Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

Titus 1:15 These words may well feel familiar. They closely echo the words of Jesus when he said: “A good person produces the good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart” (Luke 6:45). Paul’s particular challenge in Crete came from those who were insisting that all Christian...

Titus 1:5-6 Crete had many cities. Homer, the Greek poet, described the island as “Crete of the hundred cities.” The apostle Paul was clearly concerned that each community of Christian believers should have leadership, and he trusted his friend Titus to get on with the job of appointing elders. He describes these elders in many ways but, above all, it was their character that mattered. They needed...

Titus 1:2 We inevitably spend much of our life focused on the here and now. We need to eat, drink, work and sleep, and often there isn’t much time to do anything else. But we all need to find time to stand back from all this busyness and look at our lives on a bigger scale. I’ve just been watching a rugby match. It was full of interesting incidents but, in order to understand what was going on and...

Titus 1:1 Paul was born into a strongly Jewish family and also had the privilege of being a Roman citizen. It is quite likely that his family were wealthy and that he would have been waited on by slaves from birth. He certainly wasn’t a slave himself, but when it came to his relationship with God, slavery was precisely the right description. That is to say, God was in command of his life. This is...

Proverbs 2:1-2 I wonder what you treasure most of all. Perhaps it’s your car, some jewellery or something precious that a friend gave you. Perhaps you would point to your relationship with your family or a special friend. Whatever it is, you will naturally be inclined to protect this treasure. You will make sure that it doesn’t get spoilt, and you will devote attention to thinking about it. Here,...

Proverbs 1:20-22 Wisdom is portrayed as a woman who tries to share her wise thoughts in the middle of a busy town. She finds that her offer isn’t what people want to hear. They insist on going their own way and she warns them of the terrible implications of rejecting her wisdom. She comments that they “must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way, choking on their own schemes” and says that f...

Proverbs 1:8-9 The writer of Proverbs spent a lot of energy focusing on the family. He knew that a strong family was the most crucial building block for the whole of society. Today, nothing has changed. Society pays a terrible price when families fail to experience love and security. He had a strong message for both parents and children - in short, they need to be listened to carefully and their i...

Proverbs 1:7 These words are often described as the motto of the wisdom books of the Bible, because we not only find it repeated in the book of Proverbs (9:10 and 15:33) but also in Psalm 111:10 and Job 28:28. The person who seeks true knowledge and wisdom needs to recognise that it is not found through endless study but through a relationship with God. Indeed, book knowledge often leads to no wis...

Proverbs 1:1-3 In every bookshop and railway station bookstall you’ll find books with catchy titles such as How to Stay Happy and Healthy, How to Live a Long Life, or How to Thrive in Retirement. In the book of Proverbs, we meet an ancient version of these books. What fascinates me is that the issues have hardly changed at all. The preoccupation of humankind, throughout the ages, has been to live...

Psalm 146:3-5 I haven’t done it myself, but I am told that if you were to count up all the verses in the entire Bible, Psalm 146:3 is the exact midpoint. It certainly declares a critically important truth. It isn’t claiming that powerful and influential people are unimportant, but it seeks to contrast their limited importance with the unlimited power, love and importance of God. We should pray for...

Psalm 145:13-14 I am often asked to write a reference for people, and I consider it a privilege to do so. I love it when I am able to describe someone as being totally reliable. Few things are more important than reliability. A person might be incredibly knowledgeable and talented, but if they can’t be relied upon, then they are more likely to be a liability than a blessing. In this psalm, King Da...

Psalm 145:4 In this psalm, David makes it clear that absolutely everyone and everything need to join together in praising God. We tend to think of worship as being something which people do when they go to church. David, however, saw it on a much bigger scale. For him, God is so great and majestic that no one should be left out of the celebrations. But he didn’t merely think about those who are al...

Psalm 144:3-4 Before I became a Christian, it seemed incredible to me that God, the creator of the universe, could be interested in human beings. And I certainly couldn’t grasp that he could have any interest in me. Surely he had far more important things to think about! But the Bible teaches us that God does indeed have time for us. This psalm recalls Psalm 8, when David looked into the night sky...

