Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. (NLT)
TO PONDER
I am sure we all remember the Great Toilet Paper Panic of 2020, a widespread panic to buy a product that was not in shortage, at least not until the hysteria inspired people to buy multiple months worth of toilet paper.
Exposing a society looking out for oneself, a me-first culture revealed by a product not in short supply, an item that, to be honest, we could live without (70% of the world go toilet paper free).
Today’s verses speak directly to today’s “live your best life” culture, a culture that promotes “being true to yourself” as a virtue, the way to find happiness and fulfilment, the way to “find your truth.”
Paul was writing this letter to the church of Philippi, a church he had planted in a Roman Colony in Macedonia (modern day Eastern Greece), a church likely made up of primarily Gentiles known for their patriotic nationalism (think “Make Rome Great Again”).
The Philippian church was being pressed on three sides by the patriotic nationalism (me-first) culture of Rome as well as the Judaizers culture of law (religion) and the culture of Christ.
The culture of Christ today continues, as it did back when Paul penned his letter as a counter-culture standing in contrast to a me-first ethos, standing against a religiousness and standing against a society of toilet paper hoarders.
The counter-culture espoused by Paul in Philippians was an echo of the words of Jesus when He gave the new command to, “love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
The command of a self-sacrificial life, an ethos of unreasonable hospitality, putting the needs of others ahead of our own needs.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, as we journey towards Holy Week and celebrate the ultimate sacrifice for a lost world, help me live a self-sacrificial life for others, help me to reflect your image to a lost world. Amen.
Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside
“So that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.”
To Ponder
When Paul prayed for the Christians in Colossae, he did not pray that they would simply survive the Christian life. He prayed that they would live a life worthy of the Lord — in every way, in every work, in every season of growth.
That is a amazing prayer! Inside this prayer is a glimpse of what a fruitful life looks like in practice.
Notice that bearing fruit and growing in the knowledge of God are placed side by side — and that is no accident because they are inseparable. The two move together like roots and branches. You cannot genuinely grow deeper in your knowledge of God without that intimacy changing how you live. And you cannot consistently bear fruit in good works without being rooted in an ever-deepening relationship with the one who calls you to them. Each feeds the other. Each reflects the other.
This also tells us that fruitfulness is not reserved for grand, visible moments. Paul says every good work. The quiet act of kindness no one noticed. The patient response when frustration would have been easier. The faithful showing up, day after day, in the ordinary places of life. Every one of those moments is an opportunity for fruit. Every one of them matters to God.
A life worthy of the Lord is not a life of perfection — it is a life of direction. Moving toward him. Growing in him. Bearing fruit not in our own strength but as the natural overflow of knowing him more deeply today than we did yesterday.
This is not a standard to be anxious about. But rather it is an invitation to grow into.
Prayer
Father,
I want to live a life that is truly worthy of who you are and what You have done. Not a life of straining to impress You, but a life so rooted in knowing you that fruit becomes the natural result of our closeness. May every good work I do, however small or unseen, be rooted in you and pleasing to you. Grow me, Lord — in knowledge, in character, in fruitfulness — so that the life I live increasingly reflects the one I belong to.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Today’s Devotion is written by Pr Nich
“Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”
To Ponder
One thing I often think about is how Jesus didn't just come to save us from sin. He came to save us for life. In this reading It struck me that its holds both things together. Jesus gave himself to redeem us — to buy us back from the grip of sin and wickedness. But the rescue didn't end there. The purpose of the rescue is transformation and life. He redeemed us so that we might become a people who are purified and set apart for his purposes, eager to do what is good.
Not reluctant. Not merely compliant. Not dragging our feet toward obedience while longingly looking back. Eager. The word eager carries energy, desire, and forward momentum. It pictures someone who doesn't have to be pushed toward good works because they genuinely, deeply want to do them.
This is what redemption produces. Not just forgiven people — but transformed people. People whose hearts have been so changed by what Jesus did for them that goodness becomes something they lean toward rather than something they are dragged into. The cross was not only the payment for our sin; it was the beginning of our renovation.
So often we treat good works as the price we pay for grace, or the duty we owe in return for salvation. But Titus 2:14 reframes this. Good works are not what we do to earn God's favour — they are what we become eager to do because of it. The fruit is not the root. But where the root is healthy and the redemption is real, eagerness grows.
You have been redeemed. You have been purified. You belong to Him. And that changes not just what you do — but what you want.
Prayer
Lord Jesus,
Thank You for the staggering reality of what you gave — yourself, fully and freely — to redeem me. You didn't rescue me so that I could remain unchanged. You rescued me to make me new.
Where I have been reluctant, renew my eagerness. Where I have treated goodness as a burden rather than a gift, remind me of what you paid to make me yours. Stir in me a genuine, joyful desire to do good.
Help me to lean toward what is right, who looks for opportunities to reflect your goodness, and who lives every day as someone who knows they have been truly set free.
