Max Lucado

Listen to Today's Devotion

On that particular day at the pool of Bethesda, Jesus was drawn to the main character of this miracle. John 5:5-7 (NLT) reads like this: “When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, ‘Would you like to get well?’ ‘I can’t, sir,’ the man said, ‘for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up.'”

What an odd question to ask a sick person. Why would Jesus pose such a question? The man was 38 years as an inva...

Listen to Today's Devotion

The man near the pool of Bethesda didn’t use the word “stuck,” but he sure could have. For 38 years near the edge of a pool, it was just him, his mat, and his paralyzed body. And since no one would help him, help never came.

Crowds of people, despondent, dejected, one after the other, awaited their chance to be placed in the pool where healing waters bubbled up. Can you envision them? And more important, can you envision Jesus walking among them?

All the gospels’ stories of help and heal...

Listen to Today's Devotion

This life contains many walks from Cana to Capernaum. Journeys between prayer offered and prayer answered. Jesus promised the boy’s father a sure blessing at the end of the journey. He promises the same to us.

We will meet this father when we get to heaven, and when we do I’m gonna ask him about that walk. I want to hear how he felt. I want to know what he thought. But most of all, I want to thank him for inspiring this verse: “The man took Jesus at his wo...

Listen to Today's Devotion

Do your days feel like a hike on an Appalachian Trail in winter? A struggle to place one foot in front of the other? If so, I urge you friend, hang on, hang on. Don’t give up. Help is here. It may not come in the manner you requested or as quickly as you desire, but it will come.

Assume that something good is going to happen. The door of tomorrow is unlocked from the inside. Just turn the knob and step out. The divine artist isn’t finished. The eart...

Listen to Today's Devotion

The father may have thought he was walking the road to Capernaum all alone. Quite the contrary. Christ had supernaturally gone into the nobleman’s residence and not only healed the son, but also won the hearts of the entire household. Was the father’s prayer answered? By all means! It was answered in a manner greater than he had requested.

Yours will be as well. Perhaps the answer will come this side of heaven. Perhaps it awaits you on the other side. Either way, this story urges you and me to k...

Listen to Today's Devotion

The Gospel of John tells the story about a man from Capernaum who approached Jesus in Cana. “Come heal my son?” the man asked. Jesus said the boy would be healed, and the man set out for Capernaum.

Do you find yourself somewhere between Cana and Capernaum? Like the official, you begged Jesus for help. And like the official you didn’t receive the answer in the way you wanted. This is the issue of the not yet answered prayer, or the not answered in the way I asked prayer.

How...

Listen to Today's Devotion

When we go out in God’s name, Satan makes a dash for the nearest exit. We have weapons he cannot match. What are our weapons? 2 Corinthians 10:4: Prayer, worship, and Scripture. Prayer invites God, praise dethrones Satan, Scripture discloses truth. And Satan hates the truth.

Flee sexual immorality. Let no evil come from your mouth. Make sure the demons of hell know that you are on God’s side, not theirs. People of unbreakable courage know what Elijah knew. “The Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand” (1 Kings 17:1 NKJV).

Vi...

Listen to Today's Devotion

Worshippers of Baal believed they could earn the favor of their god through violence or promiscuous sex. For that reason the priests cut themselves, had prostitutes in the temple, and offered babies in the fire. What would such paganism do to a culture? We don’t have to look far to know. What two themes dominate our society? Violence and sex. On average, American youth will witness more than two hundred thousand violent acts on television before the age of eighteen. Thirty-five percent of internet downloads are for pornography.

If you wan...

Listen to Today's Devotion

“This is what the Lord says: ‘You will not get down from the bed upon which you have lain, but you shall certainly die'” (2 Kings 1:4 NASB).

Elijah dispatched this verdict to the king. Ahaziah reacted in fear-filled vengeance. He sent fifty soldiers to do battle with the prophet. “But Elijah responded to the captain of fifty, ‘If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty’” (2 Kings 1:10 NASB). White-hot heat fell and cremated the soldiers.

Once again, Elijah does not shy away from...

Listen to Today's Devotion

Ahab and Jezebel were dead. Their Son Ahaziah, a chip off the old demonic block, had assumed the throne. He took a fall. Maybe he was paralyzed and in pain. Whatever his malady, he sought relief.

Where do you go when you hurt? Some people turn to alcohol. Others to opioids. Still others to a frenzied schedule. How many turn to Jehovah? Ahaziah could have. But, no, pain drove him to consult a false god, Baal.

The most insidious work of the devil is counterfeit religion. Why? The devilish...

Listen to Today's Devotion

Psalm 23:4 (NKJV) reads, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” God promises to come at an unexpected hour and take us from the gray world we know to the golden world we don’t. But since we don’t, we aren’t sure we want to go.

On the night before his own death, Jesus told his friends, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled…I will come back and take you to be with me…” (John 14:1, 3 NCV). The apostle Paul announced that “Death has been...

Listen to Today's Devotion

Consider Elijah’s pronouncement of judgment on Ahab: “[God] says, ‘I am going to bring disaster on you. I will wipe out your descendants…because you have aroused my anger and have caused Israel to sin’” (1 Kings 21:21-22 NIV).

This solemn prophecy shook Ahab. “He tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and fasted” (1 Kings 21:27). God responded to this gesture of humility by postponing the penalty of killing all Ahab’s sons.

Years later the seventy remaining descendants of Ahab died by the sword of King Jehu. God sends them message after mess...