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Fulfilling Life Daily Devotional
We are called to not live a normal life but to live a fulfilling life that honours God by using our gifts and talents for His glory. Through this devotional, we will look at what it is to live a fulfilled life for God. monoingles.substack.com
Episodes
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen Your Words Could Build Up or Tear Down - Ephesians 4:29
Paul has been describing the practical shape of the new life in Christ. Honesty, hard work, dealing well with anger. And then he turns to something that shapes…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen It's Time to Decide Who You're Actually Serving - Joshua 24:15
Joshua is old. He has led Israel through the conquest of the land. And now, near the end of his life, he gathers the people together and puts a decision…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You Need to Remember What the Cross Actually Did - Isaiah 53:5
Isaiah wrote this seven hundred years before the events it describes. A suffering servant, despised and rejected. And in the middle of that portrait comes one…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen the Task Is Bigger Than Your Resources - Zechariah 4:6
Zerubbabel is facing an enormous task, rebuilding the temple with limited resources and considerable opposition. And the word that comes to him isn't a…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You're Not Sure Prayer Is Worth It - John 16:24
Jesus is in the upper room on the last night before the cross, preparing his disciples for a completely new way of relating to the Father. Something is about…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen the Suffering Makes You Forget What You've Inherited - Romans 8:17
Paul has just described the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry Abba Father. And then he takes the adoption to its full legal conclusion. What it means to be a…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen Gratitude Has Gone Quiet - Psalm 107:1
Psalm 107 opens with a declaration. And then it spends the rest of the psalm earning it. Four different groups, four different forms of rescue, one refrain…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen Someone Around You Is Carrying Too Much - Galatians 6:2
Paul has just described restoring someone caught in a transgression — with gentleness. And from that particular instruction he draws a broader principle that…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen Nothing Seems to Satisfy - John 6:35
Jesus has just fed five thousand people. And the crowd has followed him across the lake looking for more. He tells them something they don't expect. And then…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen the Pressure of the Day Feels Like Too Much - Romans 12:12
Three phrases, two or three words each. Paul has just told his readers not to be conformed to this age. And then he describes what the unconformed life looks…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You Need to Remember Who Made Everything - Genesis 1:1
The first sentence of the Bible doesn't argue for the existence of God. It assumes it. No preamble, no philosophical case, no proofs. Just the announcement of…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You're Not Sure How Secure You Actually Are - John 10:28
Jesus is in the middle of the shepherd discourse. The knowing, the following, the voice the sheep recognise. And then he makes a declaration that is absolute…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You Can't See What God Is Doing - 1 Corinthians 13:12
Paul has been describing the supremacy of love over every other gift. And then he gives the reason in a verse that places our entire current experience of God…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen Something Needs to Be Confessed - 1 John 1:9
John has just said that anyone who claims to have no sin is deceiving themselves. And then he makes a promise to those who are willing to be honest. It is one…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen the Pull Toward Self-Promotion Is Strong - Philippians 2:3
Paul is building toward what many consider the most remarkable description of humility in the New Testament. Before he gets there, he gives two things to get…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You're Not Sure Which Way to Go - John 14:6
Thomas asks the question that must have been on everyone's mind. Lord, we don't know where you're going — how can we know the way? And Jesus answers with…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You Need Something That Won't Be Moved - Psalm 16:8
David makes a claim that raises an obvious question. I keep the LORD in mind always. And the question is: how? The answer comes in the second half of the verse…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You're Not Sure You Have Anything to Say - 2 Corinthians 5:20
An ambassador doesn't speak for themselves. They carry the words of the one who sent them. Paul uses this image to describe something that is true of every…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You're Tempted to Give Up Praying - Luke 18:1
Luke tells us the purpose of the parable before he tells us the parable. It is about prayer. But more specifically it is about something that happens to…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen Community Feels Optional - Hebrews 10:24
