JULY 25, 2026

   “The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it. ” 

― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

PSALM 44-46

1God is our refuge and strength,

an ever-present help in trouble.

2Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way

and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

3though its waters roar and foam

and the mountains quake with their surging.^c

ACTS 25

8Then Paul made his defense: “I have done nothing wrong against the Jewish law or against the temple or against Caesar.”9Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me there on these charges?”10Paul answered: “I am now standing before Caesar’s court, where I ought to be tried. I have not done any wrong to the Jews, as you yourself know very well. 11If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die. But if the charges brought against me by these Jews are not true, no one has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!”12After Festus had conferred with his council, he declared: “You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you will go!”

JOURNAL 

The Parable of the Talents has always been easy for me to read as a story about productivity or success, but I am beginning to see something deeper. God has entrusted every person with unique abilities, personalities, experiences, and opportunities, and those gifts are not merely tools for accomplishing great things. They are gifts whose very use honors the Giver. There is a joy that comes simply from becoming what God created me to be. Paul demonstrates this beautifully before Festus. He doesn't become someone else because he is following Christ. He doesn't abandon his intellect, his understanding of Roman law, or his ability to reason. Instead, he offers all of it back to God. His talents become instruments of obedience. That is what faith looks like. It is not pretending to be less than I am, nor striving to be more than I am. It is fully embracing the person God created me to be and faithfully placing those gifts in His service.

Psalm 46 gives the foundation for living this way: "God is our refuge and strength." Because my confidence rests in Him, I no longer have to measure my gifts by the outcomes they produce or compare them to someone else's. Whether the mountains fall into the sea or the world around me changes completely, my calling remains the same: faithfully use what God has entrusted to me today. Jesus' warning to the servant who buried his talent was not about failing to achieve extraordinary results but about allowing fear to keep him from using what he had been given. Fear buries gifts. Trust puts them to work.

The more I surrender tomorrow to God, the freer I become to pour myself completely into today. My talents are no longer a means of proving my worth or securing my future. They become acts of worship. Whether I am working, solving problems, or simply loving the people God has placed in front of me, I glorify Him by offering my best today. A life made up of faithful todays, where every gift is joyfully invested in His kingdom, is a life that echoes into eternity.

24“Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’

26“His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

 MATTHEW 25:24-27

JULY 24, 2026

  “Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done.” 

― C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer

PSALM 41-43

5Why, my soul, are you downcast?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God.(43:5)

ACTS 24

22Then Felix, who was well acquainted with the Way, adjourned the proceedings. “When Lysias the commander comes,” he said, “I will decide your case.” 23He ordered the centurion to keep Paul under guard but to give him some freedom and permit his friends to take care of his needs.

24Several days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish. He sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus. 25As Paul talked about righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, “That’s enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you.” 26At the same time he was hoping that Paul would offer him a bribe, so he sent for him frequently and talked with him.

27When two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, but because Felix wanted to grant a favor to the Jews, he left Paul in prison.

JOURNAL 

Over and over again I find myself returning to the same truth. It is there in David, in Paul, in Jesus, in James, in C.S. Lewis, and in so many of the writers and people I have admired through the years. Every day stands on its own. Every morning begins again. Yesterday's faith cannot be lived today any more than yesterday's bread can satisfy today's hunger. As Lewis wrote, "Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done." I am beginning to see that this isn't a burden. It is an invitation.

David's psalms once made me uncomfortable because they exposed just how human he was. One moment he is overwhelmed with despair, the next he is praising God. Paul appears fearless before governors and kings, yet his letters reveal a man acquainted with weakness, fear, disappointment, and a thorn that never seemed to leave. Even Jesus wept, agonized, and cried out to the Father. The common thread is not emotional control. It is daily dependence. Their strength was never found in escaping the human experience but in continually placing that experience into God's hands.

I think I spent much of my life believing maturity meant eventually reaching a place where surrender was no longer necessary, where I would become steady enough, disciplined enough, and wise enough to live above the struggle. Scripture keeps dismantling that illusion. The kingdom of God is not built by one great act of faith but by countless ordinary days lived in obedience. Each morning I surrender my hopes, fears, ambitions, and agenda. Each evening I simply trust God with what was planted. That is the rhythm of the kingdom.

