But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Matthew 1:20-21 ESV

Imagine that you’re assigned to pick who Jesus’ earthly father would be.

• What kind of man would you pick?
• What criteria would you use to decide?
• What characteristics would you look for?

That’d be a big job. Who should raise the Savior of the world?!

Let’s look at Joseph to discern what God was looking for.

Joseph Was a Descendant of King David

First, Jesus’ earthly dad would have to be a descendant of King David.

God promised David that his throne would be “established forever” (2 Samuel 7:16).

This was a signpost pointing to who God’s promised Messiah would be. And Joseph fulfilled this prophecy.

Joseph Was Obedient

Second, Joseph obeyed God—we see this in today’s devotional verses.

Mary turned up pregnant while they were engaged. Meaning they had never slept together.

So of course Joseph would think she was unfaithful! But an angel appeared to Joseph and said: “Marry her and trust she didn’t cheat on you. God is doing something big. Name the child Jesus, he will save Israel from sin.”

Immediately, Joseph obeys. And we’ll see him do this three more times.

“Get Up!”

In Matthew 2:13-15, an angel tells Joseph to “Get up!” and flee to Egypt to protect Jesus from Herod.

In Matthew 2:19-21, an angel says to “Get up!” and go back to Israel because team Herod is dead.

In Matthew 2:22-23, he’s again warned in a dream to flee to Galilee for Jesus’ safety.

Joseph’s qualifications were simple: he was a descendant of David and an obedient, God-fearing man.

Trust and Obey

God still chooses people like this.

Did you know God has prepared good works in advance specifically for you, just like he did for Joseph?

As disciples of Jesus, obedience is our greatest superpower. God knows what we need and when we need it.

Are you resisting the Holy Spirit in an area he’s calling you to obey? Are you overcomplicating what it takes for God to use you?

It’s simple. Trust and obey.

If that was enough for Jesus’ earthly father, it’s enough for you and me, too.

Or maybe that work behind the scenes is less valuable to God?

…and even if you haven’t thought this, you likely know someone who has.

If so, today’s devotion is for you, and will show you:

1. How the Church grows through “off stage” spiritual gifts.
2. How key the people who faithfully serve by meeting the needs of others are.
3. The fruit that comes when all of the Body’s parts work in concert.

Our devotional Bible verses are from Acts 6:5–7. Take the time to read them right now:

And what they said please the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

Acts 6:5–7 ESV

How the Church Grows Through “Off Stage” Spiritual Gifts

When you read the list of names in verse five, I bet you know the first two. Stephen, who became the first martyr, and Philip, who famously led the Ethiopian Eunuch to Jesus in Acts 8.

(And then teleported, btw. Yes, I want that spiritual gift.)

But do you recognize the names that follow?

Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, Nicolaus…

Honestly, I’ve studied the Bible for a long time—and I totally forgot about them. In a way, they were some some of the Church’s first deacons.

In my experience, these are often the people who meet the Church’s needs through selfless acts of quiet service.

And this is what I mean by “off stage” spiritual gifts. They’re the folks with gifts like helps and mercy. They may not have a microphone, but they certainly have an impact.

Look What Happened…

After these servant-leaders were prayed for and commissioned, look what happened in verse seven.

1. “The word of God continued to increase…”
2. “The number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem…”
3. “And a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”

The Holy Spirit moves in incredible ways when the Body of Jesus works in harmony with the spiritual gifts he’s given us. That’s how it was for the New Testament church.

…and that’s how it still is today.

Do you have “off stage” spiritual gifts? Are you embracing them and joyfully serving people? 

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Philippians 1:21 NIV

The church at Philippi was the first one Paul planted in Europe (Acts 16:6–40).

He was their first pastor, and had huge a huge impact on their lives. They loved him, and he loved them.

They were also deeply worried about him.

Why?

He was in prison in Rome, and likely had the penalty of execution looming.

Imagine if your first pastor or spiritual parent was imprisoned and facing death… It would be heart wrenching, wouldn’t it?

It would, and yet, even facing death, Paul assures them his imprisonment is actually a good thing! Because his persecution is advancing the Gospel (Philippians 1:12) in more ways than he can count.

Today is an invitation for us to live like Paul.

