Discoveries Devotional - Inspiration in Your Inbox
Christian leaders on every continent read "Discoveries" every day. This daily devotional celebrates the God who is strong enough, smart enough and good enough to enter your real world and make everything different. My message is simple: "Let yourself be loved by God." Stop trying to do and stop trying to be, and let the love of God flow into you. When you do, you will be changed and Jesus will reach out through you to transform your world.
Below is a sampling from the hundreds of comments we've received since I sent out my first email in October 2002. We have over a thousand devotionals archived and hope to post more and more of them on this site in days to come. You can sign up for the devotional below."You bless me every day."
"...very affirming."
"Wow!"
"Boy, did I need to read this!"
"... a beautiful gift."
"...priceless!"
"I laugh ... I cry."
"They ... lift me up."
"Today's devotional ministered to me in great measure....deep unto deep! Thank you!"
"You're on target again today. Actually .....you've been on a roll for the past several day[s]!!! Thank you for your encouragement not only to us, but, to the body of Christ around the world."
"THIS IS SO GREAT !!!!!! Praise the Lord !!!"
"Wow!! This is a message that I needed to hear today. Thanks for letting God use you to speak into my life."
"Thanks, Dwight, I needed to hear that."
"Christ in you has a sensitive,compassionate way of expressing very candidly with the Body."
"Great insight. I love it"
"I'm very blessed with your devotionals and am passing them on to several of my friends and Pastor."
"I can smell that this was fresh from heaven's warm-bake oven of that Bread that never spoils."
"This was Exactly what I needed right now."
"Again you hit the nail on the head. I often use your word to pass on to the circle of prayer warriors and friends ..."
"Good one today. I will be chewing on it for a while."
"Excellent! (As always!) I needed this wisdom today"
"Boy, this is the God I know and love. I'm enjoying your "Discoveries" - thanks for putting me on your list! "
"That is beautiful thank you!"
"THANK YOU FOR BEING SO HONEST. I APPRECIATE YOUR MESSAGES YOU SEND TO ME."
"I really liked this one! ... Actually, I’ve enjoyed ALL of them."
"I was humbled and melted by your words today."
"Well put - important truth in today's American church!"
"What insight God has given you to encourage and build up the people of God, like me!"
"WOW! What an encouragement. This is insipiration of lifetime to me."
"How did you know ...(describes something in his life)?? This devotion was meant for us." [The truth is, I didn't. I just asked the Lord for an anointed word that would make an eternal difference in the lives of our readers.]
"I am convinced you are reading my mail." [Nope. But God knows what's going on in all of our lives, and He puts us together and empowers us to bring Jesus to the place of greatest need.]
"Boy, that one hit home. Really get alot of good out of devotions, glad I found you. God bless."
"DUDE, I LIKE THE ELIJAH STUFF I THINK I AM LIKE ELIJAH. GOD BROUGHT YOU IN AT THE RIGHT TIME IN MY LIFE."
"Love your inspirations Dwight. You are truly inspired. Keep up the good work and may God richly bless you."
"This is a great message. [The annual "Discoveries" Christmas story.] I hope you don't ever quit sending it. "
"Wow, this is such a great take on that verse. ... I am sharing that verse in tomorrow's talk at church ... I like your take on it better,"
Keep writing! I'm new to the devotional and am encouraged - deeply encouraged and strengthened.
"Great wisdom...thanks!"
"brilliant!"
"This was awesome ...........:)"
| Sample devotionals |
Into the light
As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed Him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, and she had spent all she had on doctors, but no one could heal her. She came up behind Him and touched the edge of His cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.
"Who touched Me?" Jesus asked.
When they all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against You."
But Jesus said, "Someone touched Me; I know that power has gone out from Me."
Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at His feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched Him and how she had been instantly healed. Then He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace."
-- Luke 8:42-48 from NIV
This is so important. Consider this woman. Ponder what her life was like and you have a picture of nearly everyone who sits beside you in church, and, most likely, of yourself.
Nearly all of us have problems that we cannot talk about. Problems that keep us in the shadows. As we scramble from "solution" to "solution," our hope fades, and our desperation intensifies.
If only Jesus would quietly, unobtrusively, secretly heal us, we pray. But a secret healing is not to be. Jesus brings it out into the light.
"Who touched Me?" He asks.
We want to deny it, but Jesus keeps looking at us until we step out into the light.
"Yes," we acknowledge. "Yes, I had problems that I could not solve on my own. Yes, I appeared all together on the outside, but deep inside I was hurting. You have healed me."
The rest of us take note. So, there is someone else, like myself. So, Jesus does care about my secret need. Maybe Jesus will heal even me.
When God shows up
I saw ... someone "like a son of man" -- Revelation 1:12-13
Wait a second! Isn't this the apostle John writing this? Couldn't you argue that he was the closest friend Jesus had on earth, the most intimate apostle, the "disciple whom Jesus loved"? Now Jesus shows up, and John doesn't even greet Him by name? In a way, John hardly seems to recognize Him. He just spends five verses describing what He looked like and then, in verse 17, he "fell at His feet as though dead."
What's going on?
