Daily Devotion for September 2, 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.
Are you ready to be happy? One of my favorites from the great Jessy Dixon.
(Highway to Heaven)
Refrain:
It’s a highway to heaven.
None can walk up there,
But the pure in heart.
It’s a highway to heaven.
I am walking up the king’s highway.
1. If you’re not walking,
Start while I’m talking.
Walking up the King’s highway.
There’s joy in knowing
With Him I’m going.
Walking up the King’s highway.
2. My way gets brighter;
My load gets lighter.
Walking up the King’s highway.
If you be confessing,
There is a blessing.
Walking up the King’s highway.
(Christ walks beside me;
His love to guide me.
Walking up the King’s highway.)
Music and Lyrics by Mary Gardner and Dr. Thomas A. Dorsey
Prayer to Abide with God
Dear Lord, as I come before you this morning, my spirit is filled with thanks that you have given me a life and filled it with meaning. Knowing that you have a purpose for me is such a gift as I cannot express; even when the world or my own thoughts fill me with feelings of worthlessness, I can turn to you and know, fully certain, that you are in charge and have filled my existence with meaning and purpose I cannot fully understand.
Lord Christ, you promised that if we love you and obey your teaching, you and the Father will make your home with us; I declare my love for you; and there is nothing I want more than to have you live with me, present in my life. Help me to follow your teaching in every way; for you have given us grace, that by your death and resurrection, we may be perfect before you. Accept my love and be with me, today and always, I pray; not by my merit, but by your grace, oh Christ, oh one true God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Simple Prayer
God of love, my prayer is simple: Your son, Jesus, suffered and died for me. I know only that I cannot have real strength unless I rely on you. I cannot feel protected from my many weaknesses until I turn to you for forgiveness and your unalterable love. Help me to share this strength, protection and love with others.
Dedication
God of mercy, swift to help: as my lips pour forth your praise, fill my heart with the peace you give to those who wait for your salvation in Jesus Christ our Lord.
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.
Today’s “Remember the Bible” Question
Where does Paul skewer Christian denominationalism with the questions, “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?”
Ezekiel 37:4-6 (NKJV)
Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them,
O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord God to these bones:
‘Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live.
Then you shall know that I am the Lord.’”
Matthew 1:18-25 (Phillips NT)
Jesus as Son of the Holy Spirit
he birth of Jesus Christ happened like this. When Mary was engaged to Joseph, just before their marriage, she was discovered to be pregnant — by the Holy Spirit. Whereupon Joseph, her future husband, who was a good man and did not want to see her disgraced, planned to break off the engagement quietly.
But while he was turning the matter over in his mind, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife! What she has conceived is conceived through the Holy Spirit, and she will give birth to a son, whom you will call Jesus (‘the Saviour’) for it is he who will save his people from their sins.”
All this happened to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet — ‘Behold, a virgin [or young woman] shall be with child, and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’. (“Immanuel” means “God with us.”)
When Joseph woke up he did what the angel had told him. He married Mary, but had no intercourse with her until she had given birth to a son. Then he gave him the name Jesus.
Notes on the Scripture
The accounts of Christ’s birth are quite different in Matthew and Luke, but both of them distinctly emphasize that he was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Matthew more emphasizes his role as king, and Luke his role as savior of all humanity, given their different audiences: Matthew to the Jews, Luke to the Gentiles. But in both cases, his birth as king and savior fulfill Hebrew prophecies.
While we believe that Mary was a virgin when Christ was conceived, her virginity is overemphasized. Paul, in his epistles, ignores the idea completely. Dwelling too much on Mary’s sexual innocence has given rise to an unintentional undercurrent that a woman is somehow tainted by sexual intercourse. That is not the message of Jesus’ birth.
The important point is that Christ was begotten of the Holy Spirit. One might easily conclude that the primary reason for Mary's virginity was to emphasize that point. She could not have gotten pregnant any other way.
This is a great truth we must always keep in mind about Jesus. He was “begotten, not made.” What this means is that He developed from a fertilized ovum, just like all of us; he was not made miraculously from a handful of clay. He was 100% human.
His biological father was the Holy Spirit of God, which brought the truth of God to men and women both directly and through the prophets. But now the Spirit has been made into flesh; a human being is the physical child of God. Jesus can therefore say, “Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)
Anyone who teaches knows how important a demonstration can be. It is one thing to tell someone how to do something; but often it is necessary to show them how it is done. The Spirit had been telling people the truth and instructing them in how to behave for many decades; but only Christ, a man just like them, could demonstrate godliness. It is as if God said, “Okay, you’re not getting this. Here, let me show you how it is done.”
Another aspect of the Holy Spirit is enabling people to know the truth when they see it; and Christ surely opened people’s eyes to the truth, because He was the truth, embodied in human flesh. (John 14:6) We are all blinded by our prejudices; our hearts are darkened by our passions and our vision clouded by our sin. But to those who believed, Christ swept away all falsehood, for now they could literally see the truth. They could touch the truth.
And finally, the Holy Spirit is the bringer of life and, perhaps more important, the restorer of life. Think of Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones, and how the Spirit resurrected those bones into living people. (Ezekiel 37:1-14) Just so, the Holy Spirit is embedded in Christ as flesh and will resurrect the dead souls of humanity and bring them back to life.
