Solid Joys Daily Devotional

Whatever added signs and wonders God may show to amplify our witness to Christ, they will come through his grace and power.

Believe in the promise that in this day God will be at work in you to will and work for his good pleasure.

Paul prayed for grace for the day, trusted that it would come with power, and then acted with all his might.

You may think you need to save your life in order to do your ministry. On the contrary, how you lose your life may be the capstone of your ministry.

Costly acts of love don’t just happen. They are impelled by a new appetite — the appetite of faith for the fullest experience of God’s grace. We want more of God.

The glory of Christ is magnified when we are more satisfied with his future grace than we are with the promises of sin.

When we don’t believe all the promises of God, we won’t receive the full measure of the Spirit.

“Works” longs for the joy of being glorified as strong. “Faith” longs for the joy of seeing God glorified as strong.

When he was in anguish, Jesus rested his soul in the sovereign wisdom of God.

Faith in God’s forgiveness means savoring the truth that a forgiving God is the most precious reality in the universe.

All the wrongs that have been done against us by believers were avenged in the death of Jesus. Look to the cross of Christ.

No one has ever lived who was more worthy of honor than Jesus; and no one has been dishonored more. But he triumphed by entrusting himself to God.

Your very soul is in danger if you hold on to an attitude of unforgiving bitterness. Leave it to the wrath of God.

Imagine being able to enjoy what is most enjoyable with unbounded energy and passion forever. That is not our experience now, but it will be one day.

It is good news that God is gloriously happy. No one would want to spend eternity with a gloomy, unhappy God.

As the source of every good pleasure, God himself pleases fully and finally. It is therefore astonishing how little effort is put into knowing God.

Even if we know that God is good to us, we may believe that his goodness is constrained. But Jesus is at pains to help us not feel that way.

The unwillingness of others to repent will not hold the saints hostage. Hell cannot blackmail heaven into misery.

Faith in God’s promises must be so real that the love it produces proves the reality of the faith.

What can sustain the will to die for others, when you are innocent? Jesus banked on love and future joy.

The experience of future grace often depends on whether we will take refuge in God, or whether we will run for cover to other shelters.

There is a fear that is slavish and drives us away from God, and there is a fear that is sweet and draws us to God.

What’s at stake in fleeing covetousness and fighting for contentment in future grace is eternal life.

Whenever we sense the slightest rise of covetousness in our hearts, we must turn on it and fight it with all our might using the weapons of faith.

God is glorified when the power to be holy comes from humble faith in future grace.

The fight for good works is a fight to believe in future grace. Therefore, learning to fight for holiness by faith in future grace is supremely important.

The essence of faith is being satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus. Faith embraces God — not just his promised gifts — as our treasure.

Grace is not simply the pardon of our sins; it is the power to press on in obedience. We trust in God’s ever-arriving gracious power to enable us to do what we should.

When we hear God’s promises and trust him with courage, fearing the reproach brought upon God by our unbelief, then he is greatly honored.

Prayer ascribes to God the right and honor to be the free and sovereign God that he is to choose and to save sinners.

The prayer of the upright that delights God comes from a heart that at first feels precarious in the presence of God. It trembles at his word.

The Lord is pleased not by those who treat him as a needy watering trough, but as an inexhaustible, all-satisfying spring.

With God the honeymoon never ends. He is infinite in power and wisdom and creativity so that there will be no boredom for the next trillion ages of millenniums.

God’s anger must be released by a stiff safety lock, but his mercy has a hair trigger. He is infinitely energetic with unbounded and unending enthusiasm to do us good.

God did not spare his own Son, because it was the only way he could spare us and still be a just and holy God.

Not only are spiritual gifts a work of God’s free grace in our lives, but so also is the very faith with which we use those gifts.

In order to live the radical lives Christ calls us to live, we must embrace him as the only one who can truly satisfy our souls.

Our hearts exploit our minds to justify what our hearts want. Our deepest desires incline our minds to perceive and think in a way that will make our desires look right.

