Today’s Verse – Galatians 6:7-8
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit will reap eternal life. —Galatians 6:7-8 Thoughts on Today’s Verse… Isn’t it incredible how huge trees grow out of such tiny seeds! This principle runs throughout all of life. We can never completely get away from the seeds we sow. So let’s not try to fool ourselves. We ARE going to reap what those seeds sow. Let’s make sure the seeds we sow are the ones we want sprouting up! And as we sow to please the Spirit of God and not the world, let’s remember we are going to harvest eternal life, and share that life with others. My Prayer… O Eternal God, who lived before time began and who will be the Great I AM when time is no more, please bless the seeds I sow with my life. May they bear righteous and gracious fruit to honor you and to bless those I love, and those who don’t yet know Jesus. Through Jesus, the grain of wheat (John 12:23-26) who died and was buried so that true life may flower forth, I pray. Amen. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
The Golden Life
Note from Jesus Dear Beloved, We often make understanding what God wants much harder than it really is. One of the important aspects of My teaching is that I tried to make things easy to understand so that you can focus on putting those things into practice. In My teaching, I taught you to love God with all you are and to love your neighbor just as you love yourself (Matthew 22:36-40). This teaching is the heart of the Torah — the law of Moses and the message of the prophets also boiled down to those two simple principles: love God and love your neighbor. Today, I want to do the same and focus on easy-to-understand ways to love your neighbor. Let me give you a few kernels of advice on how best to proceed. Don’t judge your neighbor’s motives. His or her fruit — the kind of things a person’s life produces — will tell you what kind of person he or she is. I will have much to say about that later in My teaching. Right now I don’t want you to worry about other people; I want you to focus on yourself and your “stuff” — your issues, your struggles, your sins. You wouldn’t want to have someone sitting around judging your motives for everything you do, would you? Of course not! So don’t waste time looking into people’s actions for their motives. Spend that time on dealing with your “stuff” and you will be a more delightful person to others and a godlier person before the Father! Don’t harp on religious topics with people who couldn’t care less about Me or the ways of God. These people have chosen not to be interested in the ways of God for now. Harping on things about the kingdom often makes some people more determined than ever to never respond. You are wasting your precious time that could be spent doing something productive. Instead, remember the principle of your light shining before others so they can see your good deeds and know that they come from your relationship with the Father (Matthew 5:16). Peter, a leader among My apostles, talked about reaching a point where you can win people without words by your behavior (1 Peter 3:1). Boiling this all down to one simple principle is pretty easy if you will use it everywhere you go and with everyone you touch with your life. Do for others what you would want to be done for you if you were in their situation! Verses to Live Remember, My teaching in what you call the Sermon on the Mount is not just for your learning, but for your living! So don’t get lost in the words; put these principles into practice: Jesus: If you judge other people, then you will find that you, too, are being judged. Indeed, you will be judged by the very standards to which you hold other people. Why is it that you see the dust in your brother’s or sister’s eye, but you can’t see what is in your own eye? Don’t ignore the wooden plank in your eye, while you criticize the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eyelashes. That type of criticism and judgment is a sham! Remove the plank from your own eye, and then perhaps you will be able to see clearly how to help your brother flush out his sawdust. Don’t give precious things to dogs. Don’t cast your pearls before swine. If you do, the pigs will trample the pearls with their little pigs’ feet, and then they will turn back and attack you. … This is what our Scriptures come to teach: in everything, in every circumstance, do to others as you would have them do to you. (Matthew 7:1-6; Matthew 7:12) Response in Prayer Holy Spirit, stir my heart with empathy to see the needs of others. Father God, please empower my efforts to do for others what I believe I would want to be done for me if I were in their situation. Lord Jesus, I pray this because I want to put into practice the things that You have taught me! Amen. ‘A Year with Jesus’ is written by Phil Ware. © 1998-2026, Heartlight, Inc. ‘A Year with Jesus‘ is part of the Heartlight Network.All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Voice™. © 2008 by Ecclesia Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
21 Jan 2026
What do we really believe? Do we worship idols or Jehovah? Do we believe in His ability to save and protect us? Are we confident in His power? Do we know He is just and righteous? Do our lives show these attributes of God? Do those around us see His character in us? Psalm 97:1-12.
