READ: GENESIS 12:1-8; ROMANS 8:28-39

“But I don’t want to go.”

For months I begged Mom. I didn’t want to leave our home to move to a new state hundreds of miles away. I didn’t want to say goodbye to friends and neighbors I had known forever. I didn’t want to start all over again, especially in the middle of the school year.

“Why can’t I stay here?”

But I knew why. Cancer. We had lived in Florida my whole life, but now Mom’s doctor said the Florida weather didn’t pair well with her treatment. So my dad took a new job in North Carolina. And they would not leave me behind.

I just wished we didn’t have to move so far away.

Change was scary. Making new friends had always been hard for me. Would they like me? Would I do well in school? What if I didn’t like it?

In Genesis 12, God told Abraham to leave his home in Haran and take his family to Canaan… hundreds of miles away. So Abraham gathered his family and everything they owned and walked across a hot, dusty land to their new home. When they arrived, he pitched a tent and built an altar, “and he called on the name of the LORD” (verse 8).

But I often wonder: Was Abraham afraid to go? Did he ever ask God if he could stay? What gave Abraham hope during this time of transition?

The answer? Abraham looked ahead at what God had promised him—to make a great nation in this new place. In the same way, we can trust in the promises God has given to us, His people.

Because Jesus died and rose again, everyone who puts their faith in Jesus is part of God’s family, His nation (1 Peter 2:9). God is always working in our lives, and He is using even the toughest situations for our good (John 5:17; Romans 8:28). One day, Jesus will make all things new—then terrible things like cancer and homesickness will be gone forever. But in the meantime, we can take the next step knowing He’ll be with us through it all. • Carolyn Bennett Fraiser

• What changes are you facing in your life? What next steps might God be calling you to take?

• How can Jesus’s promise to be with us affect the way we see any situation?

[Jesus said,] “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20 (CSB)

READ: MATTHEW 11:27-30; JOHN 1:14; 5:19-20; HEBREWS 1:1-12

Have you ever celebrated the Day of the Epiphany? While most North Americans celebrate December 25 as the big gift-giving day of the season, other cultures celebrate January 6 as the day for presents and other surprises. On January 6, the Day of the Epiphany, many people traditionally remember the day when the Magi brought gifts to young Jesus. In many Spanish-speaking countries, children leave out grass and water for the Magi’s camels the day before Dia de los Reyes (the day of kings). They awake to find their shoes filled with gifts “from” the visiting Magi. In Germany, children dress up as the Magi and carol from house to house, asking for charity donations. The Epiphany is celebrated in Italy with bonfires and special treats; the French make a holiday gateau des rois or king cake. There are many other traditions as well.

The word epiphany means revelation or manifestation. The Day of the Epiphany celebrates the revelation of Jesus as the Son of God, born as a baby into the world. As He lived among us, Jesus was a living revelation of who God is—that means Jesus reveals to us what God is like. Hebrews 1:3 tells us that “the Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.” Throughout His life, Jesus demonstrated God’s power, His love, His mercy, His holiness, His wisdom, and more. The words Jesus spoke were the very words of God (John 5:19). And Jesus’s death and resurrection fulfilled God’s plan of salvation for His people.

The Magi experienced the epiphany of seeing young Jesus. And Jesus invites each of us to have this epiphany as well. Do you see Jesus as God Himself? He invites us to see His glory as “the one and only son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). That’s exactly who He is! • Laura N. Sweet

• How did Jesus demonstrate God’s power while He lived among us here on earth? How did He demonstrate God’s mercy? His love?

• Why is it important that Jesus is both God and human? How does this affect the way we understand His death and resurrection?

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 (NIV)

READ: GENESIS 1:26-27; 3:1-11; 1 CORINTHIANS 6:19-20; GALATIANS 2:20

I’m fat. My skin is broken out. My nose is too big. I’m ugly.

Thoughts like these have haunted me most of my life, particularly during my teenage years. I often wondered what was wrong with me. Why couldn’t I look different? Sometimes, just looking in a mirror made me want to cry.

My weight bothered me most, so I tried anything to reduce it. I refused my body nourishment, exercised too much, adopted specific and irrational eating rituals, and spiraled into binge eating. All of this was an attempt to quiet the sadness inside. I thought if I could control my weight tightly enough, I would be happy.

