In this world, there are moments when the reason for another’s hostility toward you is not hidden—it is simply because you belong to Jesus. The devotional explains that persecution for righteousness’ sake (Matthew 5:10) is not quite the same as persecution for Jesus’ sake (Matthew 5:11). In the first case, you may be misunderstood or opposed because you are committed to what is right. In the second, the opposition is personal—it is aimed at Him who lives in you, and you bear it because you follow Him.

E. Stanley Jones points to Ephesians 2:15 and names the secret to real peace. Jesus creates in Himself one new man out of the two. The way to peace is not for one side to win and the other to lose. The way is a third reality formed in Jesus, a union where no party conquers the other, and both are transformed by a shared life.

Today’s reading from E. Stanley Jones celebrates Jesus as our peace. Not a principle, but a Person who brings those who were far off near to God and near to one another. The atonement is not cold arithmetic. It is at-one-ment, a shared life in the Son where rivalry and ladder-climbing finally end.

We are not rescued by our performance. We are rescued by grace through faith, and that same grace sets the tone for everything that follows. The reading reminds us that we are God’s workmanship, newly crafted in Jesus for good works that fit who we now are. The works do not create salvation. They flow from it.

Why are so many believers downcast even when outward pressures are not the issue. Today’s reading compiled by Nick Harrison says it is often because we forget where we belong. We forget to look up into the realities that are ours in Jesus, and we begin to look on the world as a desirable place rather than a wilderness. When our gaze lowers, joy lowers with it.

Todays reading compiled by Nick Harrison centers on a simple, freeing rhythm for generosity. On the first day of the week, each believer sets aside a portion as the Lord has prospered them. It is not a tax. It is grace-guided responsibility that turns giving into a steady expression of love. Money laid aside becomes a ready store for the poor, for gospel work, and for everyday needs the Spirit brings to our attention.

We are creatures of habit, often letting old patterns dictate our reactions. Even as believers, it is easy to settle into familiar ruts of selfishness, complaint, or thin-skinned pride. Today’s devotional compiled by Nick Harrison points out that these tendencies, though subtle, are still expressions of the flesh—old ways of thinking and reacting that do not belong in the life of one who has been raised with Jesus.

The disciples, with sincere yet misplaced enthusiasm, pointed out the grandeur of the temple to Jesus. They wanted Him to share their admiration for the building’s beauty and scale. But their focus revealed something deeper: they still measured importance by earthly standards. After all their time with Him, they still thought in terms of visible greatness, permanence, and human approval.

In today’s devotional from T. Austin-Sparks, we are invited to step beyond the common view of salvation as simply an escape from sin and entrance into heaven. Sparks shows us what Paul saw, a reality so expansive that everything else was counted as loss compared to knowing Jesus Christ. Paul understood that God’s eternal purpose for His people began before the foundation of the world and extends into the ages to come. Our significance as believers is rooted in this eternal plan, not in temporary measures of success or human achievement.

When Jeremiah faced heartbreaking injustice and violence, he cried out to God with the same “why” questions we still ask today. If God is loving, why doesn’t He stop it? If He is powerful, why doesn’t He intervene? God’s answer to Jeremiah was not to explain the reasons or immediately remove the pain. Instead, He asked Jeremiah what he would do when it became worse. If running with ordinary men exhausts you, how will you run with horses? If you stumble on level ground, how will you make it through the tangled thickets by the Jordan?

Jeremiah’s ministry was anything but easy. God had called him to speak to a nation in spiritual decay, a people unwilling to heed His warnings. Instead of softening with time, the ministry became more intense. In this particular passage, God told Jeremiah not to pray for the nation, explaining that prayer would delay the judgment they needed. For a man who loved his people, this was a severe instruction. Yet it was part of God’s plan to strengthen and prepare him for even greater challenges.

God’s promises are not fragile hopes that depend on our circumstances. They are firm realities grounded in His own character and power. Today’s devotional from Bob Hoekstra draws us into the example of Abraham, who faced decades of delay between God’s promise and its fulfillment. Each repetition of God’s word to him came against the backdrop of growing human impossibility, yet Abraham grew stronger in faith, not weaker.

Abraham’s life reminds us that even the strongest faith is often refined through repeated testing. In today’s passage, we meet him at the height of his spiritual journey. The long-awaited promise had finally come true: Isaac, the son through whom God’s covenant blessings would flow, was here. Yet the very God who gave Isaac now called Abraham to place him on the altar.

In today’s devotional from A.B. Simpson, the focus is on the Holy Spirit’s tender, protective, and purposeful work within us. His love is not passive or distant. It is the jealous love of God, intent on keeping us free from anything that would mar the beauty of our life in Jesus. This is not the jealousy born of insecurity, but the holy jealousy of a Bridegroom who treasures His Bride and will not tolerate anything that diminishes her glory.

In the Old Testament, the high priest would place both hands on the head of the live goat, confess the sins of the people over it, and send it away into the wilderness. That goat, bearing the iniquities of the nation, was a vivid picture of removal, the sins were gone, never to return. This was a shadow pointing forward to Jesus, the true Sin Offering, who bore our sins and carried them away forever.

In today’s devotional, Oswald Chambers draws a sharp distinction between choosing suffering and choosing God’s will when it includes suffering. The healthy believer does not pursue hardship for its own sake but pursues the Lord’s will, trusting Him whether that path is smooth or difficult. Jesus is our example. He never sought pain, but He walked directly into it when it was the Father’s will.

Today’s devotional from Oswald Chambers reminds us that when Jesus prayed, His consciousness was filled with the presence of His Father. The Father always heard His Son. Now, because the Spirit of the Son dwells in us, the same intimacy of hearing is ours. The key is not in presenting impressive requests, but in living so united to the Son that His prayer to the Father becomes our own.

In today’s devotional from Miles Stanford, the law is described as a “beloved enemy” for the believer. It is beloved because many Christians see it as their trusted companion for living a righteous life. Yet, when the law is placed in the hands of the Holy Spirit, it becomes an instrument that brings us to the end of self-effort. Its purpose is not to help us succeed in our own ability, but to bring us to the place where we cry out with Paul, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Hard as it may be for a believer to rest in the certainty of salvation, the greater challenge often comes in learning to rest in Jesus for life and service. Many approach the Christian journey with the assumption that their responsibility is to accomplish God’s will through personal determination and discipline. Yet, as the devotional points out, the real breakthrough often comes only after painful seasons of failure. These failures open the door to a deeper understanding: that rest in God is not inactivity, but the cessation of self-effort and the full surrender of faith to His working within.

When Jesus said, Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens (Matthew 5:10), He made it clear that righteousness and persecution are often inseparable. The world, lying in the evil one, is marked by unrighteousness in its systems, motives, and actions. To hunger and thirst for righteousness is to invite resistance. Righteousness by its very nature disrupts what is unjust, so those who walk in it can expect opposition.