Description

Bring some Spirit-filled peace into your hectic schedule every weekday morning with this new Daily Devotional.
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  • February 19th - Psalm 97:10

    February 19th - Psalm 97:10
    Feb 19 2026
    Psalm 97:10 You who love the LORD, hate evil! He protects the lives of his godly people and rescues them from the power of the wicked. One of the signs that we truly love God is that we start to hate evil, and this is critically important because the many great evils in the world will never come to an end unless people begin hating them. The Transatlantic Slave Trade only stopped when people identified its horror and started hating it. I once visited the ancient fort at Cape Coast in Ghana where slaves were held before being ferried to the slave ships off the coast. For me, the most horrific discovery was that the dungeon in which the slaves were brutally stored was underneath the chapel. As the slave traders worshipped God, they must have heard the cries of the slaves. For centuries, people lived with the slave trade as an acceptable, if regrettable, part of life. It was only when people started to hate it and fight against it that the tide turned and finally, albeit very slowly, it was dismantled. There is plenty in our own world which deserves our hatred. We need to hate poverty, which occurs in every part of the world. Poverty distorts and cheapens life. It places enormous pressure on relationships and health and often leads to depression and violence. There is nothing good about it, but we live alongside it with surprising ease. In one of the wealthiest countries in the world, we all live close to poor people. This psalm suggests to me that as we love God more and more, he wants our hatred of poverty to increase, because then we will start taking initiatives to help to eradicate it and to support those who are poor. It’s so easy to respond to poverty by blaming others. The government would be a popular target, and so would the poor themselves, but this is a cheap way of trying to evade our responsibilities. The government cannot do everything and although some poor people may well bear a degree of responsibility for their poverty, we have also played our part in keeping them poor. True worship of the living God must lead us to action. Question How much do you hate poverty in your own community and what are you doing as a result of your hatred? Prayer Loving Father, help me to love you so much that I start hating evil in the same way as you do. Amen
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    4 min
  • February 18th - 2 Corinthians 13:14

    February 18th - 2 Corinthians 13:14
    Feb 18 2026
    2 Corinthians 13:14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. As Paul concludes this tough letter in which he has responded to fierce criticism of his ministry, he ends by blessing the church in Corinth. These beautiful words are repeated millions of times every year as Christians meet together because they are the strongest words of blessing that could be imagined. They summarise the majestic work of the Trinity. Jesus’ life and ministry are wonderfully summed up in the word grace. Grace means gift, and his life and death were God’s perfect gift to the world. In a world in which there is often brokenness, sadness and a distinct lack of grace, it is wonderful to be able to pray for people to experience the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, which brings healing, forgiveness and restoration. Many things could be said of God the Father, the creator of the world. He is all powerful and all-knowing and no word of praise and adoration is too great to express his majesty. However, if you had to choose just one word to describe him, you would have to choose love, for God is love. The Holy Spirit was God’s gracious gift to the Church when Jesus returned to his Father’s right hand in heaven. He lives with us, and every day he offers to have fellowship with us and to lead us into all truth. Jesus said that it was to his disciples’ advantage that he went away so that the Holy Spirit could be sent to them. In his earthly life, Jesus couldn’t be with everyone all the time, but the Holy Spirit can, so we gladly bless one another with the encouragement that his fellowship is constantly with us. We should never repeat these words of blessing quickly or thoughtlessly. They take us to the heart of our great Triune God. Question In what way is this blessing special to you? Prayer May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all today. Amen
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    3 min
  • February 17th - 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

    February 17th - 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
    Feb 17 2026
    2 Corinthians 12:9-10 [The Lord] said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. The apostle Paul revealed that he had suffered a thorn in the flesh. He didn’t give any hint of what kind of thorn this was, so there have been endless suggestions over the centuries. It may well have been a physical difficulty, and it has often been suggested that he had a speech impediment. This would account for him being described as a poor preacher. It might well have been a mental or spiritual difficulty instead. We just don’t know, and it really doesn’t matter. What matters is the spiritual lesson that it taught him, namely that God finds it easiest to work in us through our weakness rather than our strength. A strong person is tempted to think that they can do everything by themselves – that they have no need for God. The person who is weak, on the other hand, knows their limitations. They are eager to find support from others and gladly welcome God’s strength. Paul was fiercely criticised for the weakness of his public ministry. As a minister, I wince at the sharpness of their criticisms, and it is clear that they wounded Paul deeply. He had established the church in Corinth, so it was incredibly precious to him, and the barrage of criticisms must have been especially hard to bear. His answer to his critics, however, was that all the problems that he had faced had actually been a blessing because they had taught him to rely completely on God. All of us will face challenging times in the future, even if life is easy and straightforward at the moment. Praise God that in those days of greatest weakness we will discover more and more of his strength. Question When have you experienced God’s strength in times of weakness? Prayer Lord God, I thank you that I can look to the future with confidence because you will always fill me with the strength that I need to face any challenge. Amen
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    4 min
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