Daily Devo

Listen to today’s devo!

I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. (Phil. 4:12)

Expanded Passage: Philippians 4:10-13

Have you ever found yourself in an if/then season? If I get this promotion, then I’ll feel valued. If we can get out of debt, then we won’t have to worry about our financial security. If I could just find the right person to spend the rest of my life with, then I’ll be happy. As people, contentment is one of our biggest hang-ups, especially in a world that is constantly feeding the monster of comparison. Every campaign is pushing us to pursue newer, better, quicker. How can we possibly live a content life?

But Paul knew. He had experienced both sides, plenty and want, and he knew that contentment had nothing to do with those things. Paul understood contentment because he understood that God was bigger than his circumstances. Having experienced both sides of situations, Paul developed a way of being that trusted God no matter what was happening in his life.

I think that Paul had learned that the secret of being content was to trust God. Paul knew that while the circumstances of our lives are not consistent, the character of God always is. Every day can contain what we might call good or bad, easy or hard, but God is the one who gives us the strength to endure all things. He is the secret.

Consider what areas of your life could use more contentment.

Deborah Rhodes is the colead pastor of Parkside Church in Greenville, South Carolina. She is passionate about studying and teaching God’s Word.

© 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!

And the God of peace will be with you. (Phil. 4:9)

Expanded Passage: Philippians 4:6-9

I am not unfamiliar with anxiety. It has been a part of my life for almost as long as I can remember, but it has just been within the last few years that I have been able to really name it. I have taken many steps to help me face this aspect of my life.

For me, one of those steps has been to memorize this passage so that when I begin to feel anxious I do exactly what Paul said: I pray, I praise, and I present. There is a promise within these words that I am reminded of when I follow these steps and recite these verses. Paul said that when we focus on Christ, when we choose to pray and praise and to think about things that are true, noble, right, and so on, that the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds and that God of peace will be with us. We will experience both the peace of God and the God of peace.

In a world where peace can seem illusive and fleeting, it can be easy to read this passage and long for just peace. However, we are promised something even better. As believers, we are promised God’s peace and God’s presence, and this promise produces a hope that does not waver. I pray you experience this peace in your life.

Spend some extended time with these verses and ask God for peace.

Deborah Rhodes is the colead pastor of Parkside Church in Greenville, South Carolina. She is passionate about studying and teaching God’s Word.

© 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!

Let your gentleness be evident to all. (Phil. 4:5)

Expanded Passage: Philippians 4:5

I love babies in all forms: human babies, puppies, kittens, calves, you name it. Even better, is babies with babies. A toddler meeting a newborn sibling or a baby cuddling with a new puppy turns my heart into a puddle. It is cuteness overload. In scenarios like this, a parent will often repeat, “Be gentle.” We know that there is something precious involved that requires extra care.

In this letter to the Philippians, Paul urged the people not just to be gentle with others, but to let that gentleness be obvious to everyone around them. The fruit of gentleness was an expectation that Paul had of the believers, and he wanted to remind them of the importance of this attribute.

I’m afraid that in our world today, gentleness is not a word that many would use to describe followers of Jesus. We’ve forgotten that people still need us to “be gentle” with them; they are drawn to gentleness. As the writer of Proverbs reminds us, it is a “gentle answer [that] turns away wrath” (Prov. 15:1). This in no way means we compromise our beliefs, but it may mean that we need to reevaluate our approach. Many of us would agree that there is enough anger and harshness around us. What impact would it make if we were to be people whose gentleness was evident to all?

Let your gentleness be evident.

Deborah Rhodes is the colead pastor of Parkside Church in Greenville, South Carolina. She is passionate about studying and teaching God’s Word.

© 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 would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. (Ps. 84:10)

Expanded Passage: Psalm 84:10-12

A young musician, fresh from college, sat at the piano in his parents’ home and wrestled with a decision that would shape his future. The son of a Wesleyan Methodist pastor, he felt a call to the ministry of music, but that would mean turning down a promising offer in the entertainment industry in New York City. Understanding his struggle, his mother had placed a clipping of a poem by Rhea F. Miller on the piano, and her son began to put it to music. That night, long before he became soloist for Billy Graham’s evangelistic campaigns, George Beverly Shea gave us the beautiful tune to “I’d Rather Have Jesus.” The song became his personal testimony: “I’d rather have Jesus and let Him lead than to be the king of a vast domain and be held in sin’s dread sway.”