If we recognize our sin, fight it, and cling to the cross of Christ as our hope, then God will hear us and answer our prayers.

Worship is all the acts of the heart and mind and body that intentionally express the infinite worth of God.

The faith that justifies and the faith that sanctifies are not two different kinds of faith.

The best news in all the world is that our alienation from God is ended. We have been reconciled to the Judge of the universe.

Be devoted to glorifying the dependability of God. Lives of faith are the great mirror of his faithful love and provision.

Open your eyes to the better country, the city of God that he has prepared for us, and let yourself desire it with all your heart. God will not be ashamed to be called your God.

Faith glorifies God because it is a future-oriented confidence in God’s integrity and power and wisdom to follow through on all his promises.

We don’t become heirs of Abraham’s promises by working for God but by being confident that God works for us.

Why does faith not nullify the grace of God? Because faith calls all attention to grace and magnifies it, rather than nullifies it.

The worship of daily obedience is not at bottom a burdensome giving to God, but a joyful getting from God. That is the true service that God demands.

Faith nullifies boasting and glorifies grace. Wherever faith looks, it sees grace behind every praiseworthy act. So it cannot boast, except in the Lord.

God has wise and holy purposes when he does not answer our prayers as we want. Trust him. He knows what he is doing.

The sovereign grace of God can turn the unplanned place and the unplanned pace into the happiest ending imaginable.

We can know that our sins are taken away and that we will be safe in the judgment, if we trust Christ in such a way that it makes us eager for his coming.

Patience is indeed a fruit of the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit empowers us (with all his fruit) through hearing with faith.

What feels to us like a waste is what God plans. He works through the most hopeless circumstances.

Our election is unconditional in the strictest sense. Neither our faith nor our obedience is the basis of it. It is free and utterly undeserved.

When we sit down to calculate the cost of following Jesus — when we weigh the “worst” and the “best” — he is worth it. Abundantly worth it.

Jesus knows all his sheep by name; that is, he knows them individually and intimately.

God is so eager to work for us that he goes around looking for more work to do for people who will trust him.

When you love Christ, you don’t take much thought for your life in this world. Rather, you live for the glory of God’s grace.

What makes the whole Trinity rejoice together? The free, electing love of God to hide the true spiritual identity of Christ from the intellectual elite and to reveal it to babes.

Don’t replace Christ this summer with trifles. Seek the things that are above. Flight from Christ into Christless leisure makes the soul parched.

Consider these five digital dangers and some accompanying resolutions to avoid and redeem them.

God’s electing love is absolutely free. It is the gracious overflow of his boundless happiness guided by his infinite wisdom.

Trust God. Commit your way to him. Roll onto him your anxieties, frustrations, and plans — indeed, your very life.

Hope and love do not come from nowhere. They grow out of ideas — views of reality — revealed in the Scriptures.

How did you come to be a Christian? Join Charles Spurgeon and joyfully confess, “I ascribe my change wholly to God!”

When God becomes our treasure, we treat our adversaries out of our own fullness with the all-satisfying glory of God.

You have heard echoes of God’s glory everywhere; tune your heart to the original music. The best place to get your heart tuned is at the cross of Jesus Christ.

God is pursuing with omnipotent delight a worldwide purpose of gathering a people for his name from every tribe and language and nation.

This is the essence of what it means to love God: to be satisfied in him — not just his gifts, but God himself, as the glorious person that he is.

Faith overcomes our inborn hostility to God and his will, and frees us to keep his commandments.

God will gladly receive anything from us that shows our dependence and his all-sufficiency. Therefore, we can gladly cast all our anxieties on him.

The only joy that reflects the worth of God and overflows in God-glorifying love is rooted in true knowledge of God.

Joy comes from the Holy Spirit, not our own efforts or imagination or family upbringing. Therefore, the call to joy is a call to earnest prayer.

Gratitude looks back to past grace received and feels thankful. Faith looks forward to future grace promised and feels hopeful.

Praying for forgiveness should be based not only on an appeal to God’s mercy, but also on an appeal to his justice in crediting the worth of his Son’s obedience.

