Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

READ: James 5:7,8 NLT 'Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord’s return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen. You, too, must be patient. Take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near.' The idea of waiting is easy – until you have to do it! Waiting can be incredibly difficu...

READ: James 5:1,2 NLT 'Look here, you rich people: Weep and groan with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you. Your wealth is rotting away, and your fine clothes are moth-eaten rags.' You can almost see the steam coming out of James’s ears can’t you? He is furious at the way in which the rich people were abusing their position. His very specific gripe with them was that they had...

READ: James 4:13,14 NLT Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. We are constantly encouraged to plan for the future. Whether we are looking at our family, our hou...

READ: James 4:7,8 NLT 'Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.' Life can often feel like a battleground. There is great evil in the world and any newspaper will illustrate that in agonizing detail. But there is also immense kindness and go...

READ: James 4:6,7 NLT As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” So humble yourselves before God. Did you know that God is capable of hatred? Or perhaps you think that God is so nice that he couldn’t bring himself to hate anything. The fact is that the Bible is quite clear that God seethes with hatred at times. In Proverbs 6:16 we learn that God hates seven thing...

READ: James 4:2,3 NLT 'You don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.' Dream for a moment. If you could have anything in the world, what would you choose? I would be fascinated to know your answers – a beautiful large home; a yacht; a luxurious holiday; perfect heal...

READ: James 3:17,18 NLT 'The wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favouritism and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.' Many churches observe that they have very few people in their 2...

READ: James 3:3-5 NLT 'We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire.' The tongue is incredibly powerful, for good or ill. I recall...

READ: James 2:15-17 NLT Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. Christians use a lot of words. Preaching, singing, praying and f...

READ: James 2:1 NLT 'My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favour some people over others?' Do you have favourites? Or do you look at other people in the same way whatever their age, education, wealth, beauty, race, religion and irrespective of whether you know them or not? The first question suddenly got more difficult didn’t it? We...

READ: James 1:23-24 NLT 'Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.' I love the way James writes but I’m not sure he would make easy company. He is so incredibly blunt. If the Christian faith doesn’t get translated into daily action then he wants n...

READ: James 1:5 NLT  'If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.' Life constantly throws challenges at us. Should we move house? Should I move to a different job because I’ve seen one that pays more? How can I resolve the dispute that I’ve got with my next-door neighbour? Should I tell my colleague that he’s annoy...

READ: James 1:2-3 NLT 'Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.' This sounds ridiculous. Having problems, trials and difficulties doesn’t sound, on the face of it, like the best way to create joy. So what is James talking about? What he’s doing is taking his readers to the heart of...

READ: Psalm 34:10 NLT 'Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the LORD will lack no good thing.' Have you ever thought that in following God you will miss out on lots of good things? I certainly did. When I heard the call to ministry I was 19 and I struggled with the idea of answering the call, because it seemed to me that I would be sure to miss out on so much. I was...

READ: Psalm 34:8 NLT 'Taste and see that the LORD is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!' After leaving University I spent two years living in Kerala, South India. It’s a beautiful state and the vegetation is so lush and dense that, from the air, it looks like a huge jungle. One of the most amazing discoveries was the vast range of new fruits. I had never heard of custard apple or...

READ: Psalm 33:2,3 NLT 'Praise the LORD with melodies on the lyre; make music for him on the ten-stringed harp. Sing a new song of praise to him; play skilfully on the harp, and sing with joy.' The psalmist often speaks about singing new songs to the Lord. That has always made me wonder what is wrong with the old songs? The psalmist doesn’t give us an answer but in every generation as God has touc...

READ: Psalm 31:9-10 NLT 'Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am in distress. Tears blur my eyes. My body and soul are withering away. I am dying from grief; my years are shortened by sadness. Sin has drained my strength; I am wasting away from within.' David is clearly at the end of his tether. Physically he is in a bad way and he feels that everyone is out to get him. Even his friends have rejected him...

READ: Psalm 29:3 NLT 'The voice of the Lord echoes above the sea. The God of glory thunders. The Lord thunders over the mighty sea.' The Bible clearly reveals that God loves to speak to us, and that he does this in an endless variety of ways. Much of the time we expect communication to be in the form of words, whether written or spoken, but God isn’t limited by words or anything else. This psalm r...

READ: Psalm 27:14 NLT 'Wait for the Lord. Be strong. Let your heart be strong. Yes, wait for the Lord.' Our society has been especially designed to exclude waiting. The advertising industry seeks to persuade us that everything can be obtained instantly: instant credit, instant satisfaction, instant rewards. One of the first credit cards had as its slogan, “Taking the waiting out of wanting” and th...

READ: Psalm 27:1 NLT 'The Lord is my light and my salvation — so why should I be afraid? The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?' If you’ve ever looked through a list of phobias you will have been amazed by the variety. I’ve only recently come across Nomophobia which is the fear of not having mobile access; Ephebiphobia, which is the fear of teenagers; and Syng...

READ: Psalm 25:4-5 NLT 'Show me Your ways, O Lord. Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me. For You are the God Who saves me. I wait for You all day long.' Everyone wants guidance. We all want to know how to have the most peaceful, fulfilling and useful life. We want to know who to marry, which career to follow, how to spend our money, how to resolve conflict and a thousand other t...

READ: Psalm 24:1 NLT 'The earth is the Lord’s, and all that is in it, the world, and all who live in it.' Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenage climate activist, has been amazingly effective in helping the world to wake up to the reality of our abuse of this planet. She said to a UN Climate Summit,” Sometimes we just simply have to find a way. The moment we decide to fulfil something, we can do anyt...

READ: Psalm 23:4 NLT 'Even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not be afraid of anything, because You are with me.' Life and death live alongside one another. It has been said that we all live with a terminal disease – it’s called life! But that doesn’t mean that we necessarily find the idea of death easy. When I was a little boy I was terrified at the thought of death. I l...

READ: Psalm 23:1 NLT The Lord is my Shepherd. I will have everything I need. When I was a student minister I was given responsibility for a wonderful little Baptist church in rural Oxfordshire. It had eight members and the largest congregation I ever saw was 19. It was a great experience and the church secretary was a shepherd, by occupation. He loved to talk about his sheep and helped me to under...

READ: Mark 6:37 NLT Jesus said to his disciples, “You feed them.” “With what?” they asked. “We’d have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people!” “How much bread do you have?” he asked. “Go and find out.” They came back and reported, “We have five loaves of bread and two fish.” Jesus’ disciples were on a very steep learning curve on this particular day. The day began...