St. Paul Methodist Church

10/21/2026

1Corinthians 10:13 (NKJV) No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

I am not sure if you have ever heard someone say that God will not give you more than you can handle. I think that this is a wonderful notion, but the reality is that there are a lot of people who have put themselves into some very nasty tempting situations because of this saying. As Paul tells us here, there is no temptation under the sun that has not tempted someone else before, but we have a faithful God who is willing to protect us. There are temptations that are more powerful that we are, but these temptations are not too much for God. Through Christ and the help of the Holy Spirit, we have a means of escape when the temptation is too great for us. We just need to be willing to ask for help.

Prayer: Dear God, protect us from ourselves and our proclivity of thinking we are stronger than we actually are. Give us the desire to avoid temptation and the faith to turn to You when it is stronger than we are. This we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

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10/20/2026

John 15:16 (NKJV) You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.

I have met so many people in my life who felt that their entire life was just chance, that they were just an accident that happened in the world, and that it was just cruel fate or luck that has brought them to where they are in life and the success that they enjoy. I honestly feel sorry for someone who lives a life with this kind of attitude. Because the reality is, as Jesus tells us in this passage from John, that we have been chosen by God even before we have done anything to earn such grace and mercy. We are in this world for a reason and part of God’s plan, even if we do not want to admit it. But if we do see and accept this, we can see that fruit that is born in our lives as a gift that has been freely given and expected to be shared with others. You have a purpose in life, it is the one that God has given us, so let all do our best to make the most out of what has been given by Him.
Prayer: Dear God, please accept our thanks and praise for all that has been given to us through Christ. Help us to grow in our righteousness, so that every day is bearing fruit for You to be shared with others. This we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

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10/19/2026

Isaiah 66:13 (NKJV) As one whom his mother comforts, So I will comfort you; And you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”

As most of us already know, a young child can be having the greatest come apart that the world has ever seen, seemingly inconsolable, but all it takes is the arms of a mother, and miraculously the child is comforted. There is something special about a mother’s comfort that seems to be the standard bearer in how we understand what comfort is and how it works. Isaiah uses this understanding of a mother’s comfort to describe the even greater comfort that we find in God. Yes, what Isaiah is telling us is that there is a comfort greater than that of a mother to a child, and that is the comfort of God to each and every one of us who believes in Him. God’s comfort for this world was His Son Jesus, who came to comfort all of us by His sacrifice on the cross in Jerusalem. Knowing this should be enough to console anyone.

Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, let Your Spirit guide us to the comfort that can only be known in the loving and caring embrace of Jesus. Amen.

10/18/2026

10/16/2026

Psalms 128:2 ( NKJV) When you eat the labor of your hands, You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.

Can you remember the feeling of the first paycheck or payment you received for your first job or paid assignment? For the most part, being paid for a job well done is something that has not grown old as I have, and for the life of me I cannot understand why so many people in our society promote handouts and social welfare over good hard work and earning a day’s pay. This passage from Psalms is a reminder that God sees the hard work we put into serving Him, even when the results and the rewards are not immediately seen. Our labor in His name is never wasted, we just have to have patience because God tells us we will eventually enjoy the fruit of our labors. So never grow tired of working for God, but also don’t lean on a shovel and expect God to dig the hole for you.

Prayer: Dear God, thank You for all You give us despite not having earned much at all. Let us never tire of serving you and let us find hope and consolation in the fact that You will always bless the hands that work hard for You. Amen.

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10/15/2026

Exodus 2:24 (NKJV) So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

I pray that any person reading this devotion this morning has more patience than I do, because this is one of the things that I struggle with most in my life. Even if your impatience is only half as bad as mine take what we have here in this passage from Exodus as a reminder that our God hears all our cries and will always remain faithful to His promises to us, no matter how alone we feel or how impatient we are for change. Even when nothing seems to be changing as fast as we would like, not seeing or hearing God come to our rescue does not mean that He is not there, because it is likely He is waiting for when the time is right. We must keep trusting God that remembers His promises to us and we just have to look at the experiences of His people in captivity to see that God delivers, just not always at the time that we think is right.

Prayer: Dear God, give us patience in all things. Let us find comfort in knowing that You have given us the great Redeemer and Comforter in Jesus and the Holy Spirit so that we might have patience when we need it the most. This we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

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10/14/2026

James 2: 17 (NKJV) Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

A lot of people will argue that this passage and Paul’s teaching on salvation being a free gift of grace by God through faith are in contradiction. I argue that what James says here is complementary to Paul, not contradictory. Faith is enough for salvation, because there is no amount of work that you can do to “earn” your way into heaven. The reality is this, with true faith come good works. When we are forgiven by Christ and transformed into something new, there will be a conviction and desire to serve others (works). Works without faith is not enough, neither is faith without works. These things work together in the life of a true believer.

Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, guard us from thinking faith and works are an either-or proposition. Help us to see that Your grace is a free gift we receive through faith and that good works in Your name will flow from this faith. Amen.

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10/13/2026

Ephesians 3:20 (NKJV) Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,

So very often we will underestimate what someone is capable of doing and because of this we can actually limit potential. In this passage by Paul, we are challenged to not limit God by what we can comprehend Him capable of doing. We may think that we might be praying for something that is not possible, but the ability and power of God exceeds anything that we can even understand. Because of this we should trust God and pray boldly, even for things we might not think possible.

Prayer: Dear God, please forgive us for when we have underestimated Your power. Let the power of faith allow You to work in and through us to accomplish things greater than we might accomplish all by ourselves. This we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

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10/12/2026

Job 42:10 (NKJV) And the LORD restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.

I am not sure about you, but forgiveness has never been one of those things that come easily to me. By our human nature, most of us will hold on to a hurt, rather than letting it go, which results in us staying focused on the offense and the offender much longer than is healthy. A good role model to use when we get into a situation like this is to turn to Job, who rather than wishing harm on those who had harmed him, he chose to pray for them instead. And as we are told here in this passage, Job was rewarded by God with twice as much as he had lost because of these so called friends. So, take a cue from Job, don’t focus on the bad things and the bad people that have done them to us, instead, focus on forgiveness and the ability of our God to restore anything that has been taken from us.

Prayer: Dear God, guard us from being slaves to feelings of revenge. Allow us to forgive and trust in You that restoration will happen when we do. This we ask in the holy and precious name of Jesus.