Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion – Details, episodes & analysis

Matthew 10:16 [Jesus said:] “Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves.” When I lived in India, I got used to snakes being a constant threat. Every few months we would hear about deaths caused by snakes in our area, and they understandably generated a good deal of fear. When you live in the presence of snakes, you quickly come to respect their cleverness and shrewdness. Here Jesus invited his disciples to try to be like them. As they headed out on their mission they were going to face fierce opposition. Their opponents were going to do everything possible to stop their work so they would need to find ways to outwit them. They would need to be creative and determined, constantly ready to adapt to new situations. If Jesus had simply told his disciples to model their lives on the shrewdness of snakes they might have got the wrong impression. Snakes have never had a wonderful reputation! They are disliked for their slyness and cunning. Jesus balanced his observations by adding that, at the same time, his disciples needed to be as harmless as doves. Doves immediately give us an image of peace and unity. The disciples needed to be transparently honest in their dealings with people. They needed to have unmixed motives and be known for being utterly straightforward. Jesus was saying that the disciples needed to be like him. Jesus was incredibly wise in the way in which he handled his critics. Time and again they tried to trip him up but with a quiet word, a thoughtful story or a further question, Jesus managed to respond to them with wisdom and grace. However fierce his critics were, he was always the man of peace and, tough as it might be for us when we are challenged, we need to seek to walk on that same path. Question In what ways do you need to be shrewder and more harmless? Prayer Lord God, help me to be humble enough to learn from Jesus’ example. Amen

Matthew 10:8 [Jesus said:] “Give as freely as you have received!” Everything we have ever received has been a gift. Look at your family, home, car, job, friends, education, talents, opportunities – and your very breath – they are all a gift. We like to point to our hard work and effort and suggest that we deserve many of the things that we have, but the truth is that even our ability to work hard is a gift from God. Everything is a gift from his hands. Jesus reminded his newly recruited disciples that they had received freely and so should be willing to give freely to others. He was sending them on an incredibly tough mission. He told them that he was sending them out as sheep among wolves. Wolves are famous for their ability to tear sheep apart. The mission was clearly going to be brutally challenging, but Jesus told his disciples that they should be ready to embark on it because they had received so much. This was now their opportunity to give to others as freely as they had received themselves. When the people generously gave their gifts for the building of the first Temple, King David prayed to God: “But who am I, and who are my people, that we could give anything to you? Everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you first gave us!” (1 Chronicles 29:14). Giving is the natural response for anyone who recognises the generosity of God. I thank God for the people I have known who have lived this out so powerfully. They have always been willing to serve, however difficult the circumstances. Some have worked in creches, others have worked in youth groups, served lunches for the elderly, visited the sick, done gardening work, cleaned their church building and done a thousand other tasks. And they have done these things cheerfully and effectively knowing that this was their response to a God who has always given freely and generously to them. That’s a great way to live a life! What is more, that’s exactly what Jesus invites us to do. Question Are you willing to give as freely as you have received? Prayer Lord God, thank you for your incredible generosity to me. Help me to respond in a way that will glorify you. Amen

Matthew 8:8 The officer said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed.” The officer in question was a Roman Centurion. He was a powerful person in the army that was occupying Israel at the time and was, therefore, much hated by the population who longed to be set free. However, it’s difficult not to warm towards this particular soldier. He approached Jesus because of his concern for his servant. This, in itself, was remarkable because servants were viewed as property and had no legal rights of their own. The fact that the Centurion was concerned about his servant and was going out of his way to seek his healing is impressive. But, more than that, we note his huge respect for Jesus. He didn’t believe that he was worthy to have Jesus visit his home and, in any case, he had such great faith in Jesus’ healing ability he didn’t consider that such a visit would even be necessary. He was sure that all that was needed was for Jesus to pronounce healing for his servant and it would be done. Jesus was amazed by the Roman officer and commented that his faith was beyond anything that he had seen in Israel. The Jews were looking forward to a great banquet at the end of time and Jesus affirmed that there would be plenty of Gentiles who would be sitting down at this great feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And, sadly, there would be many Jews who assumed that their tickets were booked for the banquet, but who would be thrown into outer darkness, where there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus was clear that the doors of the kingdom had been flung open to the world. God welcomes faith wherever he finds it, and we need to do the same. We need to keep our minds and hearts open to celebrate people’s faith and to encourage it to grow. This story tells us that we need to be ready to find it in the most unlikely places. Question In what unlikely places have you found people of faith? Prayer Lord God, I praise you for the gift of faith. Increase my faith and help me to be ready to recognise and encourage it whenever I meet other men and women of faith. Amen

