YouthVision International Inc.

05/31/2026

05/31/2026

Put God First

Jesus did not commit Himself to them…for He knew what was in man.
JOHN 2:24-25
Put Trust in God First. Our Lord never put His trust in any person. Yet He was never suspicious, never bitter, and never lost hope for anyone, because He put His trust in God first. He trusted absolutely in what God’s grace could do for others. If I put my trust in human beings first, the end result will be my despair and hopelessness toward everyone. I will become bitter because I have insisted that people be what no person can ever be— absolutely perfect and right. Never trust anything in yourself or in anyone else, except the grace of God.

Put God’s Will First. “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God” (Hebrews 10:9).

A person’s obedience is to what he sees to be a need— our Lord’s obedience was to the will of His Father. The rallying cry today is, “We must get to work! The heathen are dying without God. We must go and tell them about Him.” But we must first make sure that God’s “needs” and His will in us personally are being met. Jesus said, “…tarry…until you are endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). The purpose of our Christian training is to get us into the right relationship to the “needs” of God and His will. Once God’s “needs” in us have been met, He will open the way for us to accomplish His will, meeting His “needs” elsewhere.

Put God’s Son First. “Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me” (Matthew 18:5).

God came as a baby, giving and entrusting Himself to me. He expects my personal life to be a “Bethlehem.” Am I allowing my natural life to be slowly transformed by the indwelling life of the Son of God? God’s ultimate purpose is that His Son might be exhibited in me.
~MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST

05/28/2026

05/26/2026

Thinking of Prayer as Jesus Taught

Pray without ceasing…
1 THESSALONIANS 5:17
Our thinking about prayer, whether right or wrong, is based on our own mental conception of it. The correct concept is to think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts. Our blood flows and our breathing continues “without ceasing”; we are not even conscious of it, but it never stops. And we are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect oneness with God, but if we are obeying Him, He always is. Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life of the saint. Beware of anything that stops the offering up of prayer. “Pray without ceasing…”— maintain the childlike habit of offering up prayer in your heart to God all the time.

Jesus never mentioned unanswered prayer. He had the unlimited certainty of knowing that prayer is always answered. Do we have through the Spirit of God that inexpressible certainty that Jesus had about prayer, or do we think of the times when it seemed that God did not answer our prayer? Jesus said, “…everyone who asks receives…” (Matthew 7:8). Yet we say, “But…, but….” God answers prayer in the best way— not just sometimes, but every time. However, the evidence of the answer in the area we want it may not always immediately follow. Do we expect God to answer prayer?

The danger we have is that we want to water down what Jesus said to make it mean something that aligns with our common sense. But if it were only common sense, what He said would not even be worthwhile. The things Jesus taught about prayer are supernatural truths He reveals to us.
~ MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST

05/24/2026

The Delight of Despair

When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead.
REVELATION 1:17
It may be that, like the apostle John, you know Jesus Christ intimately. Yet when He suddenly appears to you with totally unfamiliar characteristics, the only thing you can do is fall “at His feet as dead.” There are times when God cannot reveal Himself in any other way than in His majesty, and it is the awesomeness of the vision which brings you to the delight of despair. You experience this joy in hopelessness, realizing that if you are ever to be raised up it must be by the hand of God.

“He laid His right hand on me…” (Revelation 1:17). In the midst of the awesomeness, a touch comes, and you know it is the right hand of Jesus Christ. You know it is not the hand of restraint, correction, nor chastisement, but the right hand of the Everlasting Father. Whenever His hand is laid upon you, it gives inexpressible peace and comfort, and the sense that “underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27), full of support, provision, comfort, and strength. And once His touch comes, nothing at all can throw you into fear again. In the midst of all His ascended glory, the Lord Jesus comes to speak to an insignificant disciple, saying, “Do not be afraid” (Revelation 1:17). His tenderness is inexpressibly sweet. Do I know Him like that?

Take a look at some of the things that cause despair. There is despair which has no delight, no limits whatsoever, and no hope of anything brighter. But the delight of despair comes when “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells…” (Romans 7:18). I delight in knowing that there is something in me which must fall prostrate before God when He reveals Himself to me, and also in knowing that if I am ever to be raised up it must be by the hand of God. God can do nothing for me until I recognize the limits of what is humanly possible, allowing Him to do the impossible.
~ MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST

05/11/2026

There is a moment in the Old Testament that seems almost confusing the first time you read it.

The people of Israel had sinned, and poisonous serpents began biting them in the wilderness. The bites were deadly. People were dying. There was no cure, no medicine, and no human way to stop what had already entered their bodies.

Then God tells Moses to do something unexpected.

He says, “Make a bronze serpent and lift it up on a pole. Anyone who looks at it will live.”

At first glance, it feels strange.

Why a serpent?
Why bronze?
Why would healing come simply by looking?

But centuries later, Jesus reveals the meaning behind the entire story.

Speaking to Nicodemus, Jesus says,
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”

Suddenly everything changes.

This story was never just about snakes.

It was always pointing to Jesus.

The serpent represented the curse that was killing the people. Bronze throughout Scripture often symbolizes judgment. God was showing that the curse itself would be judged publicly so healing could come to everyone who looked in faith.

And that is exactly what happened at the cross.

Jesus did not become sinful.
But He became sin for us.

The full weight of guilt, shame, judgment, and death was placed upon Him so that life could be given to us.

And notice something beautiful.

The people were not told to heal themselves first.
They were not told to prove their worthiness.
They were not told to clean up before looking.

They simply had to look.

That is the Gospel.

Look and live.

Not strive and live.
Not perform and live.
Not pretend and live.

Look and live.

Religion constantly tells people to focus on themselves. Their failures. Their effort. Their ability to improve.

But grace points people somewhere else entirely.

To Jesus.

The Israelites were not healed because they looked perfectly. They were healed because of what they were looking at.

And the same is true today.

Salvation is not found in staring endlessly at your wounds. It is found in fixing your eyes on Christ.

So many people spend their lives trapped in shame because they keep looking inward instead of upward. They replay their mistakes, measure their failures, and wonder if they can ever become good enough for God.

But Jesus never said, “Fix yourself first.”

He said, “Look to Me.”

The cross was never a partial solution.

When Jesus said, “It is finished,” He meant the debt was paid in full. The curse was dealt with completely. The work was accomplished once and for all.

Just as the bronze serpent was lifted once, Jesus was lifted once for the sins of the world.

Nothing more needed to be added.

And maybe someone reading this needs to hear this today.

You do not overcome darkness by obsessing over darkness.

You overcome by beholding the Savior who defeated it.

Your past does not define you anymore.
Your failures do not get the final word.
Your wounds are not stronger than His grace.

The invitation today is the same as it was in the wilderness.

Look to Jesus.

And live.

04/30/2026

HIS LIGHT REMAINS�Anna Shain. �36 × 36 in.

02/07/2026

I only have one thing to do today.
Follow HIM.
The rest will take care of itself.