MY Devotional: Daily Biblical Encouragement & Prayer from Leading The Way

Why does the message of Jesus feel “unreasonable” to so many people—even in highly educated, modern cultures?

In today’s episode of the MY Devotional Podcast, Dr. Michael Youssef unpacks a core reality from 1 Corinthians 1: the cross confronts human pride. To the natural mind, the Gospel seems impossible—God becoming man, living in humility, dying on a cross, rising again, and offering forgiveness and eternal life to all who believe. Yet when the Holy Spirit opens our ears of faith, what once sounded like nonsense becomes the clearest Truth we’ve ever known.

Dr. Youssef also exposes the limits of today’s information-saturated world: more wealth, more leisure, and more knowledge have not made us wise or moral—because human wisdom can’t redeem, change, or give peace. At best, it covers symptoms. Only God’s wisdom—revealed through Christ and His cross—has the power to save, transform, and one day make all things new (Revelation 21:5).

If you’ve been tempted to trust cultural “wisdom,” discouraged by spiritual apathy, or hesitant to share the Gospel because others call it foolish, this devotional will re-center your heart on the only wisdom that lasts: Jesus Christ—God’s power and God’s wisdom.

Scripture Focus: 1 Corinthians 1:18
Go deeper: Dr. Youssef’s sermon Healthy Living in a Sick World: The Folly of Human Wisdom (Watch Now | Listen Now)

The voice you hear on the MY Devotional podcast is digitally generated with Dr. Youssef's permission. If today’s devotional stirred a question, burden, or need for prayer, you don’t have to walk through it alone.

🙏 Pastoral Care & Prayer Teams
Our trained prayer partners and pastoral care team are available to pray with you and offer Biblical support.
https://ltw.org/care

💬 Receive personal answers to your faith questions—anytime, day or night—at:
https://myfaithassistant.com

If you’ve been blessed by this podcast, please consider a tax-deductible donation to help extend this ministry—so another person can be encouraged, prayed for, and pointed to Christ.

❤️ Support Leading The Way:
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Who are you really following—your favorite pastor, preacher, or platform? Or the Word of God?

In today’s episode of the MY Devotional Podcast, Dr. Michael Youssef takes us to the spiritually troubled church in Corinth, where believers were dividing into camps: “I follow Paul… I follow Apollos… I follow Cephas…” (1 Corinthians 1:12). These were godly leaders—yet the “cult of personality” was producing division instead of unity.

Dr. Youssef offers a simple heart-check that still applies today:

If your confidence starts with “My pastor says…” you may be leaning on a human leader.

If your confidence starts with “The Word of God says…” you’re anchored to the infallible source of Truth.

You’ll be reminded that:

No human leader is flawless—only Scripture is fully trustworthy.

Cults don’t make converts to Christ; they make converts to a personality.

A church submitted to the authority and inerrancy of the Bible is a church positioned for humility, unity, and spiritual health.

Placing yourself under God’s Word is the first step toward living holy in a desperately sick culture.

If you’ve felt pulled by competing voices—even Christian ones—this devotional will help you reset your confidence where it belongs: on Jesus Christ and His unchanging Word.

Scripture Focus: 1 Corinthians 1:10, 1 Corinthians 1:12
Key Truth: One Savior. One Way. One Truth—Jesus Christ.

Go deeper: Dr. Youssef’s sermon Healthy Living in a Sick World, Saints in a Sinful Culture (Watch Now | Listen Now)

The voice you hear on the MY Devotional podcast is digitally generated with Dr. Youssef's permission. If today’s devotional stirred a question, burden, or need for prayer, you don’t have to walk through it alone.

🙏 Pastoral Care & Prayer Teams
Our trained prayer partners and pastoral care team are available to pray with you and offer Biblical support.
https://ltw.org/care

💬 Receive personal answers to your faith questions—anytime, day or night—at:
https://myfaithassistant.com

If you’ve been blessed by this podcast, please consider a tax-deductible donation to help extend this ministry—so another person can be encouraged, prayed for, and pointed to Christ.

❤️ Support Leading The Way:
https://www.ltw.org/donate

Every day brings new pressure to blend in, bow down, or stay quiet. But Scripture calls believers to live in the world without being polluted by it (James 1:27)—not by isolating ourselves, but by living differently as a witness to Jesus.

In today’s episode of the MY Devotional Podcast, Dr. Michael Youssef takes us to Corinth—one of the most spiritually sick cities of the ancient world—and shows how Paul addressed a church tempted to straddle two worlds. Some wanted one foot in the church and one foot in the culture, but Paul makes it clear: wholeness in Christ requires wholehearted allegiance.