“To Live Is Christ”, Not Comfort

So often, I’ve realized my life turns into a pursuit of maximizing my personal comfort.

Paul’s life wasn’t about comfort. His “great expectation” was that Jesus would be glorified in his body either by his life or his death.

For Paul, success in living or in dying was measured by this: do I pursue Jesus' glory above all else?
Share on X

Now, ready for a hard question?

If your life was a movie, what statement would best describe the plot?

“For me, to live is Christ,” or, “For me, to live is comfort”?

Comfort is an idol that wriggles its way into the smallest nooks and crannies in our lives, until it becomes a groundswell that takes over every waking breath.
Share on X

To truly live is not to be maximally comfortable. To truly live is to seek and savor Jesus above everything else this world has to offer.

It is only in Jesus eternal life is found.

Remember Peter and the disciples in John 6?

Jesus had just fed the multitudes with five loaves of bread and two fish. But afterwards, he said some hard things that the people didn’t like, so they left him.

Jesus asked the Twelve: “Do you want to go away as well?”

Peter answered: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

Paul believed “to live is Christ,” because like the Disciples, he knew eternal life is found in Christ alone.

Will you pursue comfort or Christ, today?

A slack hand causes poverty,
but the hand of the diligent makes one rich.

Proverbs 10:4 ESV

Maybe you’re like me and have been lazy a time (or twenty) in your life?

While we all have our moments, today’s verse puts our feet to the fire. It guides us to the mirror of self-reflection. It forces us to ask and answer this question, “Is laziness a regular pattern in my life?”

Now, Proverbs has endless wisdom on the value of hard work. But also has surprise insight about laziness.

The “slack hand” in the first clause is easy to understand on its surface. Being lazy doesn’t help success.

However, there’s a deeper meaning to this word. The Hebrew root means “to desert, abandon, or betray.”

So Solomon is saying that a slack hand misses out on the reward of hard work BY betraying responsibility.

Hard Work in Proverbs (and Genesis 1)

This may sound harsh, but let’s consider the model for work God gave us at creation.

How did the Lord set the foundations of the earth? By wisdom (Proverbs 3:19). And does wisdom have a slack hand? Does wisdom desert or abandon her work before it’s completed? Did God do a half-hearted job creating the universe and everything in it?

No!

What Hard Work Doesn’t Mean

While there is a strong warning against laziness, though, we also must resist taking the lesson too far in the other direction.

Again, if use God’s leadership as an example, did he model unending work? Does he give us a pattern of seven days at the office? Or of checking work emails constantly, even into the late hours of the night? Or holding conference calls and neglecting family time?

No!

On the seventh day God rested.

Here’s the model we learn both in today’s verse and in God’s example of work:

1. When it’s time to work, work.
2. When it’s time to rest, rest.

These are excellent guard rails for me in both work and pursuing my calling. And I hope they are for you, too.

How does this lesson in hard work from Proverbs challenge you most? To work diligently or to rest worshipfully?

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

1 John 2:15–17 ESV

What is the spiritual state of your life?

If you desire the things of the world, here are three things you’ll find dominating your heart:

1. Desires of the flesh: sinful cravings characterized by lust.
2. Desires of the eyes: sinful cravings characterized by greed, envy, and coveting.
3. The pride of life: sinful cravings for the approval of man, fame above all else, and one’s own glory.

First, before you feel condemned—these things exist in my heart. But right now, you and I both have the chance to examine our lives for them.

We can ask the Holy Spirit to scour them out. To banish and starve them. To do this, we learn that he doesn’t simply remove things like this… He progressively replaces them with the “love of the Father.”

God doesn’t leave a void in our hearts—he fills them with himself!

God is eternal, the things of this world are “passing away.”

Love what is eternal above everything else; and that is God himself.

Ask the Holy Spirit to examine your heart today and show you places you have fallen in love with world. Specifically, where are the desires of the flesh, of the eyes, and the pride of life living within you?

Now, let those areas be exchanged for the love of the Father.

(Or maybe you’ve broken an arm, yourself!)

What’s the first thing that happens? He or she cradles the broken limb in pain. And anyone who comes to help is extremely tender and gentle as they help.

Keep this idea in mind as you read today’s devotional verse:

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

Galatians 6:1 ESV

You see, the word “restore” in this verse means to reset a dislocated limb or broken bone. So, Paul is writing about dealing gently and tenderly with brothers and sisters in Christ who fall to sin.

