2026-06-01
Acts 6:4 NKJV
In her book 30 Days to a Stronger, More Confident You, author Deborah Smith Pegues uses the word “pray” as an acronym: “Pause. I stop all activity and focus completely on God. Worship is total preoccupation… The greatest honour and respect we can give to anyone is our undivided attention…
Reverence. I express my admiration for all His attributes… At this point, distractions start to pop up like dandelions… I will suddenly remember a task I need to put on my to-do list. I have learned to jot down the task in my journal and ignore the other issues for what they are – mere distractions that can be dealt with later. I have also learned that praying audibly helps to minimize wandering thoughts…
Ask. I ask for forgiveness for my sins, making every effort to be specific. I pray for the power to live a Christian life and ask God to give me a passion for His Word and for prayer. I ask for His will to be done in every aspect of my life: spiritually, physically, financially, relationally, vocationally, and emotionally…
Yield. I must subordinate my requests to God’s sovereign will, trusting that He knows what is best. I strive to maintain a ‘nevertheless’ attitude. Therefore, I am careful to conclude my prayer by saying, ‘Nevertheless, not my will, Lord, but Yours be done’ [see Luke 22-42]… The old adage that it is not what you know but whom you know that gives you the advantage in a situation is true – especially from a spiritual perspective. When we have a relationship with God, we understand that He is sufficient to handle any demand placed upon us.”
Soul food: Amos 1:1-5:17; Matt 14:13-21; Ps 117; Prov 14:9-12
2026-05-31
Matthew 28:20 NKJV
To have a personal relationship with someone, there must be two-way communication. Even the most uncommunicative husband has to grunt every once in a while, or it isn’t a marriage – it’s a monologue. So, the Lord being with you, and you being with the Lord, takes place primarily in your mind.
Two people may occupy the same room, but if one of them is sleeping or engrossed in television, they’re not really with each other. There must be interactive awareness. Now, as human beings, we don’t have “direct access” to each other’s thoughts. We can use words, human touch, or hand gestures to guide another person’s thoughts.
But God is infinite rather than finite, so He is able to guide our thoughts directly. He can speak to us through Scripture or through the words of another person. But He can also plant His thoughts directly in our minds. “We have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16 NKJV). And this can happen anytime, anywhere. So, your mind is your meeting place with God!
There’s much about God speaking to you that’s a mystery. There are no formulas. You cannot control God’s communication with you. You cannot force Him to speak by being more pious or more sincere or by working hard.
Jesus told Nicodemus: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8 NKJV). This much you can be certain of today: God is with you, and He will speak to you if you take the time to listen.
Soul food: Matt 5:3; 2 Sam 7:18-29; Ps 40:17
2026-05-30
Job 33:14-15 KJV
Job the patriarch said: “For God may speak in one way, or in another, yet man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night… while slumbering on their beds, then He opens the ears of men” (Job 33:14-16 NKJV). A dream can be an important message from God or an answer to your prayer. God gave Paul a dream in which a man from Macedonia appeared to him saying, “Come over and help us” (see Acta 16:9). And Paul went there and preached the gospel. Solomon’s reign as king of Israel begins with these words: “In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee” (1 Kings 3:5 KJV). Solomon asked God for great wisdom, and God gave him wisdom, honour, and riches.
Would God still speak to us today in dreams? Yes. He says: “I am the Lord, I change not” (Malachi 3:6 KJV). The Hebrew word for dream is “chalom.” It has five meanings:
(1) “To bind firmly.” This pictures you being wrapped securely in God’s love.
(2) “To be or make plump.” In the Bible, fatness or plumpness is a picture of health, well-being, and prosperity.
(3) “A sense of dumbness.” When God gives you a dream, He is sharing with you information about things of which you are ignorant.
(4) “To be in good liking.” When God gives you a dream, He is showing favour toward you.
(5) “To recover.” When God gives you a dream, He is working on restoring what you have lost. So, ask God for a dream.
Soul food: Lam 3:40-5:22; Matt 14:1-12; Ps 82; Prov 14:5-8
2026-05-29
John 17:26 NIV
Just before He was arrested and taken to the cross, Jesus prayed: “[Father], I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” When it comes to recognizing and responding to God’s presence in our lives, Christian author, John Ortberg, says he lives by these twelve truths:
(1) God is always present and active in my life, whether or not I see Him.
(2) Coming to recognize and experience God’s presence is learned behavior; I can cultivate it.
(3) My task is to meet God in this moment.
(4) I’m always tempted to live “outside” this moment. When I do that, I lose my sense of God’s presence.
(5) Sometimes God seems far away for reasons I don’t understand. Those moments, too, are opportunities to learn.
(6) Whenever I fail, I can always start again right away.
(7) No one knows the full extent to which a human being can experience God’s presence.
(8) My desire for God ebbs and flows, but His desire for me is constant.
(9) Every thought carries a “spiritual charge” that moves me a little closer to or a little further from God.
(10) Every aspect of my life, work, relationships, hobbies, errands – is of interest to God.
(11) My path to experiencing God’s presence will not look quite like someone else’s.
(12) Straining and trying too hard do not help. So, the word for you today is – God is working in you, with you, and through you!
Soul food: Lam 1:1-3:39; Matt 13:47-58; Ps 113; Prov 14:1-4
2026-05-28
Isaiah 58:6 NKJV
God gave His people the following reasons for fasting: “To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke” (v. 6 NKJV). Fasting is one of the best ways to break the power of the flesh. If you can say no to food, you can say no to just about anything. No matter what addiction you struggle with, fasting is the way to break the yoke of bondage. No matter what cause you care about, fasting invites the favour of God. When you abstain from food to seek God, it shows Him you’re serious. And He takes you seriously if the cause honours Him.
Some spiritual breakthroughs are possible only with the combination of prayer and fasting. When you fast and pray, the synergy is more than the sum of its parts. If you feel like your dream is in a holding pattern, try fasting. If your marriage is in trouble and you need things to turn around, try fasting. If your heart is breaking for your kids, try fasting. If you need a breakthrough, try fasting. If you need to make a big decision, try fasting. Fasting breaks strongholds and yields breakthroughs. It’s the way we declare to God that we need Him and want Him more than food itself.
It takes tremendous discipline to give up food, but doing so cultivates discipline in other areas of our lives. The best way to kill sinful desires is by starving them to death. That’s precisely what fasting does. It doesn’t just weaken your physical body; it also weakens your sinful flesh and simultaneously strengthens your spirit.
Soul food: Gal 4-6; Matt 13:36-46; Ps 108; Prov 13:24-25
2026-05-27
John 4:15 NKJV
She lived in Samaria, had been married five times, and was now living with a man who was not her husband. Maybe gossipers wagged their tongues about her. How else would you explain her midday appearance at the well? Other women fill their buckets at sunrise, but this woman opted for noon, preferring the heat of the sun over the heat of their scorn.
Were it not for the appearance of a stranger, her story would have been lost in the Samaritan sands. But He entered her life with a promise of living water that would quench the thirst of her soul. He wasn’t put off by her past. He told her: “‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.’
The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst’… The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, ‘Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?’ Then they went out of the city and came to Him… And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, ‘He told me all that I ever did'” (John 4:13-15, 28-39 NKJV).
No one else was willing to give her a chance, but Jesus gave her the chance of a lifetime. And what He did for her, He will do for you.
Soul food: Gal 1-3; Matt 13:24-35; Ps 101; Prov 13:20-23
