Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

Matthew 6:10 Jesus often spoke about the kingdom of God. He wasn’t talking about something remote but a living reality now for those who were willing to live in line with God’s will. The kingdom of God comes to our homes, churches, businesses and communities when we decide to let God take control. It’s wonderful to see the way in which the Lord’s Prayer flows. It starts with us proclaiming that Go...

Matthew 6:9 So begins the Lord’s Prayer. I find everything about this prayer interesting. First of all, I find it surprising how short it is! When I hear people praying, they often speak for a good few minutes. I’m not criticising that, but the prayer Jesus gave to his disciples is all over in about 30 seconds. I also find it interesting that Jesus only gave his disciples one prayer. I have a numb...

Matthew 6:7-8 Having read these verses, the obvious question is: “If God knows everything why bother praying?” The reason for praying is because of the relationship that God wants to have with us. He wants us to spend time with him because that’s what friends do! Jesus made it clear that the nature of the relationship that he wanted with his disciples was one of friendship and not of a master rela...

Matthew 6:1-2 Every Jew knew that giving to the poor was one of their key responsibilities. Jesus confirmed that this would continue to be a major duty for his followers too. However, his main concern was the way in which it was done. It needed to be done secretly because gifts were, first of all, to be given to God. Those who were trying to impress other people and win their praise had totally mi...

Matthew 5:21-22 Far from scrapping the Jewish law, Jesus had come to intensify it, and here’s the first example. Everybody knows that it is wrong to murder, but Jesus dug much, much deeper by stating that it is wrong merely to be angry. What he was saying was that if you could solve the problem of anger there would never be another murder. We need to address the roots of the problem, and that’s pr...

Matthew 5:17 Throughout his ministry, Jesus seemed to be in constant conflict with the teachers of the Jewish law. So it isn’t surprising that there were those who assumed that his intention was to scrap it. Look at the way in which he failed to observe the regulations about handwashing, or the fact that
he healed people on the Sabbath even though the law clearly forbade any kind of work on that d...

Matthew 5:15-16 There are two words for good in Greek. One is agathos, which simply defines a thing as good in quality. The other is kalos – that refers to things that are not merely good but also beautiful and attractive. The word used here to describe the good deeds that we must do is kalos. This is a really important point. God doesn’t simply want us to do correct things but things that are bea...

Matthew 5:14 One of the most famous of Jesus’ I am sayings was: “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). Those words don’t come as any surprise to us. He was the Son of God and was without sin. He was clearly able to claim that his perfect life radiated light for all to see. But in today’s verse we are told that we are the light of the world, despite being far from perfect. Jesus’ challenging wo...

Matthew 5:13 I love it when I hear people being described as the salt of the earth. I wonder who you think about when that expression is used. Let me tell you about three people who spring to my mind. Some years ago I went to stay with an elderly couple who lived in a small community and on my first morning with them they invited me to go for a walk with them. They lived in the middle of the town...

Matthew 5:10-12 This is the last of Jesus’ Beatitudes. They are all amazing statements, and they give us the best possible introduction to Jesus’ teaching. He was introducing his disciples to an upside-down kingdom. When you see things from Jesus’ point of view, everything looks different; this final Beatitude makes that clearest of all. In these few words Jesus sums up what all of us would try ve...

Matthew 5:9 There is apparently an unofficial United Nations motto that says: “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will take flak from both sides.” Any suggestion that the making of peace is easy will only come from those who haven’t started making any. Making peace involves getting alongside people who are angry and hurt. It involves bringing people together who hate and mistrust one another. It...

Matthew 5:8 God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God. One of the greatest privileges of my life in recent years has been to spend a good deal of time with people who are blind or partially sighted. I am constantly blessed by them and am conscious that they are often far more aware of what is going on than those of us with sight. We get distracted by the visual clues and don’t...

Matthew 5:7 God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy. The simple fact is that we rely totally on the truth that God is merciful. We have sinned against him and those around us and if he were to insist on being just then we wouldn’t stand a chance. However, God is ‘rich in mercy’, to use Paul’s wonderful expression in Ephesians 2:4. God has chosen to set us free from our sin...

God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied. For us, hunger and thirst will normally be very brief experiences, easily satiated by going to the fridge or turning on a tap. But many Jesus was speaking to originally would have had a very different experience because they were poor and therefore extremely vulnerable. If they had a bad harvest they would most likely...

Matthew 5:5 God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth. It’s impossible to exaggerate the revolutionary nature of Jesus’ words. He was introducing his disciples to a totally new upside-down kingdom. This Beatitude reminds me of the words of Mary’s song of praise when she was pregnant with Jesus. She sang: “His mighty arm has done tremendous things! He has scattered the...

Matthew 5:4 God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. If you listen to the news regularly you will be well aware that a lot of mourning goes on in our world. It always has. Today there will be people experiencing the agony of losing a loved one. Their world has suddenly been turned upside down. There are also millions of people mourning because they have been forced to leave their h...

Matthew 5:3 Jesus said: “God blesses those who are poor and realise their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.” This is the first of Jesus’ famous sayings at the start of his Sermon on the Mount, popularly known as the Beatitudes. It takes us right to heart of Jesus’ Good News. It’s vital that we understand what Jesus was actually saying, and also what he was not saying. He was defin...

Deuteronomy 31:7-8 Moses said to Joshua: “Be strong and courageous!...Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.” Forty years before Moses spoke these words, Joshua had been one of twelve spies who had been sent into the promised land. Moses had asked them to make an assessment of Canaan and ten of t...

Deuteronomy 30:11-12, 14 Moses said: “This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you, and it is not beyond your reach. It is not kept in heaven, so distant that you must ask, ‘Who will go up to heaven and bring it down so we can hear it and obey?’ No, the message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it.” We are all sinners and are very c...

Deuteronomy 14:22-23 Moses declared: “You must set aside a tithe of your crops—one-tenth of all the crops you harvest each year. Bring this tithe to the designated place of worship—the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to be honoured—and eat it there in his presence.” Giving one tenth of your income to the Lord was a principle established from the earliest days. In Genesis 14:20, Abram...

Deuteronomy 13:1-3 Moses declared: “Suppose there are prophets among you or those who dream dreams about the future, and they promise you signs or miracles, and the predicted signs or miracles occur. If they then say, ‘Come, let us worship other gods’—gods you have not known before— do not listen to them.” As Moses prepared the people of Israel to enter the promised land, he was deeply concerned t...

Deuteronomy 14:2 Moses declared: “You have been set apart as holy to the Lord your God, and he has chosen you from all the nations of the earth to be his own special treasure.” The word ‘holy’ means something that is special. Moses wanted the people of Israel to know they were so special to God that they needed to live a life that was distinct from the people around them. They were to ensure that...

Deuteronomy 11:26 Moses declared, “Look, today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse!” The book of Deuteronomy gives us the sermon that Moses preached as the people gazed at the promised land. God had told Moses that he would not enter into Canaan and, so, he stood on Mount Nebo looking at the land which God had promised to give to his people. He knew God well enough to know he...

Deuteronomy 10:18-19 “God ensures that orphans and widows receive justice. He shows love to the foreigners living among you and gives them food and clothing. So you, too, must show love to foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt. You must fear the Lord your God and worship him and cling to him.” I’ve never been a widow or an orphan but, for two years, I was a forei...

Deuteronomy 8:10-11 “When you have eaten your fill, be sure to praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the Lord your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and decrees that I am giving you today.” Moses preached this sermon just before the people of Israel crossed into the promised land. An ex...