However, when you’re setting a broken bone, you also must be firm, direct, and strong.

The process is called fracture reduction. The doctor’s goal is to get the broken ends of the bones as close together as possible. They must also be aligned.

This way, the bones can grow back quickly and properly.

How To Restore A Brother Or Sister In Christ

This is a perfect metaphor for how to restore a brother or sister in Jesus.

We must be gentle, tender, and understanding. However, we aren’t simply supposed to cradle their broken limb without helping set it back in place.

There is a call to putting away sin—and as God’s family we help one another do so.

Paul also reminds those who are “spiritual” to keep free from pride! Because the treachery of sinful hearts is that the very thing we condemn we often fall guilty of.

Restoring a brother or sister in Jesus is like setting a bone: gentle in diagnosing, firm and biblically aligned in resetting.

Restoring someone in Christ requires both grace and grit.
Share on X

Ask yourself today:

• Am I a gracious person who people can confess sin to without fear I will inflict more damage on them?
• Is there anyone in my faith family caught in sin who needs restored?
• Have I fallen into the same sin I’ve condemned in other people?

When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land…”

(Genesis 15:17–18a)

In the dead of night, while Abram lay somewhere between waking and dreaming, God made a promise that changed the course of history. But promise is too light a word… It doesn’t carry the weight that it does in this event.

In today’s verse, God made a covenant with Abram that showed him how deadly serious he was about making good on his word.

Here’s what was going on.

Just a few verses earlier, God asked Abram to bring, “a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon” (Genesis 15:9).

Then, all the animals except the birds were cut in half (Genesis 15:10) and laid on the ground. There was a path between the bodies and the fire pot and flaming torch floated over it.

Just like at the burning bush (Exodus 3:2), on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 19:18), and on Mt. Carmel (1 Kings 18:16–45), the flames and smoke represent God’s presence.

The Covenant

Now imagine this scene. Orange light from the flaming torch flickers across the animals split in two on either side. The smoldering pot floats between them.

And in this act, God himself is saying: “Abram, if I don’t keep my covenant with you, let what was done to these animals be done to me.”

God’s nature is faithful. His word always comes to pass. He is so serious about keeping his promises he would take such bold action in front of Abram. However, this covenant is kept and fulfilled in the books of Exodus and Joshua.

We know how radical God is about keeping his promises, because he did give up his own life on the cross nearly 2,000 years ago.

The God we serve determines the disciples we will be. Our God is faithful, so we can be faithful as well.

Does God’s seriousness about his promises impact the way you make and keep yours?

Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

Exodus 33:11 ESV

Every year, two my best friends and I have a tradition of staying in a mountain cabin. Our wives are nice enough to take the kiddos and let us hang out in the woods.

One of my favorite things is when we talk late into the night around a fire.

We touch on deep things, funny things, unbelievable things. And there’s an easiness to our conversation because we’re all so genuinely interested in (and invested in) each other’s lives.

We each look forward to this trip for months, and are always bummed when it’s over.

I share this story because of today’s verse. This is how you could describe Moses’s and Joshua’s prayer life! And did you know that it’s available to you too?

In his wonderful book, The Power of Prayer in a Believer’s Life, C. H. Spurgeon wrote of prayer:

It may be stated this way: you have prayed well if you have spoken to God as a man speaks to his friend.

We love being with people we care about. We try to spend as much time with them as possible. And it never feels like “work.”

Our prayer relationship with God can and should have this same quality.

Next time you pray, set your mind right with these ideas (please share them with someone who needs them):

Talk with God like you would a dear friend. Don't simply ask for things, as if God is a cosmic vending machine. Listen.
Share on X

Look forward to prayer time as if you're meeting your best friend. God loves you and has much to say to you.
Share on X

Imagine you're going to coffee with God. What would you want to know about him? What would you ask him? Start your next prayer time with those questions.
Share on X

Just don’t forget to listen!

Pray like Moses and Joshua, today.

Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did
    on the day Jerusalem fell.
“Tear it down,” they cried,
    “tear it down to its foundations!”
Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction,
    happy is the one who repays you
    according to what you have done to us.
Happy is the one who seizes your infants
    and dashes them against the rocks.

