Daily Devo

Listen to today’s devo!

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. (Ps. 95:1)

Expanded Passage: Psalm 95:1-2

Ethelyn sat quietly in her wheelchair nestled beside our old wooden pew. Age and health confined her to that chair during the worship service, but nothing about her worship was constrained. At the first note of the piano, she joyously joined the chorus of voices around her to sing praise to the Lord, raising her frail hands to the sky. Though weak and slightly off-key, her joy and devotion led us all deeper into worship.

In this opening stanza of Psalm 95, the poet encouraged the community of God to come together to sing and shout their praise to God. The phrase “let us” is repeated three times in the opening two verses to reinforce the importance of communal worship. Music and song capture powerful human emotions and allow people from diverse backgrounds to join together in one voice of praise. The poet here invited the community to use their individual voices to come together before God with thanksgiving and worship.

Personal devotion and individual times of worship are important, but we must never neglect coming together as one body to worship the Rock of our salvation. The Christian life can feel lonely at times, but communal worship reminds us that we are not alone. When we join others in song, we are reminded that we belong to a great chorus of believers.

Let us sing for joy to the Lord with one voice!

Mark Moore is an associate professor of theology at Jessup University (CA) and an associate pastor at Faith Legacy Church in Sacramento, California.

© 2025 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.

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The land is satisfied by the fruit of his work. (Ps. 104:13)

Expanded Passage: Psalm 104:10-18

It is always interesting, even fascinating, to watch documentaries on the changing seasons in Africa and follow the cycle from drought to flood. You witness land that is totally parched, its streams and rivers reduced to a few muddy puddles. You see animals searching for water that cannot be found, sometimes after a long and tortured trek with casualties along the way. You can almost feel the anguish, the suffering, the desperation, perhaps even hope as they search for water.

And then it arrives. Clouds at first, followed by light rain that turns into a major downpour. The streams are resupplied gradually into full flow that fills the puddles and the barren riverbeds with water—beautiful, life-giving water. Can animals feel emotion? They seem to radiate excitement, relief, joy, and some even seem to dance. Water. The earth is satisfied.

So it is with us. From parched to plenty. From no flow to overflow. From none to enough. From drought to flood. If we remain faithful and true, in his time the living water will flow and we will be the ones to radiate excitement, joy, and relief. Living Water. We will be satisfied.

Turn to Jesus—there is no other source of living water.

HC Wilson is general superintendent emeritus of The Wesleyan Church. He and his wife, Debby, reside in New Brunswick, Canada.

© 2025 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.

Listen to today’s devo!

May these words . . . and this meditation . . . be pleasing. (Ps. 19:14)

Expanded Passage: Psalm 19:14; Psalm 119:97-104

Mean what you say—say what you mean.

They often say one thing but believe another thing.

Silence is not always golden; sometimes it is just plain yellow.

You never know what they are thinking.

They always agree with the last person they spoke with.

Often we face “either/or” choices in life. Fries or baked potato, first floor or a higher floor, economy or upgrade, river view or woodland view, monthly installments or cash, extended warranty or standard coverage—we make either/or choices nearly every day.

This summary verse of our week together proposes no such choice. It powerfully calls us to aspire to combine the mouth and the heart, the words and the meditation. The sought-after outcome is to be pleasing in the sight of the Master.

The week has turned our focus toward obedience, meditation, time in the Word, loving the Word, avoiding wrong paths, and now, keeping the mouth and heart in balance.

Car tires often get out of balance. Elderly people frequently struggle with physical balance. Our bank reconciliation may occasionally be out of balance. However, a mouth and heart in balance, while not easily attained nor maintained—is wonderfully possible because the Master never leads us where his grace cannot sustain us.

Seek to maintain balance between your heart and mind.

HC Wilson is general superintendent emeritus of The Wesleyan Church. He and his wife, Debby, reside in New Brunswick, Canada.

© 2025 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.

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I hate every wrong path. (Ps. 119:104)

Expanded Passage: Psalm 119:104

He was a “missionary kid,” a Scottish sprinter, a rugby player, and a Christian missionary to China. He arrived unexpectedly on the front pages in 1924 at the Paris Olympic Games. His name was Eric Liddell. His story would be told later in the movie Chariots of Fire.