When I truly embrace today as the only day I have been given, something changes. Today is no longer a bridge to some future life I hope to attain. It becomes an adventure to be fully lived with all of its uncertainty, beauty, joy, sorrow, victories, and failures. Every conversation, every lesson taught, every practice coached, every problem solved, every act of love or discipline becomes another seed planted into eternity. I may never see the harvest, but that has never been my responsibility.

Perhaps this is what it really means to be an outpost of God's kingdom. An outpost does not conquer the whole world in a day. It faithfully represents the King wherever it stands. One day at a time. One act of obedience at a time. One seed at a time. As James says, the blessing comes not from hearing the truth but from continuing in it. If I can simply live today's adventure with open hands, trusting God rather than outcomes, then today's small seeds will echo far beyond anything I will ever see this side of eternity.

25But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

JAMES 1:25

JULY 23, 2026

 “And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.” 

― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

PSALM 38-40

1I relied completely on the Lord,

and he turned toward me

and heard my cry for help.

2He lifted me out of the watery pit,

out of the slimy mud.

He placed my feet on a rock

and gave me secure footing.

3He gave me reason to sing a new song,

praising our God.

May many see what God has done,

so that they might swear allegiance to him and trust in the Lord!(40:1-3)

ACTS 23:12-35

12The next morning some Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. 13More than forty men were involved in this plot. 14They went to the chief priests and the elders and said, “We have taken a solemn oath not to eat anything until we have killed Paul. 15Now then, you and the Sanhedrin petition the commander to bring him before you on the pretext of wanting more accurate information about his case. We are ready to kill him before he gets here.”

JOURNAL 

David's psalms are striking because they never pretend faith eliminates emotion. In one breath he rejoices in God's goodness, and in the next he cries out in despair as enemies surround him. Paul lives the same reality. Assassination plots are forming around him, yet he continues walking in obedience without panic. Faith is not the absence of struggle. It is the willingness to fully live the day God has given, experiencing both joy and sorrow while remaining surrendered to Him.

I am beginning to see that every day is an adventure of faith. Some days I will feel confident, others discouraged. Some days will bring victories, others disappointments. The measure of the day is not whether I felt successful but whether I planted the right seeds. Every act of obedience, every choice to love instead of resent, every moment I surrender control rather than grasp for it becomes another seed planted in the field of my life. God alone determines the harvest, but He has promised that seeds of faith, love, and discipline will, over time, become a harvest of joy. My responsibility is not to manufacture the harvest. It is simply to keep planting.

That is what I see in David and Paul. They were not sustained by extraordinary willpower but by the Spirit of God. The same Spirit that strengthened Jesus in the wilderness, guided Joseph through betrayal, gave Moses courage before Pharaoh, sustained Daniel in exile, emboldened Peter after his failures, and steadied Paul while men plotted his death. The Spirit transforms ordinary people. It gives strength where there was weakness, courage where there was fear, forgiveness where there was bitterness, and hope where there was despair.

The mystery of the Spirit cannot be fully explained, yet its evidence is everywhere. I have seen it in Scripture, throughout history, and in my own life. Left to myself, I drift toward fear, self-reliance, and the pursuit of outcomes. But when I surrender and receive God's Spirit, I become something I could never make myself. This is the gift of adoption that Paul describes in Romans 8. I am no longer living as a slave trying to secure my future. I am a son, an heir with Christ, free to live today in obedience, trusting my Father with tomorrow. The adventure of faith is not reaching some distant destination. It is faithfully planting today's seeds and joyfully leaving the harvest in God's hands.

14For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.^f And by him we cry, “Abba,^g Father.” 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

ROMANS 8:14-17

JULY 22, 2026

  “For those who feel their lives are a grave disappointment to God, it requires enormous trust and reckless, raging confidence to accept that the love of Jesus Christ knows no shadow of alteration or change. When Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy burdened," He assumed we would grow weary, discouraged, and disheartened along the way. These words are a touching testimony to the genuine humanness of Jesus. He had no romantic notion of the cost of discipleship. He knew that following Him was as unsentimental as duty, as demanding as love.” 

― Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out

PSALM 36-37

 39The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord; he is their stronghold in time of trouble.

ACTS 23:1-11

6Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, “My brothers, I am a Pharisee, descended from Pharisees. I stand on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead.” 7When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. 8(The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees believe all these things.)9There was a great uproar, and some of the teachers of the law who were Pharisees stood up and argued vigorously. “We find nothing wrong with this man,” they said. “What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” 10The dispute became so violent that the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force and bring him into the barracks.11The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.”

