Kerusso Daily Devotional

Part of the joy of being a believer is that we can share the Good News with literally anyone and everyone. And how we share that faith is often critical for the other person’s future.

Romans 5:3–4 says, “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

As we share this week about holding fast to faith, it should be obvious that we are greatly blessed to be able to show others the way. And in that, we can be an example that just because things don’t always go our way, Jesus is better than anything.

On a difficult day, or in the midst of life’s challenges, we can let doubt fester and complain to those around us…or we can turn to Jesus, and point to Him no matter our circumstances.

People are watching. Don’t doubt that. If you put yourself out there as a Christian, others will look to see how you handle yourself when the going gets tough. Some look for you to mess up, but many more genuinely are curious about what you have.

Show them that your faith isn’t dependent on every day being smooth. Your task is to walk in faith—up and down the hills. No Grit, No Glory!

Let’s pray.

Lord, thank you for giving us the gift of sharing the Good News! In Jesus' name, amen.

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Have you ever gotten tired of treading water?

Martha is a 20-something-old lifeguard in Los Angeles. Besides dealing with deck chairs purposely thrown into the water and parents asking her to babysit poolside, she’s noticed another aspect of the job that really tugs at your heart. “Kids pretend to drown in the pool so that I will pay attention to them.” 

Wow. Think about that.

At a young age, humans need to be nurtured and cared for. They want to be loved. So a young lifeguard becomes their emotional lifeline. These kids were actually pretending to nearly die so that someone would pay attention. It’s pretty sad—but not that different from the rest of us. Everyone wants to belong, and sometimes life is like a raging storm, and problems can flood the soul.

In Matthew 14, we read the story of Jesus providing comfort to His disciples in a difficult situation. He had gone to pray on a mountain while they stayed behind in a boat on the Sea of Galilee. Normally, this is a very picturesque, calm lake, but this night, a storm came up. As the waves were about to capsize the boat, the men looked and saw a figure walking on the water. Peter cried out, and Jesus told him to get out of the boat and walk toward Him. Peter, known for his passionate faith, got out. But as he took his eyes off Jesus and began looking at the storm around him, he sank. Jesus, though, grabbed his arm and pulled him up. “Why did you doubt,” He asked Peter. 

It’s a valid question—for anyone.

Jesus has proven Himself to us many times over. When you feel overwhelmed, remember to call out to Him, and He will lift your burden. 

Let’s pray.

Father God, sometimes it feels like life is just pulling us under. We thank you so much that we have examples from scripture where you rescued drowning people. You’re indeed our lifeguard. Help us keep this in our hearts and our minds daily so that we can be reminded of your blessed assurance and to call out your name, the one who provides for all of our needs. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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The prophet Isaiah lived during a difficult period for the ancient Israelites. Turning away from faith in God and under the control of corrupt kings, the nation entered a period of darkness. They needed hope more than anything.

In our discussion this week, we’re talking about this human condition. Today, we are really no different from people in ancient times: We all need a relationship with our Creator.

Isaiah 40:31 says, “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Don’t those words give a feeling of peace and calm? You can say them to yourself, with no one around, and begin to feel God’s strong arms wrapping you in love. He wants you to be free from all the strongholds that keep you from your destiny.

Wouldn’t you like to spend the rest of this week at rest emotionally and mentally? You can. This is the Lord’s will for you, as we heard in this famous passage from the book of Isaiah.

Let’s pray. 

Lord, thank you for your Word. God, thank you that your perfect love always comes through for us. Just as you didn’t abandon your people long ago, we know you will remember us. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Have you ever been in such a dark place that you wondered if God cares about you, or if He even exists? Maybe it’s all some cosmic joke, right? We’ve all been there. Humans doubt. We doubt ourselves, we doubt product labels, we doubt our kids. We question everything.

But the worst one is trying to figure out where God is in the middle of life’s great difficulties. Sometimes the world is just flat-out mean, and it seems like it’s an entity that’s trying to break you in half.

That’s the very moment God’s ancient and eternal words come to us.

Isaiah 41:10 says, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Honestly, it doesn’t get better than that! Jesus lives so that you will live forever. And in the interim, He will walk with you and carry you when necessary. He never fails and what’s more, His willingness to never leave us has been proven over and over again, in a billion different ways.

If you need Him right now, don’t doubt. Call out to Him. Your circumstances might seem impossible and impossibly unique…but don’t believe it. Believe Him instead.

