Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

READ: Acts 2.5-7 NLT At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. The arrival of the Holy Spirit caused a stir in Jerusalem. The city was packed with Jewish pilgrims f...

READ: Acts 2.1-4 NLT 'On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other lan...

READ: Proverbs 16.32 NLT 'Better to be patient than powerful; better to have self-control than to conquer a city.' It’s good for us to ask the question, “What matters most in life?”. Time and again the book of Proverbs helps us to think through this question. Many people would assume that it is good to be powerful and to have control of people and even whole communities. Some would want to be a po...

READ: Proverbs 13.11 NLT 'Wealth from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears; wealth from hard work grows over time.' Oscar Wilde wrote, ”The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.” That seems to summarise a lot of people’s thinking about work. Work is seen as something bad which needs to be avoided if at all possible, and if it can’t be avoided immediately then one...

READ: Proverbs 12.15-16 NLT 'Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to others. A fool is quick-tempered, but a wise person stays calm when insulted.' The language of Proverbs is very black and white. The writer speaks of the wise and does everything he can think of to illustrate how wonderful it is to live in this way. It’s a life of happiness, prosperity and peace and is marked b...

READ: Proverbs 11.24-25 NLT 'Give freely and become more wealthy; be stingy and lose everything. The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.' The whole Bible is concerned with the issue of money and what to do with it, and Proverbs devotes a huge amount of energy to the issue. The quick summary of his teaching is that if you use money badly it will destroy you...

READ: Proverbs 10.19-21 NLT 'Too much talk leads to sin. Be sensible and keep your mouth shut. The words of the godly are like sterling silver; the heart of a fool is worthless. The words of the godly encourage many, but fools are destroyed by their lack of common sense.' I love the straightforward and down-to-earth language of this amazing book. Written nearly three thousand years ago, the words...

READ: Proverbs 6.9-11 NLT 'But you, lazybones, how long will you sleep? When will you wake up? A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.' Laziness is the subject of many fridge magnets. “I’m not lazy, I’m on power-saving mode” caught my eye and “I always say “morn...

READ: Acts 1.24-26 NLT Then they all prayed, “O Lord, you know every heart. Show us which of these men you have chosen as an apostle to replace Judas in this ministry, for he has deserted us and gone where he belongs.” Then they cast lots, and Matthias was selected to become an apostle with the other eleven. After the Ascension of Jesus, the eleven disciples needed to find a successor to Judas Isc...

READ: Acts 1.12 and 14 NLT 'Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, a distance of half a mile. When they arrived, they went to the upstairs room of the house where they were staying... They all met together and were constantly united in prayer, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, several other women, and the brothers of Jesus.' The days between Jesus’ Ascension and Pente...

READ: Acts 1.9-11 NLT Jesus was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!”...

READ: Acts 1.8 NLT Jesus said “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” What an amazing day this must have been for the disciples. They are just about to see Jesus disappear before their eyes and before he does so he gives them their marchin...

READ: Acts 1.3-4 NLT During the forty days after Jesus suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God. Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised.” Dr Luke wrote two books – his gospel and...

READ: Psalm 56.1-3 NLT 'O God, have mercy on me, for people are hounding me. My foes attack me all day long. I am constantly hounded by those who slander me, and many are boldly attacking me. But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you.' On a number of occasions I have stayed in Benedictine monasteries in this country and in France. Their way of life is very different from my own, but I have...

READ: Psalm 52.8-9 NLT 'But I am like an olive tree, thriving in the house of God. I will always trust in God’s unfailing love. I will praise you forever, O God, for what you have done. I will trust in your good name in the presence of your faithful people.' This passage from Psalm 52 begins with a ‘but’ as David contrasted himself with Doeg the Edomite, who had been seeking to stir up trouble for...

READ: Psalm 51.1-2 NLT 'Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.' The background to this psalm is well known. King David had committed adultery and he had been found out. The penalty for this crime in the Jewish law was death. However, David repented of his sin and G...

READ: Psalm 48.1-3 NLT 'How great is the Lord, how deserving of praise, in the city of our God, which sits on his holy mountain! It is high and magnificent; the whole earth rejoices to see it! Mount Zion, the holy mountain, is the city of the great King! God himself is in Jerusalem’s towers, revealing himself as its defender.' I will never forget my first sight of Old Jerusalem. The golden limesto...

READ: Psalm 47.1 NLT 'Come, everyone! Clap your hands! Shout to God with joyful praise!' I once went to visit some friends who were doing mission work in Southern Pakistan close to the Sind desert. It was very, very hot. I remember how keen they were to prevent any draughts because the searing heat was too much to bear, even through the smallest gaps. On Sunday I went to their mud hut church and,...

READ: 1 Corinthians 14.1 NLT 'Let love be your highest goal! But you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives—especially the ability to prophesy.' 1 Corinthians chapter 13 is a really famous chapter and rightly so. But the fact is that Paul didn’t write in chapters. Chapter divisions arrived about 1,200 years later! So, whenever we see a chapter division, we need to, at least, pee...

READ: 1 Corinthians 13 8, 9 and 13 NLT 'Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.' I don’t know about you but I don’t like throwing things away. I am writing this on a laptop. A new laptop. I hung on to the last one for as long as possible....

READ: 1 Corinthians 13.11-12 NLT 'When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.'...

READ: 1 Corinthians 13.4-7 NLT 'Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.' I am sure that you h...

READ: 1 Corinthians 13.1 NLT 'If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.' I will never forget Sheila. She was in her early 70s when I first met her and every Friday evening, without fail, she helped out with her church’s youth club. The church was on a rough estate and the evenings were full of action. The y...

READ: 1 Corinthians 12.14 and 16-17 NLT 'Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. If the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?' I love Paul’s sense of humour! He imagines a conversation going o...

READ: 1 Corinthians 12.4-7 NLT 'There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.' I often hear people being described as gifted. They may b...