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  Listen to today’s devotional Before You Forget September 29, 2026 James 5:13-16 I can't count the times someone has said to me, “Please keep me in your prayers.” Early on, I had to learn to focus myself so I would mean it when I said, "I will." Of course, I was going to pray for them. But then we finished talking. My phone rang. I remembered something else I needed to do. By evening, I couldn't quite remember what I promised to pray about. I thought about this while looking at a church prayer list. We're pretty good at lists, for sure. We collect names, print them, email them, and add new names on Sunday morning. That can be a beautiful way to remember people. But a prayer list can also just be a list. James tells the church to “Pray for one another.” He expects us to bring our lives before God together. As much as we might want to do that, I wonder if sometimes we hesitate because we think prayer needs to sound a certain way. We have to learn the right words, h...

  Listen to today’s devotional Recess is Almost Over September 28, 2026 Matthew 11:16-19 I used to be a substitute teacher, and, from time to time, I would fill in for one of the coaches. One Friday, I saw a group of kids trying to figure out what to do on their free day. Football, soccer, basketball, tag, or dodgeball were the main choices. To me, that all sounds like a fun day in elementary school. Their problem was that they couldn't decide. They argued so long about what to play that nobody really got a chance to play anything before time ran out. Jesus describes something like that in the marketplace. One group of kids says, "Let's play wedding!" The other group doesn't want to dance. "Fine, let's play funeral." They refuse to mourn. So, nobody joins in, and the game never even begins. Of course, Jesus isn't really talking about children. John the Baptist came with a hard message and a unique way of living. People said he had a demon. Jesus ...

  Listen to today’s devotional Matthew 11:28-30 It's been a couple of months since we moved. And, if you haven't moved in a while, let me tell you that you can live in a house and still not know where all the light switches are. I know I've moved. I see the proof all around me. Still, every once in a while, I pull up to H-E-B and am surprised it doesn't look like my old store. I've woken up a couple of times and needed a second to remember where I was. Moving is more than a new address. Moving also means learning a new rhythm. I wonder if that’s part of what Jesus means when he says, “Come to me,” and then, “Learn from me.” When we talk about Jesus offering us rest, we think that means a chance to stop for a while. To be sure, that's exactly what we need sometimes. But Jesus is offering more than a break before we return to the same exhausting pace. The Lord invites us to learn another way to live. And that takes practice. Jesus says his yoke is easy and his bur...

  Listen to today’s devotional James 4:11-12 “Do not speak evil against one another” is hard when they give us so many good reasons. Some people make it very easy to remember and rehearse what they did wrong. Have you ever replayed a conversation over and over, thinking about what you should have said? Then you tell somebody else what happened, and somehow the story gets a little better every time you tell it. At least, your part does. James knows we will have problems with one another. He is writing to people who share a faith and still struggle to share a life. So he does not say, “Never talk about it.” He says, “Do not speak evil against one another.” There is a difference. I may need to tell someone that I was hurt, or speak the truth. I may need help deciding what to do next. But as I do, I can also frame things the way I want because I want someone else to think less of the other person. I can choose the details that make them look their worst. I can say their name with a cer...

  Listen to today’s devotional Matthew 18:1-5 Psalm 78 calls God’s people to tell the next generation “the glorious deeds of the Lord.” We have a responsibility to hand down the faith, to teach children the stories and ways of God. But in Matthew 18, Jesus turns the classroom around. The disciples ask, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Instead of giving them a ranking, Jesus calls a child to the center. Then he says, “Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” We often say children are the future of the church. Jesus places a child in the middle of the church and says, “Pay attention. Your future depends on what this child can teach you.” In the ancient world, children had little status. So Jesus is not romanticizing childhood. He’s confronting the disciples’ hunger for importance. They want to climb the kingdom ladder, but Jesus points to someone who can’t climb it at all. “Become humble like this child.” I'm trying to fo...

  Listen to today’s devotional Numbers 11:1-3 Numbers 11 says the people complained and God started a fire! Now, many questions remain unanswered in this story. That means there are several explanations for various parts of it. Today, I am reflecting on an answer to one part of the story: The fire's location. The fire started at the edge of the camp. As we see Israel in the wilderness, remember these are not tourists taking the scenic route. In a sense, they were marching like an army. In the ancient world, an enemy would attack the outskirts of the opposing army first. The edges were the most exposed and vulnerable parts. When danger came, people moved inward, closer to the protected center. So, maybe the fire was doing more than punishing their complaints. Maybe it was calling them closer. Now, Numbers doesn't tell us what the people said. But it seems that their complaints revealed that their hearts were moving from the God who had rescued them. Take all that together, and w...