Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

Proverbs 23:17-18 Don’t envy sinners, but always continue to fear the LORD. You will be rewarded for this; your hope will not be disappointed. The writer of Proverbs tells us here that we shouldn’t envy sinners, but the tenth commandment tells us that we shouldn’t covet our neighbour’s house, wife, servant, ox, donkey or anything else that they own (Exodus 20:17). All envy or covetousness is wrong...

Proverbs 22:13 The lazy person claims, “There’s a lion out there! If I go outside, I might be killed!” There is so much blunt truth in the book of Proverbs, and here the writer laughs at the lazy person who has always got an excuse for doing nothing. On this particular day he fears that there may be a lion outside, and is concerned that he may get killed. He considers that he’s got the perfect exc...

Proverbs 22:3 A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. This proverb, like so many of them, is just sheer good sense. It’s the kind of statement that could easily be turned into a good fridge magnet! At one level it is screamingly obvious, but we all know how incredibly easy it is to hurtle through life blindly without doing...

Proverbs 21:26 Some people are always greedy for more, but the godly love to give! Longing for more money and possessions is a terrible disease, but our materialistic society is built on the assumption that that is how we should all live. Long ago the Greek philosopher Epicurus wrote: “Nothing is enough to the man for whom enough is too little.” And yet the place of true peace and contentment is w...

1 Peter 5:8-9 Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. I have visited Africa on a number of occasions and have gone on several safaris. They are not at all like safari parks in this country where you are guaranteed to see a wide range of animals. On a safari there...

1 Peter 5:7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. Whether they are large or small, we all carry various cares and concerns. They may be focused on health issues for ourselves or those who are close to us. We may be concerned about the future, money or what is happening in the world today. It is impossible to avoid a whole range of concerns, so the question isn’t whether w...

1 Peter 5:5 All of you, dress yourselves in humility as you relate to one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Some years ago, I was privileged to attend a conference at St George’s Windsor for key strategic leaders. We were given the task of identifying the most important personal qualities that were needed for strategic leadership. My small group included a chief c...

1 Peter 5:1-2 As a fellow elder, I appeal to you: Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly—not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God. After Jesus’ resurrection, he shared breakfast with his disciples beside the Sea of Galilee, and there he commanded Peter to take care of his sheep (John 21:15-17). In today’s verses,...

1 Peter 4:10-11 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. The New Testament is absolutely clear that we each have a gift. But isn’t it int...

1 Peter 4:7-8 The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other. The idea of the world coming to an end is a challenging thought, but Peter wasn’t in any sense threatening his readers. The New Testament writers all spoke of this as the climax and fulfilment of God’s purposes. They felt the en...

1 Peter 3:15-16 If someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way. When Peter wrote his letter, Christianity was still quite new and so I am sure that many people were very curious about it. Peter was keen that his readers shouldn’t miss any opportunity to talk about it. But it had to be done in the right way. If they were aggr...

1 Peter 3:9 Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will grant you his blessing. If you have ever been insulted, you will know that the immediate reflex reaction is to want to even the score. In the pain of the moment, we are all inclined to cry out for justice because it’s...

1 Peter 3:3-4 Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewellery or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. I don’t feel competent to comment on fancy hairstyles, expensive jewellery or beautiful clothes! However, I don’t believe t...

1 Peter 2:21 For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps. I’ve known many wonderful people, and I am sure you have as well. I have only to think of words such as kindness, graciousness, love, thoughtfulness, joy, integrity, hospitality and hope, to be reminded of people who have reflected those qua...

1 Peter 2:18 You who are slaves must submit to your masters with all respect. Do what they tell you—not only if they are kind and reasonable, but even if they are cruel. Everything about slavery is horrifying. The idea that someone could own another human being sounds barbaric, and so it is difficult for us to handle a verse like this. Context is so important. At the time of the early Church, slav...

1 Peter 2:16 You are free, yet you are God’s slaves, so don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do evil. On the face of it this verse doesn’t seem to make much sense. Surely freedom means that you can do whatever you like? All constraints have been thrown off and you can do exactly what pleases you. But it doesn’t take long to realise that this kind of freedom would be a horrific experience. If you...

1 Peter 2:12 Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbours. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honourable behaviour, and they will give honour to God when he judges the world. Socrates, the famous Greek philosopher, once said “the unconsidered life is not worth living”. Peter would have agreed with him, because he knew that it was crucially important fo...

1 Peter 2:10 “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.” The television series, Who do you think you are? always makes fascinating viewing. Researchers delve into the lives of famous people and reveal amazing details about their family history. It is interesting to know about our history but what really matters is...

1 Peter 2:9 You are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. In the Old Testament we learn that God decided that the people of Israel should be his chosen people. In Exodus 19 and Isaiah 43 they are described in a number of ways, and here Pe...

1 Peter 2:4-5 You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honour. And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. In the Old Testament, huge attention is given to the building of the temple. King David took the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem and longed to give it a proper home. He...

1 Peter 2:2-3 Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness. Babies are not subtle in their demand for milk. When they need feeding they are very happy to let everyone know about it! Peter uses this powerful imagery to describe a young Christian’s...

1 Peter 2:1 So get rid of all evil behaviour. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy and all unkind speech. In the previous chapter Peter commanded his readers to love one another. He now spells out what that will involve, because if we are truly to love other people then bad behaviour must stop. There’s no way in which a church can be dominated by love when there is deceit, hypocrisy, jealo...

1 Peter 1:23 You have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. Terry Pratchett, the famous humourist and novelist, wrote: “It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it’s called Life.” Life here on earth is indeed brief, but Peter encourages us to look...

1 Peter 1:22 You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart. When you become a Christian, you are immediately a part of a worldwide family – the church. You suddenly have brothers and sisters that you’d never had before! One of the most exciting characteristics of your n...

1 Peter 1:15-16 You must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.” I suspect that we all respond in much the same way to the command that we should live holy lives. We probably all feel a closeness to Isaiah who, as we saw on Day 41, went into the temple one day and was overwhelmed by the holiness of God (Isaiah 6...