2026-01-30
1 Samuel 17:37 NKJV
Every experience in our past has prepared us for some future opportunity. God doesn’t redeem only our souls; He also redeems our experiences, both good and bad. He does it by refining our character, developing our gifts, and teaching lessons that we can’t learn any other way.
We learn the most important lessons in the classroom of life through firsthand experience. The tests are challenging, but no curriculum is more effective. And how you pass the test is by growing in character, developing the gift, or learning the lesson God is trying to teach you through that experience. God is at work in your life. He is helping you get ready for your date with destiny. And He is doing it in ways that are practically imperceptible.
David realized that slaying the lion and the bear prepared him to bring down Goliath. And it’s not until you face your biggest challenge that God identifies how, when, and where He prepared you. That’s when you realize that the battle was won long before you stood on the battlefield. It was necessary for Moses to tend sheep for forty years before he could lead the flock of Israel. The disciples had to fish for fish before they could fish for men.
A time of preparation precedes every divine appointment. And if we surrender to the preparation, God will execute His promise. If we don’t, He won’t. This is because God never sets us up to fail. The time you spend in the shadows is preparing you for the time when you will be in the limelight. The time you spend on the sidelines is preparing you to be on the front lines – and win.
Soul food: Num 11-13; Luke 7:1-10; Ps 107:17-22; Prov 3:21-24
2026-01-29
Hebrews 13:16 NKJV
Peter describes the life of Jesus in these words: “Who went about doing good” (Acts 10:38 NKJV). So, becoming more Christlike means looking for opportunities to do good.
An anonymous author wrote: “When people are unreasonable, illogical, self-centred, and arrogant, love them anyway. When people insist that your goodness contains selfish motives, do good anyway. If you are successful, you will win both false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. If you are honest, some will seek to twist your words against you. Be honest anyway. If you do good today, some may forget it by tomorrow. Do good anyway. If you show yourself to be a big person with big ideas, don’t be surprised if you are opposed by small people with small minds. Think big anyway. What you have spent years building, some may seek to destroy overnight. Build anyway.”
President Theodore Roosevelt said: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man [or woman] who points out… where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man [or woman] who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again… who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself [or herself] in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst… at least fails while daring greatly, so that his [or her] place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
So, look for opportunities to do good.
Soul food: Num 8-10; Luke 6:37-49; Ps 107:10-16; Prov 3:19-20
2026-01-28
Job 6:25 NKJV
Here are two stories from history that illustrate how the power of your words can affect others: (1) One day an altar boy was serving the priest at a mass at the country church in his small village. The boy, nervous in his new role, accidentally dropped the cruet of wine. The priest struck him sharply on the cheek. Then in a gruff voice the congregation could hear, he shouted, “Leave the altar and don’t come back!” That boy became Marshall Tito, the Communist dictator who ruled Yugoslavia with cruelty for decades.
(2) One day in a large city cathedral another boy was serving a bishop at Sunday mass. He also accidentally dropped the cruet of wine. The bishop turned to him, but rather than responding in anger, he gently whispered with a warm twinkle in his eyes, “Someday you will be a great priest.” And he was. That boy grew up to become Archbishop Fulton Sheen, whose weekly televised sermons were heard by millions across America each week.
Your words have the power to build up or tear down, enlighten or confuse, bring peace or cause division. The childhood phrase, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me,” simply isn’t true. Your words can hurt. They can wound – sometimes deeply. But they can also build self-esteem, create friendship, give hope, render blessing, and bring healing: “Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones” (Proverbs 16:24 NAS). So, pray like David: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord” (Psalm 19:14 NKJV).
Soul food: Num 7; Luke 6:27-36; Ps 107:1-9; Prov 3:13-18
2026-01-27
Psalm 33:1 NKJV
Of 150 psalms recorded in the Bible, the dominant recurring theme is “praise the Lord!” The book is like a memo from psalmists that says, “Today be sure to praise the Lord.” In Psalm 34, David writes: “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear of it and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together” (Psalm 34:1-3 NKJV).
In Psalm 113:1-3, the psalmist writes: “Praise ye the Lord. Praise, O ye servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and for evermore. From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the Lord’s name is to be praised.” In Psalm 118:24, the psalmist says, “This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”
In Psalm 119:164, the psalmist says, “Seven times a day do I praise thee.” We have coffee and tea breaks; they had praise breaks. Finally we arrive at Psalm 150, the last psalm. In verse 6, the last verse of the last psalm, we are reminded again, “Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.” That means as long as you are alive and breathing, you’re to praise the Lord. So whatever else you do, or fail to do today, be sure to praise the Lord.
Soul food: Num 4:34-6:27; Luke 6:17-26; Ps 104:24-35; Prov 3:11-12
2026-01-26
Acts 5:16 NKJV
Before Jesus left this earth, He told His disciples, “The works that I do [you] will do also” (John 14:12 NKJV). And they did. “Through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done… so that they brought the sick out into the streets… that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them. Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people… and they were all healed” (Acts 5:12, 15-16 NKJV). Someone may say, “Oh, that was only in the beginning of Acts, for the purpose of confirming their word regarding Christ’s resurrection.”
Then let’s turn to the last chapter in the book of Acts and read what was happening in the church thirty years later. “In that region there was an estate of the leading citizen of the island, whose name was Publius, who received us and entertained us courteously for three days. And it happened that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and dysentery. Paul went in to him and prayed, and he laid his hands on him and healed him. So when this was done, the rest of those on the island who had diseases also came and were healed” (Acts 28:7-9 NKJV).
The New Testament church was following one of the last instructions Jesus gave His apostles before returning to heaven: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature… And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name… they will lay lands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16:15, 17-18 NKJV). That means you can pray in faith, and believe God for healing.
Soul food: Num 3:1-4:33; Luke 6:1-16; Ps 104:1-23; Prov 3:9-10
2026-01-25
Zechariah 4:10 NLT
Juan grew up in Puerto Rico, the son of a sugarcane plantation foreman. One of a family of eight, he lived in a three-room shack with a dirt floor and no toilet. His first job, at age six, was driving oxen to plow the cane fields. He worked eight hours a day and earned one dollar. Juan said it was in the cane fields that he learned important lessons like being on time, work hard, and be loyal and respectful to your employers. His job and small income were a great source of self-esteem.
At age seven he got a job at a golf course spotting balls for golfers, and he began to dream of playing golf and earning enough money to buy a bicycle. The more he dreamed, the more he thought, “Why not?” He made a golf club out of a guava limb and a piece of pipe, then hammered an empty tin can into a ball. Next, he dug two small holes in the ground and hit the ball back and forth between them. He practiced his “golf” with the same intensity he put into his job in the cane field, and he got good – very good.
In his thirty-one years as a pro golfer, Juan “Chi Chi” RodrÃguez won eight PGA tour events and twenty-four major tournaments, and he was the first Puerto Rican to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. What can we learn from him? Two things: (1) Be willing to start small. The Bible says, “Do not despise… small beginnings.” (2) Be willing to think big because you serve a big God (See Ephesians 3:20).
Soul food: Gal 5:22-23; Ps 37:7; Pro 16:32; Eph 4:2