Here’s the breakthrough: Paul calls these messy, struggling believers “saints”—not because they were perfect, but because they were sanctified in Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:2). Dr. Youssef explains why every deliberate sin and compromise often comes down to one root issue: we forget whose we are. When you remember you belong to the eternal King—made righteous by the blood of Christ—you’re empowered to pursue holiness with confidence, knowing God remains faithful even when you’ve fallen short.

If you’ve been drifting, rationalizing, or feeling spiritually dulled by the culture, this devotional is a reset: You are a saint. Now live like it.

Scripture Focus: 1 Corinthians 1:2 (ESV)

Go deeper: Dr. Youssef’s sermon Healthy Living in a Sick World, Saints in a Sinful Culture (Watch Now | Listen Now)

The voice you hear on the MY Devotional podcast is digitally generated with Dr. Youssef's permission. If today’s devotional stirred a question, burden, or need for prayer, you don’t have to walk through it alone.

🙏 Pastoral Care & Prayer Teams
Our trained prayer partners and pastoral care team are available to pray with you and offer Biblical support.
https://ltw.org/care

💬 Receive personal answers to your faith questions—anytime, day or night—at:
https://myfaithassistant.com

If you’ve been blessed by this podcast, please consider a tax-deductible donation to help extend this ministry—so another person can be encouraged, prayed for, and pointed to Christ.

❤️ Support Leading The Way:
https://www.ltw.org/donate

What does it look like to live as a citizen of heaven while serving on assignment in a world that resists God’s Truth?

In today’s episode of the MY Devotional Podcast, Dr. Michael Youssef explains why speaking Truth is part of the Christian’s calling—especially when leaders or systems pressure people to violate God’s Word. Yet this boldness is never rooted in self-righteousness. Believers stand with humility, praying for leaders and lovingly pointing others to Christ—the only One who can truly set anyone free.

To illustrate what faithful living looks like in the “City of Man,” Dr. Youssef takes us to Daniel 1:1–16, where Daniel and his friends—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—model courageous obedience in a hostile environment. Sometimes their tests seemed small (even what was placed in front of them at the king’s table). Other times, obedience carried deadly cost—lions’ dens and fiery furnaces. Yet their stance remained the same: no compromise, full trust in God’s outcome.

This devotional will challenge you to:

stand firm when pressured to conform,

speak Truth with grace and conviction,

trust God with the results of obedience, and

lift high the cross of Christ as His ambassador—no matter the cost.

Scripture Focus: Daniel 1:1–16

Go deeper: Dr. Youssef’s sermon series Unholy Alliance of the Antichrist (Watch Now | Listen Now)

The voice you hear on the MY Devotional podcast is digitally generated with Dr. Youssef's permission. If today’s devotional stirred a question, burden, or need for prayer, you don’t have to walk through it alone.

🙏 Pastoral Care & Prayer Teams
Our trained prayer partners and pastoral care team are available to pray with you and offer Biblical support.
https://ltw.org/care

💬 Receive personal answers to your faith questions—anytime, day or night—at:
https://myfaithassistant.com

If you’ve been blessed by this podcast, please consider a tax-deductible donation to help extend this ministry—so another person can be encouraged, prayed for, and pointed to Christ.

❤️ Support Leading The Way:
https://www.ltw.org/donate

Why do so many Christians start strong—only to slowly settle into comfort, distraction, and spiritual compromise?

In today’s MY Devotional, Dr. Michael Youssef reminds us that believers are citizens of the City of God, living temporarily in the City of Man with a mission: to urge the lost to turn from sin and receive eternal life in Jesus Christ. Yet many who once lived with heaven in view end up falling in love with the very world they were sent to reach.

Dr. Youssef unpacks five reasons this spiritual drift happens—and how to guard your heart:

A false view of heaven that makes eternity seem dull instead of glorious,

Worldly pressures (pain, loss, responsibilities) that steal your focus,

Living by sight, where the visible crowds out what’s eternal,

Muddled teaching that confuses self-sacrifice with self-satisfaction,

False doctrine that blurs the Truth about salvation, heaven, and hell—draining urgency from the Christian race.

This episode will help you regain eternal perspective, recognize subtle distractions, and live with a clear-eyed passion for Christ—serving faithfully now while remembering the better City that is to come.

Scripture Focus: Hebrews 13:14

Go deeper: Dr. Youssef’s sermon series Unholy Alliance of the Antichrist (Watch Now | Listen Now)

The voice you hear on the MY Devotional podcast is digitally generated with Dr. Youssef's permission. If today’s devotional stirred a question, burden, or need for prayer, you don’t have to walk through it alone.

