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Today’s devotional, written by the Pray.com team, is based on Psalm 147.

Psalm 147 reminds us of the beauty and goodness of praising God. Singing praises is not just a duty; it is a delightful and fitting response to His greatness. Worship refreshes our spirits, draws us closer to God, and aligns our hearts with His purposes. It reminds us of His faithfulness and shifts our focus from our challenges to His goodness. Praise is described as both pleasant and comely—pleasing to God and a source of joy for us. When we sing to the Lord, we not only glorify Him but also experience His presence in a profound way. In worship, we find comfort, strength, and renewal for our souls. Take a moment to sing praises to God. Breathe out weariness, and breathe in the joy of worship. Let your praise reflect gratitude and love for the One who is always faithful and good.

Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him! [Psalm 147:1]

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Written by Jill Weber, a contemporary writer and spiritual director.

Jesus, you came as the fullness of God made flesh. Teach me more of you, that I might walk with you and the Father and the Holy Spirit, today and every day.  Amen.

You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.  [Psalm 16:11]

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Written by John Ortberg, a contemporary pastor, author, and speaker. This is an excerpt from his book “The Me I Want to Be.”

Surrender is not the same thing as passivity. God’s will for your life involves exercising creativity, making choices, and taking initiative. Surrender does not mean being a doormat. It does not mean you accept circumstances fatalistically. Often it means you will have to fight to challenge the status quo. It doesn’t mean that you stop using your mind, stop asking questions, or stop thinking critically. Instead, surrender is the glad and voluntary acknowledgment that there is a God, and it is not you. His purposes are wiser and better than your desires. Jesus does not come to rearrange the outside of your life the way you want. He comes to rearrange the inside of your life the way God wants.

And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. [Psalm 90:10]

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Written by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), an Indian poet, writer, educator and environmentalist.  This is an excerpt from the book “The Heart of God.”

I know that the day will come when my sight of this earth shall be lost, and life will take its leave in silence, drawing the last curtain over my eyes. Yet stars will watch at night, and morning rise as before, and hours heave like sea waves casting up pleasures and pains. When I think of this end of my moments, the barrier of the moments breaks, and I see by the light of death Your world with its careless treasures. Rare is its lowliest seat; rare is its meanest of lives. Things that I longed for in vain and things that I got – let them pass. Let me but truly possess the things that I ever spurned and overlooked.

I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. [Ecclesiastes 2:10-11]

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Written by Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929), an Indian Christian missionary and sadhu. This is an excerpt from his book “At the Master’s Feet.”

In place of perfection, agnostics and critics see only defects. Fault finding critics ask, “If there is an Almighty Creator of the world why are there defects in it, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, eclipses, pain, suffering, death, and the like?” The folly of this criticism is similar to that of an unlearned man who finds fault with an unfinished building or an incomplete picture. After a time, when he sees them fully finished, he is ashamed of his folly and ends by singing their praises. Thus too, God did not in one day give to this world its present form, nor will it in one day reach perfection. The whole creation moves onward to perfection and if it were possible for the man of this world to see from afar with the eyes of God the perfect world in which no defect appears, he too would bow in praise before Him and say, “All is very good.”

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. [Genesis 1:31]

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Written by the staff at The Fuller Center for Spiritual Formation.

Years ago, a mentor shared with me a time when he felt hopeless. He had experienced a deep family loss and shared this loss with a student of his. This student listened and told him he would hold onto hope for him. His student became a hope holder for his teacher when he was hopeless. Hope was not lost. Hope was held in the hands of another, in love, for the sake of someone else. My mentor shared that knowing someone else held onto hope, even when he could not, encouraged and strengthened him in this season.  Hope holds, even when we cannot hold it. It holds through friendship, through our faith communities, through neighbors, and through the centuries of saints. We hold others as we listen deeply, as we use our time for good, as we enter others’ sufferings, when we think of someone and express our availability and care. And as we hold hope for others, we are reminded that Jesus holds each one of us.

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. [Romans 15:1-2]

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Today’s devotional, written by the Pray.com team, is based on Psalm 73.

Psalm 73:26 acknowledges the reality of human weakness. Our bodies grow weary, and our hearts can become discouraged. Yet even when our strength fails, God remains our source of hope and power. He is the strength of our hearts, sustaining us when we have nothing left to give. God is our portion—our inheritance and greatest treasure. Nothing on earth can satisfy or sustain us like His presence. When we feel weak or broken, He faithfully holds us up and renews our strength. He is all we need today and forever. Take a moment tonight to rest in God’s strength. Breathe out exhaustion and discouragement, and breathe in His sustaining presence. Trust that He is your strength and your portion, both now and forever.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. [Psalm 73:26]

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Written by Laura Murray, a contemporary author. This is an excerpt from her work “Holding Hope.”

Hope is a gift. And it is a gift that can overflow. Even as we hold it, it flows abundantly and securely because of the promises of life today and to come. It is more than we can grasp, more than we can imagine, yet we can offer it through the power of the Spirit. 

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. [Romans 15:13]

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Written by L.B. Cowman (1870-1960), an American writer and author of devotional books. This is an excerpt from her book “Streams of the Desert.”

A gentleman, writing about the breaking up of old ships, recently said that it is not the age alone which improves the quality of the fiber in the wood of an old vessel, but the straining and wrenching of the vessel by the sea, the chemical action of the bilge water, and of many kinds of cargoes. Some planks and veneers made from an oak beam which had been part of a ship eighty years old were exhibited a few years ago at a fashionable furniture store on Broadway, New York, and attracted general notice for the exquisite coloring and beautiful grain. Equally striking were some beams of mahogany taken from a bark which sailed the seas sixty years ago. The years and the traffic had contracted the pores and deepened the color, until it looked as superb in its chromatic intensity as an antique Chinese vase. It was made into a cabinet, and has today a place of honor in the drawing-room of a wealthy New York family. So there is a vast difference between the quality of old people who have lived flabby, self-indulgent, useless lives, and the fiber of those who have sailed all seas and carried all cargoes as the servants of God and the helpers of their fellow men.

You will come to your grave in a full age, As stacks of grain are harvested in their season. [Job 5:26]

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Written by Thomas Tarrants, a contemporary minister and author.

When we speak of knowing God, it is important to understand that we are not talking about abstract or speculative thought concerning God or mystical experiences, but about coming alive to God through Jesus Christ and surrendering ourselves to Him in grateful love…We must also understand that knowing God is not an optional part of the Christian life; it is the Christian life. The English word know is a translation of the Greek word ginosko, which, in this context, means an experiential knowing, not simply an intellectual understanding of facts about God or Jesus or the Bible. In other words, it refers to an “I-Thou” relationship. This relationship begins when we come alive to God — that is, when, by grace, we are awakened from the state of spiritual death into which everyone is born, and receive the eternal life Jesus offers to those who trust in Him for salvation. The first part, recognizing and turning from our sins, is repentance; the second part, trusting in Jesus and His atoning death on the cross to forgive our sins, is faith. Coming alive to God requires both. Jesus described this as being born from above or born of the Holy Spirit. It means birth into God’s family and entrance into His kingdom. Without rebirth by the Holy Spirit, a person cannot see, perceive, understand, or know God or His kingdom.

Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. [John 17:3]

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