Category: Verse for the day

“More tortuous than all else is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it? I, the Lord, alone probe the mind and test the heart.” –Jeremiah 17:9-10 Life is a matter of the heart. If we have accepted a new heart from the Lord (Ez 36:26) and live accordingly by loving Him with all our hearts (see Lk 10:27), our lives on earth will be abundant (see Jn 10:10), free, holy, and fulfilled. Then after our deaths or Jesus’ final coming, we will live forever with the Lord in the perfect love of heaven. If, however, we let our...

“Must good be repaid with evil?” –Jeremiah 18:20 Jeremiah sacrificed and suffered to be a prophet and turn away God’s wrath (Jer 18:20) from “the men of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem” (Jer 18:11). Although Jeremiah saved many people’s lives, they did not realize this. They hated Jeremiah and plotted to kill him. They reasoned that Jeremiah’s death would not be a loss (Jer 18:18) but their gain. The good Jeremiah had done was “repaid with evil” (Jer 18:20). We all want to be appreciated. So we are disappointed when we are not thanked. Even more so, when those...

“Come now, let us set things right, says the Lord: though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow.” –Isaiah 1:18 The Pharisees and Sadducees had hearts for their own honor (see Mt 23:6). Before Jesus chastised them for their pride, He wept over them, lamenting that in their desire for honors, they had completely missed “the path to peace” (Lk 19:42). Moreover, their pride caused them to be badly misled and fail to understand the power of God (Mk 12:24). God’s plan is to touch the hearts of sinful men and women with self-sacrificing, humble love....

“Give, and it shall be given to you.” –Luke 6:38 When we give, we open the door to let the Lord lavish His love on us. The Lord desires to bless us “good measure pressed down, shaken together, running over” (Lk 6:38). Yet He does not force His love on us. We must open up to His love. By giving, we tell God how open we are to receiving. “For the measure you measure with will be measured back to you” (Lk 6:38). Most people think of themselves as “generous,” but this is often not completely accurate. The financial problems...

Jesus “took Peter, John and James, and went up onto a mountain to pray.” –Luke 9:28 On this Second Sunday of Lent, Jesus takes us up Transfiguration Mountain. He has much more to tell us but we cannot bear it now (Jn 16:12). We must “climb the Lord’s mountain…that He may instruct us in His ways, and we may walk in His paths” (Is 2:3). We will see Jesus glorified and hear a voice from the cloud say: “This is My Son, My Chosen One. Listen to Him” (Lk 9:35). These mountaintop revelations will keep us from despair when the...