The goal of everything God takes us through is hope. He wants us to feel unwaveringly hopeful through all tribulations. He wants us to know he loves us.

God requires good works not as the ground of our justification (which is the righteousness of Christ alone), but as an evidence of it.

In this life of sin and pain, how shall we fight for joy? Here are fifteen ways.

The age of sin and misery and death is almost spent. The day of righteousness and peace and total joy is dawning.

Our sins are laid on Christ and his righteousness is laid on us. That is the great exchange — and it becomes ours not by works but by faith.

It could not be otherwise but that Christianity be a singing faith. The founder sang. We are a singing people because we are the children of a singing God.

When we speak of being a God-centered people, remember, this is because we are joining God in his God-centeredness.

The point of Paul’s conversion happening the way it did is to make Christ’s incredible patience vivid for you.

When we live by faith, rooted in God’s forgiveness, we are freed from the lingering, paralyzing effects even of shame we deserve to feel.

Christians care about all suffering — especially eternal suffering. That’s the greatest danger every city faces.

Not being afraid shows that you treasure God as your generous Shepherd, Father, and King.

The key to joy is faith in God’s future grace — that is, being satisfied in all that God promises to be for us.

Cherish the goodness of the Lord, fear straying from him, flee from every sin, and take refuge in him.

This is the gospel: Even though you have sinned greatly, nevertheless there is a future and a hope. Fear not!

The One with infinite power in the universe reaches down to personally touch and transform us.

Faith in Christ is not just assenting to what God is for us, but also embracing all that he is for us in Christ.

We won’t bear tomorrow’s load on today’s resources. Today’s mercies are for today’s troubles. Tomorrow’s mercies are for tomorrow’s troubles.

Come to God in prayer, to confess your sins, and to accept, as needy little farmyard chicks, the direction of God into the barn of his protection and provision.

God delights in having his name known and honored. The first and most important prayer that can be prayed is, “Hallowed be your name.”

Sheer sowing produces reaping. You must remember this, even when your tears tempt you to give up.

Trust Christ, no matter what. Go with him, no matter where. You cannot lose in the end.

When you are cast into the cellars of affliction, remember that the great King keeps his best wine there.

The biblical criterion for misplaced shame and for well-placed shame is radically God-centered.

It is good not to talk very long about God without talking to God. Frequently interrupt your talking about God by talking to God.

When Christ died and rose again, Satan was defeated. Jesus struck the decisive blow at Calvary.

Don’t just do good things for your enemies. Desire their best, and express those desires in prayer, even when they’re nowhere around.

Jesus is not just alive from the dead, but he is alive as the King who will reign forever — of his kingdom there will be no end.

Salvation is secured for all who are written in the book of life, not because of their deeds, but because Christ was slain for them.

Sometimes God will strengthen your faith directly. But most of the time, he does so through another person.

O God, help us to feel worse about our own shortfalls than the failure of others.

If you live inside the massive promise of Romans 8:28, your life is more solid and stable than Mount Everest.

In the Father, you are under God’s care and protection. In the Son, you are under God’s charge and authority.

Only one thing satisfies the heart whose treasure is in heaven: doing the works of heaven. And heaven is a world of love!

Our perseverance doesn’t rest decisively on the reliability of our own resolve. It rests decisively on God’s work to keep us trusting him.

God will not spare any effort to give you all that Christ died to purchase — all things, all good, and all bad working for your good.

When others abandon you, strengthen your heart with God’s inexorable oath: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Because Christ rose from the grave, God’s children are forgiven. No one can successfully bring a charge against those who are in Christ.

Never reduce Christianity to a matter of demands and resolutions and willpower. It is a matter of what we love, what we delight in, what tastes good to us.

When we trust Jesus, his presence and promise is so satisfying that we are not dominated by the alluring pleasures of sin.

Hear God say to you in all your troubles, “I will deliver you. You will triumph in the end. You will be more than a conqueror.”

Knowledge doesn’t guarantee godliness. But it seems that ignorance guarantees ungodliness. The power that leads to godliness is given through knowing God.

