Featured Devotionals

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ODJ: Blessed to be a Blessing

As a Chinese person, I celebrated my new year on February 8. During the special New Year season, I greeted people with these words among others: “gong xi fa cái” (happiness and prosperity) and “nián nián you yú” (a wish for abundance and surpluses)—extending blessings of good health, prosperity, success, and happiness. Jesus once described the kind of people God

ODJ: A Bad Child?

"Look at what you’ve done by becoming a Christian. You’ve deserted the family tradition. Your father feels like a failure. He couldn’t keep the family together.” My mother tried to reason with me to forsake my newfound faith. And I wavered. It pained me to see my parents’ sadness and disappointment. In my collectivism-based culture, group is esteemed greater

ODJ: Trudging On

Kellie Haddock is a courageous woman I’ve known of and admired for more than a decade. In 2004, I first read the blog she penned following a tragic car accident that took the life of her husband and left her baby, Eli, with permanent injuries. Kellie’s writings convey hope in God and deep trust in His faithfulness. Since I’m not apt to react to loss with such grace or unwavering

ODJ: Finding Focus

In 1977, Chris Bonington and Doug Scott became the first mountain climbers to summit an infamous peak known as The Ogre in Pakistan. During their descent, however, Doug slipped and broke both of his legs. Chris also had a mishap resulting in several broken ribs. Doug, who crawled for 12 days over rocks, snow, and ice to make it back down the mountain, said he did so by focusing on “one featu

ODJ: All Alone

The familiar darkness of clinical depression rolled over Leigh as she sat on the edge of the bed holding a revolver—tormenting voices urging her to pull the trigger. As a Christian wife and mom, she knew this picture was all wrong, but the consuming illness had clouded her mind. Apart from her husband and doctor, no one knew of the daily struggle she faced. Leigh slowly put the gun

ODJ: Go the Extra Mile

Three boys hatched a plan to earn enough money to buy their own brand-new bicycles. Their strategy was to call around their neighborhood, offering to do yard work or run an errand in exchange for a small amount of cash. KROSS, the company that manufactures the bikes the boys had their eye on, got wind of their plan. Their hardworking initiative so impressed KROSS that they surprised each boy wit

ODJ: No Lone Rangers

My country esteems “rugged individualism”—the idea that truly strong people do things on their own. The icon of this peculiar value was the Lone Ranger, a famous fictional cowboy of radio and the silver screen, and a solitary masked hero that protected others from harm. But it’s interesting to note that the Lone Ranger was hardly alone. He had a trusty horse named Silver an

ODJ: Setting the Pace

Our oldest child has recently started driving. Though my husband and I understood that this day would come, I keep asking myself, Have we prepared her well? Our daughter learning to maneuver more than 2 tons of moving metal only mirrors a greater journey of trust we’ve embarked on as parents. When our children were little, we took more direct action to steer their spiritual growth.

ODJ: Beautiful Captivity

I know a couple who share freely about a devastating time in their marriage. But the focus of their story isn’t the hurt or the wounds they inflicted. Instead, they talk about how God used that experience to reveal deep-seated issues that needed to be addressed and dealt with. As a result, they emerged from the painful pruning closer to each other and to Him. Amazingly, they’re gratefu