Kerusso Daily Devotional

Have you ever been fooled by someone? Doesn’t feel good, does it?

But the absolute worst is when we fool ourselves. We try to manage some problem on our own, or analyze a situation gone awry.

The Bible has a better way of thinking about it.

Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

We have to do two things here: give total control to God, and de-emphasize our own judgment. Someti...

The Bible is full of what many would call difficult stories. Some of them don’t make a lot of sense at first. Others seem contrary to what we think should happen.

One such story is breathtaking if we follow it through. It involves a father trusting God more than his own instincts.

2 Corinthians 5:7 says, “For we live by faith, and not by sight.”

In Genesis, we read about Abraham being instructed by the Lord to offer his young son, Isa...

Of all the gifts God gives His children, joy is perhaps the one closest to heaven on earth

Who isn’t aware just how wonderful it feels to experience true joy? It is as if the Lord has freed a prisoner.

When American POWs returned from captivity in Vietnam, the looks on their faces as they emerged from the planes carrying them to freedom…well, no one will ever forget that!

Psalm 16:9 says, “Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole bein...

When trouble is on the horizon, it can be hard to trust in God’s promises, and to believe He has a plan for us.

The book of Judges in the Old Testament gives us an awesome example of trusting God in the story of Gideon.

God called Gideon to lead Israel into battle with the Midianites, who had a sizable army of 135,000 men. Gideon gathered an army of 32,000 men to battle with the Midianites, but despite odds in favor of the enemy, God...

You know, someone may have tried to convince you at some point in your life that we’re alone in the cold void of the universe, but that has never been true. 

It’s especially false for the believer who understands what God has done for all people everywhere. 

He, the Creator of the universe, formed us long ago, and His Word tells us clearly that He never takes a second off in His pursuit of us. 

Consider this: If you’re stuck in a bad ...

Today, we continue our series on healthy relationships, and we’re talking about managing difficult relationships. 

There's a wonderful scene in the classic film To Kill a Mockingbird, when the attorney Atticus Finch is confronted by the father of a girl who has accused a black man of rape, the father, enraged walks up to Finch, played perfectly by Gregory Peck. He spits in Finch’s face as the attorneys' children watch. 

You...

You’ve heard the joke about family gatherings, haven’t you?

If you weren’t related to these people, you’d never see them.

What a horrible punchline, really.

1 Corinthians 13:7 says, “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

God’s Word has purpose in everything. Everything.

He gave you a specific family for specific reasons. It’s super easy to be nice to people we aren’t around very much. Short-t...

When we walk with God, we want to see that our relationships are healthy. It’s part of the command to love one another

Few things are more heartbreaking than damaged relationships. When those linger, the Body of Christ is weakened. Churches split because of it. Families suffer for it.

Joshua 22:5 says, “Love the Lord your God, walk in all his ways, obey his commands, hold firmly to him, and serve him with all your heart and all your ...

When it comes to love, the secular world has plenty to say. Turn on the television, radio, or explore the internet, and you’ll find advice on every type of relationship, from friendships to getting along with your parents, and of course — advice on romantic relationships. People are clamoring to figure love out…but what does the Bible say about love?

1 Corinthians 13:4–5 says, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it doe...

Jesus, the greatest teacher who ever lived, spent a lot of time giving out wisdom in the form of stories. Once, He told His disciples a story that illustrated the importance of understanding that God never quits us, and we should not quit Him.

Luke 18:1 says, “One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up.”

That story was about a woman who didn’t give up in her pursuit of justice. Jes...

Have you ever been in such a dark place that you wondered if God cares about you, or if He even exists? Maybe it’s all some cosmic joke, right? We’ve all been there. Humans doubt. We doubt ourselves, we doubt product labels, we doubt our kids. We question everything.

But the worst one is trying to figure out where God is in the middle of life’s great difficulties. Sometimes the world is just flat-out mean, and it seems like it’s an ...

At an address in Columbus, Ohio, in 1900, former slave Booker T. Washington kept the room spellbound. This man, who had built Tuskegee Institute to lift blacks out of economic bondage, was revered around the world.

But he said something that surprised more than a few in the audience. He said that one of his main priorities for the Institute was hiring more Bible teachers!

Washington, who had been forced to work in an evil system, onc...

Bill was a very successful businessman for a lot of years. About 10 years ahead of retirement, he decided to entrust a lot of money to the investment wizardry of Bernie Madoff. And when Madoff’s Ponzi scheme imploded, Bill joined many others who now had to wonder where their money went. And he thought of suicide. 

For fully two years, he struggled to get out of bed. He felt sapped of energy every waking moment. Then, on a park bench...

Are you the kind of person everyone looks at and assumes you are strong and you have it all together? You too, huh? Many of us look fine on the outside, but the human condition is often much different on the inside.

Proverbs 31:25 says this of a godly woman: “She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.”

As believers, we can laugh in the midst of struggle because God did not make us to have a spirit of...

Our greatest example of kindness and compassion is our Heavenly Father.

God’s Word, the Bible, is filled with examples of His loving-kindness, His grace, His mercy, His faithfulness...the Lord’s love for us is infinite and eternal, and His example is what we should strive to embody as we interact and react to the people around us. 

Lamentations 3:22–23 says, “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions n...

How many of us would feed a hungry stranger with the last crust of bread left in the house?

The prophet Elijah received a prophecy that the land would suffer a years-long drought, and this message from God had come to pass. The Lord sent him to a ravine east of the Jordan River, where He sent ravens with bread and meat in the morning and in the evening, and Elijah could drink from a brook, but eventually, the brook ran dry because t...

When God asks us to love our neighbor as ourselves, what exactly does He mean?

In Luke 10 verses 25–37, Jesus shares the Parable of the Good Samaritan to illustrate what it means to love our neighbors the way Jesus loves us.

“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, ...

How much can one person take, and still choose to offer kindness.

In Genesis Chapter 37, verses 12–36, 17-year-old Joseph is sent by his father to visit his brothers, who were tending the family’s flock of sheep in the countryside.

Rather than the friendly check-in he expected, Joseph’s brothers initially plotted to kill him out of jealousy, but instead sold him into slavery to a group of Ishmaelites heading for Egypt. Among the brot...

Carissa was having one of those days. Instead of hitting the snooze button on her alarm clock, she had turned it off. Now the kids were late for school, she was late for work, and the tone for the day was one mad rush — emphasis on the mad. 

As the day wore on, she thought about her impatience and frustration with her children as everyone got dressed and grabbed a granola bar on the way out the door. It wasn’t their fault the family...