Category: Daily Devotions

Listen to Devotion

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.
Galatians 5:13

Freed to Love

Two weeks ago, the United States celebrated its freedom proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Throughout its history, America has striven to define, declare, and defend freedom as one of its highest ideals and most valuable treasures.

Some say that the best way to celebrate your freedom is to use it. But what if my use of my freedom infringes on your freedom? When freedom is focused entirely on self, it inevitably takes away someone else’s freedom.

The Bible talks a lot about freedom, but its interest is not in earthly laws or government. Biblical freedom transcends every border and boundary that divides humanity. It seeks to restore everything—particularly the human race—to the perfect state in which it was originally created.

Even the societies that value freedom most are subject to cruel slavery, and I’m not talking about the atrocities of human trafficking or people forced into labor for other people. The Bible says that everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Your heart and mine are naturally held captive by selfish thoughts and desires that oppose God’s perfect design for our lives.

But Jesus came to set us free. With his life of perfect love and his innocent death, he paid the slave price to release us from our sin and its punishment. Not only that, but he also freed us from the obligation to earn God’s favor by our obedience by keeping God’s law in our place.

So, what will we do with our freedom? Today’s verse says, “Do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another in love.” Since we have been set free, we don’t want to become slaves to sin again by serving only our own interests. Instead, knowing that Jesus gave himself in selfless love for my freedom makes me want to show that love to others. I have nothing to prove and nothing to fear before God. I am loved, forgiven, and set free. Now, I can love as I have been loved—humbly, selflessly serving those whom God has put in my life.

Prayer:

Jesus, help me to use my freedom to serve others in love. Amen.

Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Listen to Devotion

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Luke 10:36,37

Not Who, but How

Something I try to instill in my children is a good work ethic. Notice what needs to be done and do what you can without complaining. God has blessed you with gifts to serve. Use them. Besides, a task is more enjoyable when you see it as an opportunity and privilege rather than as a burden.

As much as I try to instill that attitude in my children, I don’t always live it myself. And I doubt I am the only one. It is not just children doing an assignment for school or a chore at home who only want to do the minimum that is required.

Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan because someone asked, “Who is my neighbor?” This man was depending on his own actions as the basis for his worthiness before God. The law says to love your neighbor, but whom does that include? What’s the minimum requirement?

We too might ask, “To whom do I really need to show love? How much do I have to do for them? Surely, they or someone else should do some of the work!”

Those thoughts turn our relationship with God into a merit-based reward system. If I do enough, God owes me rewards. But that system doesn’t work because God requires perfection and only owes us punishment for anything less.

Jesus told this story and many others to help us recognize that truth so that our hope is not in our efforts, but in his. Jesus came to show mercy. With astounding, selfless love, he accepted the punishment God owed us for our excuses not to love and for everything else in our lives that falls short.

Freed from the burden of expectations, we now get to be a neighbor to those around us, and to show mercy and compassion to those who need it, to give of ourselves in love. We are free to ask, “What can I do to love, serve, and give to those around me?”

Prayer:

Jesus, give me a joyful and willing spirit, as I serve others in love. Amen.

Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Listen to Devotion

[Jesus said] “A Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’”
Luke 10:33-35

Love Goes Above and Beyond

Many people have heard of the Good Samaritan. We describe people as good Samaritans when they step up to help someone in desperate need, often a complete stranger.

The term comes from this story that Jesus told about a Jewish man who was attacked by robbers and left for dead on the side of the road. Two people walked right past without doing anything. But then the Samaritan came along.

At the time, Jewish people detested Samaritans as immoral, unfaithful to the Lord, and unworthy of God’s love. Samaritans despised the Jewish people for treating them as low-life, worthless people. They usually wanted nothing to do with each other.

But the Samaritan in Jesus’ story did what no one would have expected. He helped the Jewish man in need. He interrupted his travel plans to bandage his wounds and took him to an inn, where he continued to take care of him. When he left the next day, he provided enough money to take care of any further needs.

The Samaritan showed love to this Jewish man that no one would have expected, required, or even asked of him. He showed love that goes above and beyond.

That’s what genuine love does. It sees someone in need and puts that person’s needs first, no matter what the cost. It goes above and beyond any requirements or expectations.

Jesus showed that kind of love for us when we desperately needed it. He paid the ultimate price for our selfish lack of love when he gave his life to heal our wounded souls and save us from death. Jesus’ love for us moves us to show genuine love to those in our lives.

Prayer:

Jesus, open my eyes and heart to see and love those in need in my life. Amen.

Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Listen to Devotion

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Galatians 5:22,23

Fruitful Living

What’s your favorite summer fruit? Do you like stone fruits like peaches, plums, or nectarines? Do you prefer berries—strawberries, raspberries, or blackberries? Or does some kind of melon hit the spot for you?