When temptations come, arm yourself with this thought: When my Lord suffered and died to free me from sin, I died to sin!

Whatever else gives way, whatever else disappoints, whatever else fails, God’s all-encompassing promise of future grace can never fail.

If there is any hope for eternity in the presence of God, we need a Redeemer, a Substitute, a Savior. Christ died and rose to be that hope.

Good news! Eternal life is a free gift to all who will trust in Christ as Lord and Savior and supreme Treasure of their lives.

The salvation Jesus obtained through his blood was everything it takes to save his people, not just part of it.

Prayer is the confident plea for God to make good on his promises of future grace — for Christ’s sake.

Christ can promise universal victory because he is sovereign. He knows the future because he makes the future.

Since Satan’s doom is sure, and he knows it, we can always remind him of it when he tempts us to follow him.

God is so powerful and so gracious that in the end he will turn ruthless nations to revere him. He cannot fail.

Because of Christ, we say Amen to God in our prayers to show that God gets the glory for the future grace we are counting on.

With all the power in the universe and with the absolute right to do as he pleases with what he made, God is for us.

The mercy and the sovereignty of God are the twin pillars of your life. They will stand by your deathbed, and with strong and tender hands lift you to God.

Your prayers are the aroma of heaven, sweet smelling before the throne of God and before the Lamb.

Pride is a form of unbelief. Faith admits need. Pride won’t. Faith banks on God. Pride won’t. Faith casts anxieties on God. Pride won’t.

A mustard seed of faith is infinitely closer to being a mountain of faith than it is to being no faith. There is an infinite difference between a spark and no spark.

How can you experience an outpouring of the Holy Spirit? Meditate day and night on the promises of God.

You cannot sink so low in despairing of your own resources that God does not see and care. He is at the bottom waiting to catch you.

Turn from self and come to Jesus as your source for true joy. His fullness will satisfy your itch of emptiness.

There are no lapses in God’s commitment or in his joy in doing good to his children — to those who trust him.

The evidence of God’s power in our lives is not the absence of our willing, but the strength and joy of our willing.

When some fear or craving threatens to lead us into sin, we are to take the sword of the Spirit and kill it.

Pilate’s authority over Jesus was subordinate to God’s authority over Pilate. So, Jesus did not fear.

God declares us righteous, which gives us unshakable security in the face of tremendous suffering.

The hope of the resurrection radically changed the way Paul lived. His life counted. His suffering was meaningful.

God’s wrath was once on us. But because he made us alive, all that wrath is removed. He is now 100% for us.

Take heart. If you have faith in Jesus, God himself declares, “You are greatly loved.”

The clearest answer in Acts to the question why a person believes the gospel is that God opens the heart.

Those who suffer for Christ will receive the Holy Spirit’s power and rest at their greatest hour of need.

The fullness of Jesus Christ is a divine, accessible, glorious, delivered, blessed, true fullness.

Jesus Christ is exuberant with omnipotent service for the sake of all who trust him.

Because of Jesus’s resurrection, he now has the glory for which we were made. Our ultimate destiny is to see him as he is.

When it’s forty degrees warmer in your freezer than it is outside, the message is clear: Don’t mess with God.

Christ said Paul was going to Rome. And that was that. No ambush can stand against the promise of Christ.

Oh, how sweet are the designs of God in the sovereign salvation of hardened, hopeless sinners!

Do you desire God? Will you trust him? The word of God to you is: God is worthy and God is able.

Every step Jesus took on the Calvary road meant, “I love you. I love you. I love you.”

Jesus is the end for which the universe was made, and the means that makes that end possible to enjoy.

When you desire the city of God above everything else on the earth, he is not ashamed to be called your God. Your life pleases him.

It is a most striking thing how personal and national suffering drew Abraham Lincoln into the reality of God, rather than pushing him away.

Amazingly, Paul connects our liberation with Jesus as our Master, and he connects our new slavery with Jesus as our Messiah.

Living and dying by faith means having new desires and seeking new satisfactions.

