January 21, 2025 

READ: 1 Peter 4:12-19 

The two men conquered human flight, but the Wright brothers’ journey to success was never easy. Despite countless failures, ridicule, money woes, and serious injury to one of them, the brothers weren’t stopped by the trials they faced. As Orville Wright observed, “No bird soars in a calm.” The idea, according to biographer David McCullough, means that adversity can “often be exactly what you need to give you a lift higher.” Said McCullough, “Their joy was not getting to the top of the mountain. Their joy was climbing the mountain.”

The apostle Peter taught a similar spiritual principle to the persecuted early church. He told them, “Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you” (1 Peter 4:12). This wasn’t a denial of suffering’s pain. Peter knew that hope in Christ grows our trust in God.

This is especially true when we suffer for being a believer in Jesus, as those early Christians did. Peter wrote to them, “Rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed” (v. 13). He went on, “If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you” (v. 14).

As the Wright brothers’ character was hailed by their biographer, may others see God’s loving character at work in us. He uses our adversity to raise us to new heights.

— Patricia Raybon

January 19, 2025 

READ: Psalm 92:12-15 

There’s an old folktale about a woman who carried water home every day from a river using two buckets at either end of a long pole—one bucket new and solid, the other much older and cracked. When the woman got home, the new bucket was still full, but the old bucket almost empty. The old bucket felt bad and apologized. The woman turned and pointed back down the road and asked the old bucket, “Do you see all those flowers, growing on your side of the road? Every day you water them, and my walk to and from the river is always filled with beauty.”

We live in a world that worships and rewards youth—the young and solid, unscarred and efficient. Yet the Bible clearly tells us of a righteous beauty that comes from the older and weaker, maybe even the cracked and leaky. “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,” said the old songwriter, “they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon” (Psalm 92:12).

Granted, old is not always synonymous with wise, but the old contribute to our lives in ways the young can’t because they’ve lived a little longer, experienced a little more, and stand a little more rooted, flourishing in faith and trust in God. Such people “will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green” (v. 14).

Older adults in our lives continue to bear beautiful fruit. Let’s take the time to see it and care for them.

— John Blase

January 17, 2025 

READ: Galatians 6:7-10 

Weary. That’s how Satya felt after nine months in his new job. As a believer in Jesus, he’d sought to follow God’s principles in the way he solved problems and directed the work. But people-related problems persisted, and little organizational progress seemed to have been made. He felt like throwing in the towel.

Perhaps, like Satya, you’re feeling tired. You know the good that you ought to do but simply feel too emotionally and physically drained to carry on. Take heart. The apostle Paul encourages us with these words: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9). He uses the metaphor of a farmer. And, as any farmer knows, sowing is hard work.

Sowing to “please the Spirit” (v. 8) is hard work too. Believers in Jesus who seek to follow the Spirit’s lead and live a life that honors Him can grow faint and lose heart. But as we hang on to His promise, the harvest will come. We’ll “reap eternal life” (v. 8; see John 17:3)—a bumper crop of God’s blessing when Christ returns, and in this life, we’ll have the confidence and joy that come from knowing Him. We’ll reap at the proper time, a time determined not by seasons or the weather but by the will of a perfect God. Until the harvest comes, let’s keep sowing in God’s strength.  

— Poh Fang Chia

January 15, 2025 

READ: Romans 5:6-11 

“Did your sin also put Jesus on the cross?” That’s the question Dutch painter Rembrandt seems to be asking in his 1633 masterpiece, The Raising of the Cross. Jesus appears in the center of the picture as His cross is lifted and put in place. Four men are doing the lifting, but one stands out in the light surrounding Jesus. His clothing is different; he’s dressed in the style of Rembrandt’s day, wearing a cap the painter often wore. A closer look at his face reveals that Rembrandt has put himself into the painting, as if to say, “My sins had a part in Jesus’ death.”

But there’s another who also stands out. He’s on horseback, looking directly out of the painting. Some see this as a second self-portrait by Rembrandt, engaging all who observe with a knowing glance that seems to ask, “Aren’t you here too?”

Paul saw himself there, and we may also, because Jesus suffered and died for us as well. In Romans 5:10, he refers to himself and us as “God’s enemies.” But even though our sins caused Jesus’ death, His death reconciles us to God: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (v. 8).

We stand with both Rembrandt and Paul: sinners in need of forgiveness. Through His cross, Jesus offers us what we could never do for ourselves and meets our deepest need: a new beginning with God.

— James Banks