Imagine if you had a plant of your favorite fruit growing in your yard, but you never found fruit on it. You might wonder, what am I doing wrong? Is it getting the right amount of water? What about sunlight? Is there a problem with my soil? Is this the kind of plant I thought it was? You expect a fruit tree or plant to bear fruit.

Today’s Bible verse talks about fruit, but it’s not something you eat. It is the way you live and the attitude of your heart. We could talk about each thing mentioned and conclude that we need more of each kind of fruit. I could say, “Be more loving, more joyful, more kind,” but those commands wouldn’t produce the fruits any more than saying to that tree, “Make more peaches,” or to that vine, “Make bigger watermelons,” would change the fruit on that plant.

The love, peace, kindness, and gentleness that appear on the branches of our lives are the fruit of the Spirit. God’s Holy Spirit makes us who we are when he connects us to Christ through baptism and nourishes our faith through the Word of God that we hear, read, and study. The Holy Spirit produces in us those characteristics that our Bible verse describes as he shows us the same qualities in God and our Savior, Jesus.

The love he shows us in forgiving our failures to love motivates and empowers us to love others. The joy Jesus exhibited, as he kept his focus on the heaven in store for us, fills us with joy in every circumstance of life. The peace Jesus came to bring between us, and God makes us pursue peace with others in our lives. And so on.

Give thanks for the fruit you see in the lives of fellow Christians. Then stay firmly planted in God’s Word, through which the Spirit produces fruit in your life to bless others.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, by your Word, make my life fruitful as I love and serve others. Amen.

Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Listen to Devotion

Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”
Ruth 1:16,17

Faithful Love

You may have heard these words read during a Christian wedding. They certainly describe the kind of commitment that God intends for marriage. But these words weren’t spoken between a bride and a groom.

A woman named Naomi, her husband, and her two sons had moved from Bethlehem in Israel to the nation of Moab when there was a famine in Israel. Naomi’s husband died there, and her sons married Moabite women. After about ten years, her sons died too. Grieving and with no one left to support her, she decided to go back to her homeland.

Naomi urged her two daughters-in-law to stay in Moab to start over with family nearby rather than move to a foreign land to start life over with her. But one of them, Ruth, refused. Instead, she spoke these words. She promised Naomi that she would go with her wherever she went; she would adopt her God and her culture; she would even die with her. What unexpected, faithful love for a woman in need!

Ruth’s faithful love reflected God’s faithful love that she came to know through Naomi and her family. God promised to leave behind the comforts of heaven to help us in our time of need. Jesus, who was born in Bethlehem as a descendant of Ruth, not only came to live with us. He made the ultimate sacrifice when he willingly died and was buried with us. But death wouldn’t separate us from him or his love. He came back to life to promise that our need for forgiveness, hope, and deliverance from death was fully met. He promises that he won’t leave us or turn back from us but will one day take us to live with him forever.

Knowing this faithful love of God moves us to show faithful and sacrificial love to those around us, just as Ruth showed to Naomi.

Prayer:

Lord, as you have loved me, move me to love others. Amen.

Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery. . . You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.
Galatians 5:1,13

Understanding Freedom

Daily Devotion – July 13, 2025

Devotion based on Galatians 5:1,13


See series: Devotions

Are you feeling free today?

We value our freedom in America, although often we don’t fully understand it. People complain about the loss of freedom as the government regulates more of our lives. The real fear some have is that the government will somehow take over too much of our lives and leave us feeling enslaved like others have become around the world. It is important to fight to keep freedom.

But more valuable is the spiritual freedom we have in Christ, although many times we don’t fully understand it. Sometimes, religious leaders and our own mindsets begin to make up rules they say we must follow for God to accept us. Other times, we go in the extreme opposite direction and think we can just live wildly as we please.

In the book of Galatians, the apostle Paul fights for our proper understanding of the freedom we have in Christ so that we don’t lose it. By his life, death, and resurrection, Christ has lifted off the burden of our sin so we can be free of its guilt and punishment. He has removed the overbearing pressure of the law from cutting off our right standing with God. He has pulled us away from our sinful, selfish ways and put us on the liberating course of serving God that involves honoring his will and dealing with others in love.

Don’t lose that freedom for yourself, but keep growing in your daily focus on Christ and realize the peace and power that come from being free in Christ.

Prayer:
Thank you, Lord, for giving me freedom in Christ. Help me to use that freedom for good. Help me to glorify your name in all I do and in the life of service that I do for others. Amen.

Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:1

Celebrate Your Freedom

Daily Devotion – July 12, 2025

Devotion based on Galatians 5:1


See series: Devotions

It was on July 4, 1776, that our Declaration of Independence was adopted. We celebrate our freedom. Can you imagine the forefathers of the United States, after the Revolutionary War, going back to Great Britain and saying, “We want to be your colony again?” The same would hold true for someone who was held in slavery by a cruel master. Is there any way they would, after they had been set free, go back to that master? Of course not.

