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Humor is one of God’s good gifts.

A shared laugh can strengthen friendships, lighten a difficult day, and remind us not to take ourselves too seriously. Some of my favorite memories with family and friends are filled with laughter.

But Proverbs reminds us that not everything said in jest is harmless.

Have you ever heard someone make a cutting remark, only to follow it with,

“Relax. I was only joking”?

Perhaps you’ve even said it yourself.

Sometimes those words are offered because the joke simply didn’t land. More often, though, they’re an attempt to escape responsibility for something that really did hurt another person.

Proverbs paints a vivid picture. A man recklessly throwing flaming torches and arrows would leave destruction wherever they landed. It would make little difference if, afterward, he claimed he hadn’t meant any harm.

The damage would already be done.

Our words can work the same way.

Sarcasm can become a way of expressing anger without admitting we’re angry. Teasing can cross the line from playful to hurtful. Humor can become a disguise for criticism that we wouldn’t dare express directly.

That’s why wisdom asks more than,

“Did people laugh?”

It also asks,

“Did my words build others up, or tear them down?”

One of the things I find very disappointing is how so many sitcoms, especially sitcoms for kids, is mostly just sarcasm and insults dressed up as humor. Kids pick up on that and soon their language is laced with insults and stinging sarcasm.

That doesn’t mean Christians should never joke or enjoy playful conversation. Joy and laughter are part of God’s good gifts. But wisdom reminds us that love should shape even our sense of humor.

The Apostle Paul encourages believers to speak

“only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29).

That principle applies whether we’re speaking seriously or laughing together. If you realize today that your words have wounded someone, don’t hide behind, “I was only joking.”

Instead, do something much wiser.

“I’m sorry.”

Own it.

Apologize.

Seek forgiveness.

That kind of humility does far more to strengthen a relationship than pretending no harm was done.

Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for the gift of laughter and the joy You bring into our lives. Forgive me for the times I have used humor carelessly or hidden hurtful words behind a joke. Help me to speak in ways that encourage rather than wound. Give me humility to admit when I have caused pain and courage to seek forgiveness. May my conversations reflect both truth and love, bringing grace to those who hear them.

Amen.

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

• Your family
• Your local church
• Your pastor
• Some of your fellow church members
• The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
• Your country and her leaders
• Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.

The Third Article (Part 2 – The Church and Forgiveness)

Why does the church exist?

When people hear the word church, they often think of a building. Others think of an organization, a denomination, or a worship service on Sunday morning.

But the Creed points us to something much deeper.

“I believe in the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins…”

Notice how closely those ideas are connected.

The Church is the people whom God has called together through the Gospel. It is the family of believers gathered around Christ and His gifts. Wherever God’s Word is preached and His Sacraments are administered according to Christ’s institution, there the Church is found.

That means the Church is not held together by personalities, traditions, or preferences.

It is held together by Jesus.

The first Christians devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. They gathered because they knew where Christ had promised to meet them.

Sometimes people say,

“I can believe in Jesus without the Church.”

There is some truth in that. Faith is in Christ, not in a building or a group. But the New Testament never pictures the Christian life as a solitary journey.

Think about a campfire.

A single log pulled away from the fire may burn brightly for a few moments, but eventually it cools and goes out. Put it back with the others, and the fire burns stronger.

God did not intend His children to live the Christian life alone.

• We need to hear His Word together.
• We need the encouragement of fellow believers.
• We need brothers and sisters who pray for us, remind us of God’s promises, and point us back to Christ when we wander.

Most of all, we need the forgiveness of sins.

Notice that the Creed doesn’t say, “I believe I once received forgiveness.”

It simply says,

“the forgiveness of sins.”

Forgiveness is not just the doorway into the Christian life. It is the atmosphere in which Christians live every day.

Each week, we confess our sins and hear Christ’s absolution. We receive His body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins. We are continually reminded that our standing before God rests not on our performance, but on His mercy.

The Church is not a gathering of people who have it all together.

It is a gathering of forgiven sinners.

