Daily Devotion
Brief, Scripture-centered readings to help you meet Christ at the start of each day. Free, and sent to your inbox.
- A passage and a short meditation
- A verse to carry through the day
- A question and a prayer
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He Always Finishes What He Starts
Ezra 6:22 (CSB)"They observed the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days with joy, because the LORD had made them joyful, having changed the Assyrian king's attitude toward them, so that he supported them in the work on the house of the God of Israel." Ezra calls...
Turn From Sin and Come Eat
Ezra 6:21 (CSB)"The Israelites who had returned from exile ate it, together with all who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the Gentiles of the land in order to worship the LORD, the God of Israel." The exiles kept Passover in the first month, and the...
Twelve Goats for Twelve Tribes
Ezra 6:17 (CSB)"For the dedication of God's house they offered one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, and four hundred lambs, as well as twelve male goats as a sin offering for all Israel — one for each Israelite tribe." Add the animals up. The dedication offering came...
Whose Command Finished the House
Ezra 6:14 (CSB)"So the Jewish elders continued successfully with the building under the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo. They finished the building according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius, and King...
The Opposition Runs Errands
Ezra 6:13 (CSB)"Then Tattenai governor of the region west of the Euphrates River, Shethar-bozenai, and their colleagues diligently carried out what King Darius had decreed." Tattenai came to shut the work down. He was the Persian inspector over the region west of the...
He Turns Fast Into Feast
Zechariah 8:19 (CSB)"The LORD of Armies says this: 'The fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth will become times of joy, gladness, and cheerful festivals for the house of Judah. Therefore, love truth and...
Streets Safe for Eight and Eighty
Zechariah 8:4-5 (CSB)"The LORD of Armies says this: 'Old men and women will again sit along the streets of Jerusalem, each with a staff in hand because of advanced age. The streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in them.'" Notice who moves...
Hearts Like a Rock
Zechariah 7:11 (CSB)"But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they closed their ears so they could not hear." Stiffening the shoulder is the picture of an ox refusing the yoke. He plants his weight against it and will not take it on. That is...
Your Neighbor Needs Your Good Works
Zechariah 7:9-10 (CSB)"The LORD of Armies says this: 'Make fair decisions. Show faithful love and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the resident alien or the poor, and do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.'" God had...
Did You Really Fast for Me?
Zechariah 7:5 (CSB)"Ask all the people of the land and the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and in the seventh months for these seventy years, did you really fast for me?" A delegation from Bethel travels up to Jerusalem with one question. For...
The Word That Always Catches Up
Zechariah 1:6 (CSB)"But didn't my words and my statutes that I commanded my servants the prophets overtake your ancestors?" God asks whether His word overtook the generations before them, and the answer is written in the rubble of Jerusalem. It did. What He had sent...
The Clock You Don’t Control
Zechariah 1:5 (CSB)"Where are your ancestors now? And do the prophets live forever?" God asks a question that lands like a cold hand. Where are your ancestors now? And do the prophets live forever? It is rhetorical, and everyone knows the answer. They are dead. They...