His best event was the 100-yard dash where he was the favorite to win the gold medal. However, he refused to compete in the race because it would require him to run on a Sunday. Even when asked by the Prince of Wales (future King Edward VIII), he declined to run, saying he could not and would not compromise his strongly held beliefs concerning the Lord’s Day. Eric refused to compromise on what would have been, for him, a “wrong path.”

Much debate has been had in the past focused on defining “every wrong path” from this psalm. For Eric, competing in organized sports on the Lord’s Day was a “wrong path,” and so, he declined a request from the future king of England to honor a commitment he made to the King of Kings. Compromising a deeply held, biblically based conviction may be a working definition of “wrong path.”

If you know the rest of the story, you know that he won gold in the 400 and bronze in the 200 in 1924 with his convictions intact. He did not take a “wrong path.”

When certain your convictions are biblically solid, stand your ground.

HC Wilson is general superintendent emeritus of The Wesleyan Church. He and his wife, Debby, reside in New Brunswick, Canada.

© 2025 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.

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How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (Ps. 119:103)

Expanded Passage: Psalm 119:103

Our granddaughter, when she was about two years old, was enjoying ice cream while sitting on her mother’s lap. Her grandmother invited her over to sample her ice cream. Once she had taken a bite of what she later called “orange apple,” she stayed firmly planted on her grandmother’s lap. The taste of the “orange apple” was too sweet to abandon.

The Word is variously self-described as a lamp to our feet, a light on our path, sharper than a two-edged sword, eternal and living, the Word of truth, the Word of life, and here, as sweeter than honey.

We often hear of people who have developed an acquired taste for some food item. The term suggests that repeated consumption makes the food item increasingly more pleasant and desirable. Both the beginning reader and the seasoned reader of the Bible will likewise find an ever-increasing taste for the Word as it becomes “sweeter than honey.”

A Bible teacher at a conference I attended told us that he had read the six chapters of Ephesians some 300 times and found something new there every journey he took through the epistle. Instead of becoming boring or redundant, the taste grew sweeter with every bite.

Return to the Word and experience its sweetness.

HC Wilson is general superintendent emeritus of The Wesleyan Church. He and his wife, Debby, reside in New Brunswick, Canada.

© 2025 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.

Listen to today’s devo!

I obey your precepts . . . so that I might obey your word. (Ps. 119:100–101)

Expanded Passage: Psalm 119:100-102

In the cultural realities of our time and place where personal freedom is hallowed and restrictions are not welcome, obedience is sometimes a foreign, awkward, and unwelcome concept.

While walking with our elementary children in a city park one evening, they were several yards ahead of my wife and me. Suddenly two Doberman pinscher dogs came over a slight hill just in front of us, and they were running in our direction. I shouted to the kids: “STOP!” They immediately did so. It was not that they were always perfectly and immediately obedient, but they were that day. The urgency in my voice communicated that there was something they needed to obey.

The owner of the dogs was also on the run not far behind them and furiously called them. Luckily, they heeded him. More than once, I have wondered what might have happened if either the kids or the dogs had failed to obey. The psalmist makes clear that obedience provides both understanding—how we think—and guidance—how we act.

Sometimes his calling us to obedience is a still, small voice. Sometimes it is a hurricane force calling urgently for our obedience. We are pointedly reminded in the Scripture that obedience is better than any substitute we might offer in its place.

Listen closely to his calling—both whispered and shouted.

HC Wilson is general superintendent emeritus of The Wesleyan Church. He and his wife, Debby, reside in New Brunswick, Canada.

© 2025 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.

Listen to today’s devo!

Your commands are always with me. (Ps. 119:98)

Expanded Passage: Psalm 119:98-99

It was 1914. World War I was raging and had captivated the attention of the world while other happenings of significance were forced from the front pages. Among these was the Shackleton expedition to the South Pole. In 1915 their ship the Endurance sank in the Weddell Sea and the crew of twenty-seven were stranded on the ice. They were rescued in 1916 after an amazing and near miraculous trek across shifting ice and raging winds and storms.

When abandoning the vessel, hard decisions had to be made about what to take and what to leave behind. Space was very limited. Shackleton allowed a banjo to be taken but not a Bible. When challenged about that, it was reported that he believed music could lift their spirits, so the banjo would be of greater use. For the Christian who has already committed God’s commands to memory, this may be true; however, a Christian who cannot recall God’s commands may need more than a banjo to lift their spirits.