• People who still struggle.
• People who still fail.
• People who return again and again to the same Savior.

And every time they do, they hear the same wonderful promise:

Your sins are forgiven.

Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for gathering me into Your Church through the Gospel. Thank You for brothers and sisters in Christ who encourage me in the faith. Above all, thank You for the forgiveness of my sins through Jesus. Keep me faithful to Your Word and Your gifts until the day I join all Your saints in eternal life.

Amen.

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

• Your family
• Your local church
• Your pastor
• Some of your fellow church members
• The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
• Your country and her leaders
• Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.

How long can you go without a drink? 1 hour, 3, a day?

Three days.

That’s how long Israel traveled through the wilderness without finding water. You can imagine how thirsty they were. When they finally came to a spring at Marah, their relief quickly turned to disappointment. The water was bitter and undrinkable.

Their hopes had risen…and then come crashing back down.

Once again, the people grumbled against Moses. Once again, it seemed as though God had led them into an impossible situation.

But God had not abandoned them.

The Lord showed Moses a piece of wood. When he threw it into the water, the bitter water became sweet.

Then God declared,

“I am the Lord, your healer.”

At first, that title might seem out of place. After all, this story is about water, not sickness.

But God is revealing something.

He is not merely the One who fixes isolated problems. He is the One who restores what sin has broken.

In a fallen world, bitterness takes many forms.

• Physical illness.
• Grief after the loss of someone we love.
• A relationship that has grown strained.
• Disappointment, regret, or a burden we’ve carried for years.

We long for healing, and rightly so.

Yet God’s healing does not always come in the way or on the timetable we expect.

Sometimes He heals quickly, sometimes gradually through people, medicine, and time. Sometimes He gives strength to endure while we wait, and sometimes He heals by bringing the person home to be with Him.

And sometimes the healing we most need is not physical at all, but spiritual.

The greatest disease humanity faces is sin. Left untreated, it separates us from God and ends in death…eternal death. That is why Jesus came—not only to heal bodies, but to forgive sins, restore us to our heavenly Father, and bring us into eternal life with Him.

Every miracle of healing in Scripture points toward that greater restoration.

One day, when Christ returns,

• Every wound will be healed.
• Every tear will be wiped away.
• Every effect of sin will be undone forever.

Until then, we continue to pray for healing with confidence, knowing that however God answers, He remains the Lord our healer.

He has not forgotten you.

He is still at work.

And in Christ, your complete healing is already promised.

Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father,

You know every burden I carry and every place where my life feels broken. Thank You for caring about both my body and my soul. Grant healing according to Your good and gracious will, and when healing seems delayed, give me faith to trust Your wisdom and Your love. Above all, thank You for the forgiveness and new life You have given me through Jesus Christ.

Amen.

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

• Your family
• Your local church
• Your pastor
• Some of your fellow church members
• The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
• Your country and her leaders
• Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.

There are invisible lines that people naturally draw.

Some divide people by nationality or culture. Others divide them by social status, education, politics, or religion. We decide who belongs and who does not.

In Jesus’ day, one of the strongest divisions was between Jews and Gentiles.

That makes this encounter with the Syrophoenician woman so surprising.

She is not an Israelite. She has no claim on God’s covenant promises. Yet she comes to Jesus with one request: that He would cast a demon out of her daughter.

At first, Jesus’ response seems unexpected. He speaks about the children being fed first before the dogs.

Rather than turning away, the woman responds with remarkable humility and confidence. She does not argue that she deserves anything. Instead, she simply trusts that even the smallest overflow of Jesus’ mercy is enough.

“Yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

Her faith is not in herself. Her faith is in Jesus.

And Jesus grants her request.

This account reminds us that God’s saving work was never meant to stop with one nation.

Jesus came first to Israel, fulfilling God’s promises to His people. But through Him, those promises would extend to the whole world.

That includes people like this Gentile woman.

And it includes us.

None of us comes to Jesus because we deserve His mercy. We come because He is merciful.

Mark then records another healing.