Another musician, the temple worship leader who composed Psalm 84, had expressed his love for God in very similar words three thousand years earlier. His people, the Levites, assisted Israel’s priests in a hundred ways on the vast temple complex, being responsible for everything from directing worship to . . . well, serving as doorkeeper.

The psalmist understood what Bev Shea would one day discover: service to God, no matter how humble, is too good a job to turn down.

Be the most faithful doorkeeper in the kingdom.

Bob Black is an emeritus professor of religion at Southern Wesleyan University. Along with Keith Drury, he co-authored the denominational history, The Story of The Wesleyan Church.

© 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 consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. (Phil. 3:8)

Expanded Passage: Philippians 3:1—4:4

A statue of Jesus stands in a cathedral in Copenhagen, Denmark, which strikes observers as unusual, to say the least. The skill of the artist, Bertel Thorvaldsen, is apparent, and it’s easy to appreciate his craftsmanship, but as you stand before it, this marble Christ doesn’t meet your gaze. Thorvaldsen has carved his “Christus” with lowered head and downturned eyes, and even the gentle hands seem to be stretching toward someone or something else. But that’s the genius of the artist’s creation. Everything comes into perspective when you kneel. This Christ is meant to be viewed from one’s knees.

The apostle Paul knew what it meant to live for himself, and he knew what it meant to live for the Lord. Everything that once had meant so much to him—power, status, prominence—were now “rubbish,” and he refused to consider their absence a loss. How, he asked his readers, could he possibly think he had lost anything when he had gained Christ? Paul, the once-proud Pharisee and chief persecutor of the church, now lived life on his knees as a servant of his Lord, and everything had fallen into its proper perspective.

One day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (see Phil. 2:9–11). I choose to kneel now.

Live life on your knees today.

Bob Black is an emeritus professor of religion at Southern Wesleyan University. Along with Keith Drury, he co-authored the denominational history, The Story of The Wesleyan Church.

© 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!

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! (Phil. 4:4)

Expanded Passage: Philippians 4:4

Here it is again—the command to rejoice! It is possible that as we repeatedly read this command, we would begin to understand it as a rule that must be followed, no matter our feelings. But this would not be a proper understanding of the apostle’s message. While it is sometimes healthy to “fake it till you make it,” the truth is that no one can consistently act in a manner that is inconsistent with one’s heart. Therefore, faking joy will not bring actual, sustained joy. What the apostle is calling us to is a change in thinking and lifestyle that allows actual joy to take hold in our lives and ultimately spread to the lives of our family and community. He is calling us to a new reality that will naturally give birth to joy. Our past ways of mistrust, anger, lack of control, and lack of self-discipline have left us in a joyless reality. We see evidence of this when people in our culture find great success, fame, and wealth, and yet, they often still lack joy.

Recognizing this problem, Paul shares a prescription for building a life that naturally results in joy: rejoicing in the Lord always!

Cultivate joy in your life by rejoicing in the Lord!

excerpt from The Book of Philippians (WPH)

Mike Hilson is lead pastor of New Life Church in La Plata, Maryland, and author of several books and ministry resources.

© 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!

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends! (Phil. 4:1)

Expanded Passage: Philippians 4:1-3

In every life and in every group, there must be the constant reminder to stand firm in all that you have already learned and experienced. Paul reminded his brothers and sisters in the faith—which also includes us—to constantly look back at what he had taught earlier and stand firm in these truths as the days get tough. It is an absolute truth that life is rarely easy. There will be days, maybe weeks, perhaps a vacation or two that seem to flow effortlessly in their ease and lack of struggle. But these days are not our norm. Life is complicated and sometimes confusing. We face decisions, reactions, choices, and hardships every day. In moments of difficulty, we must lean on truths that have been taught to us by leaders and mentors who love us and want the best for us. Whenever we are given the gift of insight and strength from a mentor or friend, it is imperative to stand firm on that solid ground. Soon enough, the ground around us will seem to shift and sink, like the unstable sands of some shifting desert. But truth, given by a wise and trusted friend, will establish a stable place to stand as the world shifts and threatens.

As we stand, we must stand together. Remember that our ultimate truth, our ultimate goal, is an eternity together in the heaven that our God has prepared for us.