When God shows up, He blows apart all our preconceived ideas about who He should be. In the First Century, the Jews were expecting a military messiah to throw off the Roman yoke and establish a sovereign Jewish state. Jesus came along and showed no inclination to pick a fight with the Romans. He told His followers to help the Roman soldiers carry their bags. And when He finally met with the Roman authorities, He simply said, "My kingdom is from another place."
Now we live in a world where most people have Jesus pegged to be a wimp, a feminine creature with a soft and glowing face who hides in his churches and whines, "Why can't we all get along?"
Most people are in for a major surprise.
God seems different today than He seemed yesterday not because He changed -- He didn't -- but rather because our minds and hearts and situations weren't big enough to contain all of Him yesterday, and they won't be big enough today. That's why we get the gift of eternal life, because only eternal life is big enough to contain the full discovery of God.
Divine erasures
Blot out my transgressions. -- Psalm 51:1
We all want our transgressions blotted out. Certainly we want them blotted out of heaven's legal ledger; we know that our transgressions will condemn us on Judgment Day if they are not erased by the blood of Jesus Christ. We want our transgressions blotted out of our relationship with God; we don't want our sins interrupting our fellowship with God. That's why we rush to 1 John 1:9 when we do sin, because we want the sweet sense of God's presence quickly restored.
God removes sins from these places, and we have reason to rejoice. But He doesn't stop there. God blots out our transgressions from our identity, and, in so doing, He teaches us to forgive ourselves. God blots out our transgressions from our desires, when He creates in us a new heart and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. If we ask, God blots out our transgressions from the enemy's list of opportunities; He removes the enemy's legal ground in our lives.
All of this is supernatural. All of it is miraculous. But there is at least one other area where God blots out our transgressions: He removes the mark of our transgressions on other people. If I sin against my children, for example, I can wound them for life, unless God intervenes and blots out my transgressions from their lives. This is where sin gets sneaky and dangerous, because the damage cannot be undone simply because I repent. Often, they must be willing to invite Jesus into those places where I have hurt them.
God shares a secret with those He loves in Romans 5:20: "... where sin increased, grace increased all the more." That doesn't give us license to sin, but it does reassure us that God is doing more than damage control. He is turning sin upside down, and is bringing something very beautiful out of what was a place of ugliness.
You might change a generation
... by doing this you have made the enemies of the LORD show utter contempt ... -- 2 Samuel 12:14
Who knows what power or influence we have -- for good or for evil. Ghandi, I am told, had great respect for Jesus Christ until he visited one of His churches in South Africa. Driven away because of the color of his skin, he turned his back on Christianity. Now one billion people in India don't know the true Lord Jesus.
Mao visited America, I've heard, when he was a college student. Evidently, no one took the time to explain the way of the Lord to him, and millions of Christians in China paid for that neglect.
Stalin was an altar boy.
Again, I'm struck by how God trusts us. You may feel insignificant, but your assignment today might change an entire generation.
Miracles for the mistaken
"O sun, stand still ... " Joshua 10:12
I'm always struck by this passage. Joshua gives a command to the heavenly bodies, and God rearranges the laws of physics so that they obey him. It's one of the greatest miracles in all of scripture. In its scientific magnitude, it is an even greater miracle than the parting of the Red Sea.
But that isn't the main reason I'm so taken by what happened here. I'm struck by the context. Joshua just blew it. The Gibeonites, posing as distant travelers, deceived Joshua and the other leaders into making a prohibited treaty with them. Joshua was clearly negligent for failing to inquire of the Lord before ratifying the treaty. Now, here in chapter 10, he's dealing with the aftermath of his mistake. The Gibeonites are in trouble; Joshua and all Israel are called upon to save them.
God could have washed His hands of the entire affair. He could have said, "You got yourself into this mess; you get yourself out of it. Don't look to Me to help you defend these wicked Gibeonites."
But He doesn't do anything of the sort. God is a God of people who make mistakes, people who blow it, people who mess up.
I don't like making mistakes, but when I do, God gently reminds me that the work of God isn't about me and how perfect I am; rather, it is about the God who shows up despite our failings.
Overrighteous
Do not be overrighteous; neither be overwise -- why destroy yourself? -- Ecclesiastes 7:16
We get some crazy ideas. I used to think if unchurched was bad, and churched was good, then more churched must be better, right? I figured if you knew how to sweat when you prayed, stomp when you preached, and "amen" when you sat in the pew, then that made you a mighty fine guy. I knew how to put on my church face, shake hands and act like I was in a continuous state of revival.
Are you getting sick yet?
When I was in college I worked one summer as window trim painter in a prefab building manufacturing plant. The guy who drove me to work was a fellow churchman. One day he said to me, "Dwight, when I saw you in church, I guess you were in your element, and, to tell you the truth, I was a little afraid of you. But now that I see you here at work I realize that you're just like everybody else."
It was an offhand remark, but, to be honest, it rocked my little world. I felt like I had been found out. I didn't want to be like everybody else. I wanted to be better. I wanted to be the best there was. But, deep down inside, the truth gnawed at me. I really was just like everybody else. If anything, I was worse.
What kind of kids does God want?
Real ones. Heaven is not populated with religious fakes. In fact, we must lose all our religious fakery before we get through the door. Inflated religious egos can't squeeze through the narrow gate to eternal life.
I've learned the truth. I really am just like everybody else. All of us are in need of God's grace. And only when we get real with God, with ourselves and with each other, does that grace pour out into our lives.
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