Battle Drill Daily Devotional (Audio) | Christian 5-Minute Bible Devotions

This week in Battle Drill devotionals, we consider what is needed to stand up for Christ in a world that is full of beliefs and ideas that go against him. Each weekday we share hope and encouragement as we read and study the Bible together. How do you see the world? What does the lens you look through look like? How we view the world influences how we see everything. It affects our view of God. It...

As a human being designed to connect with others, you reflect the image of the God who wants to connect. You are not exactly like God. But you do reflect both his glory and his character. And a major part of his character is the desire to connect with others. He has planted that same desire in each one of us. We have an innate need to connect with God and with other human beings. As we do what we...

God made you in his image and designed you to connect. Have you ever noticed how God uses the plural when he says, “Let us make human beings in our image”? What does this mean? Some have argued it is regal language – the “royal we”, like Queen Victoria saying, “We are not amused”. Some suggest that God was consulting with the angels of heaven, but this is not borne out elsewhere in the Bible. Whil...

The Bible has many pictures of the ways God cares for and protects you. For example, it describes God as like a mother bird caring for and protecting her young (see Deuteronomy 32:11-12 and Isaiah 31:5 ). But right at the beginning of the Bible, in the account of God’s creation of the universe, we have this picture of his Holy Spirit hovering over the surface of the waters. God’s Spirit was active...

God chose to create you. You are loved by and valuable to God. The creation account in Genesis makes it clear that God chose to create the universe because he wanted to connect with a family to love. He placed human beings – you and me – on the earth so we could be his children. God loved you before the heavens and the earth were made and created you so he could connect with you and continue lovin...

This week on Battle Drill Devotionals, we consider how everything God created – including you and me – is designed to connect with each other. Each weekday we share hope and encouragement as we read and study the Bible together. Have you ever stopped to think how incredible it is that everything in our universe fits and works together? The very beginning of the Bible starts with the remarkably sim...

What happens after you read God’s Word or listen to a sermon? Does it fill you with power to do something about it? Are you moved to do something or does life carry on as normal? Peter had preached a Spirit-filled, powerful message. The people who heard it were deeply moved by his words and the truth behind them. The message moved them to ask, “What should we do?” When we read God’s Word or listen...

How do you feel about Christ’s resurrection? In the 1980’s it became fashionable for Christians to deny that such supernatural events had truly taken place. But a Christian faith without the power to empty a tomb is an empty faith! Peter focused part of his Pentecost sermon on the power behind the resurrection of Jesus. He proclaimed it forthrightly! The events he was speaking about had taken plac...

Have you ever looked at someone so filled with Holy Spirit power and wished it were you? Perhaps you’ve watched them confidently share their testimony with a stranger or preach a powerful sermon or show love to someone who seemed unlovable and wished you could do the same. The promise of Pentecost is that everyone – you included – can be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. Moses had yearned...

Is that so-and-so? But he was such a terrible drunk! What’s happened to him? And she was a terrible mother! What’s turned her life around? Finding God, turning to Christ and being filled with Holy Spirit power often meant a complete change of lifestyle for early-day Salvationists. It still happens today. There are still soldiers joining our ranks around the world who have a life-changing testimony...

This week on Battle Drill Devotionals, we focus on the events of Pentecost. The powerful arrival of God’s Holy Spirit changed people’s lives forever. It can change ours too! Each weekday we share hope and encouragement as we read and study the Bible together. How can you handle pain so well? How do you manage to stay calm when someone is so irritating? Why do you find it so easy to forgive someone...

Jesus met our final woman for this week at a well in the midday sun. In doing so, he associated himself with the Samaritans, an ethnic group his Jewish contemporaries disparaged. Jews would not eat or drink anything associated with a Samaritan, but Jesus asked this woman for a drink, meaning he would have had to drink from her bucket. Furthermore, no respectable Jewish man would speak in public wi...

If you’re of a certain age, like me, you may remember the American singer-songwriter, Prince, who once felt himself so famous that he changed his name to a symbol which stood for The Artist Formerly Known as Prince. The New Testament includes at least one woman who was so prominent in the early church that the gospel writers didn’t feel it necessary to include her name in the stories about her: Ma...

