Words of Hope Daily Devotional
START EVERY DAY WITH HOPE
THE DEVOTIONAL IS AVAILABLE IN YOUR EMAIL AND IN PRINT.
The Words of Hope Devotional is a non-profit, donor-supported publication whose goal is to encourage readers to grow in faith through the practice of daily Bible reading and prayer.
THE DEVOTIONAL IS AVAILABLE IN YOUR EMAIL AND IN PRINT.
The Words of Hope Devotional is a non-profit, donor-supported publication whose goal is to encourage readers to grow in faith through the practice of daily Bible reading and prayer.
DINNER WITH JESUS
Breakfast on the Beach
Read: Luke 9:27-36
When they became fully awake they saw his glory. (v. 32)
The Disney film Tangled is about a lost princess who embarks on a journey to discover her true identity. Along the way she picks up a companion. When her royal heritage is revealed, he is first awed, but then he feels awkward, unsure how to relate to her.
Luke 9 includes the account of the transfiguration. This event is prefaced by Jesus’s statement to his disciples: “I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God” (v. 27). Shortly thereafter, Jesus leads three of them to a mountaintop. There, they see Jesus in a radical new light. It’s not that Jesus becomes someone different so much as Jesus’s identity is fully revealed. Having seen Jesus in the light of heaven, the disciples are unsure how to relate to him.
How should we relate to Jesus? As an accessible, empathetic human companion, or as a heavenly conqueror and king? He is both. He came to reclaim lost people. He also came to reestablish heaven’s authority on earth. He is the friend who offers his undivided attention. He is also the king who demands our undivided devotion. The transfiguration gives us a glimpse of Jesus’s true nature: he is fully human and fully God. It also provides a preview of a restored creation: earth and heaven brought together in the presence of its rightful ruler. Jesus, your friend and Savior on earth is also Jesus, the King of heaven. When we embrace him for all that he is, we experience his kingdom on earth.
As you pray, find comfort in Jesus’s friendship and his kingship.
About the Author
Ben Van Arragon
Ben Van Arragon is a preacher and writer based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He preaches and teaches the Bible in church, online, and anywhere else he has the opportunity.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rev. First Last
David Bast is a writer and pastor who served for 23 years as the President and Broadcast Minister for Words of Hope. In his more than 40 years of devotional writing and preaching, he has been encouraging believers around the world to be shaped by God and his Word.
Prior to his ministry and work at Words of Hope, Dave served as a pastor for 18 years in congregations in the Reformed Church in America. A graduate of Hope College and Western Theological Seminary, he is the author of nine devotional books and Bible studies, including Why Doesn’t God Act More Like God, Christ in the Psalms, and A Gospel for the World.
Dave and his wife, Betty Jo, have four children and eight grandchildren. Dave enjoys reading, growing tomatoes, and avidly follows the Detroit Tigers.
Jesus Is Accursed!
Read: 1 Corinthians 12:1-3 Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God. (Isa. 53:4) Imagine that you are part of a gathering for worship at a Jewish synagogue in a typical first-century Greek city—let’s say Corinth—in AD 50, give or
A Man of Sorrows
Read: John 11:32-43 . . . a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. (Isa. 53:3) Some people are spared much of the pain and sorrow of life. For them the sun always seems to be shining. They live and
Rejected
Read: Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men. (v. 3) Of all the pains life can hold, among the bitterest is the pain and hurt of rejection. Some of us have tasted that and the effects still linger.
The Anonymous Messiah
Read: Acts 8:26-39 Who is the prophet talking about? (v. 34 NIV) When the Messiah would come into the world, says Isaiah, he wouldn’t “fit the profile.” He wouldn’t stand head and shoulders above the crowd like King Saul. He
The Ugliness of Jesus
Read: Isaiah 52:13-53:2 He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. (v. 2 NIV) Isaiah is sometimes called the fifth gospel. Though written centuries before, the portrait of
Dying with Christ, Living with Christ
Read: Romans 6:1-11 If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. (2 Tim. 2:11-12) You are likely familiar with talk about Jesus’s death on the cross. Christ