Daily Devotionals for October 2, 2026

The Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort" (2 Cor. 1:3).

Affliction provides opportunity for us to learn more of our Father in His mercy, as well as providing a deeper understanding of what others may be called upon to go through.

"Many saints have been happy to assert that they would not have missed for...

Because we are Christians who believe the inspired Word of God and because we believe that the Holy Spirit is the abiding third person of the Trinity, there should be more divine authority in our preaching ministries. A preacher of this gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ should have the authority of God upon him, so that he makes the people responsible to listen to him. When they will not listen to him, they are accountable to God for turning away from the divine Word. A preacher under God's...

"And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." Genesis 50:24

Joseph had been an incarnate providence to his brethren. All our Josephs die, and a thousand comforts die with them. Egypt was never the same to Israel after Joseph was dead, nor can the world again be to some of us what it was when our beloved...

If the love of a woman to her slain sons could make her prolong her mournful vigil for so long a period, shall we weary of considering the sufferings of our blessed Lord? She drove away the birds of prey, and shall not we chase from our meditations those worldly and sinful thoughts which defile both our minds and the sacred themes upon which we are occupied? Away, ye birds of evil wing! Leave ye the sacrifice alone! She bore the heats of summer, the night dews and the rains, unsheltered and...

For Reading and Meditation:     Ecclesiastes 1:12-18

We said yesterday that one of the reasons why Solomon uses so many vivid illustrations is to break through our defensive attempts to avoid reality. It was T. S. Eliot who said that "humankind cannot bear very much reality." Psychologists warn that we should be careful about stripping away people's defenses, as...

Seek to sound the depths of the meaning of this word, draw near. Examine the supplications of a thousand suppliants, and they will show these suppliants scattered at a thousand different distances from God, but almost all at a great distance, and out of the whole perhaps only one dose to the throne of grace.

There is much to hinder this drawing near. There is the inherited habit of unbelieving prayer. The supineness of the soul. Worldly care. Worldly joy. Inappreciation of the...

. . . Everybody knows just what will happen, and this has become our deadliest enemy. We blame the devil, the "last days" and anything else we can think of, but the greatest enemy is not outside of us. It is within--it is an attitude of accepting things as they are. We believe that what was must always determine what will be, and as a result we are not growing in expectation. As soon as someone begins talking like this, the Lord's people respond by getting busy. What I am talking about,...

Pilate delivered our Lord to the lictors to be scourged. The Roman scourge was a most dreadful instrument of torture. It was made of the sinews of oxen, and sharp bones were inter-twisted every here and there among the sinews; so that every time the lash came down these pieces of bone inflicted fearful laceration, and tore off the flesh from the bone. The Saviour was, no doubt, bound to the column, and thus beaten. He had been beaten before; but this of the Roman lictors was probably the...

Acts 6:1-8 Acts 7:54 to Acts 8:2

Stephen is one of the most interesting characters in the New Testament. His story is short - but intense. His work belongs to a few days, and he makes but one speech - but his influence belongs to all after...

As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. § “In those days and in that time,” says the Lord, “the iniquity of Israel shall be sought, but there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found; for I will pardon those whom I preserve.” § You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. § Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity?All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the...

God warned His people Israel against any dabbling in the world of the occult. All the activities listed in today's verses are connected with demonism and must therefore be avoided. The warning is just as applicable to believers today as it was in the Old Testament.

Divination is fortune-telling. It includes the use of the crystal ball, clairvoyance, palmreading, phrenology, reading tea cups, and every other similar effort to foretell the future.

An observer of times is an...

He gives grace to form the character; gifts to fit for usefulness; wisdom to choose the course; strength to do His will; supplies to complete the design; faith to trust His word; patience to persevere and wait His time; and success to crown our efforts. The result of His thus blessing us is, we are a blessing to others; to sinners and to saints.

We are a blessing by the spirit we breathe, if it is meek, gentle, and lovely; by the example we set, if it is an imitation of Jesus; by our...

By the grace of God I am what I am. § Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth. § It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. § Where is boasting then? It is excluded. § Christ Jesus … became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption … “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”You He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world,...