JOURNAL 

Paul's life continues to challenge me because it is such a remarkable picture of what happens when a person surrenders himself to a single purpose. As I read Acts, I don't find a man haunted by what following Christ has cost him. He doesn't dwell on the reputation he lost, the comforts he surrendered, or the life he could have lived. Instead, he simply presses on. He knows his days are numbered, but that knowledge doesn't fill him with despair. It fills him with resolve. Every day is another opportunity to be faithful to the mission God has given him.

I want to learn to see my own life the same way. So often I am tempted to measure today against the future I imagined or against outcomes I hope to achieve. Yet Paul reminds me that the adventure is not found in controlling tomorrow but in faithfully walking with God today. Every morning I can lay my hopes, expectations, and plans into God's hands. In surrendering them, I don't lose hope. I actually find it. My heart is no longer divided between following Christ and protecting my own agenda. I become free to obey wherever God leads, trusting that His Spirit will provide everything I need for this day.

That is the life I want to keep learning. Not looking backward with regret or forward with anxious striving, but walking into each day with open hands, believing that every ordinary moment has been authored by God. Like Paul, I want my confidence to rest not in knowing how the story ends, but in knowing the One who writes it. If my life is surrendered to Him, then no day is wasted, no act of obedience is insignificant, and every moment becomes part of the great adventure of His Kingdom. My calling is simply to trust, to follow, and to allow His Spirit to lead me one day at a time.

37They were put to death by stoning;^e they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.

39These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

 HEBREWS 11:37-40

JULY 21, 2026

 “The story goes that a public sinner was excommunicated and forbidden entry to the church. He took his woes to God. 'They won't let me in, Lord, because I am a sinner.'

'What are you complaining about?' said God. 'They won't let Me in either.” 
― Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out

PSALM 34-35

 18The Lord is close to the brokenhearted

and saves those who are crushed in spirit. (34:18)

ACTS 22

22The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, “Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!”23As they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, 24the commander ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. He directed that he be flogged and interrogated in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this. 25As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?”

JOURNAL 

One of the things God has been slowly opening my eyes to is why surrendering outcomes changes so much. For years I thought the greatest benefit was freedom from anxiety. While that is certainly true, I am beginning to see something even deeper.

For much of my life, I avoided work that required me to be alone. Homework. Sales calls. Quiet projects. Anything that depended solely on me seemed incredibly difficult to begin. Yet put me on a team, in a classroom, on a football field, or alongside other people, and I came alive. I thrived in shared purpose but often shrank from isolation.

Looking back, I realize that when I was alone, I believed I really was alone. Every task depended on my ability, my motivation, my wisdom, and ultimately my success. The burden rested entirely on me. No wonder I avoided so many of those moments. They weren't just difficult tasks. They felt like isolated battles where I had to prove myself. But surrendering outcomes has begun to expose that lie.

When I lay down my agenda each morning and welcome God's Spirit to lead me, I am no longer approaching the day by myself. The Spirit of God actually dwells within me. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is present in the ordinary moments of my life. A phone call is no longer just my phone call. Writing a lesson plan is no longer just my creativity. Preparing for practice, answering an email, studying Scripture, or tackling a difficult project are no longer isolated efforts. They become moments of partnership with God Himself.

I wish I could say I live this way consistently, but I don't. My old patterns have a way of quietly sneaking back in. I catch myself picking outcomes back up, relying on my own strength, and feeling the familiar weight of isolation again. But every time I surrender those outcomes once more and consciously welcome God's Spirit into the work before me, something changes. The burden becomes lighter. The work becomes less about proving myself and more about participating with Him.

Perhaps this is what Paul understood so deeply. Whether he was preaching before crowds, making tents, or standing alone in chains, he was never actually alone. His confidence wasn't found in favorable circumstances or successful outcomes but in the presence of Christ within him.

That may be the greatest freedom obedience offers. It isn't simply that I stop chasing outcomes. It is that I stop living as though everything depends on me. I am no longer working in isolation. I am walking with the God who promised never to leave me, whose Spirit lives within me, transforming even the quietest and most ordinary tasks into opportunities for fellowship.

That is what makes surrender so beautiful. It doesn't merely change what I am doing. It changes who I believe is doing it with me.

4But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.^b 6Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,^c Father.” 7So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

 GALATIANS 4:4-7