A Heart of Belief
By Billy Graham • March 6


If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
—Romans 10:9

The heart is the blood-pump of the body. It is also used metaphorically when we speak of affections and feelings. Since it is the central organ of the body and one of the most vital, the Bible speaks of it as the wellspring of life. Hence, it is used synonymously with “life.” When the Bible says, “Son, give me thine heart,” it doesn’t mean that we are to cut out our actual hearts and give them to God. It means that we are to give Him our lives, our all. When we come to Christ, we are not only to give intellectual assent with our minds, we are to “believe in our hearts.” We can believe in the historic Jesus, but if we have “saving faith” our belief must involve our whole being. When we believe with all our hearts, the will, the emotions, and the intellect are surrendered to Christ.


Prayer for the day
Lord, I believe and rejoice in the knowledge that You are alive and my Redeemer! Amen.

Racing to Please the Lord
FEBRUARY 7, 2024

Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.
2 Corinthians 5:9

Recommended Reading: Psalm 69:29-33
Dale Earnhardt Jr. said about his father and namesake, the famous NASCAR driver, “You wanted to please him all the time, make him happy.” That’s the way most of us feel about someone we admire. But sometimes we forget that our greatest satisfaction in life comes from pleasing our Heavenly Savior.

Just as Jesus focused on pleasing His Father, we should strive to please Him by living with virtue. Peter told us to add to our faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge (2 Peter 1:5). That involves having the attitudes and actions that please the Lord. Ephesians 5:10 says: “And find out what pleases the Lord” (NIV). Colossians 1:10 tells us to “live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God” (NIV).

Ask the Lord today to enable you to please Him in every thought, deed, habit, and word.

Every Christian should have a passion to please God. We are to delight in honoring Him. It is our greatest pleasure to please our Redeemer.
R. C. Sproul

Job's Longing

February 02, 2024
by Pastor Chuck Swindoll
Scriptures: Job 19:1–29
“Oh, that my words could be recorded. Oh, that they could be inscribed on a monument,

carved with an iron chisel and filled with lead, engraved forever in the rock. (Job 19:23–24)
Job longed for his words of woe to be etched into granite so that people through time could enter into all the things he was enduring. He thought his words would be forgotten. He had no idea that his words would survive him. Yet, think of it, God chose to include them in His eternal Word! Along with Scriptures like Genesis 1, Psalm 23, Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 13, and Revelation 22, we call to mind Job 19:25–27 to this day!

As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God; whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart faints within me! (Job 19:25–27)
Thanks to Handel's Magnum Opus, every Christmas season we hear that message over and over again. Little did Job realize in his dreadful anguish that his Lord would honor his name by preserving his words for all the world to hear and sing!

I need to pause right here and speak to you whose God is distant and silent. And, perhaps (like Job), your friends have begun to turn against you. There is a future that is brighter than your wildest dreams! As Job will one day experience, justice will win out, God will replace evil, and right will eclipse wrong. In the end, God wins. And so will we. Job will be vindicated and remembered and respected. And all the Zophars, Bildads, and Eliphazes will be judged, silenced, and forgotten. "Then be afraid of the sword for yourselves, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, so that you may know there is judgment" (Job 19:29).

In all his misery, Job had not lost sight of who was right and who was wrong. He reminded all three men that "judgment and punishment are not coming my way; they're coming yours."

Focus on the future!

Futile Searches

January 27, 2024
by Pastor Chuck Swindoll
Scriptures: Job 10:1–22
Job is still struggling. Eliphaz left him cold. He has received neither comfort nor insight from Bildad. He has no mediator to present his case; therefore, he is very candid. Matter of fact, he's returning to questions he asked earlier. He has every right to ask them. He's confused. He still doesn't get it. So, understandably, he asks:

Why then have You brought me out of the womb?
Would that I had died and no eye had seen me!
I should have been as though I had not been,
Carried from womb to tomb.
Would he not let my few days alone?
Withdraw from me that I may have a little cheer. (Job 10:18–20)
"Why didn't He just take me from the womb and carry me to the tomb?" Oh, Job, you're back where you started. In fact, as he ends his response, he is back in the doldrums. He writes of his own "gloom" and "deep shadow" and "darkness." Out of respect for Job's private struggle, I suggest we draw all this to a close. This ends sadly, but so it is with Job as Bildad frowns, then walks away. And God stays silent. We end sadly, but not without lessons to remember.

First, when misery breaks our spirit, philosophical words don't help us cope. All Job's so-called comforting companions had to offer were hollow words in the form of philosophical meanderings and theoretical concepts. That brought him no relief, no break in his misery. Philosophical words fall flat when they're mouthed to those in misery.

Second, when a mediator can't be found, futile searches won't give us hope. We're surrounded by people today on a search for hope to go on . . . to make it through the maze of their misery. Many of them long for a mediator, someone who can represent their cause and plead their case. You may be that person. If so, you can know what Job didn't know. The mediator he longed for is not only alive, He is available and ready to hear your story. Unlike Job's friends, He's no philosopher. He's the Redeemer. His name is Jesus. Anyone who comes to Him for comfort will find it. He has more mercy than you have misery.

Our Defender
JANUARY 23, 2024

Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath.
Romans 12:19, NIV

Recommended Reading: Romans 12:14-21
Revenge is such an ugly word that perhaps you think you’re removed from it. But even as children, we schemed to “get even” when we thought someone did us wrong. As adults, we often have trouble knowing the difference between being hurt, becoming bitter, and evening the score. It’s human nature to defend our honor and seek vindication when attacked.

In facing conflict or oppression from the wicked, we must never let our hearts grow hardened. There may be just ways of solving the problem, but in the end it comes back to trusting God to vindicate us. Our Lord Jesus was abused, but He answered His critics, not with ten legions of angels, but with the most shocking event in history—His resurrection.

Pray that when times of conflict come, you will turn to Him and to His Word. Let Him give you wisdom to respond well, and trust Him to be your Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend.

May the gospel keep me humble and patient…. I don’t want to waste one more self-absorbed moment rehearsing things that hurt me and relishing personal revenge.
Scotty Smith