Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

Hebrews 11:12 And so a whole nation came from this one man who was as good as dead—a nation with so many people that, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them. The writer to the Hebrews described Abraham as being “as good as dead”. That’s not flattering, but he was describing a 99-year-old man who was married to Sarah – a woman decades past child-bearin...

Hebrews 11:8 It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. At the age of 75, Abraham headed out from his home in Haran without having a clue where he was going! What an incredible moment. People, in my experience, just don’t do things like that. Usually, we have a...

Hebrews 11:7 It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. The account of Noah building an ark and saving his family together with vast numbers of birds and animals is a story of enormous courage. The world had never seen a flood like this before, so the idea of Noah building a vast boat wo...

Hebrews 11:1 Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. Many people think of faith as being a rather weak, sentimental way of thinking and are inclined to say that they would rather trust the facts. Some philosophers have compared faith with taking a leap in the dark. Personally, I would never encourage anyone to take a leap in the dark. That sounds ex...

Hebrews 10:36 Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. There is a wonderful prayer which runs: “O God, grant me the courage to change what I can, the patience to endure what I cannot change and the wisdom to know the difference.” There are many things we are powerless to change, and God wants to give us the...

Hebrews 10:24-25 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. The New Testament has no understanding of a lone Christian. Time and again we are reminded that we have responsibilities for one another, and here the write...

Hebrews 9:27-28 And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. The quotation, “Nothing is certain but death and taxes” is attributed to many different people but especially Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain. However, it is such an obvious observation that it actually dat...

Hebrews 6:18-19 We who have fled to God for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. I suspect that if you spoke with most people about the future they would be full of fears and uncertainties. We live with the continual threat of international terrorism and the wildfires, floods and hurricanes that bat...

Hebrews 6:1 So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. If you saw a group of learned professors of mathematics earnestly talking about the fact that two and two make four, you might think it rather strange. You would imagine that they would have moved on to more complicated matters. That is not to say tha...

Hebrews 5:11 There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen. Ouch! The writer of Hebrews didn’t pull his punches. He was frustrated with the spiritual dullness of his readers and let them know it. He had hoped that they would have developed much more in their faith so that they could, by this st...

Hebrews 5:8-9 Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him. The high priest was the most important person in the Jewish faith. He traced his family line back to Aaron, the brother of Moses, and his life and ministry are described in...

Hebrews 4:16 Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. I only spoke with HRH Queen Elizabeth II on one occasion. I had the privilege of attending a reception at Buckingham Palace to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee and afterwards there were refreshments. I was chatting with a couple of friends and sud...

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. If you thought that the Bible was just another piece of literature you have totally missed the point. The Bible is the way in which God speaks to us and he does it with devastating power. I...

Hebrews 3:13 You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. I still vividly remember the warnings that my mother used to give me when I was a child. They had to do with what I ate, how I crossed the road, the people I spoke to, the way I cycled my bike and so on. I suspect that many of you have similar memories....

Hebrews 3:6 Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ. Confidence is important in every part of life isn’t it? I find it interesting that many people who are supremely confident in one area of life have no, or very little, confidence in another. We can probably all think of an area where we don’...

Hebrews 2:18 Since Jesus himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested. For many years I have suffered from back pain, which I have in common with many of you because 60 to 70 per cent of people have back pain at some point in their lives. I find that people are very caring and sympathetic, but there is such a difference between those who are kindly...

Hebrews 2:14 Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. The fact that Jesus was fully human was of crucial importance to the writer of this letter. Salvation depended upon it. In the first chapter, the writer spoke of...

Hebrews 2:1 So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. We can be sure that this letter was written to Christians from a Jewish background and that it was written to a particular church. Later in the letter we learn that the believers had suffered for their faith soon after they came to faith in Christ, but now they had become complacent and lazy. The...

Hebrews 1:3 The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honour at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. None of the original manuscripts of the New Testament exist today. But there are many very early copies still around, and on a n...

Hebrews 1:1-2 Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. These opening verses of the letter to the Hebrews declare that God has always spoken to people. He did it in the Old Testament as he sp...

Jonah 3:10; 4:1 When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened…This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry. So far as Jonah was concerned it was bad enough to have to go to Nineveh at all, with its terrible reputation for sin. But at least he was given the responsibil...

Jonah 3:1-3 Then the LORD spoke to Jonah a second time: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.” This time Jonah obeyed the LORD’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all. Jonah had learned his lesson. He had tried running away from God and spectacularly failed in the attempt. So, when the Lord called him for...

Jonah 2:1-2 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from inside the fish. He said, “I cried out to the LORD in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead, and LORD, you heard me!” The thought of spending three days and nights inside a large fish is well beyond my imagination. And the book of Jonah doesn’t do anything to satisfy my curiosity! This is no newspaper...

Jonah 1:1-3 The LORD gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.” But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the LORD. Most Bibles will have the title ‘Holy Bible’ on the cover, which could give the impression that it is a book stacked full of stories...

Isaiah 42:1 “Look at my servant, whom I strengthen. He is my chosen one, who pleases me. I have put my Spirit upon him. He will bring justice to the nations.” I became absolutely fascinated by the law when I was in my teens. I often visited our local magistrates’ and crown courts in Southend and was completely gripped by the whole process. On a few occasions I went up to the Old Bailey in London w...