What I couldn’t see back then was that I was believing a lie. I hated my body for how it looked. I thought it was worthless. I didn’t think God cared or had anything to say about it. It took me many years and much wise Christian counsel to realize that nothing could be further from the truth.

God created all of us in His image, the crown jewels of His originally good creation. It was only after humanity’s fall into sin that we began misusing our bodies and considering them shameful. But even in our broken state, God came to save us. Fully God and fully human, Jesus was born into the world. He has a body like we have, and that’s why He could die on our behalf and make us right with God again, no matter what our bodies look like (Psalm 34:5; Romans 3:22-26).

And there’s more good news. Before Jesus came, God provided His people with a temple, a place for His presence to dwell so they could worship Him. But now, God doesn’t make His home in a physical building anymore. He lives in us. That’s right, He chose to make the body that I hated and mistreated for so long into His new temple. Scripture tells us that we are not our own, we were bought at a very high price. And that price was the blood of Jesus. Therefore, we are called to glorify Him with our bodies.

So, if you are ever tempted to view your body as I did, please remember that you are worth much more than you think. The staggering reality is that we, bodies included, are immeasurably valuable because God created us, loves us, died for us, and lives in us. And that, my friends, is a beautiful thing. • Alissa Griffin

• Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them.” How does the fact that we bear the image of God affect how we view our bodies?

• After Jesus died on the cross, He rose from the grave, and His disciples saw His resurrected body. If we’ve put our trust in Jesus, we can look forward to the day He will raise us from the dead—then we’ll have resurrected bodies too, and we’ll live with Him forever in restored creation! On that glorious day, we won’t struggle with sin and brokenness anymore. How might knowing that our bodies will be resurrected change the way we view ourselves? What does this say about how valuable our bodies are to God?

• What does it mean to honor or glorify God with our bodies? (Hint: read Romans 6:13 and Ephesians 5:29)

• Today’s devotion mentions disordered eating. If you are struggling with disordered eating or think you might have an eating disorder—such as anorexia nervosa (extreme restriction of food intake), bulimia nervosa (eating large amounts of food followed by purging), or binge eating disorder (repeated episodes of consuming large amounts of food in short periods of time)—who is a trusted adult you could talk to about getting help? Treatment for eating disorders can be long and complex, usually requiring therapy and nutritional counseling, but Jesus will walk with you every step of the way, and He’ll provide fellow Christians to...

READ: JOHN 16:33; ACTS 16:16-25; ROMANS 8:28-39; HEBREWS 12:1-3

So cold. Such nasty weather. The wind is terrible. The voice in my head was full of complaints. I was ready to get inside and tell everyone just how miserable I had felt on my morning walk. I can’t do this. I frowned. How was I even going to make it inside? It was too cold.

Suddenly, a thought popped into my head: I needed to change my thinking if I wanted things to get easier. A hymn came to mind, and I started singing it in my head as I continued forward. In what felt like just moments, I had covered all the ground I needed to cover, and I was back in the warmth.

In Acts 16, life couldn’t have been fun for Paul and Silas when they were in prison. They hadn’t done anything wrong, yet they were publicly “stripped and beaten with rods” (verse 22), then locked up with criminals in the worst part of the jail. What did the two men do as they sat in the dank inner cell, bloody and bruised, with their feet held fast in stocks so they couldn’t even move their legs to ease the pain? They sang. What did they sing? Songs to God.

Sometimes we need to change our focus in order to get through difficult times. Instead of focusing on the trouble in front of us and the pain we’re dealing with, we need to focus on how great our God is and all that He has done for us. Instead of focusing on the cold wind against our faces, we can thank God for the sunshine He created to go along with that wind.

There are going to be struggles in our lives. There is nothing we can do to stop them from coming. When they come, though, will we store up complaints to share with others—or will we turn our focus onto Jesus and praise God? • Emily Acker

• Have you ever found yourself praising God in the midst of a hard time? What was that like?

• God sees all that we go through, and He has so much compassion on us. Jesus has promised to be with us in all our troubles, and He can truly empathize with us because He experienced our suffering when He lived among us and was put to death on the cross. Whenever we’re struggling, He weeps with us— and He also reminds us that He loves us, that He rose from the dead, and that He promises to raise His people too. We can trust that God is in control, and He will work things out for our good. How can these truths help us praise God in the hard times?

Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him! Psalm 147:1 (NIV)

READ: PSALM 34:17-22

I wasn’t hiding
I’ve always been here
All of this time
There is no need to fear

I wouldn’t leave you
This is not the end
Broken as it is
Your heart, I will mend

I am always good
I have good plans for you
My gentle hand will guide
In all that you do

I am your Father
You can come to me
Always, in any moment
I will give you peace • Bethany Acker

• Can you think of a time you felt like God wasn’t there for you? Throughout our lives, we all go through times like these, and it’s easy to wonder if God has left us. Thankfully, God has given us so many promises in His Word, assuring His people that He will never leave us. Because of Jesus’s death and resurrection, He is always with us. (If you want to dig deeper, read Psalms 139:10; 147:3; Isaiah 41:10; Matthew 7:7-11; 11:28-30; 28:20; John 14:27; 1 Corinthians 2:9; Hebrews 13:5)

• God always wants us to turn to Him. When we are brokenhearted, He wants to give us the comfort we so desperately need. He is a loving Father who is always there for us. Consider taking a moment to talk to God about times He’s felt far away, asking Him to help you see how He was with you then, and how He is with you now.

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18 (NIV)

READ: MARK 10:17-22; LUKE 15:11-24; JOHN 13:1-5

Duke Zeroth pounded on the cell door, then slid to the floor. Every gold piece, mansion, animal, field, and even his wardrobe—gone to pay debts. And still he owed more.

Zeroth clutched his head. Surely he couldn’t have invested everything in that partnership with Lord Drune—the traitor! Even now, Drune was duping a new victim.

Zeroth crawled onto a pile of hay. Something dug into his back as he tossed and turned. He reached into the hay, expecting to find a rock. Instead, he withdrew a metal cylinder. As he raised it, something rustled.

He removed the cap, releasing a warm glow. A parchment fell out—a note.

“I will come for you. Only write and ask.” Below the words was the seal of the king.

A second piece of parchment and writing supplies tumbled from the cylinder.

Zeroth moaned. Was it just last year he’d offered himself to be a king’s courtier? The king had seemed to approve of him, but then! That condition—to give everything away before entering the palace. Everything! All that made Zeroth powerful and respected and self-sufficient.

To write to the king now would seem cheap. It was too late. If the king knew into whose hands this message had come, he would never give Zeroth a second chance.

Zeroth shoved everything back into the metal container and closed out the light. Prisoners’ cries and the jailer’s laughter haunted him.

Too dark! He uncapped the cylinder again, releasing the glow. He took a breath. The king never lied. Ever. This was his last hope.

“I’ve been so foolish,” he wrote. “Please, would you come for even me?” He slipped the missive into the cylinder and replaced the cap. As he fell asleep, the soft glow remained.

He awoke to someone washing his bruised feet. Zeroth sat up straight and stared into the face of his king.

“Sire! You shouldn’t—”

The king held out his hand. “Will you come to my court now?”

Zeroth’s face burned. “But I have only these filthy rags.”

“Leave them,” the king said. “I have brought you a new robe. Come, follow me.” • Judith DeStefano

• Today’s allegorical story is inspired by several passages. In Mark 10:17-22, we see Jesus’s conversation with a rich young ruler. And in Luke 15:11-24, Jesus tells a parable—a story of a son who rejects his father and ends up destitute. How does the end of Jesus’s conversation with the rich young ruler compare to the end of Jesus’s parable of the lost son?

• How do both of these passages show the heart of God for people? (Hint: look especially at Mark 10:21 and Luke 15:20-24)

• Having a relationship with Jesus is worth everything we have, and more (Matthew 13:44-46). Maybe you want Jesus, but you feel like you’ve really messed up. Remember, Jesus has already done all that was needed to forgive you and bring you into His eternal kingdom by dying on the cross and rising from the grave for you. He loves you with an unshakable love. If you want to know more about what Jesus has done for us and what it means to receive Him, see our "Know Jesus" page.

• Throughout our lives, we all find ourselves prizing earthly things above a relationship with Jesus. Even after we’ve put our trust in Him, our hearts still wander sometimes! Yet He always longs for us to repent—to turn back to Him and follow where He leads. Are there any choices you’re making that are keeping you from pursuing a deeper relationship with Jesus? Consider taking a moment to talk to Him about this.

The son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” But the father said to his servants, “...