A man who is deaf and has a speech impediment is brought to Jesus. Taking the man aside from the crowd, Jesus touches him, looks up to heaven, sighs, and says, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened.”

Immediately the man’s ears are opened and his tongue is loosened.

This miracle reveals something beautiful about Jesus.

He is not hurried or detached. He deals with this man personally and compassionately, understands exactly what is needed, and He gives His full attention to someone the rest of society may have overlooked.

Both accounts reveal the heart of Jesus’ ministry.

His mercy reaches farther than people expect.

• It crosses ethnic boundaries.
• It reaches forgotten people.
• It is offered to those who know they have nothing to offer in return.

That is still the nature of the Gospel.

Jesus does not invite us because we have earned a place at His table, belong to a certain group of people, or come from certain parents. He invites us because His mercy is greater than our need.

And everyone who comes to Him in faith finds that His grace is enough.

Let’s pray…

Lord Jesus,

Thank You that Your mercy reaches people from every nation, background, and circumstance. Keep me from trusting in my own worthiness, and teach me to rest entirely in Your grace. Open my ears to hear Your Word and my heart to receive it with faith. May I also see others as you do and freely share the Good News of your mercy to everyone.

Amen.

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

• Your family
• Your local church
• Your pastor
• Some of your fellow church members
• The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
• Your country and her leaders
• Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.

How do you know something is good?

You can read reviews before buying a product or ask friends for recommendations before trying a new restaurant. You can watch videos of someone visiting a place before planning your own trip.

But eventually, there comes a point when you have to experience it for yourself.

David writes,

“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.”

Those words come from someone who had learned that lesson firsthand.

Psalm 34 was written after David escaped from the Philistine king Achish. Fearing for his life, David pretended to be insane, and the king dismissed him instead of killing him. Looking back, David didn’t credit his own cleverness for his escape. He gave thanks to God for His deliverance.

David had tasted God’s goodness.

That doesn’t mean his life had become easy. He was still running from Saul. He still faced uncertainty. There would be many more difficult days ahead.

But he had learned that God’s goodness is not measured by whether life is free from trouble. In fact, later in the same psalm David writes,

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous.”

Christians sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that if God is good, life should be comfortable. When hardships come, we begin to question either God’s goodness or His presence.

David reached a different conclusion. He experienced both trouble and God’s goodness at the same time.

As Christians, we see that most clearly in Jesus.

On Good Friday, nothing about the cross looked good. It looked like defeat, suffering, and death.

Yet through that very event, God accomplished the greatest good the world has ever known. Through the death and resurrection of His Son, He brought forgiveness, life, and salvation to sinners.

That means we don’t judge God’s goodness only by today’s circumstances.

We judge it by the cross.

There, God has already shown us how deeply He loves us. David invites us to

“taste and see.”

That invitation still stands today.

Spend time in God’s Word. Receive His gifts. Hear His promises. Bring your burdens to Him in prayer. The more you come to know the Lord, the more you discover what David already knew.

The Lord truly is good.

Or what Paul discovered in Romans:

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Romans 8:18

Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for showing me Your goodness in so many ways, especially through the gift of Your Son. Help me to trust You when life is difficult and to remember that Your love for me is certain because of the cross. Draw me closer to You each day through Your Word and Your gracious promises. Keep my eyes on you and the things above knowing what is to come is so much greater than anything we experience now.

Amen.

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

• Your family
• Your local church
• Your pastor
• Some of your fellow church members
• The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
• Your country and her leaders
• Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.

What freedom do we have in Christ?

Freedom is one of those words that everyone likes, but not everyone means the same thing by it.

For some, freedom means having no rules. For others, it means being able to do whatever feels right in the moment. Still others think of freedom as independence—not needing anyone else or answering to anyone else.

The freedom Paul speaks about in Galatians is something entirely different.

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

Paul is writing to Christians who were being told that faith in Jesus was not enough. They believed Christ had died and risen again, but now they were hearing that they also needed to keep parts of the Old Testament ceremonial law in order to be fully accepted by God.