Let’s pray.

Lord, you promised that you would never leave us. We know that’s true, but help us with our faith in our weak moments. God, make us believe. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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The Bible is full of what many would call difficult stories. Some of them don’t make a lot of sense. Others seem contrary to what we think should happen. One such story is breathtaking if we follow it through. It involves a father trusting God more than his own instincts.

2 Corinthians 5:7 says, “For we live by faith, and not by sight.”

In Genesis, we read about Abraham being instructed by the Lord to offer his young son Isaac as a sacrifice. As a sacrifice?! Nothing could be more repulsive! Telling a man to kill his own son? Why?

We gain a different perspective when we trust God to the end of this story.

Climbing a high mountain, Abraham intends to obey God all the way. As he raises a knife over his son, God stops him. God’s compassion hadn’t taken a vacation. He taught Abraham an important lesson about obeying Him no matter what. And in fact, Abraham and Isaac would go on to become two of the greatest men of all time.

Learn to trust God—even if you don’t understand.

Let’s pray. 

Lord, your ways can at times be mysterious to us, but you do always want the best for us. God—teach us to trust you. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Only a person who is willfully blind could deny that miracles happen today. They didn’t end at the shore of the Red Sea. 

Malachi 3:6 says, “I the Lord do not change.” From this, we can logically see that the Bible’s powerful and majestic miracles didn’t stop in the first century. They’re still happening. God didn’t suspend the love He dispenses in the form of miracles. 

Taylor McCaffrey was an alcoholic as a teenager. He was also a preacher’s kid, and these combined to weigh him down with guilt. From the age of 16, he drank heavily, but God didn’t leave him there. He says, “On my 21st birthday, I’d been drinking about eight hours straight and simply heard the voice of the Holy Spirit inside me say, ‘Either do what I’ve called you to or I will not continue wrestling you.’”

It sounded so stern. However, so loving, “I was instantly sober.” And that was several years ago. Today, Taylor is still sober. There are also countless examples of what we might call ‘corporate’ miracles—those that bless whole communities. 

At Christmas time of 2004, a group of 400 believers wanted to hold a Christmas service. The local authorities, though, told them that they could not do that in the city of Meulaboh in North Sumatra. The 400 decided to hold their service in a remote mountain region, and they stayed overnight. Early next morning, an earthquake and resulting tsunami flattened their city, but they were safe in the higher elevations. Had they opted not to worship Jesus during their holiday, they would have perished.

The fact is our world is miracle-heavy. They happen all the time. Miracles happen to ordinary people and to whole nations every day. This is one of the clearest evidences of the power and the majesty of the living God. We can choose to be witnesses for Him by pointing out to everyone we come in contact with that though our world has problems, God is still working in a mighty way.

Let’s pray. 

Father God, thank you. The example of miracles. They give us strength in our faith and a boost to our days. We’re forever grateful to you for routinely doing things that some say cannot happen. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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A political science major at a major university was having coffee with a campus pastor. The pastor knew that the student was wrestling with doubt about the existence of God and said to him, “John, you know all of us wonder at some point if it’s all real or not. For example, there are quite a few stories in the Bible that are just hard to believe. Jonah and the whale and all that.” John smiled and said, “No, that’s not my problem. What I wonder about is how God could care about me. I’ve done some really bad things and have had some really bad things done to me. I just can’t understand the concept of forgiveness.”

There you have it. Doubts about the faith come from all directions. While one person cannot bring herself to believe in miracles, another cannot forgive himself for the wrong things he’s done, and can’t fathom how God could. 

Thomas Jefferson actually cut out the miraculous sections of the Bible. He couldn’t believe in what some would call the God of the Bible. Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of DNA, thought that Christianity was just a collection of mythical stories. And what about those who want to see the proof, they like evidence and feel a need to make an intellectual case for our faith. 

The New Testament writer Luke was like that. He wrote in Acts and the Gospel of Luke about the importance of eyewitness sightings of Jesus and His miracles. Lots of people debate whether evolution and religion are compatible or not. And this is a big stumbling block to believe for many. We all believe something, but our minds can struggle at times to grasp the big stuff, the infinite universe. While for others who doubt, the struggle is more internal. They’re so grieved by their own sin, they can’t accept that God could love them.

Maybe the most famous verse in the Bible is John 3:16, which says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” However, few quote the next verse which says, “For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” It isn’t God’s wish to condemn you. Instead, He loves you and wants to give you assurance that life is more than struggle and molecules. 

