Daily Devotionals for August 16, 2026

Few Christians take these words seriously, yet they are as truly the Word of God as John 3:16. They tell us to be satisfied with food and covering. That word "covering" includes a roof over our heads as well as the clothes we wear. In other words, we should be content with the minimum essentials and put everything above that into the work of the Lord.

The man who has contentment has something that money cannot buy. E. Stanley Jones said,...

There are areas in our lives where in our effort to be right we may go wrong, so wrong as to lead to spiritual deformity. To be specific let me name a few: 1. When in our determination to be bold we become brazen. Courage and meekness are compatible qualities: both were found in perfect proportion in Christ and both shone in beauty in His conflict with His enemies. Peter before the Sanhedrin and Paul before Agrippa demonstrated both qualities, though on another occasion when Paul's boldness...

Churches get in ruts only because individuals get in ruts. It is impossible that the church should do anything that individuals do not do. It is impossible that we should make any progress except as made by individuals. It is impossible there should be any regress unless individual Christians go backward. Think about people who find themselves in religious ruts. They discover a number ot things about themselves. They will find that they are getting older but not getting any holier. Time is...

If we have received the grace of God in our hearts, its practical effect has been to make us God's servants. We may be unfaithful servants, we certainly are unprofitable ones, but yet, blessed be his name, we are his servants, wearing his livery, feeding at his table, and obeying his commands. We were once the servants of sin, but he who made us free has now taken us into his family and taught us obedience to his will. We do not serve our Master perfectly, but we would if we could. As we...

For Reading and Meditation:     Ecclesiastes 11:1-2

Solomon';s cynicism almost completely dissolves as we step into these last chapters. If you are like me, you are probably saying to yourself: "And not before time!" He begins this chapter with a well-known saying: "Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will...

The Amen … the Beginning of the creation of God. § The beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I have been established from everlasting, from the beginning, before there was ever an earth … When He prepared the heavens, I was there, when He drew a circle on the face of the deep … when He assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters would not transgress His...

Why should Christians imitate Christ? They should do it for their own sakes. If they desire to be in a healthy state of soul-if they would escape the sickness of sin, and enjoy the vigour of growing grace, let Jesus be their model. For their own happiness' sake, if they would drink wine on the lees, well refined; if they would enjoy holy and happy communion with Jesus; if they would be lifted up above the cares and troubles of this world, let them walk even as he walked. There is nothing...

HE is the great author of your being, and the only proper object of your faith, fear, and worship. Remember the promises He has made, the deliverances He has wrought, the blessings He has conferred, the invitations He has given, and the relations He now fills. Remember Him in calamity, to trust Him; in prosperity, to praise Him; in danger, to call upon Him; in difficulty, to expect His interference. Remember to obey His commands; to attend to His exhortations; to keep His company; to seek...

Abandon the idea that you must recover yourselves from your backslidings and then approach God. Perhaps you think that you could then approach him with some confidence. But does God forget? And will he look complacently upon your mended piety? He will look with just as much disgust upon the patched robe as upon the rent robe. But further you ought to know better than to entertain such an heretical notion as that you are able to recover yourself from your backsliding. Could you do that you...

Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:1).

Few see and stand upon the fact that our history in Adam ended on the Cross. Our past will plague us until we acknowledge that we are now clear of Adam and safely hidden in the risen Lord Jesus - newly-born creations in Him. One of the penalties of...

Matthew 27:33-50

You … as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house. § Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. § Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own. For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. § What agreement...

"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." Proverbs 28:13

Here is the way of mercy for a guilty and repenting sinner. He must cease from the habit of covering sin. This is attempted by falsehood, which denies sin; by hypocrisy, which conceals it; by boasting, which justifies it; and by loud profession, which tries to make amends for it.

The sinner's business is...