Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

Proverbs 25:20 Singing cheerful songs to a person with a heavy heart is like taking someone’s coat in cold weather or pouring vinegar in a wound. This is a painful proverb because we all have the capacity to be insensitive. Singing cheerful songs is obviously lovely, but to impose this on someone who is depressed is the very last thing that we should ever do. We can all do the wrong thing. We can...

Proverbs 25:19 Putting confidence in an unreliable person in times of trouble is like chewing with a broken tooth or walking on a lame foot. Being able to trust reliable people is so important, especially when we are going through a tough time. I thank God for the privilege of working with people over the years who have been totally trustworthy. Their word was their bond. I knew that if they promi...

Proverbs 25:18 Telling lies about others is as harmful as hitting them with an axe, wounding them with a sword, or shooting them with a sharp arrow. Lying is a terrible business, and the writer of Proverbs captures its awful destructiveness. It is a very tempting route when the truth is hard to face. The temptation is to at least bend the truth so that its sharper edges aren’t obvious. However, wh...

Do you like honey? Don’t eat too much, or it will make you sick! We can always trust the writer of Proverbs to give us sound advice! His purpose is to help us live life to the full and avoid the many traps that lie in wait for us every single day. One of those traps is overeating. He draws attention to honey, which is undoubtedly good, but, like everything else, only in moderation. If we overdo it...

Colossians 4:7,9 Tychicus will give you a full report about how I am getting along. He is a beloved brother and faithful helper who serves with me in the Lord’s work. I am also sending Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, one of your own people. You learn a lot about people through the way they speak about others. I love how Paul speaks so warmly of his friends. Tychicus was clearly someone h...

Colossians 4:5-6 Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone. Whether we have a short or a long life, our opportunities are finite. Paul urges his readers to take every opportunity seriously, which means that we need to live wisely. Wisdom is always a de...

Colossians 4:2-3 Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains. The importance of prayer cannot be exaggerated. It has been wisely said that we are as strong as our prayer lives, and no stronger. That applies just as much to us as i...

Colossians 3:22-23 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord. Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. There was a jazz song that became very popular during the second world war which went: “Tain...

Colossians 3:15 Let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. The world is full of conflict. Whether you look at international relations, national politics or even the life of your local community, conflict is never far away – but that isn’t what God wants for us. He has made it possible for us to live...

Colossians 3:14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. Robert Browning, the poet, wrote: “Take away love and our earth is a tomb.” It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of love. It isn’t merely one more excellent virtue which we need to acquire – it’s essential because without it no family, organisation or church can thrive. Paul encouraged...

Colossians 3:13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Any happy and harmonious community relies upon forgiveness. It isn’t an optional extra but an absolute necessity. However, it is also incredibly hard work, so we need to reflect very carefully upon it. We step on one another’s toes very easily. We...

Colossians 3:11 In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us. Every society is full of divisions, but Paul’s world was sharply and deeply divided far beyond anything we know today. The biggest divide of all was between Jew and Gentile. Jews were the chose...

Colossians 3:10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. I wonder what your goals are for your life. Perhaps they focus on your family, your job or your sport. You may want to become better at what you do and more fulfilled in your life. In this verse we hear what God’s aim is for our lives, and isn’t it amazing? His aim is that we should become...

Colossians 3:2-3 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. Paul’s message was a matter of life and death. In the previous chapter, he referred to baptism as being an act of burial (Colossians 2:12). Through baptism, one life comes to an end and another one, focused on Christ, begins. That’s why Paul encour...

Colossians 2:16-17 Don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality. Throughout history, religious people have been famous for their rules and regulations. We see it particularly clearly with the Pharisees of Jesus’ time...

Colossians 2:14-15 [Christ] cancelled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. The cross stood right at the centre of Paul’s understanding of the good news. Put simply, if you want to understand Jesus, you have to see him through the...

Colossians 2:8-9 Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. Paul didn’t believe in beating around the bush! He was so convinced that Christ was the complete answer to the human predicament that he saw e...

Colossians 1:22-23 You are holy and blameless as you stand before [Christ] without a single fault. But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. What Christ has done for us is absolutely amazing. Failed and sinful as we are, he has totally forgiven us and made us right with God. He has made it poss...

Colossians 1:15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation. Most people have good things to say about Jesus. They like that he welcomed every kind of person; they admire that he was willing to stand up to the religious rulers of his time; they enjoy that he told compelling, down-to-earth stories and went out of his way...

Colossians 1:13-14 [God] has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins. Paul was absolutely clear that when someone becomes a Christian, their whole life changes completely. We move to a new country! The kingdom of darkness is now behind us and we have entered the kingdom of light with Jesus Christ st...

Colossians 1:11-12 We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. Life can be incredibly tough. Paul often spoke of the challenges he had faced which involved rejection, betrayal, shipwrecks, imprisonment, beatings and much more. He also knew that the Colossian...

Colossians 1:9 We have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Recently, I heard someone say that the situation they were facing was so desperate that all they could do was pray about it. They made it sound as if their circumstances were so hopeless that they were willing t...

Colossians 1:6 This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace. Following Christ always involves radical change. James and John had to leave their boats and their fishing nets and follow Jesus. Zacchaeus, the tax col...

Colossians 1:4-5 We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. Having hope is incredibly important. Dostoevsky, the famous writer, said: “To live without hope is to cease to live. Hell is hopelessness.” Above the entrance to Dante’s hell was the inscription: “Leave behind all hope,...

Matthew 28:8-9 The women ran quickly from the tomb. They were very frightened but also filled with great joy, and they rushed to give the disciples the angel’s message. And as they went, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they ran to him, grasped his feet, and worshiped him. The women who found the empty tomb on the first Easter Sunday morning must have experienced a riot of emotions. They had g...