Paul has spent chapters describing the access we now have to God through Christ. And then he draws the practical conclusion from all of it. It is not about…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You're Walking Through Something You Didn't Choose - Isaiah 43:1
Israel is about to go into exile. Fire and water lie ahead. And before any of it arrives, God makes three declarations. Together they are the reason a fourth…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen Truth and Love Feel Like They're Pulling in Different Directions - Ephesians 4:15
Paul gives the church a two-word phrase that holds the whole vision of Christian community together. Truth and love. But they're not two things to be balanced…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen God Has Heard You Through Something Hard - Psalm 116:1
The psalm doesn't begin with theology. It begins with testimony. Something happened, and the happening produced a love for God that the psalmist then spends…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen the Demand Feels Greater Than What You Have - Philippians 4:13
This verse is one of the most quoted in the Bible. And one of the most misunderstood. Paul is not writing about achievement. He is writing from prison. And he…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You've Been Waiting a Long Time - Psalm 40:1
The Hebrew behind "I waited patiently" is a doubled verb. Waiting, I waited. It suggests the waiting was not brief or easy. And then something happens that…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen Love Feels Like Something You Have to Generate - 1 John 4:19
It may be the shortest verse in John's first letter. But it answers a question that most people who try to love others eventually ask. Where is the love…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen the Days Are Passing Too Fast - Psalm 90:12
Moses writes this psalm having watched an entire generation die in the wilderness. He has seen the brevity of life up close. And the prayer it produces in him…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You're Still Trying to Earn What You Already Have - Ephesians 2:8
Paul describes the human condition before grace in three brutal lines. Dead. Following the world. By nature deserving of wrath. And then comes two of the most…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen Worship Feels Like It Only Happens on Sundays - Romans 12:1
Paul spends eleven chapters on the theology of grace. And then chapter 12 opens with therefore. Everything that follows is the response to everything that came…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You Can't See What God Is Doing - Jeremiah 33:3
Jeremiah is in prison. The city is surrounded. Everything is falling apart. And in that moment God issues an invitation that the circumstances make almost…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You're Not Sure You Have the Right to Ask - Hebrews 4:16
The writer of Hebrews describes a high priest who has been tempted in every way we have. And then, on the strength of that, issues an invitation most people…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen the Word Feels Like Just Another Book - 2 Timothy 3:16
Paul is writing to Timothy who is exhausted, facing opposition and false teaching. And the thing he points him to isn't a strategy. It's the scriptures Timothy…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen Death Feels Like the Last Word - 1 Corinthians 15:20
Paul spends the first half of 1 Corinthians 15 showing exactly what would collapse if the resurrection weren't true. And then he turns with one of the great…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen Grace Feels Like a Concept Rather Than a Person - Titus 2:11
Paul doesn't say that grace has been announced or described. He says it has appeared. That one word changes everything about what grace actually is. This is a…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen the Trial Has Gone On Too Long - James 1:3
James opens his letter with something that sounds almost offensive. Consider it a great joy whenever you experience various trials. And then he gives the…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You're Striving But Nothing Is Growing - John 15:5
Jesus makes one of the most clarifying claims of his ministry on the last night before the cross. You can do nothing without me. Nothing. That sounds like bad…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You Feel Small in a Very Large World - Psalm 8:4
David is looking at the night sky. The moon and the stars. And the question the sky produces in him is not one of insignificance. It is one of astonishment…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen Faith Feels Like Believing in Someone You Can't See - 1 Peter 1:8
Peter is writing to people who have never seen Jesus. He himself walked with him, ate with him, saw the resurrection. But the people he is writing to have only…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen Someone Genuinely Wronged You - Genesis 50:20
Joseph's brothers are terrified. Their father has died, and they're certain Joseph has just been waiting for this moment for revenge. What Joseph says back to…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You're Only Looking for God in the Dramatic - 1 Kings 19:12