Yet, this does sometimes happen in a spiritual sense. Jesus Christ came to this earth to set us free from slavery to sin. By nature, sin had an unshakeable hold on us. Because of that sin, we deserve to spend our eternity apart from God. Jesus rescued us; he set us free from our sins. He did so by living a perfect life in our place. To pay our debt of sin, Jesus willingly went to the cross, where he was punished in our place. To show us beyond any shadow of a doubt that we had been set free, Jesus rose from the dead. We are free!

Now, we can serve our God in thankfulness for all he has done for us. Yet, those old sins are still there, tempting us. It is so easy to listen to their luring voices. Soon, we find ourselves trapped, enslaved in those same old sins. When we encounter them, we come to God and ask for his forgiveness. We know that he forgives us because of what Jesus has done for us. Then we ask God for his help and strength, so we do not allow ourselves to become enslaved to those sins. With his help and guidance, we can say “No!” to those temptations.

Celebrate your freedom as you live for Christ, who loves you so very much.

Prayer:
Dear Jesus, you went to the cross to free me from my sin. Give me the strength to live free from the sins that are so tempting to me. Let my whole life be a shining light to your glory. Amen.

Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve.
1 Peter 5:2

In God’s Flock

Daily Devotion – July 11, 2025

Devotion based on 1 Peter 5:2


See series: Devotions

What kind of sheep are you?

Pastors are called to be shepherds of the people under their care. It’s good to remember that this is something they are willing to do, and that God asks them to do. It is not an obligation for them. It is a privilege.

What kind of sheep are you in relation to your pastor? Do you wander off from worship, disconnecting yourself from the spiritual food that is prepared for you every week? Stop doing that! It’s not good for you and causes a lot of consternation for your shepherd.

Do you lead other sheep astray by holding grudges, complaining, and turning up your nose at your shepherd? Stop doing that! Your pastor will never be perfect. Forgive him, just as the Lord has forgiven you.

Do you show appreciation for your shepherd? The smartest sheep realize all that God is providing them through their shepherd, and they find ways to express their gratitude.

We all like sheep have gone astray. But the Lord has laid all our iniquity on the Good Shepherd, Jesus, and his undershepherds deliver that message with delight whenever and wherever they have the chance.

Prayer:
Good Shepherd, bless the work of pastors everywhere that more and more sheep come into your sheep pen. Amen

Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Then he said to me, “Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.” So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.
Ezekiel 3:3

Taste and See That the Lord is Good

Daily Devotion – July 10, 2025

Devotion based on Ezekiel 3:3


See series: Devotions

Books designed for children under the age of one have bold black, white, and red illustrations. Those are seen best by developing eyes. Those books often have thick, sturdy pages that can stand going into a baby’s mouth. At that age, everything a baby touches goes into the mouth. It must taste terrible.

In the days of the prophet Ezekiel, words were written on scrolls, not books. Babies might put scrolls in their mouths, but adults would carefully unroll and read them. It must have surprised the prophet Ezekiel when he heard that he was supposed to eat the scroll he was given. The words on the scroll were unpleasant, but when Ezekiel obeyed the command and ate the scroll, it did not taste terrible. It tasted as sweet as honey.

People suspect that the Word of God will be terrible for them. They know that God is strict, and they worry that they will get a sour taste in their stomachs if they take God’s Word seriously. But they soon realize that God’s promises of forgiveness, love, and salvation through Jesus are sweet.

Babies need to learn to eat food with unfamiliar tastes. People need to learn to hear unfamiliar words from God. Eventually, they will taste and see that the Lord is good.

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, help me to appreciate the rich feast you have prepared for me to eat when I read the Bible. Amen.

Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

[Jesus said] “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Luke 10:19,20

Why Rejoice?

Daily Devotion – July 9, 2025

Devotion based on Luke 10:19,20


See series: Devotions

I would be happy if I could confront any snake without fear of being bitten. That would clear up a bit of anxiety in my life. And when it comes to scorpions, it would be great not to have to check my shoes in the morning with some worry about what crawled in there at night. If I could overcome all the temptations of the devil and be certain of my power to exorcise someone who is demon possessed, that would be splendid.

When Jesus sent out his disciples to teach people that he had come into the world, he gave his disciples all that authority. They didn’t have to worry about snakes or scorpions or even demons. Those evil spirits submitted to them!

But when they returned from that temporary mission, Jesus advised them to rejoice about something even more important. Through faith in Jesus, their sins were forgiven. They were going to heaven!

We rejoice in the authority we have as believers. We rejoice when spectacular things happen in our lives. But we rejoice the most that God has made us members of his family, and that our names are written in heaven.

Prayer:
Lord God, thank you for the assurance that I am on the road to eternal life with you through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.

Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.