In Your name, Amen.
Today’s Devotion is written by Pr Nich
“For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose.”
To Ponder
Did you catch what this verse is actually saying as you read this? God is not just working through you he is working in you. Not only shaping what you do but transforming what you want to do.
That is amazing! Most of us know the frustration of wanting to want the right things but finding that our desires don't always cooperate (Paul writes about this in Roman 7). We want to love more generously, but selfishness creeps in. We want to forgive, but bitterness lingers. We want to be patient, and then someone tests us before breakfast. The will is often the hardest thing to surrender.
And yet Paul tells us that God is at work at precisely that level, not just on our behaviour, but on our desires. He is in the business of rewiring what we reach for, reshaping what we long for, and redirecting our deepest motivations toward his good purpose. The same God who spoke creation into existence is quietly, faithfully working in the interior places of your life that no one else can see.
This means that the fruit God calls us to bear is not ultimately dependent on our willpower finally being strong enough. It is dependent on his work being thorough enough. He who began a good work will carry it through. He who plants the desire also provides the power to act on it.
Our responsibility is not to produce the fruit ourselves. It is to remain open and cooperative with what God is already doing within us. He is at work. The question is whether we are paying attention — and whether we are willing.
The fruit begins from the inside out. And God is already there.
Prayer
Father,
What a relief it is to know that You are not standing at a distance, waiting for me to get my act together. You are already at work — inside me, in the very place where my will and my desires are formed. Thank You for not leaving that work to me alone.
Work deeply in me today. In the places where my desires are still misaligned with yours, redirect them. In the places where I know what is right but lack the strength to act, empower me. Help me to confidently trust that what you have begun in me, You will complete.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Today’s Devotion is written by Pr Nich
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
To Ponder
Today’s readings is one of those readings that many people without realising add a letter to what it says. What’s the letter? The letter S.
Paul doesn't call it the fruits of the Spirit — plural. He calls it the fruit — singular. One fruit. Nine expressions of the same life growing from the same source.
This tells us something important. The fruit of the Spirit is not a checklist to work through, picking up love here and adding patience there, as if the Spirit-filled life were a self-improvement project. They are the single, unified fruit of a life genuinely lead by the Holy Spirit. Where the Spirit is truly at work, all of these begin to grow together.
And what a list it is. Love that gives without condition. Joy that holds steady even in hard seasons. Peace that makes no logical sense given the circumstances. Kindness extended to people who haven't earned it. Goodness that shapes every quiet decision when no one is watching. Faithfulness that stays when staying is costly. Gentleness that chooses tenderness over force. Self-control that answers to something higher than desire.
None of this can be manufactured by willpower. You cannot grit your teeth into genuine joy or discipline yourself into real peace. These are not achievements — they are gifts. They are what grows when we stop striving and start yielding, when we loosen our grip on control and invite the Holy Spirit to have full access to every room of our lives.
The fruit is his to grow. Our part is simply to stay rooted in him and get out of the way.
Prayer
Holy Spirit,
Holy Spirit, thank you that you live in me and are already at work, doing what I could never do on my own. You alone grow real patience, kindness, and peace in my heart.
Work in my life today through my thoughts, habits, relationships, and reactions. Where love is thin, deepen it; where joy has faded, awaken it; where peace has been swallowed by anxiety, speak your word of comfort and assurance.
Help my life to be less about my striving and more about your transforming presence in me.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Today’s Devotion is written by Pr Nich
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
To Ponder
This is one of my favourite verses from John’s Gospel. As I was pondering this it struck me that Jesus doesn't say "apart from me you can do less" or "apart from me you will struggle." No his statement is firmer than that. He says apart from him, we can do nothing. Not a little. Nothing!
What Jesus says can be very humbling or perhaps freeing depending on how you hear it.
We live in a world that celebrates self-autonomy. We are conditioned from an early age to believe that with enough effort, discipline, and willpower, we can produce the life we want. But Jesus challenges this with a simple image: a branch cannot produce fruit by itself. It has no independent source of life. Its only job — its entire purpose — is to stay connected to the vine.
The branch doesn't work for the fruit. It abides, and the fruit comes.
This is the heart of the Christian life. Abiding. Remaining. Staying close to Jesus through prayer, through his Word, through worship, and through honest, dependent relationship with him. Not striving to be fruitful but staying so connected to the one who is the source of all fruit that it becomes the natural overflow of this relationship.
The pressure is off. The invitation is simply stay connected. Don't wander. Don't try to produce on your own what only he can grow in you. Return to the vine, again, and trust him with the harvest.
You were never meant to bear fruit alone. You were meant to abide.
Prayer
Jesus,
Please help me when I try to live on my own strength — striving, producing, pushing — as if I were the vine rather than the branch. Forgive me for the times I have wandered, become distracted, or tried to bear fruit apart from you.