In other words, they were being invited to return to a system where their standing with God depended, at least in part, on what they accomplished.

Paul calls that slavery.

That might seem like a strong word, but he chooses it carefully. Whenever we believe our acceptance before God depends on our performance, we become slaves again. We are never sure whether we have done enough. We are always measuring ourselves, always wondering if God is pleased, always trying to earn what Christ has already won.

That kind of life is exhausting.

The Gospel offers something radically different.

Christ has already fulfilled the Law in your place. He has already borne its curse at the cross. He has already declared you righteous before the Father.

You are free.

That freedom does not mean that sin no longer matters or that God’s commandments have become unimportant. Sin is it’s own kind of slavery as well. Paul will go on to explain that those who belong to Christ are called to walk by the Spirit and to love their neighbors. But those good works no longer flow from fear of condemnation or a desperate attempt to earn God’s favor.

They flow from freedom.

Think of the difference between an employee trying to keep a job and a beloved child helping around the family home. One works because he fears losing his place. The other serves because he already belongs.

That is the difference Christ has made.

You no longer obey because you are trying to become God’s child.

You obey because, through Christ, you already are.

So whenever you find yourself slipping back into the thought that God will love you more if you perform better, or accept you less when you fail, return to Paul’s words.

Christ has set you free.

Live in that freedom.

Not the freedom to live for yourself, but the freedom to live as someone who already knows he is loved, forgiven, and welcomed by God.

Let’s pray…

Lord Jesus,

Thank You for setting me free through Your death and resurrection. Forgive me for the times I try to earn what You have already given or measure my standing with the Father by my own performance.

Help me to stand firm in the freedom You have won for me. Let my obedience flow from gratitude rather than fear, and my service be shaped by a love of my neighbor and the confidence that I already belong to You.

Keep me always trusting in Your finished work and rejoicing in the freedom that is mine in You.

Amen.

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

• Your family
• Your local church
• Your pastor
• Some of your fellow church members
• The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
• Your country and her leaders
• Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.

Are you a good person?

Every now and then you’ll hear someone say,

“I’m basically a good person.”

Perhaps you’ve even said something similar yourself.

Usually what we mean is that we haven’t committed any major crimes. We try to be kind. We work hard. We help people when we can. Compared to the worst examples we can think of, we seem to be doing fairly well.

But Proverbs asks a different question.

“Who can say, ‘I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin?'”

The expected answer is simple:

No one.

That can be difficult to accept because we naturally compare ourselves to other people. We look sideways instead of upward. As long as someone else appears worse than we are, we begin to feel reasonably confident about ourselves.

We also don’t like to think of ourselves as not being a good person. Even those we could consider “bad people” often rationalize their actions to make themselves out to be a good person.

God’s standard, however, is not “better than average.”

It is holiness.

Not merely outward obedience, but purity of heart.

When we honestly examine ourselves, that standard leaves us with nowhere to hide. We remember the words we wish we could take back. The selfish motives behind seemingly good actions. The opportunities to love that we ignored. Even our best days are stained by sin.

That realization is uncomfortable. But it is also the beginning of hope.

As long as we believe we can make ourselves pure, we will keep trying to fix what only God can fix. We will measure ourselves against others, excuse our failures, or convince ourselves that we’re doing well enough.

Proverbs strips away those illusions.

Who can make his own heart pure?

No one.

But what we cannot do for ourselves, God has done for us through Jesus Christ.

Jesus lived the perfectly pure life that we have not lived. He carried our sin to the cross and gave His life in our place. Through faith in Him, our guilt is forgiven, and His righteousness is credited to us. We do not stand before God because we have cleaned up our own hearts. We stand because Christ has cleansed us and made us holy.

That is wonderfully freeing.

We no longer have to pretend. We can confess our sin honestly because we know God’s mercy is greater than our failure.

So today, don’t ask whether you’re better than someone else.

Instead, rejoice that your hope rests in Someone greater than yourself.

Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father,

When I compare myself to others, it is easy to think I am doing well enough. But Your Word shows me the truth about my heart. I cannot make myself pure, and I cannot remove my own sin. Thank You for sending Jesus to do what I could never do. Thank You for His perfect life, His sacrificial death, and His victorious resurrection. Forgive my sins, renew my heart, and help me to live each day in the confidence that my salvation rests not in my goodness, but in Your grace.

Amen.

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

• Your family
• Your local church
• Your pastor
• Some of your fellow church members
• The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
• Your country and her leaders
• Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.

The Third Article (Part 1 – Faith)

If someone asked you, “Why are you a Christian?” how would you answer?

You might say,

“Because I decided to follow Jesus.”

Or,

“Because I believed.”

Those answers sound reasonable. After all, Christians do believe in Jesus, but Luther teaches us to look even deeper.

In his explanation of the Third Article, he writes,

“I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him…”

Those words can be surprising. We naturally think of faith as something we produce. We decide. We choose. We believe.

Yet Scripture paints a different picture.

Jesus says that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws him. Paul writes that no one can confess Jesus as Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

Faith itself is God’s gift.

Imagine someone drowning in the ocean.

A lifeguard dives in, pulls them to shore, and revives them. It would be strange for the rescued person to boast, “I saved myself because I grabbed the lifeguard.”

The lifeguard did the saving. The rescued person simply received it.

That is how God speaks about our salvation.

Spiritually, we were not struggling swimmers. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. Dead people do not revive themselves.

So the Holy Spirit comes through the Gospel. He speaks through God’s Word. He works through Baptism. He creates faith where there was none.

That is wonderfully comforting.

Because if your salvation depended on the strength of your decision, you would always wonder whether you had decided strongly enough.

If it depended on the strength of your faith, you would constantly measure whether your faith was big enough.

Instead, your confidence rests in the Holy Spirit’s work.

• He called you by the Gospel.
• He enlightened you with His gifts.
• He sanctified and kept you in the true faith.

Notice the verbs. The Holy Spirit is the One doing the work.

In fact, throughout the Bible our salvation is described as our be remarkably passive.

• You were saved.
• You were buried with Christ in His death.
• You have been raised to new life.

It must be the work of the Holy Spirit because,

“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” – 1 Corinthians 2:14

And He doesn’t stop at salvation.

The same Spirit who brought you to Christ continues to strengthen your faith every time you hear God’s Word, remember your Baptism, receive the Lord’s Supper, and hear the forgiveness of your sins.

You are not left to keep yourself in the faith by your own strength.

The Spirit who called you is still at work.

And He is faithful.

Let’s pray…

Holy Spirit,

Thank You for calling me to faith through the Gospel. When I am weak, strengthen me. When I doubt, remind me of Your promises. Keep me steadfast in the true faith, and continue Your good work in me until the day I see my Savior face to face.

Amen.

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

• Your family
• Your local church
• Your pastor
• Some of your fellow church members
• The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
• Your country and her leaders
• Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.

Do you have trouble trusting God without a safety net?

It didn’t take long, did it?

Only a short time after God brought Israel safely through the Red Sea, the people began to grumble. They looked back at Egypt with surprising nostalgia. Slavery suddenly seemed preferable to uncertainty because, at least in Egypt, they knew where their next meal was coming from.

The wilderness has a way of exposing what is in the heart.

It wasn’t really bread that Israel lacked.

It was trust.

So God answered and showed Himself as faithful.

The next morning, the ground was covered with a strange, flaky substance. The Israelites looked at it and asked,

“What is it?”

In Hebrew, the question is man hu?—which is where we get the name manna.

God had provided bread from heaven. But notice how He provided it. Not a year’s supply or even enough to have a few days, just in case.

Just enough for today.

Each morning, they gathered what they needed. Each morning, they learned the same lesson again: tomorrow’s bread would come from God.

That lesson wasn’t easy.

We like security. We want full barns, healthy savings accounts, predictable schedules, and guarantees about what lies ahead. There is wisdom in planning, but there is also a temptation to believe that our security ultimately comes from what we have stored up.

