Daily Devotional from Nehemiah 13—Verse 18Did not your fathers act in this way, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.Throughout Israel’s history, they neglected to follow God’s instructions for righteous living. The reading and teaching of the Law was neglected and ignored. This resulted in intermarri...  Read More

Daily Devotional from Nehemiah 10—Verse 39bWe will not neglect the house of our God.When the Israelites returned from Babylon after 70 years in exile, they read God’s law (the first five books of the Bible) to be reminded of how God expected them to live and behave as His chosen people. They were grieved to find out just how poorly their forefathers had measured up.In order to avoid another exile,...  Read More

Daily Devotional from Nehemiah 6--Verse 3I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?Sometimes people will try to sucker you into a fight. Don’t play that game. Don't strive with people. Don't stand toe to toe with your adversary. What’s the point of winning an argument and losing your focus? That’s what you would call a fool’s err...  Read More

Daily Devotional from Nehemiah 5--Verse 11Return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the percentage of money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them.God cares about those in need. In Chapter 5 we see that many needy Israelites were being taken advantage of by their own people! Nehemiah was extremely troubled by this, ...  Read More

Daily Devotional from Nehemiah 2— Verses 4-5Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' graves, that I may rebuild it.”I love this, before he responded to the king he prayed to God. Do you ever have thos...  Read More

Daily Devotional from Ezra 10—Verses 5-7aAt the evening offering, I got up from my time of humiliation, with my tunic and robe torn. Then I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God. And I said:My God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face toward you, my God, because our iniquities are higher than our heads and our guilt is as high as the heavens. Our guilt has been terrib...  Read More

Daily Devotional from Ezra 8—Verse 22For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king, “The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.”Darius, king of Persia, obeying an edict made by a former king, tasked Ezra to lead willing Israelites back ...  Read More

Daily Devotional from Ezra 4—Verse 4Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build…When God directs his people to do a work for him, there are often detractors, hold-ups, bumps in the road, and all manner of distractions to discourage us from completing the work. But perseverance is built when you have to work against forces that are working against you. ...  Read More

Daily Devotional from 2 Chronicles 36--Verse 15The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people. It’s interesting that the Lord should even use messengers. I mean he can take care of it himself, but often doesn’t. He sends other people to get the message through. And I can’t tell you how many times the Lord has sent his messen...  Read More

Daily Devotional from 2 Chronicles 34-- Verse 26b-27Thus says the LORD…because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and its inhabitants, and you have humbled yourself before me and have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the LORD. Josiah was a very young king, but he deeply desired to honor God. Eve...  Read More

Daily Devotional from 2 Chronicles 32--Verses 25-26But Hezekiah did not make return according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was proud. Therefore wrath came upon him and Judah and Jerusalem. But Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah.Even though king Hezek...  Read More

Daily Devotional from 2 Chronicles 30--Verses 18-20A large number of the people...were ritually unclean, yet they had eaten the Passover contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah had interceded for them, saying, “May the good Lord provide atonement on behalf of whoever sets his whole heart on seeking God, the Lord, the God of his ancestors, even though not according to the purification rules of t...  Read More