Acts 15:28 “For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay no greater burden on you than these few requirements.” It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of the Council of Jerusalem that we read about in Acts 15. The early Church had hit upon a massive problem and needed to find a way to resolve it. When the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Day of Pentecost, it came upon a huge gathering of Jews and so the first Christians brought with them the richness of their Jewish traditions. However, very quickly, the gospel spread to people from a non-Jewish background. This set up enormous tensions because there were many Christians from a Jewish tradition who believed that non-Jews were welcome to Christian faith on the condition that the men were circumcised and that they all abided by Jewish law. The Council had to work out what to do, and it came to the peaceful and clear conclusion that those from a non-Jewish background did not need to accept all the law. They were simply urged to accept a few limited rules out of sensitivity to those from a Jewish background. In the beautiful words of today’s verse the settlement that they arrived at “seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us”. The Holy Spirit was driving the mission of the early Church so everything that happened needed to be in step with what the Spirit was saying. Merely coming up with a good political compromise was not enough. They needed to know that the Spirit’s breath was inspiring and directing their journey together. That’s a great description of what we need to seek in the Church today. We face huge challenges as we live for God in a society that has long since turned its back on him. As we make decisions together, we need to share in good debate just as they did in the Council of Jerusalem. We need to listen carefully to one another and weigh up the different opinions that are shared. Our continual prayer must be that, at the end of the day, we too will be able to say: “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us”. Question In what current issues do we particularly need to be seeking the Spirit’s guidance? Prayer Lord God, we praise you for the gift of your Holy Spirit and we pray that he will lead us into all truth. Amen

Romans 12.1 NLT

'And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.'

We use the word worship in a wide variety of ways. Sometimes we use it to refer to a church service and at other times we use it for a part of the service which is called “a time of worship” which normally consists of prayers and singing. Here Paul is using the word in a much bigger way. He is talking about us giving our whole lives to God as an act of worship, and he suggests that this is the only fitting response to a God who has done everything for us. Paul has absolutely no thought that we could worship God for a while and then get on with our own life, as if we could divide up life into different compartments. Our whole life needs to be focused on worshipping God.

Paul invited the Christians in Rome to offer their worship to God as a living and holy sacrifice. With Jesus’ death on the cross the ultimate sacrifice had been made, and so there would be no need for the old sacrificial system. However, Jesus made it clear that those who followed him would need to sacrifice their lives. It is clear and unambiguous language. Jesus said to his disciples, “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.” (Matthew 16.25)

Jesus calls us to give up the whole of our lives to him because he wants to transform and bless every part of them. That means that our time working, playing sport, travelling, relaxing with the family and shopping are acts of worship just as much as our times praising God with our Christian brothers and sisters. God wants every aspect of our lives to be touched by his presence.

Question: In what ways is worship important to you?

Prayer: Lord God, I thank you for your amazing generosity to me. Help me to place the whole of this day into your hands so that you can bless everything that I say and do. Amen

Romans 11.33-36 NLT

'Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways! For who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to give him advice? And who has given him so much that he needs to pay it back? For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.'

Paul has spent three chapters agonising over the issue of his people, the Jews. He is desperately keen that they should follow Christ and receive the gift of salvation. But Paul acknowledges with pain that they have, to a large extent, rejected the offer of new life in Jesus. I love the way in which he ends this part of the letter. He does so in worship by celebrating the greatness of God’s riches, wisdom and knowledge. In the previous chapters he has given the best of his mind to setting out the dilemma and his thinking about the situation. But, at the end of the day, he knows how real are the limits of his understanding, and he rests in the fact that God’s ways are infinitely beyond our ways. He uses verses from Isaiah 40 to acknowledge that there will never come a time when we are called upon to give God advice, and no one will ever be able to outgive God.

We all live with many mysteries in this life. However hard we think things through, there will come a time when we have to face up to the fact that we haven’t got the answers. Whether you are wanting to explain the wonders of a sunset, the beauty of a flower, or the miracle of life, you will never arrive at a complete explanation. You will need to come to God in worship because in his greatness he is worthy of all our praise. And the same is true if you reflect on the suffering of innocent people in the world, or the injustices that so many endure or the cruelty that blights so many people’s lives. It is important for us to apply the best of our minds and efforts to these situations, but our thinking must finally lead us to worship a God whose love, mercy and grace are infinitely beyond anything that we could ever achieve.

As you reflect on the wonders, mysteries and challenges of life today be sure to come before God in worship and praise.

Question: For what specific reason are you worshipping God today?

Prayer: Almighty God, I worship you. Amen

Romans 9.2-3 NLT

'My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them.'

These are amazing words. The apostle Paul was proud of his Jewish heritage, and was absolutely passionate that his Jewish brothers and sisters should share in the wonder of knowing Christ as their personal Saviour. But look at the language he used. He was willing to be cursed forever if it meant that the Jewish people could find salvation. This is incredibly strong language and shows very clearly that it meant everything to him. He knew that the Jewish people were in an incredibly privileged position. They had been chosen to be God’s adopted children. God had revealed his glory to them, made covenants with them and given them the law. They had Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as their ancestors and Christ himself was a Jew. They had every advantage and Paul couldn’t cope with the pain of seeing them reject Jesus.

