savior. Because only a creator can create the solution to a broken world.

That’s the beauty of the Christmas story woven throughout time.

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. – John 1:1 (NLT)

In the beginning, God created the world. Our Savior, Jesus was right there. He created, and He was going to create a solution to our sin problem. Though we didn’t deserve it, our savior was coming. The Christmas story begins with creation. It ends with the creator coming to be our savior.

What a great story, but it’s more than a story, it’s reality. Our creator came to save us. What a wonderful God we serve. Our God created a solution for us!

Let’s take some time today to thank God for not only creating us but for creating a solution to our sin problem.