“‘“. . . but deliver us from evil”’” (Matthew 6:13).

If you realize the great danger that temptation poses to your soul, this petition will be a plea for God to provide a protection you can’t give for yourself. You will ask God to watch over your entire being so that in whatever you do or say, see or hear, and wherever you go, He will guard you from sin.

Joseph understood that even though ungodly forces intend certain things for our evil, God can use those things for good (Gen. 50:20). But we may not react to every such situation as Joseph did. Therefore we must seize the promise that “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it” (1 Cor. 10:13; cf. John 17:15).

When you sincerely pray “deliver us from evil,” you implicitly submit to your only protection from sin, God’s Word. “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). Submitting to God is in essence submitting to His Word. “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You” (Ps. 119:11).
In a fallen world we are inadequate to deal with sin’s powerful effects. Therefore we must confess the weakness of our flesh and the absolute powerlessness of our own resources to rescue us from sin’s grasp.

From Daily Readings from the Life of Christ, Vol. 1, John MacArthur. Copyright © 2008. Used by permission of Moody Publishers, Chicago, IL 60610,

Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, ‘Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.’ 2 Kings 5:2-3

Suffering in and of itself does not lead a person into a deeper relationship with God. As with those who hear the word of God yet do not respond to it with faith, suffering divorced from faith and hope will actually embitter us as our hearts grow harder rather than softer toward God. In other words, suffering will either make us run to God or away from Him. In the midst of trials, we must ask ourselves, “Is this trial making me bitter and callous, or is it making me loving and gentle?”

In the midst of the book of 2 Kings, among the stories of monarchs and prophets, we find an extraordinary picture of gentleness and humility in the face of great heartache through the example of a little Israelite girl. The Syrians had captured this young girl during a raid; they had carried her away from her family and from Israel and had forced her to work in the service of Naaman, a commander in the Syrian army. What an unfathomable tragedy for a young child and her family! 

Yet in the midst of her great suffering, we catch a glimpse of her tender heart: upon learning that her master suffered from leprosy, this child told Naaman’s wife how he could be healed. If she had allowed herself to become embittered, then, when the word went around the house that her master was sick, she might have concluded, Well, it’s nothing more than what he deserves. But she didn’t. She wanted the best for her enemy, rather than hoping for the worst. This is remarkable. How could she do this? Because presumably, in the face of her emptiness and the sadness of being separated from her family, she had turned time and time again to her loving God and His promises. 

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotional by Alistair Begg, published by The Good Book Company. Used by Truth For Life with permission. Copyright © 2021, The Good Book Company.

All who believed were together and had all things in common. Acts 2:44

One of the greatest attractions of the early church in the eyes of the surrounding pagan world was its communal lifestyle. What was it that united such diverse people—Gentiles and Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians and Scythians, slaves and free men (Colossians 3:11)? Jesus Christ. There was no real explanation for the commonality of these Christians’ lives together apart from Him. 

From those days until now, the church has always been united in a unique fellowship marked by several commonalities. First is its common faith. The early church did not gather on the basis of ethnicity, education, interests, or anything else; instead, they brought all of their diverse lives under a shared faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior. Today, Communion remains an eloquent expression of this same unity; there is one loaf and one cup for us to partake from as one body. Jesus is the Bread of life, who sustains and unites us. 

Second, we have a common family. When we believe in Jesus as our Savior, we are welcomed into His family with other believers, having the same heavenly Father. This familial bond transcends that of even earthly families, because the family of faith is eternal. As such, we should look after the interests of our spiritual brothers and sisters. For us as believers not to love one another would be not only sad but contradictory: “Whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:21).

Third, by God’s grace, the true church also experiences common feeling. We see a lesser version of this at sporting events: each individual fan is different, but together they share a common feeling, conviction, and goal. Sometimes they are lifted up together and sometimes they are deflated together. Similarly, as members of one family, we share in each other’s joy, peace, pain, and sorrow. As Paul put it, “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Corinthians 12:26). Paul’s metaphor in that chapter is of the church as a body: as believers we are different, and we have varying strengths and weaknesses, and so we make up a body that works better together than apart. My limitations and weaknesses are complemented by your strengths, and vice versa. 

All families have their difficulties and struggles, and we are all sinners; so it is easy to forget the privilege of belonging to the people of God. When was the last time you thanked your Father for your church family? When was the last time you looked round on a Sunday at your brothers and sisters gathered together and allowed yourself to be buoyed by knowing that this is what you are, by grace, a part of?

