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Thirty years ago, Mercy Ships met an unforgettable woman named Laura. 

The Grace to You radio broadcast for July 27, 2026.

Sometime ago I made a special visit to the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem. I wanted to see the handwritten lyrics that hang on the wall, framed and visible for all to see. Horatio Spafford wrote them, never imagining they would become the words to one of the world’s best-loved hymns.

On December 2, 1873, he received a telegram from his wife that began, “Saved alone. What shall I do?” The ship she was on had collided with another ship and had sunk. Their four daughters drowned and Anna survived.  While sailing on the ship to bring her home, Spafford wrote the lyrics to a song that would become an anthem to the providence of God. “Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say…It is Well with My Soul!”

Read more Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

It was a big deal when the Defense Department approved women being in combat roles. And however you feel about that, I’ll tell you this, women being in combat might be new for the military, but they’re not new at fighting a good fight.

I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Women Fighting for What They Love.”

I’ve been there when my wife brought a new life into the world. Believe me, she was a warrior. I’ve been close by when our daughter and daughters-in-law birthed our grandchildren. A battle they fought and won, big-time. I’ve joked that if men had to have the babies, the human race would probably be extinct in a generation.

I know women who refuse to cave in to the “everybody’s doing it” pressure to give up one of their greatest treasures – their virginity. They insist – against the tide – that they will keep sex special for the man they will commit their life to. In many cases, that’s a lonely stand – one that merits a moral Medal of Honor. Some will call them weird. I say they’re rare – and, like collectibles, the less there are of them, the more valuable they become.

There are the women warriors who fight for their marriage when others would have given up. They believe, as God does, that marriage is for life – while their world bombards them with the notion that marriage is until it gets hard. I just checked my Bible. It still says, “They are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate” (Mark 10:8-9). No matter what the latest opinion poll says, it’s nice to know you’ve got God on your side.

Can raising a whole and healthy child in this culture be considered anything less than a battle? Today our kids are navigating a spiritual minefield, and it’s littered with moral IEDs that can blow up a life. But between many a child and those destructors stands a mom who’s fighting for them. Countering the lies of a deceived and deceiving culture with winsome truth about what’s really right and what really matters. Lovingly listening as a son or daughter grapples with the inconsistency between the lies they hear at school and the truth they hear at home.

This woman winsomely sows – and models day and night – God’s ways from the Bible. Because it’s “a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” the Bible says (Psalm 119:105). The child who makes God’s ways their way can say with the psalmist, “I run in the path of Your commands.” Oh wait, you mean all bound by rules, right? Hardly. It goes on to say, “For You have set my heart free” (Psalm 119:32).

And though the battle that rages for a child’s life can be scary, the medal-deserving mom doesn’t succumb to that paralysis of fear. She knows “God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). She refuses to just play defense, hoping she’ll raise a “survivor.” She plays offense, determined to raise a game-changer.

The ultimate woman warrior is not the one with the M-16 and the body armor. She knows the ultimate weapon for winning the battle for a life. She’s a woman, on her knees, crying out to her all-powerful God for someone she’s fighting for. Here’s our word for today from the Word of God, 2 Chronicles 20:15, “the battle is not yours, but God’s.”

This woman knows that prayer unleashes God’s power to, in the Bible’s words, “demolish strongholds,” to “destroy the Devil’s work,” to “remove a heart of stone” and “give you a new heart” (2 Corinthians 10:4; 1 John 3:8; Ezekiel 36:26). She releases the ones she loves to the One who loves them so much more.

Yes, women have been fighting life’s most decisive battles for a long time. And those who have embraced Jesus as the great love of their life fight their battles with His death-reversing, resurrection power on their side.

So if you know one of these women, hono

For the first time in more than 150 years, a sitting vice president has welcomed a new baby into the world. Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance recently announced the birth of their son, Alec Neel Vance, their fourth child. 

 Both mother and baby are reported to be healthy, and the family says their three older children are thrilled to meet their new little brother.  

The last time a sitting vice president celebrated the birth of a child while in office was in 1870. At a time when America’s birth rate continues to decline, every new life is a reminder that children are not burdens to society—they are blessings, gifts to be cherished, and our hope for the future. 

‘Bad Counselors’ is a comedy featuring two college men who soften their hearts while working at a Christian summer camp. Will this film earn a badge from Plugged In?
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