2 Thessalonians 3:16 As Paul brought this letter to an end, he wrote the Thessalonians this wonderful benediction. I love these words and, when I have sent a card to someone over the years, I have very often quoted this verse. What greater blessing could you seek for another person than that they would know the Lord’s peace at all times and in every situation? Surely we all long for that for ourse...

2 Thessalonians 3:11-13 There were people in the church in Thessalonica who thought of themselves as being so spiritual that they should spend their days waiting for the return of Jesus and not going to work. Paul couldn’t have been clearer in his response to them. They had missed the point. The fact that they didn’t work meant they had become a burden on the other believers. And, worse than that,...

2 Thessalonians 3:1 As Paul brings this letter to the Thessalonians to a close, we see his heart. He asks them to pray for him. He doesn’t give any details about specific personal needs, but he asks that the Lord’s message would spread rapidly. A literal translation of the Greek would be “that the word of the Lord may run”. Because Paul so often used athletic imagery, he was almost certainly tryin...

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 Whether we are conscious of it or 
not, our thoughts about the future will have a huge impact on the way we live today. That’s probably most easily seen when we are worried about something. Perhaps a visit to the dentist, a meeting with our boss or a tense issue in the family which needs to be resolved. In this letter, Paul was particularly concerned that the Thessalonian c...

2 Thessalonians 1:11 It is often rightly pointed out that the Christian life is a marathon and not a sprint. Keeping something up isn’t too difficult if you are doing it for just a short while. But keeping going as a Christian for years on end is a different matter. Living for Christ consistently in the face of all the ups and downs of life is not easy. When you have good health, a steady income,...

2 Thessalonians 1:3-4 From this bold introduction to Paul’s second letter to the church in Thessalonica, you might have thought that they were perfect. But they weren’t. As Paul’s letter progresses, he addresses a number of issues. They had become confused about the timing of Jesus’ return and many of them had become lazy, using the excuse that there was no point in getting a job if the Lord was t...

Psalm 143:7-8 Depression is tragically common and is one of the world’s most pervasive health conditions. It’s estimated that one in three women and one in five men have an episode of major depression before the age of 65. King David was clearly given to bouts of depression and, in this psalm, he reveals the depth of his despair. He had been pursued by his enemy and knocked to the ground. He descr...

Psalm 142:1-2 This psalm was written by David as he reflected on the experience of hiding from his enemies in a cave. This happened on two occasions. Firstly, in Adullam and secondly in En Gedi. On both occasions he was being threatened by King Saul, who was eager to kill him. There’s no way of knowing which occasion he was thinking about when he wrote this psalm, but it doesn’t matter. What is cl...

Psalm 141:5 This verse reminds us of the Proverb which says: “An open rebuke is better than hidden love! Wounds from a sincere friend are better than many kisses from an enemy” (Proverbs 27:5- 6). These words are no doubt wise, but that doesn’t mean it is easy when somebody says something harsh to us, or tells us that we have gone wrong. It might prove to be soothing medicine in the end but, at th...

Psalm 141:3-4 This psalm begins as we meet David worshipping God. He asked God to accept his prayer as an incense offering and raises his hands in worship. But he knew that his worship couldn’t stand apart from everyday life. If he worshipped God, he knew it had to affect the way in which he spoke to other people. He knew he needed God to take control of his speech and to set a guard on his lips....

Luke 8:20-21 For 30 years, Jesus had lived with his family and, apparently, no one had taken much notice of him. Certainly, we have no record of him coming to public attention. But now, suddenly, he had started a ministry which was drawing huge crowds. His own family wanted to speak with him – and they had to queue up with everyone else! It must have been a very strange experience for them. The fa...

Luke 8:18 In many ways, these wise words are the punch line to the parable of the sower. Jesus is saying we need to listen carefully to his words, so they will grow deep roots which shape the people we are. The sad fact is that it’s perfectly possible to listen to something with so little interest or attention that the words fly over our heads without having any impact at all. This principle is tr...