Daily Devotion for September 1, 2026
Prayers
Scripture
Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.
Our “Contemporary Tuesday” music continues with a song from Natalie Grant that I really love! Have you ever felt like nobody was there?
Have you ever felt like nobody was there?
Have you ever felt forgotten in the middle of nowhere?
Have you ever felt like you could disappear?
Like you could fall, and no one would hear?
Well, let that lonely feeling wash away;
Maybe there's a reason to believe you'll be okay.
'Cause when you don't feel strong enough to stand,
You can reach, reach out your hand.
And oh, someone will coming running,
And I know, they'll take you home.
Refrain:
Even when the dark comes crashing through,
When you need a friend to carry you.
And when you're broken on the ground
You will be found.
So let the sun come streaming in
'Cause you'll reach up and you'll rise again,
Lift your head and look around
You will be found. (x4)
There's a place where we don't have to feel unknown
And every time that you call out
You're a little less alone
If you only say the word
From across the silence your voice is heard.
Music and Lyrics by Benj Pasek / Justin Paul
For a Day Filled with Joy
Oh Father God in heaven: What a great day! Thank you, thank you, thank you for this and every day when I have woken up, with my heart beating and my mind able to read and think.
Whatever physical limitations I may have, whatever aches and pains or illnesses I have this day, they can never diminish the greatness of life itself and the great world in which I have found myself. For I know, I did not earn the millions of little blessings that a human life requires: every cell, every strand of DNA, every bone and every muscle in my body is a gift. I did not make them, nor the air or water or sunshine that keeps them alive.
By the power of your Holy Spirit, fill my heart with joy for all that I have been given. Help me to shoulder the burdens of my life with strength and courage, finding my solace in your promise of eternal life. I look forward in absolute faith to the glorious new body that all of Christ’s children have been promised; but I pray to enjoy this not-so-glorious body, to see all of its wonders and remember that, being a gift, I am in no position to complain about its imperfections. Let me enjoy my life while I have it, great Lord. Let me celebrate all the little things I take for granted.
Bless also all the other people of this earth, O Lord, that they may be filled with the joy of life, and especially know the life eternal which can come only from your Son, Jesus Christ.
Prayer for a Loving Heart
Lord God, give me a compassionate heart, quickly moved to grieve for the woes of others and to active pity for them, even as our Lord Jesus Christ beheld our poverty and hasted to help us. Give me grace ever to alleviate the crosses and difficulties of those around me, and never to add to them; teach me to be a consoler in sorrow, to take thought for the stranger, the widow, and the orphan; let my charity show itself not in words only but in deed and truth.
Meditation
“The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.”
~ John 7:18
Benediction
Be merciful, O Lord, to those who have entrusted me, an unworthy sinner, to pray for them. Be merciful, O Lord, to all who ask Your help. O Lord, make this day a day of Your mercy; give to each according to their petition. Be the Shepherd of the lost, the Guide of Light of unbelievers, the Teacher of the unwise, the Father of orphans, the Helper of the oppressed, the Healer of the sick, the Comforter of the dying, and lead us all to the desired end — to You, our refuge and blessed repose. Thus I pray, in the name of Christ,
Think of the day ahead in terms of God with you, and visualize health, strength, guidance, purity, calm confidence, and victory as the gifts of His presence.
Do We Love God?
The acid test of our love for God is obedience to His Word.
~ Bob Jones, Sr.
Exodus 16:9-21 (ESV)
Bread from Heaven [2]
hen Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, ‘Come near before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.’” And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord said to Moses, “I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’”
In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground.
An omer
When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer [two quarts], according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.’”
And the people of Israel did so. They gathered, some more, some less. But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat.
And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over till the morning.” But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.
Notes on the Scripture
God is teaching the Hebrews to trust him every day afresh. He is reforming their minds to think about their provisioning for their journey — their daily bread — in a way that is not natural to them (or anyone). And His method reflects a more fundamental change in their minds.
Asherah
Today’s ten-dollar word is “syncretism”, which means adopting thoughts from different schools and melding them into a new one. The Hebrews’ minds have been formed in a world where religion was polytheistic and syncretist. If a new god was adopted by a powerful minority in Egypt, Egyptian priests could simply slot the new god into their existing system, modifying their beliefs slightly in order to accommodate and include the new-god-worshipers into the mainstream.
But Yahweh has no truck with syncretism. The true God deals in one absolute, unyielding truth.
He is, however, sympathetic to human psychology. The Hebrews are not praying to Yahweh for sustenance; they are complaining. (Kvetching, as it were.) And yet, God hears them and answers them as if they had fallen on their faces in humility and faith.
Anyone with basic knowledge of the human mind realizes how hard fundamental change can be. People cling to what they learned as children, and the older we get, the harder it is to change. Thus He is gentle, gradual, patient.
The instructions that come from Moses and Aaron are not insights or decisions, not the product of experience and leadership; they are prophesy. God is training the Hebrews to hear prophesy and then witness it coming true. He is slowly reforming their fundamental view of the world.
It is an instructive lesson for every person, because in order to find God, it is something that each of us must undergo as an individual. Trust in God does not come naturally, for our minds learn first from our senses, and lead us to learn how to deal with the world. We do have superstitious instincts, but we cannot trust those, either; there are many things God has not promised, and the wild imaginings of the uninformed spirit fall easily into the hands of evil.