Psalm 137:7–9 NIV

Today’s verses end with one of the harshest sentences in the entire Old Testament. And that is saying something.

Can you imagine singing this line as a worship song?

Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.

Such violence and cruelty certainly shouldn’t have a place in Scripture, much less in the Psalms, the first hymn book of God’s people, should it?

Some context will help us make sense of what’s going on here.

You see, Psalm 137 was written either during, or about, when the Israelites were captives in Babylon.

The Psalm begins by describing how they were mocked by the Babylonians and told to “dance” in their sorrow.

Then, we hear about how the Edomites’ rejoiced and encouraged the destruction of Jerusalem.

Imagine the bitterness this writer must feel!

It would be like this…

A foreign power invades your country, ripping you, your family, and your friends from your homes. They destroy your cities and bring you to their country as one of the many conquered people they collect.

You are constantly mocked. Your tears are met with laughter. And many of the people you loved are now dead.

Those people, those mocking legions, are the ones the psalmist hates so much he would write this kind of prayer and worship song to God.

I’m not saying it’s a “good” hope or desire for the writer to have. But there is something profound here.

Here’s the beauty in these ashes: this psalmist shows us that we can open up our darkest, most bitter, and most evil thoughts to God.

We can be completely transparent with God. We don’t have to hide our bitterness, our hatred, or our malice.

These aren’t things we’re used to talking about openly. In fact, sometimes thoughts will pop into our heads that scare us and wish weren’t there.

Understand, though, God already knows the most wicked thoughts you’ve ever had, and he loves you just the same. He proved it on the cross.

You can give your most vile thoughts and desires to God in prayer. You will not be rejected—and better still, he will bring ultimate peace and resolution to them.

Bring your bitterness to God and let the Holy Spirit help you through it.

This produces incredible intimacy, because we only share the deepest, darkest parts of ourselves with the people we trust the most.

Trust God and bring your bitterness to him, asking him to exchange it for peace.
Share on X

Demons don’t seem very scientific. Neither do angels.

These are invisible beings that affect the visible world.

Hard to believe for a lot of us Westerners.

However, here’s the truth…

Demons are real — but so is Jesus' power.
Share on X

Let’s look at an encounter between Jesus and a demon-possessed man.

Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.)

Luke 8:26–29 ESV

What does this mean for us today?

Demons are angels that followed Satan in a rebellion in heaven. This happened before God created humans.

If demons were more powerful than God, they would still be in heaven.

Today’s verses even show us they’re terrified of Jesus, when the demon said, “I beg you, do not torment me.”

Are demons real? Yes. Are they a great threat to Holy Spirit-filled, Jesus-following believers? No!
Share on X

While they battle against us, they lose…

While they resist God’s plans, they lose…

While they try to cause death and destruction, they lose…

7 reasons we shouldn’t fear demons

Here are 7 reasons we shouldn’t fear demons:

1. They unwittingly serve God’s purposes (Judg. 9:23).
2. They were terrified of Christ and the gospel (Matt. 8:29; Mark 1:24; James 2:19).
3. They obeyed Christ (Matt. 8:32).
4. They obeyed the Twelve (Matt. 10:1–8) and the Seventy-Two (Luke 10:17–20).
5. They cannot separate believers in Christ from the love of God (Rom. 8:38).
6. They can be restrained by the Holy Spirit (2 Thess. 2:6; 1 John 4:4).
7. They have been judged already by God (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6) and will be again in the future (Rev. 20:10).

Ultimately, we can follow the way of darkness, or the way of light.

We get to decide which Kingdom we align with every day.

When we're saved by Jesus, we receive new hearts and are baptized with spiritual power (Acts 1:8).
Share on X

This is the power of the cross blazing in our spiritual veins. And it is this power and our testimonies as God’s people that overcome the enemy  (Revelation 12:11).

Be fearless today. We are citizens of heaven.

The reality of demonic forces only highlights the great power of the Living God we serve.
Share on X

For more insight, here is a great explainer of Satan and demons from the folks at The Bible Project.

Today’s devotion by Jordan Loftis. He’s the author of two bestselling books, Today We Win and The Men With Bare Feet, runs The Creator’s Playbook, and  is editor of Short Daily Devotions.