Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

Deuteronomy 8:10-11 Moses preached this sermon just before the people of Israel crossed into the promised land. An exciting new life awaited them, but it was going to be different from anything they had ever known. For a generation they had been wandering in the wilderness, and so their new settled life in Canaan would present lots of entirely new challenges. Firstly, it would be easy for them to...

Deuteronomy 7:7 The people of Israel were very special to God. But it is only natural to ask the question: “Why?” Why should God favour one particular nation over all the rest? In his sermon, Moses considers this question and concludes that the only possible explanation was love. The Israelites were not powerful and strong. Far from it, they formed a little nation that had spent much of its life i...

Deuteronomy 6:20-21 One of the greatest blessings of my life has been that, for much of the time, I have lived with small children – and one of the joys that children bring is in their questioning. I have noticed this is particularly intense around the age of four or five. Their theological questioning leaves learned professors standing! They want to know who made God, where heaven is, why God sto...

Deuteronomy 6:4-6 These words stand right at the heart of the Jewish faith. In Jewish worship, they are repeated in both morning and evening prayers. They are a continual reminder of the fundamental truth that there is only one God, and he deserves total devotion. These words are known as the Shema and the people of Israel were commanded to keep repeating them to their children. They were so funda...

Deuteronomy 4:9 In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses was preparing the people of Israel for their entry into the promised land. What they were about to experience was something entirely different from the many years they had spent in the wilderness. They would be able to settle down and enjoy food and drink. It would be a land truly flowing with milk and honey. But they would also face enormous obsta...

Deuteronomy 1:30-31 In the opening chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the people of their history. The journey from the Nile river to the promised land of Canaan took less than two weeks. When they arrived in Kadesh-barnea, just south of the border with Canaan, Moses encouraged them to enter the land that God had promised to give them. But the people were cautious. They suggested spies should b...

Deuteronomy 1:12-13 Moses was a great man. He had been appointed by God to lead the people out of Egypt, but there was no way in which he could do this by himself. He needed lots of help, particularly from wise people who could help to resolve all the difficult issues that arose. From all the very honest accounts we have of those 40 wilderness years, we know the people were often in a bad mood. Th...

Deuteronomy 1:12-13 Moses was a great man. He had been appointed by God to lead the people out of Egypt, but there was no way in which he could do this by himself. He needed lots of help, particularly from wise people who could help to resolve all the difficult issues that arose. From all the very honest accounts we have of those 40 wilderness years, we know the people were often in a bad mood. Th...

Psalm 5:3 Let’s be clear that God loves to hear from us at any time. Morning, noon or night he loves to hear our prayers. But there is something very important about us coming to God in the morning when the day is still new. It’s a fresh page and so far we have done nothing to mess it up! It may well be that you find it better to have a quiet reflective time with God later in the day and that’s fi...

Psalm 4:8 How are you sleeping at the moment? If you always sleep well, that’s wonderful. But for many people, sleep is hard work. In the UK, 33 per cent of people over the age of 55 struggle to fall asleep quickly. For 25 per cent of adults, money worries are a major factor in disturbing their sleep. No one questions the importance of sleep - and the psalmist was well aware of the blessing it bri...

Psalm 3:1-3 Some of the psalms have a brief introductory note, and this is one of them. It tells us that it was written when David fled from his son, Absalom. This was possibly the most tragic moment in David’s long, eventful reign. Absalom was a great favourite of David and much loved by the people as well. He was handsome, charming and loved all the pomp which went along with belonging to a roya...

If this psalm had been written recently, you might assume the psalmist had just read that day’s newspaper or listened to the news on TV. He begins by asking: “Why are the nations so angry? Why do they waste their time with futile plans?” (v1). Sound familiar? He then reflects on the fact that the rulers of the earth plot against God, trying to get free from his control. In response, he pictures Go...

Psalm 1:1-2 It’s interesting that the Book of Psalms begins on a negative note. Here are three things that godly people reject. They don’t accept the advice of wicked people. They don’t hang around with sinners. And they don’t have anything to do with those who mock God. It’s almost as if he is talking about preparing a field for cultivation. There is no point in sowing seed until the stones and w...

James 5:19-20 These verses bring James’ letter to an end. They are very different from the ending of many New Testament letters, which are often full of warm greetings and prayers for the recipients. James’ letter was utterly practical and, in these final verses, he confronted the fact that, sadly, there are those who wander away from the Christian faith. The verb “to wander” is absolutely correct...

James 5:16 This is one of many verses in the Bible where I wish the author had written a lot more! In fact, I would have been perfectly happy if James had written a book to explain exactly what he meant when he suggested Christians should confess their sins to each other. I wonder how he expected this to be done, and which sins he had in mind. I assume that he didn’t expect services of worship to...

James 5:13-14 I love these verses. Basically, James is saying that whatever is going on in your life at the moment, it’s the right time to pray! Many people seem to see prayer as a religious activity that needs to be confined to particular times or places. Churches are well known as places to pray, and many people set aside a special quiet time each day so that they can bring their prayers to God....

James 5:7-8 After Jesus’ ascension, his disciples were assured that he would return. The messengers said: “Men of Galilee, why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but some day he will return in the same way you saw him go” (Acts 1:11). In the early Church, there was a widespread belief that it was going to happen in their lifetime. However, Jesus h...

James 4:13-14 James’ readers would have immediately understood his description of the eager business person. At the time, markets were opening up all around the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries. There were endless opportunities to set up new businesses and James isn’t objecting either to business or the making of profit. His problem was that individuals had forgotten how temporary their...

James 4:11-12 Of course, we all know that we shouldn’t speak evil against one another. But it can happen so subtly that we often don’t spot it. Inevitably, within a church or any other community, there will be conversations about people. Those conversations might become slightly critical, because none of us are perfect. But this is when it gets dangerous, however, because such conversations can lu...

James 4:6-7 We are right to think of God as being incredibly loving, forgiving and generous. But we must not lose sight of the fact that he is also a God who hates. The writer of Proverbs makes a list of the seven things that he detests: “proud eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness who pours out lies, a person who s...

James 4:2-3 My wife and I have three children. I am well used to them asking me for things, and I am really pleased that they do so - even more now that they are adults. However, there are limits to what I am happy to give them. That’s not because of a lack of love, but because I love them. If they ask me for something which I know will cause problems or damage them, I will say a firm: “No”. This...

James 3:18 There’s a big difference between peace loving and peace making. Surely, we all love the idea of peace. But peacemakers are those who are willing to do the tough job of getting involved in situations where there is no peace, in order to make peace. Peacemaking sounds like a quiet and gentle way of life. But it’s often the exact opposite. The person who wants to make peace needs to be tou...

James 3:17 I wonder what sort of person you would most like to be. I suspect many of us would love to look something like James’ description here of a wise person. He has spent the last few verses talking about those destructive attitudes which can so easily ruin life - jealousy, selfish ambition, boasting and lying. One senses that he is speaking from personal experience; that he has witnessed th...

James 3:1 Teachers have an incredibly important role in the life of the Church - and that was especially true in the early Church. On a number of occasions, Paul referred to them as having one of the three most prominent ministries, alongside apostles and prophets (see 1 Corinthians 12:28). If the Church was to thrive, it needed effective, faithful teachers. Equally, it needed to be protected from...

James 2:19-20 James was clearly sick and tired of people who thought that having faith was all that mattered. Here he launches a full-scale attack on that point of view by pointing out that even the demons believe in God. Their belief is so strong it makes them terrified. We also see this illustrated by Jesus. Soon after his ministry began, he went to the synagogue in Capernaum. A man with an evil...