Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

Deuteronomy 31:6 NLT    'So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.'    Have you ever been tempted to run away from life? It can be a seductive thought, appearing to offer instant relief. Why not quit my job, walk out on my relationship or abandon the church? A temporar...

Exodus 6:9 NLT    'So Moses told the people of Israel what the Lord had said, but they refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the brutality of their slavery.'     August is normally the heart of the British summer. Schools are closed and families head off on holiday. The rhythm of life feels slower, the traffic on the roads much lighter and each day feels longer and brighter...

John 14:5-6 NLT    Thomas said: “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”   In an age of uncertainty such as our own, where clear confidence is immediately treated with suspicion, Jesus declares he is the Truth. Of course, we have our understanding of truth today as da...

1 Samuel 16:7 NLT    But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”    What is beauty to you? We don’t agree on what constitutes physical beauty. This reflects God’s own estimation that beauty is more than skin deep: it is located...

Proverbs 29:1-2 NLT   'Whoever stubbornly refuses to accept criticism will suddenly be destroyed beyond recovery. When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked are in power, they groan.'   The word ‘justice’ is often quoted across the media. Single issue causes attract a strong following and generate large income streams. Yet, at times it’s difficult to discover if the w...

2 Chronicles 9:7-8 NLT   'How happy your people must be! What a privilege for your officials to stand here day after day, listening to your wisdom! Praise the Lord your God, who delights in you...'   The search for happiness has been important for thousands of years. The queen of Sheba travelled from her home to visit Solomon, because of his famed wisdom, which she observed produced ‘happiness’ am...

John 14:6-7 NLT   Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!”   We are all selfish beings, and we all know it – whether or not we are believers. We know that, left to itself, our self-centred nature is destructive, but we don’t a...

John 15:7-8 NLT    'But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.'    What do you think is the primary purpose of prayer? There are many opinions on it, but it can only be understood through our relationship with God. My own view is that pra...

John 15:6 NLT    'Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.'   When we arrived at the Oratory, we knew little to nothing about gardening, so we set about learning a new craft. One of the first tasks was to prune the many overgrown trees. We discovered this strengthened the remaining growth and ensured gre...

John 15:5 NLT    'Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.'    Standing along a stretch of dual carriageway near to us are a series of apple trees. Every year we see the blossom, the fruit and finally the harvest: the trees shedding their fruit on the ground. No one gathers it. Initially, I thoug...

John 15:3-4 NLT    'You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.'     Christian discipleship remains something of a mystery. Since I chose to surrender my life to Jesus, I have, in Jesus’ words, been ‘purified by...

John 15:1-2 NLT    'I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.'   Last year I decided to train for my Trinity Certificate in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). I wanted to have something that I might trade with as I grew older...

Psalm 25:10 NLT  'The Lord leads with unfailing love and faithfulness all who keep his covenant and obey his demands.' I find ‘unfailing’ a difficult word to comprehend. Living in Britain, I have grown up confident that the weather that greets me in the morning will have completely changed by lunchtime. I cannot rely upon weather, nor the weather forecaster who advises me on the day ahead. So I’m...

Psalm 25:7 NLT  'Do not remember the rebellious sins of my youth. Remember me in the light of your unfailing love, for you are merciful, O Lord.' Despite not having a particularly colourful past, I often realise I’m mulling over past events. An insistent, inner voice wants to use such memories to prove that I have no right to call myself a disciple; I am a fraud. It can become a significant distra...

Psalm 25:6 NLT  'Remember, O Lord, your compassion and unfailing love, which you have shown from long ages past.' We live in a fast-moving and often brutal world, often forced to live at a pace that leaves us breathless. We easily tire under the weight of life’s competing demands. So many of the prayer requests I receive reflect today’s challenge of affordable rent, employment opportunities and fi...

Psalm 25:4 NLT 'Show me the right path, O Lord; point out the road for me to follow.' I’ve wondered many times what it is I’m here on this earth to do. When younger, I was anxious to realise my potential, assuming there was a particular path I must pursue. I never satisfied this inner demand that I find my calling. I had a low boredom threshold, so once I had accomplished something, I’d want to mo...

Psalm 25:1-2 NLT  'O Lord, I give my life to you. I trust in you, my God! Do not let me be disgraced, or let my enemies rejoice in my defeat.'  Like all idioms, the phrase “to give one’s life to” carries a meaning far deeper than the phrase initially suggests. We often use it when reflecting upon someone’s career: “She gave her life to cancer research.” It is perhaps easier to see the coherence of...

Ruth 1:16 NLT  But Ruth replied, “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.” I have ditched God occasionally, drawn by some distraction that caught my heart. Yet God does not rush to any swift judgement because of my waywardness. Why would he need to, since he knows more about me...

Deuteronomy 31:8 NLT  '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.' I quote this verse far too often, to myself, but also to family and friends. Quoting is easy: confidently living out its content proves exceptionally challenging. When gazing back over my life, I see quite a lot of fear and discourage...

Luke 9:23-24 NLT  Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.” I have spent many hours trying to hang on to my own life. Who doesn’t invest time reflecting on who they really are? The interne...

John 6:26-27 NLT  Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life...” I’m not sure it was easier for those first disciples who’d actually seen and been with Jesus, though we might wonder. Faith is required, regardle...

Matthew 4:18-20 NLT  One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers – Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew…Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed him. What so caught the attention of the first disciples, that they walked away from their jobs and followed Jesus? W...

Psalm 134:1-2 NLT  'Oh, praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, you who serve at night in the house of the Lord. Lift your hands toward the sanctuary, and praise the Lord.' Once I’ve entered my day, time appears to rush by. Pursuing my rhythm of prayer as a contemplative, managing the Oratory, responding to the questions of those seeking advice, life is full. The day makes many demands and...

Psalm 131:2 NLT  'Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk. Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.'  In a noisy world, one of the greatest challenges we face is finding space for ourselves, away from the demands that stalk our every waking moment. The pressures of daily living are intense. Reviewing the many prayer requests th...

Psalm 130:5-6 NLT  'I am counting on the Lord; yes, I am counting on him. I have put my hope in his word. I long for the Lord more than sentries long for the dawn, yes, more than sentries long for the dawn...' What is your first thought, when you wake up? I go into day having offered my first thoughts to God. I have a very simple sequence of three prayers committed to memory.  Someone asked me rec...