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotional by Alistair Begg, published by The Good Book Company. Used by Truth For Life with permission. Copyright © 2021, The Good Book Company.

Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Psalm 100:3

The book of Psalms has been described as a medicine chest for our souls. In it we can find laments for the downtrodden, cries to God in trying times, and offerings of praise and thanksgiving. Whatever ails you, you will find balm in the Psalter.

Woven throughout the psalms of praise in particular is this foundational truth: the Lord is God and we are His. Our very existence as God’s people is an indication of who He is. Once we weren’t a people, but now we are a people. Once we hadn’t received mercy, but now we receive mercy daily (1 Peter 2:10).

The truth of the matter is that we are not our own. We never were. We are image-bearing creatures formed by a mighty Creator. He is the Potter who fashioned us, and “we are his.” Further, we are redeemed sinners, “bought with a price” by a loving Savior (1 Corinthians 6:20). He is the Shepherd who gave His life for us and now tends to us (John 10:11-15), and “we are his.” We are twice-bought: in creation and in redemption, we are His. 

Therefore, what is now ours in the Lord Jesus Christ is not an occasion for pride but for praise. Knowing that the Lord is God and that we are His will prompt us to praise and thank Him (Psalm 100:3).

Praise is the spontaneous acknowledgment of what is valuable. People naturally praise what they treasure. God is our Maker and our Redeemer, and He is therefore entitled to and worthy of our praise. No one and nothing deserves your praise more than Him.

Even in less-than-ideal circumstances, we still have reason to praise God simply because of who He is. When we bid farewell to a loved one or we lose a job that provides our earthly comforts, we can still choose to praise Him. When our voices are choked with tears, when our hearts fail us, when our circumstances frustrate us, when life seems to let us down—we may still find in God’s “steadfast love” that “endures forever” (Psalm 100:5) endless reason for joyful worship and thankful praise. He is never less than your mighty Creator and loving Savior.

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotional by Alistair Begg, published by The Good Book Company. Used by Truth For Life with permission. Copyright © 2021, The Good Book Company.

If while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. Romans 5:10

God is not a kindly grandfather or a cosmic Santa Claus who just gives out gifts and who is really not much concerned with anything else. 

No—He is holy, and He is righteous. So humans, because of our sin, are alienated from God. A hostility exists between humanity and our Creator. This is not a message that you hear very often, and it’s certainly not very palatable. But God doesn’t overlook that hostility. He never has, and He never will. Scripture is very clear on God’s disposition towards sin. Indeed, Paul describes human beings as God’s enemies, making clear that sin separates us from God. Paul’s language also echoes the psalmist’s words, which say of God, “You hate all evildoers” (Psalm 5:5)—a message that is neither pleasant to read nor easy to understand at first glance.

Where, then, is our hope? How can we ever be reconciled to God? How can God punish sin as it deserves yet still pardon sinners? 

O loving wisdom of our God!
When all was sin and shame,
A second Adam to the fight
And to the rescue came.[1]

Jesus, by His death on the cross, satisfied God’s justice. He took upon Himself both our obligation to perfectly obey God’s law and our liability for failing to do so. He then satisfied our obligation through His sinless life and canceled our liability by His sacrificial death upon the cross. When our alienation from God resulted in God’s hatred towards our sinful existence, He did not abandon us. Rather, God came and reconciled us through His Son. If this does not sound like the most incredible news of all, we have not properly understood one of the seriousness of our sin, or the reality of His judgment, or the magnitude of our salvation.

For those of us who have been Christians for a while, it is easy for familiarity to breed, if not contempt, then complacency. But the death of Christ is not just the entry point of our faith; it is our faith. So today, pause to see the second Adam, the perfect human, succeeding where the first Adam failed and defeating the devil, reversing the effects of the fall. This is the gospel. Your sins have been pardoned. You have been rescued. You are now a friend where once you were an enemy. Christ is now your confidence, your peace, and your life. 

1 John H. Newman, “The Dream of Gerontius” (1865).

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotional by Alistair Begg, published by The Good Book Company. Used by Truth For Life with permission. Copyright © 2021, The Good Book Company.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1

There was never a time when God did not exist. Before there was time, before there was anything, there was God. And since His nature is unchanging, so He has also always existed in the Trinity—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. 

When reading the Bible, we discover that each member of the Trinity was involved in creation: God the Father took the initiative, God the Spirit is described as “hovering over” the proceedings, and God the Son was the agent of creation in all that was made (Genesis 1:2-3; John 1:3). 