Pollyanna Piety
Is God really going to protect from us from every bad thing? Pain is an important element of reality in this world. It is not only often helpful but is absolutely necessary to human health and well being. How do you know to keep your hands away from an open flame? To wash a grain of sand from your eye? Any physician will tell you that a person whose nerves can’t send pain signals will have serious problems in living a normal life. Yet there is a serious error in some churches, Bible study materials, and personal belief systems when the naïve claim is made that true faith makes one immune to suffering. Really? Then I wonder why it didn’t keep innocent Naboth from being stoned to death when wicked King Ahab decided to seize his land? How could Stephen have been murdered for bearing witness to Jesus? Or Cassie Bernall at Columbine? Or Martin Burnham in the Philippine jungle? God allows suffering, but he is not the one who causes it and sends it into our lives. We experience pain because we live in physical bodies in a contingent world. We suffer psychic pain because we are sensitive to misfortune, loss, and death. And the most horrible wounds that come to our spirits are traceable to our own wrong choices – rebelling against God and hurting one another. Faith is not a vaccine against these things. If it were, everyone would be a Christian for the worst possible reason! It would indulge our selfishness. It would exempt us from the tough things everybody else has to face in this life. More correctly, faith is a relationship with God that provides the daily presence, strength, and encouragement of the Living Christ for whatever comes your way. Are miracles real? Does God still deliver people from their suffering by clear and direct intervention? Certainly. But miracles are by definition rare and out of the ordinary. So I’m suspicious of the person who – especially in front of a camera – offers to make the uncommon and infrequent into on-demand events. The answer Paul was given is surely the more typical reply to suffering people: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9) Instant peace and easy answers are not God’s promise to you. His pledge is that you will never be unloved and alone. Pray for pain to be a bridge rather than a barrier for you. Never feel obliged to deny its reality or menace. But trust God to provide sufficient grace for each day. And give him the chance to work the world’s worst to a spiritual victory. About the author: Rubel Shelly preached for decades, been a professor of medical ethics, Bible, and philosophy at multiple universities and a med school. He is currently Professor of Philosophy & Religion at Lipscomb University. He is the author of more than 30 books and hundreds of inspirational articles.
I Trust in Your Unfailing Love
Can you still hold on to trust? Do these words from David ring true for you today? O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever? How long will you look the other way? How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day? How long will my enemy have the upper hand? Turn and answer me, O Lord my God! Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die. Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, ‘We have defeated him!’ Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall. (Psalm 13:1-4 NLT) Are you feeling forgotten by God? Do you find yourself wondering where He is while you are in the midst of battle and struggle and hurt and disappointment? Are you wishing God would do something to help, but not sure your prayers are getting through? That’s apparently what David was feeling. Alone. Forgotten. Ignored. Weak. Almost defeated. Constantly hassled by his enemies. Those are not uncommon feelings, even for the strong of faith. Sometimes life is like that. We experience attacks from all sides, and it seems that trouble and distress is around every corner. During those days of anxiety and sorrow, it is easy to fall into the trap of believing that it will always be this way. We settle into the mindset that life will never get any better. When these times continue for long periods there is the potential to lose hope. Those are dangerous times. Those are times when we must consider our steps very carefully and wisely. Nothing would please our enemy more than for us to lose hope, to give up, to accept defeat, and to lose the joy found in the Lord. Like David, you may be almost there. If so, do what David did. In verse 4, David is dreading how his enemies will gloat and rejoice over his defeat. Then, suddenly, as the psalmist often does in the Psalms, the tone changes. He looks above his fears and throws himself into the arms of the Lord. But I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have rescued me. I will sing to the Lord because he is good to me. (Psalm 13:5-6) We must do the same. When we sink low into the despair and hopelessness of what seems certain defeat, we must look up to the Lord and say: But I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have rescued me. I will sing to the Lord because he is good to me. That’s the power of our faith. That’s a test of our faith. That’s what can happen when we draw near to God. If we bring it all to Him and leave it there, through His grace and mercy He will enable us to sing again. He will rescue us. Here’s another version of David’s prayer: Lord, my life is hard right now. Nothing is turning out like I thought it would. Instead of victory, I’m experiencing defeat on every side. It seems like the Enemy is winning all the battles. I feel like a loser and I feel like my enemies see me as a loser. I’m not sure how long I can go on like this. Sometimes, when it gets really bad, I become afraid. I feel like You have left me here all alone. But, I know that’s not true, because I trust You. I know You will never leave me. And I believe that one day I will again sing and rejoice because You are good to me. I trust in Your unfailing love. About the author: Tom Norvell is the author of “A Norvell Note” — Thoughts and reflections on God, life, people, and living as a follower of Jesus. He has ministered with followers of Jesus for four decades and loves Jesus, his family, and those seeking Jesus, passionately.