🙏 Pastoral Care & Prayer Teams
Our trained prayer partners and pastoral care team are available to pray with you and offer Biblical support.
https://ltw.org/care

💬 Receive personal answers to your faith questions—anytime, day or night—at:
https://myfaithassistant.com

If you’ve been blessed by this podcast, please consider a tax-deductible donation to help extend this ministry—so another person can be encouraged, prayed for, and pointed to Christ.

❤️ Support Leading The Way:
https://www.ltw.org/donate

Why does life feel heavier as a society becomes more “advanced”? The Bible answers with startling clarity.

In today’s episode of the MY Devotional Podcast, Dr. Michael Youssef opens Genesis 11:1–9 and the Tower of Babel—where humanity tried to build a future without God, chasing self-glory instead of surrender. That ancient defiance isn’t just history; it mirrors what we see across the modern West: a culture bowing to materialism, moral relativism, and political correctness—then reaping confusion, anxiety, and loneliness.

But God didn’t leave humanity without a light.

Dr. Youssef points to Abraham, a man living in the “City of Man” while longing for the City of God—“a city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10). Abraham’s faith didn’t ignore darkness; it overcame it. And God’s promise to Abraham didn’t end with him—through his line came Jesus Christ, the Savior who purchased our eternal home by His blood (Genesis 12:3).

If you’re weary from the headlines or discouraged by cultural decline, this devotional will help you lift your eyes and live with steady hope—setting your mind where Christ is and where history is headed.

Scripture Focus: Genesis 11:1–9

Go deeper: Dr. Youssef’s sermon series Unholy Alliance of the Antichrist (Watch Now | Listen Now)

The voice you hear on the MY Devotional podcast is digitally generated with Dr. Youssef's permission. If today’s devotional stirred a question, burden, or need for prayer, you don’t have to walk through it alone.

🙏 Pastoral Care & Prayer Teams
Our trained prayer partners and pastoral care team are available to pray with you and offer Biblical support.
https://ltw.org/care

💬 Receive personal answers to your faith questions—anytime, day or night—at:
https://myfaithassistant.com

If you’ve been blessed by this podcast, please consider a tax-deductible donation to help extend this ministry—so another person can be encouraged, prayed for, and pointed to Christ.

❤️ Support Leading The Way:
https://www.ltw.org/donate

What should Christians do when society celebrates what God calls sin—and then blames believers for the fallout?

In today’s episode of the MY Devotional Podcast, Dr. Michael Youssef turns to Habakkuk 1:6–7, where God raises up the Babylonians as judgment—revealing a sobering pattern repeated throughout history: when a people who once honored God abandon Him, darkness advances quickly.

But Dr. Youssef’s message isn’t despair—it’s direction.

Rather than hiding away or writing off humanity, believers are called to live with Kingdom purpose in the “City of Man”:

Love without fear and pray for persecutors (Matthew 5:44–45),

Engage with conviction instead of retreating into silence,

Reason with the lost the way God reasons with sinners—inviting them to grace (Isaiah 1:18),

Shine as light and live as salt that creates thirst for Christ.

This devotional will challenge you to reject passivity, resist intimidation, and speak Gospel Truth with compassion—trusting God to resurrect dead hearts into living testimonies of His grace.

Scripture Focus: Habakkuk 1:6–7

Go deeper: Dr. Youssef’s sermon series Unholy Alliance of the Antichrist (Watch Now)

The voice you hear on the MY Devotional podcast is digitally generated with Dr. Youssef's permission. If today’s devotional stirred a question, burden, or need for prayer, you don’t have to walk through it alone.

🙏 Pastoral Care & Prayer Teams
Our trained prayer partners and pastoral care team are available to pray with you and offer Biblical support.
https://ltw.org/care

💬 Receive personal answers to your faith questions—anytime, day or night—at:
https://myfaithassistant.com

If you’ve been blessed by this podcast, please consider a tax-deductible donation to help extend this ministry—so another person can be encouraged, prayed for, and pointed to Christ.

❤️ Support Leading The Way:
https://www.ltw.org/donate

Have you been stuck expecting the worst—even in your walk with God?

Over the last few days, we’ve been confronting pessimism through the life of Thomas, the disciple forever nicknamed “doubting Thomas.” But Dr. Michael Youssef reveals the deeper issue beneath Thomas’ doubt—and ours: a distorted understanding of who Jesus truly is. With patient love, Christ led Thomas from skepticism to victory, and that same resurrection power can transform you too.

In this episode of the MY Devotional Podcast, you’ll discover:

why doubt often grows from an incomplete view of Christ,

how Jesus personally frees us from pessimism, and

what genuine transformation looks like after we encounter the living Savior.