Whether you’re looking for evidence to believe the Bible or you just need to know that God loves you, try not to focus too much on your objections. Own them, but just tell God as a child would, that you’re struggling to understand it all.

Will you pray with me? 

Father, your grace saves us from a life of struggle with sin and we are accepted by you. Thank you for putting up with our up-and-down faith. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Life is a process. We know that if we’ve lived very long at all. And this week, we’re talking about the process of trusting God.

John 16:24 says, “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.”

Could Jesus meet our needs by just giving us something instantly? Of course. He made everything! And sometimes He does that; the miracles He performed that are recorded in the New Testament tell us that He often instantly met a person’s need.

But He doesn’t always work that way. And that’s because Jesus loves to teach us.

In the book of John, He is telling us the steps necessary to trust Him for provision. First, we ask. Then we learn to receive His good gifts. Finally, we feel real joy, because we know exactly where it came from.

This process is designed to teach us faith, and then to be genuinely appreciative to the Lord for meeting our needs. All through the Bible, we are told that He delights in helping us, in loving us through tough times. The older we get, the more we’re able to look back and see that He and He alone brought us through. There is usually no other explanation. And that is called a miracle.

Let’s pray. 

Lord, we are dependent on you for everything, and we are blessed that you are our Source. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Part of God’s unchanging nature is that He is sovereign and does things His way. In Isaiah 55, we read that God’s ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. In other words, He’s infinitely more powerful than we are, especially when it comes to perspective. 

We read in the Old Testament that sometimes other nations mocked the Israelites when they were exiled from their homeland. Really, they were mocking God because it was said that maybe He couldn’t keep His promises. After all this, after the Assyrians and Babylonians conquered Israel, neighboring pagan nations remembered that God had promised to give the land to the Israelites. But did that mean God had lied, and was in reality no more powerful than man? No, not at all. 

Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” 

In fact, God tells us clearly that He does exactly what He wants, when He wants. We see this in Isaiah 46. When God led the Israelites out of Egypt, but they were then confronted at the Red Sea by Pharaoh’s army—did that mean God had lied when He promised to lead them out of slavery? Of course not. In fact, it was then He performed one of history’s greatest miracles. 

In Psalm 16:10, we read that God would not allow your holy one to rot in the grave, and this is a reference to Jesus. Yet, when Jesus died on the cross, many assumed that God had either lied or was powerless to stop Jesus from being entombed. We know how that story ended, and the triumph of life over death. God did raise Jesus from the dead. His body did not decay in the grave. So it’s a matter of perspective, then. 

Humans, with their limited understanding, think from time to time that God cannot keep His promises, but He keeps them all the time. All promises fulfilled—100% of the time. He cannot lie. 

Let’s pray. 

Father God, you alone are powerful and you are our strength. You are perfect in all of your ways and have demonstrated that time after time. Help us let others see that—those who might doubt you. In Jesus’ name, amen. 

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Do you need a miracle? 

If we’re honest and open to the truth, miracles have always been a part of our world. In the beginning, God made a dazzling world full of diversity, beautiful animals, gorgeous sunsets, streams of water. He also made us to enjoy it all, and to keep it for Him. 

But just like the entrance of sin into our world which marred the original beauty, we sometimes get weighed down with worry and cares of life. We look up one day and the drudgery of our days overwhelms us. The supernatural seems far away, and that’s the very moment God will act. He has always been with us, and one of His greatest promises is that He will be with us to the end, to the moment He ushers in an eternity too wonderful to fully know now.

Revelation 22:1–3 says, “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing 12 crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse.” 

In the meantime, maybe you’re really going through a challenge in your life. You need a miracle. Do you know that you can simply ask Jesus for this? He’s answered too many people, too many times not to be real. And if we’re honest, the presence and regularity of miracles today are staggering. They’re everywhere. 

So why not you?

1 Corinthians 1:1–2 says, “To those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours, grace and peace to you from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.” 

There’s such peace in this. Put aside your doubts and your fears. Just ask Him to help you, and He can. He will. In fact, He will bless you so much, you won’t be able to stay quiet about it. You will have to tell people. You are a miracle.

Let’s pray. 

Father God, you rescue us all the time in ways big and small. Your faithfulness in helping us is worthy of our worship. Thank you for making miracles part of everyday life. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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