“All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small”[1] should leave us in awe; they were all fashioned by God’s command. And He is not only the Creator of all; He is also the Lord of all that He has created. All of nature is in His hands, under His control. As we see waves crashing against the shoreline, it’s wonderfully encouraging to know that each one is there as a result of God’s sovereign rule. He hasn’t stepped away from His creation, nor will He ever.

It’s important to remember that God is also transcendent. He is on His throne, above, beyond, and distinct from all that He has made. This is what distinguishes Christianity from pantheism, the idea that the natural world is a manifestation of God and therefore everything is somehow a part of Him. With this belief, we dare not kill a fly or step on an ant because those insects are divine. Similarly, we should not chop down a tree or eat meat, because these too are “parts of God.” Teachings like these are mistaken and misguided and tend to lead to idolatry. Scripture makes it clear that time and time again people will choose to worship “the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25). When we see a great painting, we rightly admire and enjoy the painting, and then we praise the painter. All of creation is God’s canvas, and all of it speaks of “his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature” (v 20).

FOOTNOTES. 1 Cecil F. Alexander, “All Things Bright and Beautiful” (1848).

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotional by Alistair Begg, published by The Good Book Company. Used by Truth For Life with permission. Copyright © 2021, The Good Book Company.

I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 John 2:1

Christianity hinges on the message of forgiveness. Other religions may offer moralism. They may offer methods that will help us tidy up our lives or make us feel that we are good people. Christianity, however, is for the unworthy, the lost, the beleaguered, and the sinful. It’s for people who need to hear that they can be forgiven. In other words, it’s for everyone.

From first to last, the gospel is about what God does, not about what we must do. It is God, by His mercy, who gives us the desire to even want to be forgiven—and it is only when we put our faith in Jesus that we are fully pardoned. When we turn to Him in repentance and faith, we are able to look back and say we have been saved from sin’s penalty. All that was against us, all that kept us from knowing God, all that kept us from discovering His love and His goodness—all of the penalty that we deserve—has been eradicated, erased through the saving work of God’s Son on the cross.

As believers, then, we can—we should—rejoice in the fact that sin no longer rules over us. Yet the reality is that in our earthly lives, we still sin. We still miss the mark; we still fail to reach God’s standard. And when we do, the Evil One loves to whisper, “Are you really saved? Will God really forgive you this time?” To which we must answer, “Yes, I am; and yes, He will, for the one who died for me is at this moment advocating for me.” 

Knowing forgiveness is not a license to sin; indeed, John wrote with the purpose “that you may not sin.” When we sin, the joy we have found in God begins to fade. While He remains our heavenly Father, it should be no surprise that if we harbor sin, we will fail to enjoy all the blessings He intends for us. 

And so we seek to live in obedience to our Lord, and yet, since we will not do so perfectly, we also must live in repentance to our Lord. Jesus underscored the need for and importance of daily repentance in John 13 when, while He was in the midst of washing His disciples’ feet, Peter protested and said, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus responded, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me” (13:8). Forgiveness is not ours until we are washed by Jesus, and then He continues to wash us through our daily repentance and faith. 

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotional by Alistair Begg, published by The Good Book Company. Used by Truth For Life with permission. Copyright © 2021, The Good Book Company.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed. 2 Timothy 2:15

Whose praise are you living for? 

By nature, we desire the approval of others. But, as believers, the approval we should long for above all else is the approval of God Himself. It is worth pausing to consider the awesome truth that, today, what we do can bring pleasure to the God who sustains the universe (1 Thessalonians 4:1), and that one day, He will greet those who have lived all out for Him with the wonderful words, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21, 23). Just imagine hearing those words, directed to you, from divine lips!

How, then, are we to live “as one approved” by God—as “a worker who has no need to be ashamed”?

First and foremost, we must determine to keep the faith to the very end. Paul, rounding the bend on his final lap, declared to Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). Paul’s life was not characterized by short bursts of enthusiasm followed by periods of chronic inertia. He understood that the race of faith was a lifelong marathon to the end.

We don’t want to be known for little spurts every now and then. We especially must avoid being those who only do God’s work when other Christians are watching us. Instead, we want to run hard every day, remembering that God’s eye is always upon us. 

