Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

1 Peter 1:14 So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. DL Moody, the famous Victorian preacher, once said: “There will be no peace in any soul until it is willing to obey the voice of God.” The problem with the word obedience is that we are inclined to see it as restrictive. But think of h...

1 Peter 1:13 So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. In this opening chapter of his first letter, Peter writes a great deal about salvation. He looks forward to the day when we will see the completeness of our salvation, set free from every trace of sin and all suggesti...

1 Peter 1:6-7 Be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. Nobody likes going through difficulties or facing challenges. To have to endure violent persecution, such as Peter’s readers...

1 Peter 1:5 Through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. I wonder how you or I would cope with persecution from the civic authorities. Just imagine what it would be like to live with the knowledge that the police are after you, simply because you are a Christian. This is precisely the experien...

1 Peter 1:3-4 Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. Many potential inheritances are eaten up by nursing home fees, or are lost through poor investments or changes in market conditions. In short, inheritances in this life are vulnerable and certainly cannot be r...

1 Peter 1:3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. When Peter wrote these words the storm clouds were gathering; the early Church was soon going to be facing very sharp and painful persecution. Many Christians were going to die, and Peter was well aware that he needed to equip the...

1 Peter 1:1 I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. I wonder where home is for you. Perhaps it’s the place where you were born. I left my birthplace when I was 18, but I still look back at it as a place of great importance. Since then, I have lived in many different places. When I lived in India I remember...

Proverbs 21:23 Watch your tongue and keep your mouth shut, and you will stay out of trouble. Speaking is such a huge part of our daily lives that we need all the wisdom we can find to guide us. The book of Proverbs comes back to the subject time and again precisely because it is so important. We need to be constantly learning how to use our tongues more effectively, and part of that is to learn wh...

Proverbs 21:3 The LORD is more pleased when we do what is right and just than when we offer him sacrifices. The offering of sacrifices lay right at the heart of Old Testament worship. Strange as it may seem to us, it was the way that God expected people to approach him so that their relationship with him could be put right. This led many people to conclude that all they needed to do was to fulfil...

Hebrews 13:20-21 Now may the God of peace—who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood—may he equip you with all you need for doing his will. As this amazing letter comes towards its end, the writer prays a blessing upon his readers. He has written the letter to bring them encouragement and this simple prayer oozes wi...

Hebrews 13:17 Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit. The letter to the Hebrews often refers to the importance of obedience to the word of God. The writer therefore urges his readers to obey their church leaders...

Hebrews 13:15-16 Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name. And don’t forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please God. The writer to the Hebrews devotes a great deal of attention to the old sacrificial system. He does so in order to make it clear that in Christ it has completely c...

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Yesterday we were encouraged to reflect on our former Christian leaders and to remember the example that they set. Much as we thank God for them the fact is that their life and ministry came to an end. In our verse today, the writer to the Hebrews contrasts them with Jesus, whose ministry never comes to an end. This is undoubtedl...

Hebrews 13:7 Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and follow the example of their faith. Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the USA, wrote: “A good example is the best sermon.” As I think back to those preachers that I have heard over the years, it is undoubtedly their way of life that lives with me. Some of them...

Hebrews 13:5 Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” As a little boy it was a fantastic moment when I had enough money to buy a Mars bar. I assumed that the perfect world must be the one in which you could buy lots of Mars Bars. I thought of a friend of ours who had a lot of money and guessed that he would be able to b...

Hebrews 13:4 Give honour to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery. Faithfulness is crucial to every relationship. Without it, relationships suffer from insecurity and uncertainty and cannot possibly thrive. Faithfulness is also at the heart of God’s relationship with us. There is no moment when you need...

Hebrews 13:3 Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies. I am so grateful that when I was at university I was encouraged to visit the local prison once a week. We visited the young offenders’ wing and so I was meeting people of my own age, which was such a valuable experience. I had never met prisoners...

Hebrews 13:2 Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realising it! In Genesis 18 there is a remarkable account of hospitality when Abraham generously welcomed three mysterious visitors. It was the hottest part of the day and as soon as he saw them, Abraham ran to welcome them. He then encouraged them to rest in the shade of an oak...

Hebrews 12:28-29 Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshipping him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a devouring fire. It’s important that we never lose a sense of amazement that we are able to worship God at all. When Isaiah entered the temple after the death of King Uzziah (recorded in Isaiah 6) he was completely overwhelmed by the exp...

Hebrews 12:15 Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many. Life can be incredibly hard, and many people experience terribly difficult and painful rejections and brokenness in their relationships. It isn’t difficult to understand why this can lead to bitterness, but the fact is t...

Hebrews 12:14 Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. The UK is blessed with a huge number of stately homes which have amazing gardens. As we revel in the beauty of the flowers, shrubs and trees it is absolutely right for us to give thanks to God for the miracle of creation. But the fact is that, normally out of sight...

Hebrews 12:1-2 And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Life is not a sprint but a marathon, so we all need to learn how to ‘hang in there’ through thick and thin. Here, the writer to the Hebrews reminds his readers that this is what the life of faith is all about. We have to learn to e...

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. Over the years I have played lots of different sports with a great deal of enthusiasm and, truth to tell, not much success. However, I have had a number of friends and acquaintances who have been eno...

Hebrews 11:31 It was by faith that Rahab the prostitute was not destroyed with the people in her city who refused to obey God. For she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. In this chapter the writer to the Hebrews introduces us to a number of Old Testament heroes of the faith. It isn’t anything like a complete list. Hundreds of important characters receive no mention at all. And so it is fas...

Hebrews 11:17-18 It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.” This is a really tough passage. The idea of God apparently asking a parent to kill their child is hard enough. But it...