Today’s Verse – James 1:2-3
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. —James 1:2-3 Thoughts on Today’s Verse… “Hang in there!” There are few traits more important than perseverance – hanging in there. Most important accomplishments in life happen because of perseverance. Most “luck” occurs when we’ve persevered long enough for the “magical moment” to come along – in other words, I don’t believe in luck. Edison said it best: life’s most extraordinary feats, the world’s most significant discoveries, and his own most fantastic inventions are “1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” Hang in there! Persevere! And do it with joy! Why? So you can see the glory of God come through for you and in you, not because of luck, but because of God’s grace, love, and power partnered with your perseverance! My Prayer… Unchangeable and Unshakeable God, help me to stand up and prove my character is true when I am under fire. Use the friends you have sent into my life and the power of the Holy Spirit to help me persevere. Please give me faith, courage, and endurance so that my life displays your enduring strength. And, dear Father, please help me find joy in persevering when under trial. I pray for these graces, in the name of him who remained faithful even unto death, and who, “for the joy set before him endured” and persevered through the cross! Amen. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
Wisely Invested Treasures
Note from Jesus Dear Precious One, Are you worried about finances? Retirement? Funding college? Too little money at the end of too long a month? Or paying off your debts? Are you working for money for money’s sake? For greater success? For more security? For a new play toy? For a vacation play place? For a bigger and better box to sleep in? Or simply for the prestige of having a lot of stuff? Remember this: stuff doesn’t last — “your precious trinkets” won’t amount to anything in the end! If what you invest in can’t change the ultimate reality of your life — death — then what good is it going to do you in the long run? Can what you worry about or what you work for decay, be stolen, or be lost? Then can it ever really be yours… can it ever be truly satisfying… will it ever be enough? Those who live with selfish extravagance or who run after material things often end up losing their life. Pick up the latest tabloid and see which spoiled young superstars have ended up in jail as they live out of control trying for a bit more limelight, searching for a bit more gusto in their joy, wanting a bit more of something that their stuff can’t seem to satisfy. What their eyes see as success is, in reality, darkness. What their hearts call significance ends up as emptiness. What their wealth buys now later becomes their ongoing burden. Let Me have your heart! Let Me show you the right places to invest! Let Me deposit your truest riches in the bank of eternal grace! Then notice in the process that you have found the spiritually meaningful life that many others chase without success. Verses to Live Here’s My teaching on worry, riches, and true wealth. It comes from My Sermon on the Mount. Please remember, what I say here is not opinion or suggestion: this is the truth. Disregard it at your own peril. Obey it to find true life! Jesus: Some people store up treasures in their homes here on earth. This is a shortsighted practice — don’t undertake it. Moths and rust will eat up any treasure you may store here. Thieves may break into your homes and steal your precious trinkets. Instead, put up your treasures in heaven where moths do not attack, where rust does not corrode, and where thieves are barred at the door. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. You draw light into your body through your eyes, and light shines out to the world through your eyes. So if your eye is well and shows you what is true, then your whole body will be filled with light. But if your eye is clouded or evil, then your body will be filled with evil and dark clouds. And the darkness that takes over the body of a child of God who has gone astray — that is the deepest, darkest darkness there is. No one can serve two masters. If you try, you will wind up loving the first master and hating the second, or vice versa. People try to serve both God and money — but you can’t. You must choose one or the other. Here is the bottom line: do not worry about your life. Don’t worry about what you will eat or what you will drink. Don’t worry about how you clothe your body. Living is about more than merely eating, and the body is about more than dressing up. Look at the birds in the sky. They do not store food for winter. They don’t plant gardens. They do not sow or reap — and yet, they are always fed because your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are even more precious to Him than a beautiful bird. If He looks after them, of course He will look after you. Worrying does not do any good; who here can claim to add even an hour to his life by worrying? Nor should you worry about clothes. Consider the lilies of the field and how they grow. They do not work or weave or sew, and yet their garments are stunning. Even King Solomon, dressed in his most regal garb, was not as lovely as these lilies. And think about grassy fields — the grasses are here now, but they will be dead by winter. And yet God adorns them so radiantly. How much more will He clothe you, you of little faith, you who have no trust? So do not consume yourselves with questions: What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear? Outsiders make themselves frantic over such questions; they don’t realize that your heavenly Father knows exactly what you need. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then all these things will be given to you too. So do not worry about tomorrow. Let tomorrow worry about itself. Living faithfully is a large enough task for today. (Matthew 6:19-34) Response in Prayer Father, forgive me for believing the lies of the advertisers, the deceptions of my fleshly greed, and the pressure of my peers to want to have more stuff that does not fully satisfy or have ultimate eternal value. Please give me eyes to see and a heart to seek after what is truly lasting and what is of eternal significance. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen. ‘A Year with Jesus’ is written by Phil Ware. © 1998-2026, Heartlight, Inc. ‘A Year with Jesus‘ is part of the Heartlight Network.All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Voice™. © 2008 by Ecclesia Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