Draw me back to close connection with you today. Teach me what it means to truly abide — not just to know about you, but to remain in you. To stay. To rest. To trust.
In Your name, Amen.
Today’s Devotion is written by Pr Nich
“In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”
To Ponder
Our faith in the Lord is never meant to be a private, invisible thing tucked away in our heart with nothing to show for it. James makes this very clear in today’s reading, faith without action isn't just incomplete. It's dead.
These sound like strong and perhaps harsh words, but the truth is they are loving ones. James isn't saying we earn our salvation through what we do. He's saying that real, living faith moves. It shows up. It rolls up its sleeves. It crosses the street to help a neighbour, speaks up when silence would be easier, and gives generously when holding back would be more comfortable.
In following on from yesterday’s devotion, think of it this way — you would never look at a tree with no leaves, no blossoms, and no fruit and say, "That tree is just expressing its health quietly on the inside." You would recognize it for what it is: a tree that isn't growing. The same is true of faith. Genuine faith is alive and living things grow. Living things produce.
This is not a call to busy-ness or to prove yourself to God. It is an invitation to let what you believe on the inside change how you live on the outside. Let your faith breathe. Let it move. Let it bear the kind of fruit that only a living, rooted trust in Jesus can produce.
Dead faith stays still. Living faith can't help but act.
Prayer
Lord Jesus,
Forgive me for the times my faith has been more of a belief I hold than a life I live. Stir something in me today. Where I have been passive, make me present. Where I have kept my faith comfortable and contained, give me the courage to let it overflow into action.
Make my faith alive, Lord — and let my life show the fruit of a living faith in you.
In your name I pray, Amen.
Today’s Devotion is written by Pr Nich
“Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.”
To Ponder
One thing I have noticed about trees is that they don’t seem to strain to produce fruit. A tree doesn't wake up each morning and try harder. It simply grows — rooted, nourished, and alive — and fruit is the natural result.
In our reading today Jesus uses the image of a tree to remind us that following him is not first and foremost about performance. It's about roots. What we produce on the outside is always a reflection of what we are on the inside. A life rooted in genuine faith, watered by God's Word, and anchored in relationship with Jesus will — in time — bear fruit that is real, lasting, and good.
This is both a comfort and a challenge. A comfort, because we are not called to manufacture goodness on our own. A challenge, because the fruit of our lives tells the truth about where our roots actually are.
So the question worth sitting with today is not "Am I doing enough good things?" but rather "Are my roots in the right soil?" When we tend to our relationship with God — through prayer, Scripture, and following his lead, we become spiritually healthy and the fruit takes care of itself.
Faith is the soil. Fruit is the evidence.
Prayer
Heavenly Father,
Examine my roots today. Where I have tried to perform goodness in my own strength, redirect me back to you. Where I have allowed shallow soil to hold me, deepen my faith. I want the fruit of my life — my words, my actions, my character — to reflect your work in my life.
Grow in me what only you can grow. May what others see on the outside be a true reflection of what you are doing on the inside.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Today’s Devotion is written by Pr Nich
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
TO PONDER
When I pondered this verse to write this devotion, two things came to mind. 1. a ‘two-way street’, and 2. a three-legged race.
“The term ‘two-way Street’ refers to a situation or relationship that requires reciprocal action or effort by both parties involved.” Definitions often make reference to equal actions or efforts from both parties.
However, in our ‘two-way street’ relationship with God, the effort from both parties is far from equal. God has won our freedom through the death of His son on the cross and His Easter Sunday resurrection. Additionally, God has chosen each one of us and brought us into His family through our baptism where His Holy Spirit took up residence in our hearts providing us with new life in Him.
From our side, what we are asked in this disproportionate two-way street relationship then, is to daily focus on keeping in step with the spirit.
This was where the three-legged race came to mind for me. The request to keep in step with the spirit, had me visualising a ‘three-legged’ race (which I’m sure you have all experienced at one time during your lives). Walking or keeping in step is not easy but it dawned on me that to conquer a three-legged race, one person ideally needs to let the other person lead, putting their total trust in him or her and then follow their guide.
Walking in step with the spirit is exactly this. Allowing Him to shape our daily actions as He walks with us. Walking in sync with God’s pace in our decisions, relationships and our own spiritual growth. Letting Him guide us in every aspect of our lives. Don’t rush ahead, or lag behind Him thinking we know better through selfish impulses or sinful desires.
And whilst the ask of us is not a simple one, by grace we have been blessed by new life with the Spirit, and given that He has promised to be with us always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 20: 28), our required effort is to commit ourselves and lives to Him, to daily walk in sync and freely let Him lead us.
PRAYER: Heavenly Leader and Guide. Thank you that I am tied to you through your actions to bring me into your family through Holy baptism. Help me to put my total trust in You and let You guide and lead me every step of my journey here on earth so I am truly living through Your Spirit daily. Amen
Today's devotion written by Sane Burdack, LifeWay Epping