2026-04-20
Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV
The English word for new is the Hebrew word hadas. It doesn’t just mean again and again, as amazing as that would be. It’s new, as in different. It means never before experienced. Today’s mercy is different from yesterday’s mercy, or the day before that, or the day before that! Just as the seasonal flu vaccine changes from year to year, God’s mercy changes from day to day. It’s a new strain of mercy. Why? Because you didn’t sin today the way you did yesterday!
Try this little exercise: figure out how old you are – not in years but in days. Whatever number you come up with isn’t just your age in days; it doubles as the sum total of different kinds of mercy that you have received life-to-date. By the time you are twenty-one, you have experienced 7,665 unique mercies. When you hit midlife, it numbers about 14,600. And by the time you hit retirement, God has shown mercy to you about 23,725 times!
And His mercy for you is a tailored mercy that perfectly fits your sin, your shortcomings, your needs, and your mistakes. His mercy fits like a glove! In Scripture, the word manifold means “multifaceted.” Mercy and grace are not the same thing. Mercy is not getting what you do deserve, and grace is getting what you don’t deserve. The apostle Peter spoke about “the manifold grace of God” (1 Peter 4:10 NKJV). Like snowflakes, God’s grace never crystallizes the same way twice. That’s what makes it so amazing!
Soul food: Acts 10-11; Matt 3:11-17; Ps 103:13-22; Prov 10:30-32
2026-04-19
Jeremiah 31:34 NKJV
The Israelites had celebrated the Passover as a way of commemorating their exodus from Egypt. The evening before the exodus, the Israelites were instructed to sacrifice a lamb without defect and to mark their doorframe with its blood. Then, when the Death Angel passed through Egypt, he would pass over their home.
Little did Jesus’s disciples know that they were eating the Passover meal with the Passover Lamb. Jesus rebooted their understanding of the bread and the cup, explaining that they represented His body and blood. And because of what He accomplished at Calvary’s cross, we come under the protective custody of the blood of the Lamb. Like the Passover, communion is a commemoration of our exodus from slavery. We were slaves to sin, but Christ set us free.
Whenever we go to the Lord’s Table, we make a beeline to the foot of the cross – the place where sin met its match. We remember that our sin is nailed to the cross.
Are you having a hard time forgetting your sins and failures? Does the devil keep reminding you of them? Stand on God’s Word and serve him an eviction notice. In the Old Testament, God said: “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” In the New Testament, God said: “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12 NKJV). Scripture tells us what God does with our sins: “You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19 NKJV).
Soul food: Matt 1:18-21; Acts 3:1-16; Phil 2:9-11
2026-04-18
Hebrews 8:12 NKJV
God forgives and forgets. Amazing, isn’t it? He remembers everything you’ve done right while forgetting everything you’ve done wrong. Yet, while God cannot remember our confessed sin, we have a much harder time forgetting it. We tend to remember our mistakes more readily than our successes. That’s why it’s harder to forgive ourselves than to receive God’s forgiveness. We tend to remember what we should forget while forgetting what we should remember. That inability to forget the sin we’ve confessed is part of our sin nature itself.
The fall fractured the image of God in us, including the amygdala. That’s the part of the brain responsible for storing emotional memories. The strength of the memory is dictated by the strength of the emotion. We quickly forget the moments that don’t make a blip on our emotional radar. Strong emotions, such as shame, take sinful snapshots and poster-size them. They get blown out of proportion in the darkroom of the mind.
Are you struggling to forget what God has forgiven? Read these Scriptures carefully and prayerfully: “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:25 NKJV). “I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, and like a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you” (Isaiah 44:22 NKJV). “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins… I will remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12 NKJV).
God has forgiven and forgotten your sin – it’s time for you to agree with Him and do the same thing.
Soul food: Acts 8-9; Matt 3:1-10; Ps 103:1-12; Prov 10:27-29
2026-04-17
1 John 4:16 NLT
When you fail, God’s love for you does not fail. And to enjoy the fullness of what He wants you to have, you must believe that. The knowledge of God’s love will carry you through to victory when the powers of hell are against you. The knowledge of God’s love will carry you through life’s storms and into a place of peace. God’s love is not restricted to the days when you have performed well. He loves you just as much during the times when you fail.
You need to be confident of His love, especially when you have trials and the devil is accusing you and saying, “Well, you must have done something wrong.” God’s love is not doled out on a merit system. You did nothing to deserve His love; therefore, you can do nothing to forfeit it.
John wrote: “We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect [mature]. So, we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. [We are clothed in Christ’s righteousness.] Such love has no fear, because [God’s] perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced [and embraced] his perfect love” (1 John 4:16-18 NLT).
So be confident of God’s love for you.
Soul food: Acts 6-7; Matt 2:19-23; Ps 130; Prov 10:24-26
2026-04-16
John 8:32 NKJV
If you use a computer, you know what the save button is. To save a created document, you just press the save button. Words on the screen descend into the core of the machine. As long as the words are limited to the screen, they are vulnerable to the irascible cursor. It earns its name. We curse the little monster as it gobbles up our hard work. But once we save it, it is safe.
Question: Are you clicking the save button on Scripture? You save truth when you deliberately allow what you’ve read or heard to become part of who you are. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” As you know (save) truth, the truth frees you from guilt, fear, pride, anger, etc. Saved truth has a shaping, reconfiguring impact on your heart. Only when you allow the truth of Scripture to be the authority in your life will you prove that it works. How do you do this?
Begin with a prayer: “God, please speak to my heart today as I read Your Word.” Then with an open heart, read until a message hits you, and you will receive great rewards. God told Joshua if he did this, He would make his way “prosperous” (see Joshua 1:8). The promise of prosperity includes finances, but it also refers to a wealthy spirit, mind, and body.
God prospers a leader with new skills, a worker with good sleep, a teacher with added patience, a mother with deeper affection, and an elderly person with greater hope. So click the save button!
Soul food: Acts 3:11-5:42; Matt 2:13-18; Ps 75; Prov 10:22-23
2026-04-15
Psalm 119:15 NKJV
Meditation is the most effective way to assimilate God’s Word. David describes the “blessed” man this way: “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:2 NKJV). And whatever you meditate on and memorize, the Holy Spirit will help you recall when you need it. “He will… bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:26 NKJV).
As one of the highest-ranking American captives in Vietnam, Jeremiah Denton was subjected to grueling torture. But he survived, and returned home to become one of Alabama’s United States senators. How did he do it? He says that one of his basic survival skills was quoting passages of Scripture he had memorized. Internalized Scriptures were his unseen sword to fend off the cruelest weapons of the enemy. By inwardly focusing on the power of God to sustain and strengthen him, he was able to rise above his circumstances. Scriptures he had memorized and meditated on years ago became his prayers of deliverance.
When you meditate upon God and His Word, recalling His many promises and acts of faithfulness, your faith grows and your fears dissolve (see Romans 10:17). David understood this well. Many times, in his attempts to escape the wrath of King Saul, he recalled the greatness of God and found himself strengthened. “I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways.” “I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel; my heart also instructs me in the night seasons” (Psalm 16:7 NKJV). Do yourself a big favour: Begin to meditate on God’s Word and memorize it.
Soul food: Acts 1:1-3:10; Matt 2:1-12; Ps 127; Prov 10:19-21
