Daily Devotionals for July 21, 2026

BY nature we are without Christ and are far from Him; by grace we accept His invitation, and come to Him feeling our need of Him. We are brought to see that nothing but union to Jesus can make us safe and happy; and to give up ourselves to Him, praying to be one in Him; He receives us, sheds abroad His love in our heart, and we become members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. He then bids us abide in Him, which we do by living in absolute dependence upon Him; by cleaving to Him in...

It is possible to live a long, long life as a believer and yet never learn to cast our care on the Lord. We can memorize the verse and even preach it to others, yet never really practice it in our own lives. We know theologically that God cares for us, that He is concerned with our affairs, and that He is well able to take care of the greatest anxieties we could imagine. Yet we insist on tossing and turning in our beds at night, fretting, worrying and imagining the worst.

It doesn't...

Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus" (Heb. 10:19).

Personal knowledge of and fellowship with our risen Lord Jesus is counter-balanced by personal knowledge of and fellowship in the death of the Cross. The principle of balance prevents our slipping past the Cross...

The apostle uses the perfect tense and says, "Who hath saved us." Believers in Christ Jesus are saved. They are not looked upon as persons who are in a hopeful state, and may ultimately be saved, but they are already saved. Salvation is not a blessing to be enjoyed upon the dying bed, and to be sung of in a future state above, but a matter to be obtained, received, promised, and enjoyed now. The Christian is perfectly saved in God's purpose; God has ordained him unto salvation, and that...

Whatever constitutes, in our opinion, our chief ground of distinction, that is the thing in which we glory. Like the fabled jewel in the toad, so there is in almost every man, if we may believe him, a very wonderful jewel. He finds it in himself; though with respect to others the whole thing is a fable. But even if there were this diamond in a man's nature, the presence of self-esteem would turn it to carbon again. To pride yourself on any good is to lose that good. Virtue comes to you, not...

Read your New Testament again and you will agree that mediocrity in the Christian life is not the highest that Jesus offers. Certainly God is not honored by our arrested spiritual development - our permanent half-way spiritual condition. We all know that the Bible tells us that we honor God by going on to full maturity in Christ! Why, then, do we settle for those little pleasures that tickle the saintlets and charm the fancy of the carnal" It is because we once heard a call to take up the...

It is well frequently to weigh ourselves in the scale of God's Word. You will find it a holy exercise to read some psalm of David, and, as you meditate upon each verse, to ask yourself, "Can I say this? Have I felt as David felt? Has my heart ever been broken on account of sin, as his was when he penned his penitential psalms? Has my soul been full of true confidence in the hour of difficulty as his was when he sang of God's mercies in the cave of Adullam, or in the holds of Engedi? Do I...

This is hard for people to face up to. Religion deteriorates just as fruit rots and just as people get old in spite of all they try to do at the drug stores. It is inevitable that we get old, and so it is with religion. It is built-in that we start to deteriorate shortly after God comes and blesses us. Look what happened to Israel. God called Israel out of Egypt, and it began to deteriorate before it reached the Red Sea. Then He gave it a revival by taking it through the Red Sea and into the...

For Reading and Meditation:     Ruth 2:22-23

Ruth continues to glean in the field of Boaz, secure in the knowledge that when the barley harvest is over she will be able to stay on and participate in the wheat harvest as well. Naomi is equally elated as she senses that Ruth's meeting with Boaz is no accident, but part of God's wonderful provision and care. One can...

"And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." Daniel 12:3

Here is something to wake me up. This is worth living for. To be wise is a noble thing in itself: in this place it refers to a divine wisdom which only the LORD Himself can bestow. Oh, to know myself, my God, my Savior! May I be so divinely taught that lmay carry into practice...

Matthew 13:1-9; Matthew 18-23

Jesus was always teaching. On this particular day His pulpit was a fishing boat, from which He spoke to the multitudes standing on the shore. Perhaps there was a sower somewhere in sight, walking on his field, carrying his bag of grain and slinging his seed broadcast. The sight may have suggested the parable.

The Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” § The bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life … He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood...

Much in every way! § Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts. § If their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt—then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember.Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers. § In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands,...