Daily Devotionals for August 22, 2026

There are some whose cry in the day of trouble God will not hear; those, namely, who, in the day of their prosperity, heard not the cry of the poor and stretched forth no helping hand to the afflicted, and thus gave good evidence that they had no ear for the voice of God. For in the guise of a poor man Christ stood at their door, time and again, knocking and asking for admittance; but they would not hear. In the day of their calamity, he will not hear their cry. To whom then is this promise...

There has emerged lately in American Christianity a school of religious thought conceived in intellectual pride and dedicated to the proposition that everything of value in the Christian faith can be reduced to philosophical terms and understood by the human mind. The notion seems to be that anything God can utter we can comprehend, allowing possibly for the need of a little divine aid with the heavier stuff.

The brethren who are promoting this movement seem to feel that the trouble...

Our God's tender love for his servants makes him concerned for the state of their inward feelings. He desires them to be of good courage. Some esteem it a small thing for a believer to be vexed with doubts and fears, but God thinks not so. From this text it is plain that our Master would not have us entangled with fears. He would have us without carefulness, without doubt, without cowardice. Our Master does not think so lightly of our unbelief as we do. When we are desponding we are subject...

I go back often to Genesis 24 for the illustration and the figure in the Old Testament reminding us of the adornments of grace and beauty that will mark the believing Body of Christ. Abraham sent his trusted servant to his former homeland to select a bride for Isaac. The adornment of Rebekah's beauty consisted of jewels and the raiment that came as gifts of love from the bridegroom whom she had not yet seen. It is a reminder of what God is doing in...

Indeed a greater than Solomon is here. § Prince of Peace.Scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. § Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man,...

My son, do not think lightly of the Lord's discipline, and do not faint when he corrects you" (Heb. 12:6, Wey.).

Most of us sought to avoid our natural father's discipline, when he sought to administer it. And most of us seek to avoid our heavenly Father's discipline, until we finally learn that "He does it for our certain good, in order that we may...

John 3:1-15

Nicodemus is well-known. His story has often been told. We study here, the beginning of his Christian life. It is the fashion to speak slightingly of his coming to Jesus by night. It is sometimes said that it was cowardly. But this may not be a fair criticism. Night may have been the best time for him to make his visit. It may have been the...

It is well there is One who is ever the same, and who is ever with us. It is well there is one stable rock amidst the billows of the sea of life. O my soul, set not thine affections upon rusting, moth-eaten, decaying treasures, but set thine heart upon him who abides for ever faithful to thee. Build not thine house upon the moving quicksands of a deceitful world, but found thy hopes upon this rock, which, amid descending rain and roaring floods, shall stand immovably secure. My soul, I...

If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. § Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being. § You were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall...

For Reading and Meditation:     Ecclesiastes 9:13-18

Solomon addresses avoiding getting caught in the rat race by putting it in a story. Imagine, he says, a small city with only a few people in it. Suddenly an invading army surrounds the city and besieges it. Inside it is a wise but poor man who comes up with an idea that saves the city. When the city was saved,...

WHAT a comfortable promise is this to the poor, weak, and timid Christian; he has not attained to a state of assurance, but he is seeking the Lord, and here his God promises him that he shall not want any good thing. He feels that he has no good thing in him, finds he can do no good thing of himself, fears that good will never be enjoyed by him; but his God assures him, no good thing shall be withheld from him. His God will pardon his sin, justify his person, strengthen his soul, supply his...

One of the much-loved hymns for children says, "I think when I read that sweet story of old,/ When Jesus was here among men,/ How He called little children as lambs to His fold,/ I should like to have been with Him then." Probably most of us have shared that sentimental desire at one time or another. We think how nice it would have been to enjoy the personal companionship of the Son of God during His earthly ministry.

But what we should realize is that it is better to know Him today,...

"Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain." Psalms 76:10

Wicked men will be wrathful. Their anger we must endure as the badge of our calling, the token of our separation from them: if we were of the world, the world would love its own. Our comfort is that the wrath of man shall be made to redound to the glory of God. When in their wrath the wicked crucified the Son of God they were...