Thomas’ change wasn’t merely intellectual—it reshaped his entire life. After meeting the risen Christ, he became bold and mission-minded, taking the Gospel into difficult regions such as Nineveh and India. Dr. Youssef reminds us that when we truly grasp God’s calling and His unconditional love, pessimism gives way to Spirit-empowered hope—pessimistic to visionary, uncertain to confident, and hopeless to joyful.

If you’re tired of negative “what ifs,” chronic doubt, or spiritual hesitation, this devotional will point you back to the One who has the final word over every fear:

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).

Scripture Focus: John 8:36

The voice you hear on the MY Devotional podcast is digitally generated with Dr. Youssef's permission. If today’s devotional stirred a question, burden, or need for prayer, you don’t have to walk through it alone.

🙏 Pastoral Care & Prayer Teams
Our trained prayer partners and pastoral care team are available to pray with you and offer Biblical support.
https://ltw.org/care

💬 Receive personal answers to your faith questions—anytime, day or night—at:
https://myfaithassistant.com

If you’ve been blessed by this podcast, please consider a tax-deductible donation to help extend this ministry—so another person can be encouraged, prayed for, and pointed to Christ.

❤️ Support Leading The Way:
https://www.ltw.org/donate

Do you ever feel your faith shrink after a setback—like hope is slipping through your fingers?

In this episode of the MY Devotional Podcast, Dr. Michael Youssef continues the journey of overcoming pessimism by revealing the next steps toward steady confidence in Christ. While yesterday’s foundation was knowing who you are in Jesus, today tackles what happens when fear, opposition, or disappointment hits your “hot buttons” and you start expecting the worst.

Through the life of Thomas, Dr. Youssef highlights how Jesus overpowers pessimism in real time:

How to handle setbacks without losing confidence (John 11): Thomas assumed following Jesus to Bethany would end in death—but Jesus shattered that fear by raising Lazarus, proving His authority even over the grave.

How Christ’s resurrection defeats chronic doubt (John 20:25–28): Thomas demanded proof—until the risen Jesus stood before him. Encountering the living Christ transformed him from skeptic to worshiper: “My Lord and my God!”

Why your hope is never tied to circumstances: Jesus is alive, reigning at the right hand of the Father, and still redeeming situations that look beyond repair.

If you’ve been bracing for disappointment, stuck in “realistic” negativity, or quietly wondering if God will come through—this devotional will help you remember what Thomas learned firsthand: the resurrected Christ changes what’s possible.

Scripture Focus: Psalm 66:5

The voice you hear on the MY Devotional podcast is digitally generated with Dr. Youssef's permission. If today’s devotional stirred a question, burden, or need for prayer, you don’t have to walk through it alone.

🙏 Pastoral Care & Prayer Teams
Our trained prayer partners and pastoral care team are available to pray with you and offer Biblical support.
https://ltw.org/care

💬 Receive personal answers to your faith questions—anytime, day or night—at:
https://myfaithassistant.com

If you’ve been blessed by this podcast, please consider a tax-deductible donation to help extend this ministry—so another person can be encouraged, prayed for, and pointed to Christ.

❤️ Support Leading The Way:
https://www.ltw.org/donate

Pessimism is one of the quietest threats to a growing faith—because it often sounds like wisdom. We rename it “discernment,” “caution,” or “being realistic,” but Scripture exposes what it truly is: a lack of faith in God’s power or His promises.

In this episode of the MY Devotional Podcast, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you to Mark 9, where a desperate father says to Jesus, “If you can…”—revealing the real issue wasn’t Jesus’ ability, but the father’s unbelief. Christ’s reply still challenges us today: faith changes what we believe is possible.

Dr. Youssef also points to Thomas, famously labeled “doubting Thomas,” to show that pessimism doesn’t have to be permanent. Jesus overcame Thomas’ unbelief by anchoring him in a life-altering truth: you are chosen, called, and unconditionally loved by God’s grace.

If you’ve been battling negativity, doubt, or a constant expectation of the worst, this devotional will help you:

identify pessimism for what it is,

bring your unbelief honestly to Jesus, and

rest in the security of God’s steadfast love and calling.

Scripture Focus: 1 John 3:1

The voice you hear on the MY Devotional podcast is digitally generated with Dr. Youssef's permission. If today’s devotional stirred a question, burden, or need for prayer, you don’t have to walk through it alone.

🙏 Pastoral Care & Prayer Teams
Our trained prayer partners and pastoral care team are available to pray with you and offer Biblical support.
https://ltw.org/care

💬 Receive personal answers to your faith questions—anytime, day or night—at:
https://myfaithassistant.com

If you’ve been blessed by this podcast, please consider a tax-deductible donation to help extend this ministry—so another person can be encouraged, prayed for, and pointed to Christ.

❤️ Support Leading The Way:
https://www.ltw.org/donate