Today’s Walk in the Word

My soul is downcast within me.            —Lamentations 3:20 Hopeless! A one-word description of the nation of Judah. Their sins had caught up with them. Jerusalem was in ruins. They were broken and defeated. Jeremiah had repeatedly warned them it was coming, but they had not listened (Jer 25:3). Jeremiah was […]

The pride of your heart has deceived you.                          —Obadiah 1:3 The Edomites were a cocky bunch. “Who can bring us down?” they crowed. “I will bring you down,” declared the Lord. When Babylonian soldiers sacked Jerusalem, the Edomites signed on to help. The […]

He leads me beside quiet waters.                   —Psalm 23:2 What did you worry about last week? What are you worrying about this week? That doesn’t leave much mental muscle for anything else, does it? Worrying isn’t something you can delegate; no one can do your worrying for […]

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer.                           —1 Peter 3:12 Hezekiah was a good man. He brought the nation of Judah back to God by refurbishing the temple, reinstating the Passover, and […]

We must obey God rather than human beings.                                    —Acts 5:29 Herbert Porter, an aide to President Nixon, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during the Watergate investigation. Here is an exchange between Senator Howard Baker and Porter. […]

Do everything without grumbling.              —Philippians 2:14 One of the most significant choices you make is your choice of attitude. It is more important than your successes or failures, more important than what people think of you or say about you, more important than your past or present. Your attitude […]

You haven’t returned to me.             —Amos 4:6 The nouveau riche of Israel had become proud, profane, and profligate. God repeatedly reminded them of his attempts to bring them to repentance, and after each reminder said, “Yet you have not returned to me.” They neither repented nor returned, and within […]

[Noah] walked faithfully with God. —Genesis 6:9 In Luke 17:26–29, Jesus pictured what most people were doing in the days of Noah and Lot. The contrast is graphic: most people were absorbed in the ordinary things of life, too busy to be concerned about God, whereas Noah and Lot listened to God and did what […]

Whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.                        —Luke 14:27 “Follow me” was frequently on the lips of Jesus. Some said, “Yes!” “Follow me,” he said to a quartet of his first disciples—and they left kin and career and […]

Don’t be afraid; just believe.             —Luke 8:50 In the last half of Luke 8, there are three stories that reveal Jesus as the hope for the hopeless. He healed a hopelessly wild demoniac whom everyone feared, and no one could tame. Jesus transformed him into a missionary (vv. 26–39). […]