Elijah has just watched God defeat the prophets of Baal with fire falling from heaven. Now he's exhausted, afraid, and hiding in a cave. And what happens next…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen Faithfulness Doesn't Come With a Visible Reward - Ruth 1:16
Naomi has lost her husband and both her sons. She has nothing to offer. And Ruth makes a declaration of loyalty that has become one of the most quoted in all…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You Wonder Why You're Where You Are - Esther 4:14
Esther is facing an impossible choice. Mordecai sends her a message that doesn't minimise the danger, but reframes the entire situation. Her position wasn't…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You Wonder If God Is Really There - Psalm 139:7
David asks a question that sounds at first like it might be an attempt to escape. But the verses that follow make clear this isn't a question born of wanting…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen the World's Divisions Feel Like the Deepest Truth About a Person - Galatians 3:28
Paul has been making an argument about how a person is justified before God. And having established that, he draws out one of its most sweeping social…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You Can't Watch Every Hour Yourself - Psalm 121:4
This psalm was sung by pilgrims travelling up to Jerusalem, often through dangerous terrain. And after asking where his help will come from, the psalmist…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen Injustice Feels Like It Will Never Be Answered - Habakkuk 2:14
Habakkuk has been wrestling with the injustice around him. Violence, destruction, wickedness that prospers while the righteous suffer. And in the middle of…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You're Walking Through the Darkest Part - Psalm 23:4
David doesn't say if I go through the darkest valley. He says when. The valley isn't a possibility to be avoided. It's a certainty built into the shape of a…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen the Grief Feels Like It Will Never End - Revelation 21:4
John has just seen a vision of the new heaven and the new earth. And a loud voice from the throne announces what it means. Not an improvement on this world…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You Don't Feel Like You Have Much to Offer - Matthew 5:14
Jesus has just finished the Beatitudes — blessed are the poor in spirit, the mourning, the meek. And then he tells this unlikely collection of people something…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen Scripture Stays on the Surface - Colossians 3:16
Paul has been describing what the new life in Christ looks like from the inside. Compassion, kindness, humility, patience. And then he gives one instruction…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen Your Sense of Belonging Depends on How You've Been Doing - Ephesians 1:4
Paul opens Ephesians with what is essentially a single long sentence of praise. He cannot stop. And buried in the middle of the cascade is a phrase that sets…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen Your Plans and God's Steps Don't Match - Proverbs 16:9
There is a particular kind of relief in this verse. It doesn't remove the responsibility to plan. But it does remove the pressure of believing the outcome…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen the Incarnation Feels Like a Doctrine Rather Than a Reality - John 1:14
John doesn't begin his Gospel with a birth. He begins before creation. And then thirteen verses in, after establishing who the Word eternally is, he arrives at…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You Wonder if Anyone Is Paying Attention - Luke 12:7
Jesus is preparing his disciples to be sent into a world that won't welcome them. He talks about fear, about sparrows, about what the Father sees. And then he…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen the Suffering Feels Anything But Light - 2 Corinthians 4:17
Paul has just listed what his ministry has cost him. Beaten. Imprisoned. Shipwrecked. Left for dead. And then he describes all of it in two words. Momentary…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You Long for Things to Be More Right Than They Are - Matthew 5:6
The Beatitudes move against almost every instinct. The poor in spirit, the mourning, the meek. And then this one. It describes a hunger most people have but…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You're Running on Empty - Isaiah 55:1
The invitation arrives with no preamble and no conditions. Just a market that defies every economic logic. And a single qualification to receive what is on…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You're Looking for Something You Already Have - Colossians 1:27
Paul says there is a mystery that was hidden for ages and generations. Hidden across the entire history of Israel. And then he reveals it in six words. They…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You Can't Seem to Find Contentment - 1 Timothy 6:6
The world tells you that gain means more. More money, more options, more status. Paul has a completely different definition. And his version doesn't run out…
Fulfilling Life Daily DevotionalWhen You Feel Unremarkable - Psalm 139:14
David has been meditating on the thoroughness of God's knowledge of him. You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I stand up. And…