Take all the things that drive this world, and ponder how much better and more abiding God is.

Submitting to God enables us to have the supremely satisfying experience of not being God, but admiring the Godness of God.

God surely has reasons for waiting to give you the breakthrough you have sought for decades. Keep asking in hope.

Because Jesus died in our place, he guaranteed that every good deed will prosper — sooner or later.

The main task of all the ministries of the church is helping people see the greatness of what Christ has purchased for everyone who will value it above the world.

Suffering has a great sin-killing effect. The more pure we are, the more clearly we see God.

We should emphasize that God loves and forgives for his own glory because the Bible does, and because it makes clear that God loves us with the greatest love.

God forgave us when we first believed in Christ. Then, from that broken, joyful, grateful, hopeful experience of being forgiven, we offer forgiveness to others.

Christians are included in the Davidic covenant. What David received, we will also receive in Christ Jesus.

Don’t let your ignorance of the micro reasons for suffering cause you to overlook the massive help God tells us in his word of his macro purposes for us.

Irresistable grace does not mean grace cannot be resisted. It means that when God chooses, he can and will overcome that resistance.

There is no hope for God’s people unless he causes them to return from their leaping into sin and unbelief.

Feeling rotten about your sin is not the same as repenting from it. But it can lead there.

The same God who feeds billions of birds every hour around the world will take care of you.

We get the help; God gets the glory. That arrangement keeps us humble and happy, and keeps him supreme and glorious.

Times of suffering and deliverance are both God’s stages of care for you. He has not left you or forsaken you.

Jesus will take care of you when you take care of others. That’s why there were leftovers after Jesus fed the multitudes.

Jesus provides an ever-present, ever-living witness to the removal of the Father’s wrath from us.

When Jesus says, “I will grant him to sit with me on my throne,” he promises us a share in the rule of all things.

Jesus anchored the happiness of suffering saints in the reward of heaven. And he anchored the happiness of successful saints in the same.

If we don’t call to mind what God has said about himself and about us, we will languish. Never forget that our God is the God of the impossible.

Every little thing you do that is good is seen and valued and rewarded by the Lord. And he will pay you back for it.

Yield to the sovereignty of God in all the details of life, and rest in his infallible promises to show himself mighty on your behalf.

Receive Christ, welcome Christ, embrace Christ — not just as your fire insurance policy, but as your eagerly awaited Treasure and Friend and Lord.

Be patient and loving as despairing people wake up from their dark night and regret their hasty words.

What act could be more one-sidedly free and non-negotiated than one person raising another from the dead? This is the meaning of grace.

Our emotions are governed in large measure by what we consider — what we dwell on with our minds.

When the command of God comes with the creating, converting power of the Holy Spirit, it gives life. And we believe and rejoice and obey.

Freedom from greed comes from the deeply satisfying faith in God’s future grace.

If God exists, then he is the measure of all things, and what he thinks about all things is the measure of what we should think.

When God judges believers in the end, he will forgive us all our sins and grant us life everlasting.

God is not the God of some grace. He is the God of all grace — including the infinite, inexhaustible stores of future grace that we need to endure to the end.

Christ promises to work for us, and to be for us so much that, when our missionary life is over, we will not be able to say we’ve sacrificed anything.

God gives both the sustaining grace we need in times of trouble, and the suffering which makes us depend on his grace.

This is God’s will for you and this is why Christ died: that you would draw near to God.

Satan is helpless to do the one thing he wants to do most: damn us. Christ bore our damnation.

Does your faith make you eager to forsake sin and make progress in holiness? That’s the kind of faith God requires.

The strength of your faith does not uproot trees. God does. The object of your faith is more important than the quantity of your faith.

If you are a Christian, death is no longer a punishment for sin. Your sin has been put away by the death of Christ. Christ took the punishment.

Be thankful for the past grace from the last year, and be confident in the future grace for the new year.

The lifetime of this year passes before our eyes, and we face the inevitable question: Did we live it well?

When God works in our hearts by the blood of Christ, we feel and think and act in ways more pleasing to him.