If we ever think about Mary, the mother of Jesus, it is usually at Christmas. She was probably in her early teens when she was visited by the angel, Gabriel, and told the news that every woman in Israel hoped to hear - that her son would be Messiah, God’s promised Saviour. Her excitement was no doubt tempered by the realisation that he would be born out of wedlock with all the social disgrace that...

Rahab was a woman in a man’s world. She was a prostitute. That alone made her an outsider. She lived on the edge of society. She was always one stop short of rejection. To make matters worse, she was a refugee - a Canaanite foreigner saved by Israel. And yet, still today, both the Jewish and Christian religions remember Rahab as a hero of the faith. Why? Firstly, because she rescues the spies sent...

This week in Battle Drill Devotionals, we are reminded that God calls men and women to share equally in service and leadership in the world, as we look at the stories of five important biblical women. Each weekday we share hope and encouragement as we read and study the Bible together. As the first woman on earth, Eve is described as the mother of us all. And yet, we know so little about her. We d...

Read Mark 3:31-35. When you look back at your family, you may challenge me and suggest that it has not passed on any unhealthy habits or patterns of behaviour. Or you may feel that your family are so messed up, there is no hope of breaking free and moving forwards. The truth is that all families are broken and fallen in some way, because all human beings are broken and fallen to some extent. There...

Read Matthew 22:34-40. Can you remember the first time you gave someone a gift? Maybe it was flowers from a garden for your mum, or a chocolate heart for your first Valentine, or a pair of socks at Christmas for your Uncle Fred. We often remember gifts we have given and gifts we have received because they are visual symbols of love. God is, of course, the ultimate gift-giver. Everything we have is...

Read Matthew 11:25-30. Jesus promises his followers a life of rest. Following him, he says, is easy. The burden he gives us is light. But often, living as a Christian doesn’t feel like that. We don’t experience the joy and contentment the Bible promises us. We wind up being unhappy, frustrated, over-busy and harassed. We feel exhausted and we just want to get off the treadmill for a while. Why is...

A few years ago now, a retired senior leader of The Salvation Army came to stay with us. At the end of the weekend, I worried I had been like the Spanish Inquisition having asked him so many questions! I had recognised he was a very wise person. He had something to teach me. But wise people are very humble (as we thought about yesterday), and so often you have to draw their wisdom from them slowly...

This week we focus on David’s cry of lament in Psalm 22. As God responds, David chooses to gather with his people in worship. This can help us search for the stars in the midst of our own trauma. Read Psalms 22:1-31. What do you do when God seems a million miles away? What do you say to God when you are struggling through a major trauma in your life? It’s easy to gather with your church family and...

Today's #BattleDrill: Read Matthew 5:1-12. What do you think of when you read or hear the word, “meek”? You might be tempted to think of the archetypal 97-pound weakling who usually appears in contrast to a muscly hero. Think Charles Atlas or Captain America. We often mistake meekness for weakness. #salvationarmy #basingstoke #devotional But meekness did not equal weakness in the biblical wor...

Today's #BattleDrill: This week we focus on how to deal with stress through the eyes of Jesus Christ. Stress is a major problem in our society. Globalisation, the 24/7 nature of information and communication technology, the speed of change, a greater sense of competition all compound feelings of stress. #salvationarmy #basingstoke #devotional Jesus was fully divine. But he was also fully huma...

Today's #BattleDrill: Daniel was captured by Nebuchadnezzar when he became king of Babylon and made Judah a vassal state. He is in crisis, having discovered that Jeremiah had prophesied that Jerusalem must lie in ruins for seventy years. This week, we discover that what Daniel does in that crisis is a blueprint for us when we face our own difficult circumstances. #salvationarmy #basingstoke #...

Today's #BattleDrill: Read 1 John 2:15-17. Do you ever allow your circumstances to dictate your choices to you? I know I have on occasion. #salvationarmy #basingstoke #devotional You may have a packet of chocolate digestives in the cupboard. That doesn’t necessarily mean the right choice is to eat them all – in one sitting! You may have a credit card with free credit on it sitting in your pur...