Apr 21 2025

Today's Bible Verse

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Today's Bible study

In this morning's verse from Romans, Paul says that the Lord can fill us up with joy, peace, and hope. If you think about your relationship with the Lord today, would you say that it's a source of these things above all else? Today, we'll dig into the verse and see how we can experience joy, peace, and hope in our relationship with the Lord.

The verse indicates that God is the source of our joy. While we likely have successes or other reasons to enjoy our lives, our most important source of joy is knowing God. Knowing the Lord brings us joy because He is good to us in so many ways. He tenderly guides us through life, He sees us through every hurt, and He loves us more than we could ever possibly comprehend. If we feel discouraged, we can reflect on the character of God and be strengthened.

The Lord also gives us peace. We can have this peace because He has promised us many good things. We know, for instance, that we will spend eternity with God. Nothing and no one can take away our salvation; and while our present lives are short, eternity lasts forever. We know that nothing can happen in our lives that will go against either God's sovereignty or His goodness—and we can have peace because He is always faithful.

Knowing this about the Lord gives us hope. Indeed, Paul calls God "the God of hope," which means we do not serve an indifferent God—He cares deeply about our future. Because He is good and loves us so deeply, we do not have to be afraid about what will happen when we die. Nothing that happens will diminish the myriad of reasons that we have for hope in the Lord today and forever.

Today's Prayer

Dear Lord, thank you for the joy and peace that you offer me. Thank you for your sweet goodness and mercy. Help me abound in hope in every circumstance, knowing that in Jesus I am saved. In Jesus' name, amen.

Apr 20 2025

Yesterday's Bible Verse

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. :

Yesterday's Bible study

Today's verse comes from the Final Discourse: the last message that Jesus gave His disciples before the crucifixion. When He said today's verse, Jesus knew that He was about to lay down His life for His disciples. He was about to live out what He instructed them to do. When He went to the cross and died an innocent death, He was thinking of you and me. We could not have had a relationship with God with sin in our lives, and there was no way for us to atone for our sin. Jesus made both possible: His death wiped out our sin and made our relationship with God possible because it paid the price in full.

Jesus' resurrection, which we celebrate, was the final victory over sin and death. Because of what He did for us, we are no longer enslaved by sin and we have the promise of eternal life with God.

We can live in light of it every day. When we begin to feel discouraged or upset, we can remember that the greatest victory of all time happened on a cross more than two thousand years ago… and we are the unmerited, deeply blessed beneficiaries of it today and for all eternity.

Yesterday's Prayer

Dear Lord, we celebrate the priceless gift of Jesus' resurrection. We may not be worthy of the life that Jesus has made possible, but you have blessed us with it anyway. We are so grateful for that, and for all that you do for us. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.

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