READ: PHILIPPIANS 3:1-11

Have you ever read Philippians 3:1-11? Paul says some pretty surprising stuff in this passage. He talks about all the good things he did—studying God’s Word, living a holy life, and obeying God’s good law—and he calls it all garbage, rubbish, or dung. We might look at passages like this and wonder, “Why on earth would Paul say that?”

By this point in his life, Paul had learned a few things about God. He encountered Jesus on the way to Damascus, and Jesus totally changed his life. Paul realized that all the old things he had been doing were fruitless attempts to earn his own righteousness—or right standing before God. And anything we do to try to earn our own righteousness can rightly be called “garbage.” Only Jesus can actually make us righteous, and He offers it to us as a gift.

So, when we do good things to try to earn our righteousness or favor with God, we are trying to do Jesus’s job for Him—and that never works. Jesus is the only one who can save us. He lived a sinless life, took our sins upon Himself, and died to give His righteousness (or sinlessness) to anyone who trusts in Him. Then He raised Himself from the grave, defeating sin and death and ensuring the resurrection of His people so we can be with Him forever.

As followers of Jesus, it is important for us to study God’s Word and seek to follow God’s good law. But if our actions don’t flow from resting in Jesus and what He has already done, then no matter how good those actions may seem, they are worthless. Good behavior can never make us whole and right before God; only Jesus can do that.

But when we rest in the truth of the gospel, it changes the way we approach everything. It frees us to see how Jesus cares about every aspect of our lives, not just the ones we might consider “holy,” like going to church and doing devotions. Our relationships, our health, our work, our hobbies—all of these things are transformed by the gospel. Jesus cares about all of these parts of your life because He cares about you. Rest in Him, friend. He’s got you. • Taylor Eising

• It can be difficult to discern when we’re doing things to earn our righteousness, and when we’re doing them because of what Jesus has done for us. And we’re never going to get it right 100% of the time— that’s what forgiveness is for. When we’re not sure about our motivations, it can be helpful to ask, “Am I doing this to get God to love me, or am I doing this because God loves me?”

I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. Philippians 3:9 (NLT)

READ: 2 CHRONICLES 34:29-33; ACTS 19:18-20; ROMANS 12:1-2; HEBREWS 12:1-3

“King Josiah!” Shaphan called out as he burst into the palace. “We found this book in the temple.” The king said, “Read it to me.” When the scribe did, Josiah tore his robes and wept.

Shaphan read the Book of the Law, the story of God’s love for His people and the rules He gave to sustain His covenant with them. Josiah recognized that Jerusalem was full of sin—the breaking of God’s good rules. There were idols at every corner. So Josiah destroyed them. The next era of Jerusalem was filled with fire—but instead of burning incense to false gods, the city had a thick cloud of smoke over it from burning the shrines, altars, and temples of the idols.

It’s easy to think we don’t have idols like they did. But consider this: when tragedy strikes, do you post about it, or pray about it? When you’re overwhelmed, do you start scrolling, or open your Bible? Often, we go to created things before we go to the Creator (Romans 1:25).

Humans have a desire to worship. But we tend to forget who made us with that desire, and we try to fulfill it by worshiping unworthy idols of many different forms. But only God is worthy of being at the center of our lives, and anything or anyone else we put there is an idol. For example, social media, scrolling, and gaming can be idols if they occupy God’s rightful spot.

So what can we do? We can look to Jesus, the only one who could fulfill the law and forgive our sin—including the sin of idolatry (Matthew 5:17; Romans 10:4). Once we know Jesus, we have the power of His Holy Spirit in us, so we can burn those idols like Josiah did long ago. (Note: please don’t literally burn your phone—the fumes are toxic.) “Burning” could look like setting restrictions on our technology usage and asking others to keep us accountable.

Once we’ve removed an idol, our hearts need to be built up to become an altar to the true God. Like Josiah called Jerusalem together to read God’s laws and recommit themselves to the Lord, we can read God’s Word and rely on the Holy Spirit to help us refocus on Jesus. Because when we look at what He did for us on the cross, every idol pales in comparison. • L. M.

• Consider taking a moment to ask God what created things have become idols in your life. What could you do to “burn” them? Who is a trusted Christian you could talk to about this?

• When you’re tempted to go back to old idols, how could you take time to pause and draw near to Jesus, relying on Him to provide your sense of worth, security, and satisfaction?

“You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3 (WEB)