20 Jan 2026
What sort of leadership do we practise where the Lord has positioned us? Do we dictate those we lead or do we serve them? Are we focused on titles and accolades or are we concerned about the welfare of those we lead? Matthew 20:20-28.
Uncluttering
Are you willing to get rid of the stuff in your life that is just in the way? Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out, and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved (Matthew 9:17). In anticipation of a construction project that will necessitate moving our church’s food pantry, we’ve been doing a little cleaning at church. Like a lot of homes – maybe like your home, in fact – church buildings accumulate stuff. And while some of the stuff they accumulate is important and necessary, a good portion of it is “we-might-want-to-use-this-again-sometime” stuff. We have a lot of that kind of stuff lying around, waiting for “sometime.” By the look of it, some of it has been waiting since the Nixon administration. Anyway, watching people sorting through cabinets and shelves and throwing out stuff that’s no longer useful has me thinking about the old stuff that one finds lying around church buildings. Old stuff like hymn books that are no longer used, or leftover Bible class curriculum, or old sound equipment, or broken furniture. It’s got me thinking, as well, about old stuff like traditions, ways of doing things, values, and assumptions about the world around us and the community in which we live. I’ve been thinking about how most churches could stand to do some “uncluttering,” for lack of a better word. I’ve been thinking how most churches need every now and again to look at all the stuff that’s lying around and ask if it’s worth keeping. I wonder if that wasn’t what Jesus was getting at with his “new wineskins” comment. I look at that, I look at where it’s located in Matthew, and it starts to dawn on me what Jesus had in mind. He’s announced to a paralyzed man that his sins are forgiven, and people are calling it blasphemy because forgiving sins is God’s business. He’s invited a hated, traitorous, corrupt tax collector to join his inner circle. (Imagine, for comparison, if he asked a businessman laundering drug money for the mafia.) The pious people have called him and his disciples out for not fasting. He’s just about to be touched by a woman made “unclean” by her constant hemorrhage, and then he’ll go on to touch an “unclean” dead body. He heals the woman and raises the dead little girl, but clearly he’s giving the religious folks plenty of ammunition. See, I think the folks that criticized Jesus for doing the things he did needed to clean out their church buildings, if you take my meaning. They had some stuff lying around that wasn’t doing them or the people God called them to teach and lead and serve much good at all. They had some assumptions, traditions, and practices that were just taking up space, causing people to stumble, and getting in the way of the things that really mattered. But it was stuff that had always been there, and as far as they were concerned, always would be there. And so they left it in place and got very grumpy and impatient whenever someone tripped over it or wondered aloud if it wouldn’t be better to toss it out. It happens in churches. Stuff accumulates over the years. Oh, there’s always a reason that it does, and usually it’s a very good reason. At least at the beginning. Over time, though, the reason fades and what’s left is the tradition, or the practice, or the assumption. I bet you can think of some stuff at your church like that. A lot of it is innocuous and harmless enough. I recently conducted an experiment at my church to try to find out why, after the servers pass the communion trays, one of them always comes back up to the front to put the lids from the grape juice trays back on the pedestals that the stacks of trays start on. The trays aren’t there anymore, but someone always moves those lids. No one seems to know why, but there you are. (The best answer I got was, “I don’t know: so there’s room for the offering plates later?”) A lot of the old stuff that’s lying around my church, and yours too, is like that. It doesn’t interfere with anything, and doesn’t take up much space, so why not hang on to it? And some of the old stuff is there for a really good reason, and shouldn’t be thrown out unless it’s for an even better reason. And some of it – well, it’s the equivalent of walls and columns and floors and ceilings in a building. It’s load-bearing, and to get rid of it would be to forsake the gospel and cease being the church. So, really, I’m not advocating throwing out old stuff without discernment, just getting rid of the clutter! About the author: Patrick Odum lives in Chicago, Illinois, with his wife, Laura and son, Joshua. He is one of the ministers at Northwest Church of Christ, and an avid Heartlight fan. He enjoys writing and maintains a website of his work called Faith Web where you can find all of his articles. Email Patrick
Is It Really All Just So Much Talk?