I want to turn Paul’s words into a question to you and me. How desperate are we that our friends and family should find new life in Christ? It looks to me, much of the time, as if we have come to accept things the way they are. Of course, we would be delighted if other people came to believe in Jesus. We would be happy to encourage them to do so. But I rarely meet Paul’s level of passion that other people should become Christians. For Paul, the salvation of his Jewish brothers and sisters meant everything.

I believe that we need to pray that our churches should become far more passionate about sharing the good news of Jesus. Christians are a small minority in our society and that will never change unless we acquire some of Paul’s passionate longing for other people to follow Christ.

Question: What do you learn from Paul’s burning desire to see his Jewish brothers and sisters follow Christ?

Prayer: Loving Father, thank you that you have given me new life in Christ. May the wonder of knowing you give me a constantly deepening desire to see other people become Christians as well. Amen

Romans 8.38-39 NLT

'And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.'

When I lived in India I got to know an elderly missionary who had lived in the area for a very long time. She had asthma and found that the tropical climate was very helpful for her condition so when she retired she stayed in India and continued to have a powerful ministry. Whenever I said goodbye to her, she would come out onto her veranda and wave and she always used the same words. She would say “No separation.” It was an unusual greeting but what she was celebrating was that when we become Christians nothing can separate us from God’s love. Even if we travel away from our Christian brothers and sisters we are always united in his love. Isn’t that wonderful?

Paul has gone to great lengths to spell out how destructive sin is, and one of the terrible things that sin always does is to cause separation. Anger, bitterness, jealousy, resentment, pride and any other sin you care to think of always lead to brokenness and separation. It tears relationships apart. Think about any soap opera and the agony of brokenness is a major theme. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Jesus came in order to offer us a love that is unbreakable. When he died on the cross for us he made it possible for us to have a restored relationship with God which will last for ever, however fierce the opposition.

The future is full of questions and challenges but the person who has committed their life to Christ has nothing to fear. With Paul we can be absolutely convinced that whatever happens in this life, or the one to come, nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ.

Question: How will the knowledge of your security in Christ affect you today?

Prayer: Lord God, I thank you that I can never be separated from you. Amen

Romans 7.24-25 NLT

Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

It’s a great privilege when someone shares their inner struggles. It isn’t easy to talk about the battles that go on in our lives, but here Paul let it all pour out! Here this mature Christian leader and brilliant teacher admitted that, although he wanted to do what was right, he often found himself doing the precise opposite. He recognised that there was a power inside him that encouraged him to be a slave of sin. It was an agonising dilemma and it left him feeling very miserable. But here he celebrated the fact that sin didn’t have to have the last word. And the answer was Jesus. By looking to Jesus and placing his trust in him he could find the liberty that he craved.

The problem with sin is that it keeps knocking at the door of our lives. However long we may have been a Christian it keeps having a go, trying to find a foothold in our thoughts, words and actions. Paul’s astonishingly blunt words remind us that we need to be absolutely honest about ourselves. We can become very good at putting on an act, and trying to make it look as if we’re fine when we know that we are battling with sin in our lives. It isn’t difficult to deceive other people, but we can’t fool ourselves and will never fool God. We need to take a leaf out of Paul’s book and look at ourselves in the mirror.

God is never in the business of humiliating us. As we own up to our sin, and claim his gift of forgiveness, he delights to set us free and to open the door to life.

Question: Are you willing to be totally honest with God today?

Prayer: Lord God our Father, I thank you with everything in me that, through Jesus’ death on the cross, I can be set free from all of my sins. Amen

Romans 5.1 NLT

'Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.'

Everyone will agree that it is desirable to find inner peace. Go along to any book shop and you will find dozens of books that will offer you a quick route to inner tranquility. They will give you a wide range of suggestions from those that encourage you to change your diet, minimise your exposure to conflict or start meditation. None of those things are necessarily wrong but they won’t get to the heart of the problem which is that, as human beings, we fundamentally lack peace because our lives are not right with God. It is only when that relationship is sorted out that we can begin to experience God’s gift of peace. Here Paul celebrates the fact that that is precisely what Jesus has done through dying on the cross.

When we are at peace with God, Paul declares that the door is flung open to all of God’s other blessings. The person who finds peace is introduced to a new attitude to life within which even sufferings are a source of joy. This sounds crazy but Paul discovered for himself that sufferings produced perseverance. If life was always easy we might never learn that. And perseverance produces character. Nothing is more important than to build up a strong Christian character and that happens as we trust God through the twists and turns of life. And, Paul added, character produces hope. That is to say, we can look to the future with confidence because of the presence of God’s Holy Spirit within us.

God’s gift of peace doesn’t offer us a problem-free life. That isn’t the deal. But as we allow the Holy Spirit to shape our lives day by day, we can be confident that God’s peace will be with us whatever storms we face.

Question: What does God’s peace mean to you today?

Prayer: Loving God, I thank you that Jesus died for me and that through his death I can experience peace today and every day. Amen