November 7, 2025

READ: Numbers 27:1-7 

The Lord said to [Moses], “What Zelophehad’s daughters are saying is right. You must certainly give them property.” Numbers 27:6-7

“No matter where you are, what you’re going through; use what you have and make the most of it,” said the young woman in a TV interview. Her words prompted me to listen carefully to the full story. I learned that she was one of six sisters working toward nursing degrees. They were once homeless and struggling, yet they worked together to reach their common goal. And at the time the story aired, all six sisters were completing the nursing program at a local university.

Numbers 27 tells the story of another group of sisters who worked together and supported each other. The five daughters of Zelophehad made an appeal about an inheritance law. They gathered together and stood before Moses to plead their case, saying, “Our father died . . . for his own sin and left no sons. . . . Give us property among our father’s relatives” (vv. 3-4). God answered with this revolutionary statement: “What Zelophehad’s daughters are saying is right. You must certainly give them property as an inheritance” (v. 7).

The five sisters came together and sought God’s mercy as they stood before Moses. And God provided what they needed as they banded together before Him.

Working together isn’t always easy as believers in Jesus. But as we seek God’s wisdom and direction with humility, we’ll find He can help us serve well together in Christ.

— Katara Patton

Dear God, please show me how to work with other believers to accomplish goals that honor You.

Source: Our Daily Bread

November 3, 2025

READ: Ephesians 2:12-22 

In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. Ephesians 2:21

Andy Goldsworthy’s Grand Rapids Arch sits on the side of a road as if striding alongside travelers. The artist created the eighteen-foot-tall, free-standing arch with thirty-six blocks of Scottish sandstone without using mortar or pins. The ascending angled stones, each one different and cut to fit together, depend on pressure created by a wedge-shaped keystone—the top center stone—to remain perfectly intact. The keystone is essential to holding the structure together, much like a cornerstone.

The sculpture reminded me of how Jesus serves as “the chief cornerstone” of His diverse church (Ephesians 2:20). The gentiles—all non-Jewish people—were once “excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world” (v. 12). Jesus made “the two groups one” and “destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility” (v. 14). He created “one new humanity,” and “in one body [reconciled] both of them to God through the cross,” giving them all “access to the Father by one Spirit” (vv. 15-16, 18). 

Christ builds us up as a church “in which God lives by his Spirit” (v. 22). He sculpts each unique person, connects us to Him and to each other through Him, and walks with us. The church is joined by Jesus.

— Xochitl Dixon

Dear Jesus, please strengthen my connection with You and the members of Your diverse family. Learn more about having a personal relationship with God.

Source: Our Daily Bread

November 1, 2025

READ: Revelation 7:9-10, 13-17  

There before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. Revelation 7:9

In 2010, nearly four thousand believers in Jesus gathered in Cape Town, South Africa. Participants from 198 countries were represented at the conference—a gathering considered to be the most representative meeting of the Christian church in the two thousand years since Jesus walked the earth.

There will come a day when a gathering needn’t be “representative” because all believers will be together. John, in a vision from God, describes it this way: “I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb . . . and they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne’ ” (Revelation 7:9-10).

Our local churches may not always reflect the diversity that exists in God’s eternal kingdom. Sometimes that’s the result of factors outside our control—other times we may be drawn to worship with those we perceive to be similar to ourselves culturally, generationally, politically, and economically.

But we honor God when we embrace—and even seek out—the beautiful differences He has endowed to His children. They offer a foretaste of that diverse, heavenly gathering when all those who trust in Jesus’ sacrifice will worship Him together.

— Kirsten Holmberg

Thank You, God, for the opportunity to worship You with those who are different from me-both now and in eternity.

Source: Our Daily Bread

October 30, 2025

READ: Genesis 45:12-15, 21-27 

[Joseph] kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Genesis 45:15

In the early 1930s, Cleo McVicker came up with a product that could be used as wallpaper cleaner. Back then, most homes were heated by coal, and walls became covered in soot. Cleo’s invention could be rolled over wallpaper and would pick up the grime. Well, the wallpaper cleaner never became popular, but decades later, a teacher used Cleo’s product in her classes to create Christmas ornaments. From that was born a new company—Rainbow Crafts—and the wallpaper cleaner was repurposed as a children’s toy: “Play-Doh.”

On a far greater scale, God has a way of repurposing people. We remember the biblical story of Joseph and his “coat of many colors.” As a young man, he was a lowly shepherd and was sold into slavery by his brothers. But God led Joseph through great difficulties and into the top ranks of government. Eventually Joseph became “repurposed” as “the ruler of all Egypt” (Genesis 45:26). Yet Joseph’s calling was not about power but about grace—something he extended to his brothers as he forgave them (v. 15).

In a sense, all of us are “failed products.” It’s through “the grace of a Son,” Jesus, that we are repurposed into greater things. As you do life today, think of your higher purpose and remember to extend grace to others, just as Christ does for us.

— Kenneth Petersen

Dear God, if I’ve forgotten the grace You’ve called me to, please remind me and help me extend it to others.

Source: Our Daily Bread

October 26, 2025

READ: 2 Samuel 9:1-7, 13 

[Mephibosheth] always ate at the king’s table; he was lame in both feet. 2 Samuel 9:13

There’s a poignant scene near the end of Frederick Buechner’s historical novel Brendan. The character Gildas stands up to reveal one of his legs missing from the knee down. As he reaches for his walking stick, he loses his balance. Brendan leaps up and catches him.

“I’m as crippled as the dark world,” Gildas says. “If it comes to that, which one of us isn’t?” Brendan replies. “To lend each other a hand when we’re falling. Perhaps that’s the only work that matters in the end.”

In 2 Samuel 9, we find King David desiring to show kindness to anyone still living from the house of Saul (v. 1). There is one, Mephibosheth, “a son of Jonathan; he is lame in both feet” (v. 3). Mephibosheth is ushered into the king’s presence, where he hears these words: “I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table” (v. 7). And he always did.

Scripture is full of unforgettable stories of David and giants and armies and kings and kingdoms—the stuff of movies. But the Bible also remembers this poignant kindness shown toward a person in need—the story of someone lending a hand to another.

After all the big, flashy scenes fade, it’s possible that kindness such as David extended to Mephibosheth is the work that matters most in the end. Lending a hand is the kind of work you and I can be about each and every day.

— John Blase

Compassionate God, please show me the one in my life that I can lend a hand to.

Source: Our Daily Bread