Remain steadfast in your life of righteousness.

excerpt from The Book of Philippians (WPH)

Mike Hilson is lead pastor of New Life Church in La Plata, Maryland, and author of several books and ministry resources.

© 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!

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more. (Phil. 3:4)

Expanded Passage: Philippians 3:4

I am not a very good rule follower. I like to test the edges of rules and see if there is value in them. But if my godliness is to be measured by my ability to follow those rules, then I start my life of following Jesus at a distinct disadvantage! However, that isn’t how Jesus has set this up. We should take note that Jesus and his disciples who wrote the New Testament reserved their harshest criticism for those legalistic, religious types who were just naturally good at following rules. They thought that their natural tendency to be rule followers was some kind of spiritual gift given to them because God liked them more. They used their gift of rule following to shame, put down, and sometimes torture and kill those who they believed did not properly follow the rules. This made their religion very restrictive and inaccessible to anyone who was not good at following rules. But Jesus changed all of that!

I might not like the way someone else is living out their Christian life, but that does not stop me from seeing the beauty in the diverse, sometimes confusing, tapestry of Jesus followers from every nation, tribe, tongue, language, and tradition. This uncoupling of following Jesus from simply following the law is what has allowed the gospel to function in miraculous ways in every culture on earth. When it came to following rules, those Pharisees knew what they were doing, but when it came to changing people, and ultimately the world, Jesus really knew what he was doing!

Join the throng.

excerpt from The Book of Philippians (WPH)

Mike Hilson is lead pastor of New Life Church in La Plata, Maryland, and author of several books and ministry resources.

© 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!

For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh. (Phil. 3:3)

Expanded Passage: Philippians 3:2-3

All too often in our culture, we are asked to have pride and confidence in ourselves. Movies and cartoons seem to always lead us to find the strength and spirit from deep within us that will give us the courage and direction we have so long sought. The problem I have with this is that when I look inside of myself, I often don’t find strength and purity of spirit. I find brokenness and insecurity that leave me directionless and afraid. I need to find that strength, that clarity, from somewhere else. In my reality, and the apostle Paul’s reality, that inner strength comes from the Spirit of God, who lives inside the hearts of every Jesus follower.

The Pharisees of Paul’s day likely would have said something to him that sounded like the “look inside yourself” advice we tend to get these days. They would have encouraged him to believe in his traditions and practices. These Pharisees believed that their holiness, their godliness, was measured entirely by their ability to follow rules.

Paul challenged the idea that following the law was the answer to holiness or a relationship with God. He broke through their legalism in order to replace it with a relationship. No longer would they measure their godliness by their ability to effectively follow rules. From there on out, one’s relationship with God would be measured by the level of surrender to the inner voice of the Holy Spirit.

Surrender self to the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

excerpt from The Book of Philippians (WPH)

Mike Hilson is lead pastor of New Life Church in La Plata, Maryland, and author of several books and ministry resources.

© 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!

My brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. (Phil. 3:1)

Expanded Passage: Philippians 3:1

One of the reasons I absolutely love this letter is that it places such a great focus on joy. Not happiness. Not wealth. Not health. Not ease. Just joy. Joy in the midst of confinement—as we see with the apostle Paul’s house arrest—and in the midst of sickness—as we see with Epaphroditus. Joy in the midst of conflict—as we see with those hoping to cause harm to Paul. Joy in the midst of whatever happens to be going on at the time.

Every day, we are faced with innumerable choices. One of the most important, and perhaps most overlooked, is how we will react to whatever the day brings us. You may think that you cannot choose your reaction until you see what you are facing, but that is just wrong. You can wake up in the morning and make a decision about your reaction to the events of the day. When you do this, you take charge of the only thing you can control in your day—your attitude about it.

The apostle Paul’s purpose, found in his call, literally made him bulletproof, or I guess in his day, arrow-proof. Imprison him? He wrote letters that changed the world. Beat him? He let everyone know how important the God he served was. Kill him? Awesome! He was just going home! When nothing is allowed to steal your purpose and meaning in life, then nothing can actually steal your life.

Choose a proactive attitude rather than reacting to your experiences.

excerpt from The Book of Philippians (WPH)

Mike Hilson is lead pastor of New Life Church in La Plata, Maryland, and author of several books and ministry resources.

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