God was teaching Israel something important.

God is faithful every day. Life is lived one day at a time, receiving God’s gifts one day at a time.

Jesus echoes this lesson when He teaches us to pray,

“Give us this day our daily bread.”

He doesn’t teach us to pray for next year’s bread. He teaches us to trust our Father today.

Of course, the manna itself was never the greatest gift. It satisfied hunger for a day, but the people would need more tomorrow.

Jesus later points to this miracle and says that He is the true Bread from heaven. Unlike the manna, He gives life that does not perish. He satisfies the deepest hunger of the human heart—the hunger for forgiveness, peace with God, and eternal life.

Every meal reminds us of God’s daily care.

Every day reminds us of our daily dependence.

And every time we hear His Word, we are reminded that our greatest need has already been met in Christ, the Bread of Life.

So don’t let tomorrow’s worries steal today’s peace.

The God who fed His people in the wilderness one day at a time is the same God who will care for you today—and tomorrow, and every day after.

Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for faithfully providing for my daily needs. Forgive me for the times I worry more than I trust. Teach me to receive each day as Your gift and to rest in Your care. Above all, thank You for giving me Jesus, the true Bread of Life, who satisfies my deepest need forever.

Amen.

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

• Your family
• Your local church
• Your pastor
• Some of your fellow church members
• The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
• Your country and her leaders
• Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.

Have you ever noticed how naturally we focus on outward appearances?

We judge success by what people accomplish and evaluate character by what we can see. We often assume that if we can fix outward behavior, we’ve solved the problem.

The religious leaders in this passage thought in much the same way.

They criticize Jesus’ disciples because they are not following the ceremonial traditions surrounding handwashing. These traditions were not God’s commandments but human regulations that had grown up around them. The leaders believed that outward practices made a person clean before God.

Jesus responds with strong words.

He accuses them of honoring God with their lips while their hearts are far from Him. In their zeal to keep human traditions, they had actually set aside God’s Word.

Then Jesus makes a statement that would have shocked His listeners.

“It is not what goes into a person from outside that defiles him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”

Later, He explains what He means.

Evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, greed, envy, pride, deceit—these and many other sins do not come from outside us. They come from within.

Jesus is identifying humanity’s real problem.

Our greatest need is not better habits or better circumstances. It is a new heart.

That truth is not always easy to hear.

We naturally want to believe that our problems are mostly outside of us.

• If only our circumstances changed…
• If only other people acted differently…
• If only society improved…

Jesus lovingly but honestly points us somewhere deeper.

Sin lives in every human heart.

In addition to thinking we can fix our problems because they are external, sometimes we even think we can judge God’s Word and determine what is good and what isn’t. We say things like,

“I don’t think that behavior or belief is bad. It seems fine to me. So, the Bible must be wrong about that.”

But we are in no position to judge God’s Word because our minds, hearts, and emotions are all corrupted by sin.

And because the problem is within us, only someone external to us, Jesus, can provide the solution.

Throughout Mark’s Gospel we have watched Jesus heal diseases, calm storms, cast out demons, and even raise the dead. Here we learn why He came to do all of that.

He came to heal what no physician can heal.

The human heart.

This passage also reminds us why the Gospel is such good news. If our problem were merely external, perhaps we could fix it ourselves. But if the problem is within us, then we need a Savior who can do what we cannot.

That is exactly who Jesus is.

Through His death and resurrection, He not only forgives our sins but also begins the work of making us new. As we continue hearing His Word and receiving His gifts, He is reshaping our hearts to trust Him and to love what is good.

Outward change matters.

But it begins with the inward work of Christ.

Let’s pray…

Lord Jesus,

Thank You for showing me the truth about my heart without leaving me there. Forgive my sins and continue Your work of renewing me through Your Word. Create in me a heart that trusts You and delights in following You.

Amen.

As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:

• Your family
• Your local church
• Your pastor
• Some of your fellow church members
• The people on your B.L.E.S.S. list
• Your country and her leaders
• Your community

After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.