The era of Bible memorization with its contests, Sunday school choruses, “sword” drills, and Bible quiz teams seems only a distant memory to many and a strange relic to others. Internalizing the Word was a high priority. The purpose was simple: to keep God’s commands with us always. Could we benefit from returning to memorization of Scripture?

Spend time in the Word to keep the Lord’s commands with you.

HC Wilson is general superintendent emeritus of The Wesleyan Church. He and his wife, Debby, reside in New Brunswick, Canada.

© 2025 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.

Listen to today’s devo!

Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. (Ps. 119:97)

Expanded Passage: Psalm 119:97

Meditate. It can be defined as to think deeply or focus one’s mind for a period of time in silence.

My wife and I attended a Cursillo weekend at a Roman Catholic retreat center in southern Mississippi. During the first twenty-four hours, after surrendering our cell phones, we were expected to observe complete silence. I was sharing a room with a man I did not know whose wife was spending those same hours sharing a room with my wife. It was awkward, especially at first, but silence and meditation took on a powerfully redefined reality for me.

Reading, contemplating, and praying were activities where mandatory silence made meditation a forced necessity. “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words” (Matt. 6:7). We also observed the Stations of the Cross, each depicted in a unique stained glass window. The only sound was the gentle reading of the scriptural basis for each of the various stations as we encountered them.

The initial awkwardness of the forced meditation transitioned to a welcome time away from the hustle and bustle to meditate—to listen, to ponder, to consider, to be thankful.

While the contemplative silence of some disciplines may seem a bit severe or restrictive, perhaps they have touched the essence of meditating as a counterbalance to the busyness and noise of our daily lives.

Practice contemplative silence as a counterbalance to a busy schedule.

HC Wilson is general superintendent emeritus of The Wesleyan Church. He and his wife, Debby, reside in New Brunswick, Canada.

© 2025 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.

Listen to today’s devo!

Praise the Lord, my soul. Lord my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty. (Ps. 104:1)

Expanded Passage: Psalm 104:1-9

My favorite genre of books to read are biographies and autobiographies. Learning about people in our history helps me connect with their accomplishments in a new way. I see the struggles they went through and how they overcame, so much so that we all know them by name. I can identify with the person in a unique way when I can look into their world, how they interacted with the people in their lives and how they gained knowledge in their field.

As I read and study God’s Word, he shows me new attributes of his character and how he sees the world. I begin to understand just a tiny bit of his glory and righteousness. The more I learn, the more I realize I haven’t scratched the surface on who God is. It is exciting to see his love, compassion, judgment and power. Just doing a study of the names of God in the Hebrew and Greek language gives me insight into how others have seen God through their encounters. I want to continue to have encounters with God that reveal more about him. I want to know him more and more. The only way to do that is to read, study, and experience him in my day-to-day life.

Learn more about God’s character through his stories

Beverly Kimball is a Wesleyan pastor’s wife, mathematics teacher, speaker, and author. She is a graduate of Oklahoma Wesleyan University (OK) and is working on a master’s in trauma and resiliency.

© 2025 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.

Listen to today’s devo!

“So that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:17)

Expanded Passage: Psalm 119:105-112, 129-136; 2 Timothy 3:14-17

I have begun the classes for my master’s degree in trauma and resiliency. One of the first things we have studied is the impact of trauma on a person’s brain functions. Trauma shuts off parts of our brain for a period of time until we can process and handle the effects. Knowing how our brains work and how to help someone step into a resilient mindset is essential for helping them move forward. Resiliency is key to moving into a healthy future in which we can use those experiences to impact the world around us in positive ways.

As we study Scripture and learn more about ourselves in light of the Word, we should feel more equipped to do what God calls us to. It is not enough to memorize many verses or to read and study every bit of God’s Word. Knowledge is the beginning. Expecting God to use what we read and study moves us to good works. That knowledge will prepare us to take advantage of opportunities in our path, as well as overcome the trials we are sure to face in this world. Without the knowledge of who God is and how he sees us, we can’t begin to accomplish the good works he has laid out for us to do. What we learn makes us more resilient to put into action everything we have read.

Allow God’s Word to equip you for his good work.

Beverly Kimball is a Wesleyan pastor’s wife, mathematics teacher, speaker, and author. She is a graduate of Oklahoma Wesleyan University (OK) and is working on a master’s in trauma and resiliency.

© 2025 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.