As we press on in faith, we can remember that we are promised a “crown of righteousness” that has been “laid up” for us, “which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award” to us (2 Timothy 4:8). And we must remember that we do not run in our own strength. Rather, we are to have every confidence that “he who began a good work in [us] will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). God promises never to leave us or forsake us along the way (Hebrews 13:5). If the finish line looks a long way away, we are called not to focus on the tape but to look to Jesus, keeping our eyes fixed on the “founder and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). 

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotional by Alistair Begg, published by The Good Book Company. Used by Truth For Life with permission. Copyright © 2021, The Good Book Company.

1 Attributed to Edward Everett Hale.

Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

The proof of Christianity lies in its power. Only the power of Christ can take men and women, lost to shame, and make them sons and daughters of God. There is no depth of guilt to which someone can plummet or degree of humiliation someone can feel that puts them beyond God’s forgiving grace. 

As he concludes a long, ugly list, Paul states, “Such were some of you.” This statement is a shout of triumph, not of remorse. It is past tense, not present. Why? Because of Jesus’ transforming power. No man can change himself; no woman can change herself—but Jesus can change them! 

Do we actually believe a total personal transformation can happen? We are tempted to offer people cosmetic fixes but tell them they must now limp through the rest of their lives as a result of former sins, or to assure them that they are saved by grace but must now work hard to change themselves. Where did we get these messages? Did Jesus tell people, I’ll touch your life and change you, but I want you to know that you’ll only be changed a wee bit—now it’s up to you? No! He said, I’ll make you brand-new from the inside out. I’ll transform you, liberate you, change you. That’s Jesus’ message. And that was the testimony of these Corinthian Christians. They were one kind of person—sinful, facing judgment. But then they were transformed. Now they were different. So how does this transformation begin? With a clear view of our own sin. If I don’t know myself to be sinful, how could I ever know myself to be saved? We must each face the depths of our own depravity so that when God’s word tells us that Jesus came to rescue people from every trial and entanglement of life and give them His Spirit to change them from inside out, we will reach out for Him with both hands. That’s salvation! That’s transformation!

Every Christian is living evidence of the fact that God changes lives. There are men and women everywhere who are living proofs of Christ’s re-creating, life-transforming power. Are we prepared, then, to have a church full of people who were once sexually immoral, adulterers, drunks, and swindlers? And are we prepared to acknowledge that this is what we ourselves were but no longer are, and all by grace? Or do we just want churches of people properly put together—fairly acceptable individuals who really believe they have no need of Jesus? 

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotional by Alistair Begg, published by The Good Book Company. Used by Truth For Life with permission. Copyright © 2021, The Good Book Company.

Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. (Hebrews 4:1-2)

Too often Christians are terrific at leisure but lousy at resting. Why? One reason may be because Western culture places a high premium on the relentless pursuit of higher and higher levels of success and prosperity. Even our leisure is full of “pursuits” and a desire to improve and achieve. And underneath this lies the affliction of every culture: our alienation from the God who created us and made us both to work and to rest.

When sin entered the world, rest eluded mankind. Whatever else you might say about humanity, it is undeniable that we are not marked by tranquility or restfulness. Leisure is not rest if you have worked so hard to achieve only a few moments of peace or if you fill your leisure time with things to do. Surely there is something more God desires.

God offers a rest that soothes our souls. Soul-rest flows from a life surrendered to Him in faith. When the dust of death, which came from sin, settled upon humanity, we could no longer enjoy the deeper rest God intended. We need a new creation—and this is exactly what God has provided! “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). In creation God established the principle of physical rest, and in redemption He established the possibility of perfect spiritual rest. Yet even so, people of all walks of life—even some professing Christians—insist on living their lives with a disregard for God. They spurn His invitation to rest their souls, remaining only hearers of the word but not doers (James 1:22), and then they hope to enter into their rest when they die. The Bible holds out no hope for such an approach to life. Just as the Israelites in the wilderness found God’s promises of no benefit because they failed to believe them, we similarly can’t expect to know God’s gift of soul-rest, in this life or in the one to come, if we continue in our own faithless striving.

Thankfully, everything resolves in Jesus. He cuts through the facade of empty religious pretense and desperate worldly striving and offers us a gracious invitation: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28-29). This is a rest that we enjoy even as we work, a rest that enables us truly to rest from our work, and a rest that we will one day enjoy fully, finally, and eternally in His presence. 

Devotional material is taken from Truth For Life: 365 Daily Devotions by Alistair Begg. Copyright © 2021, The Good Book Company. Used by Truth For Life with written permission.