Does your faith move you beyond just talk? [Jesus said] “I’m telling you to love your enemies and do good to them. Lend to people without expecting to get anything back. If you do these things, you will have a great reward. You will be children of the Most High (God). Yes, because God is good even to the people that are full of sin and not thankful.” (Luke 6:35 ERV) “Religion is as religion does – all the rest is talk,” writes Irving Greenberg. A Jewish theologian, Greenberg had the Holocaust in view with his statement. It was not enough to say a prayer for Jews in the time of Hitler. It didn’t help to feel sad or to wish that someone would come to the aid of people being murdered. It was a time that called for very specific and practical behaviors. A European Jew in 1943 needed something as specific as a Gentile home or shop where she could hide. Money. Food. Spiriting across a border. “But that would involve risk to the person providing it!” someone cries. Of course, it would. But that is the point. Faith, godly living, justice, compassion don’t have meaning until they are deeds instead of mere pious conversation. It is pretty easy to see that now. We are more than a half century away from Hitler’s gas chambers and crematoria. It is even possible to watch a movie or TV documentary and tell ourselves we would have done something back then. We can hope so. But there are good reasons to wonder. Where does a stranger fit into your life? All of us do kind things for our family and close friends. I insist on buying lunch this time. You go to the hospital to cheer her up. You take care of his yard for six weeks while his ankle heals. You babysit their kids when they need to run an errand or just see a movie. But you’ll get all those kindnesses back. You may even be repaying things they’ve already done. It is wonderful to have such positive, supportive relationships in your life. The challenge for many of us, though, is to name something we do for strangers. People who will never pay us back. People of a different color or religion. People whose politics we don’t like. An enemy. If those of us who say we are disciples of Jesus do not grow in our ability to care about others in very concrete, self-sacrificing ways, we are only fooling ourselves. Poverty, sickness, loneliness, hunger, fear – no individual or family, local church or civic group can tackle all these problems. But there is one situation, one family, or one person you can help. And “help” isn’t warm feelings or kind thoughts. It is time. Putting money down. Having somebody into your home or going to theirs. Making a lonely person feel cared for. Tutoring a child. Religious rituals are no substitute for compassionate actions. If the Marines are looking for “a few good men,” Jesus is searching for a few real disciples – people whose religion is Christ-imitating love and not mere church prattle. My brothers and sisters, if a person says that he has faith, but does nothing, then that faith is worth nothing. … A brother or sister in Christ might need clothes or might need food to eat. And you say to that person, “God be with you! I hope you stay warm and get plenty to eat.” You say these things, but you don’t give that person those things he needs. If you don’t help that person, your words are worth nothing. It is the same with faith. If faith does nothing, then that faith is dead, because it is alone. (James 2:14-17) About the author: Rubel Shelly preached for decades, been a professor of medical ethics, Bible, and philosophy at multiple universities and a med school. He is currently Professor of Philosophy & Religion at Lipscomb University. He is the author of more than 30 books and hundreds of inspirational articles.