Description

Bring some Spirit-filled peace into your hectic schedule every weekday morning with this new Daily Devotional.
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  • January 31st - Mark 8:36-37

    January 31st - Mark 8:36-37
    Jan 31 2026
    Mark 8:36-37 What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? Our cynical, materialistic society was well summed up by Oscar Wilde as knowing “the price of everything and the value of nothing”. Like many one-liners, that’s a bit harsh, but he was making an important point. It’s very easy for our money-mad society to overlook the most important things because of its obsession with the temporary things that have a price tag. Jesus pours scorn on this way of thinking. Forget owning a really large house or becoming the exclusive owner of every property in your town – Jesus encourages you to imagine what it would be like to own the whole world. That, he suggests, would be completely pointless if you lost your soul, your very reason for living. Jesus is encouraging us to think about our priorities. What matters most to us? Whether we are conscious of it or not, the answer to that question will shape every day of our lives. It’s an issue to which Jesus returned on many occasions. In his Sermon on the Mount, he observed how people worry about a whole range of issues. He said there was no need for his followers to expend energy on these things because God perfectly understands our needs and can provide for us perfectly. He encouraged his followers to seek first the kingdom of God. When that is our focus, everything else will fall into its proper place. Every day, our society will try to tell us what our priorities should be. It may be that at work we feel a pressure to go for a promotion and to earn more money. That may be right for you, but I have known many people who, in answer to the call of God, have gone as mission partners to other parts of the world where they have earned less and faced far greater challenges than at home. It may be that you are thinking about moving home. It may be right for you to move to a nice area where you will feel comfortable and secure, but I can think of a number of friends who have deliberately moved to tough areas on needy estates in order to be able to serve the Lord there. I don’t know what seeking first the kingdom of God will mean for you, but it will certainly challenge the assumptions which our society tries to thrust upon us. Above all else we need to pray, knowing that the Holy Spirit will love to lead us in God’s way. Question In what way will the command to seek first the kingdom of God affect your decisions today? Prayer Lord God, help me to learn more of what it means to seek first your kingdom in all that I think and do. Amen
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    4 min
  • January 30th - Mark 8:34-35

    January 30th - Mark 8:34-35
    Jan 30 2026
    Mark 8:34-35 Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, [Jesus] said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.” Jesus’ breathtaking honesty is very striking. Day by day, we are constantly being encouraged to sign up to organisations which can improve our health, wealth or general wellbeing. Their marketing is slick and highly polished and calculated to get us to subscribe to their products or services. They help us to dream of a happier and more successful life and cram in every attractive and glossy image to lure us into signing up. Jesus took a completely different approach. He spoke straight to people about the costs of following him. It reminds me of Winston Churchill, who during the second world war offered people “blood, toil, tears and sweat.” I am firmly convinced that living for Christ is the most amazing and wonderful life. I would recommend it to anyone. However, that doesn’t mean it’s easy, and Jesus wanted his followers to know from day one that he was going to completely change their approach to life. If they wanted to hang on to their old ways, they could do just that. Jesus was only inviting people to follow him who were prepared to go on a completely new journey. They needed to turn their back on their old way of life and start all over again. We miss the point completely if we think that we can simply add a few Christian attitudes and virtues to our old way of life. It just won’t work. Like driving a car, there can only be one person at the controls. The apostle Paul put this very clearly when he wrote: “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Question Do those words from the apostle Paul describe your life? Prayer Lord Jesus Christ, I hand over my life to you. I want to live for you today and ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit so that I will please you in all that think, say and do. Amen
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    4 min
  • January 29th - Mark 8:33

    January 29th - Mark 8:33
    Jan 29 2026
    Mark 8:33 Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” I have a soft spot for Peter. When Jesus informed his disciples that he was going to suffer at the hands of the Jewish authorities and then be killed, Peter did what any friend would do. He told Jesus off for saying such terrible things. He loved Jesus and hated the thought of him going through such suffering, but Jesus would have none of it. “Get away from me, Satan!” was as complete a reprimand as he could have uttered, and then he explained that Peter was just thinking things through from a human point of view. He needed to start thinking from God’s point of view. This is an important challenge for us all. It is easy for us to become so immersed in the busyness of daily life and the demands of our world that we struggle to think of anything from God’s point of view. Like Peter, it’s very easy for us to respond to situations in kind and thoughtful ways which totally miss the point. God is calling us to have a completely different worldview that is shaped by his agenda. The apostle Paul addressed precisely this issue when he wrote to the Corinthians. He reflected that they used to see one another and even Christ from a human point of view, but that had all come to an end. “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone, a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). If we are to be the people that God wants us to be, we must receive a complete overhaul of our ways of thinking. That’s where the revolution needs to begin. Only then will our actions reflect God’s generosity, wisdom and love to the world. Writing to the church in Rome, Paul got to the heart of the matter when he wrote: “Don’t copy the behaviour 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). Question In what ways has God transformed your thinking recently? Prayer Loving God, thank you that you love me so much that you want to transform my thinking. I invite your Holy Spirit to direct my thinking today. Amen
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    4 min
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