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Imagine being a teenage girl, engaged, and pregnant – with the Son of God! Through this difficult situation, Mary demonstrated a very important part of spiritual fitness – perseverance. Sherri Kreps talks about the importance and the blessings of humbly and continually pursuing God in all things! Today, give up control and trust God instead. Continue to persevere by believing in His promises, giving thanks, and praying for your needs, with thanksgiving!

Have you ever felt like giving up? Like, what's the point of continuing if you're not even going to win? Tom is here today to share about a time that he quit. But through some wisdom from his coach and some encouragement from the Bible, he found what he needed to carry on. Let his example encourage you today.

After years of persecuting the church, Saul, now known as Paul, became its fiercest advocate. What could take an enemy and turn him into an ally? Nothing less than a miracle. Find out more about Paul's dramatic conversion and put yourself in the sandals of the early disciples as they regard this new member of their flock.

SPIRITUALLY FIT | TODAY In this episode of Spiritually Fit Today, Arnie Cole and flight nurse Katlyn explore how to process grief, suffering, and the tough "why God?" questions. Drawing from Psalm 13, they discuss the power of honest lament, finding resilience through Scripture, and real-life examples of faith in the face of trauma and loss. BACK TO THE BIBLE DAILY In this episode of Back to the Bible Daily, Braden Pedersen explores what Ecclesiastes 4:9–12 teaches about community and loneliness. Discover biblical wisdom on why God designed us for connection, the importance of deep relationships, and practical steps to overcome isolation. ADDITIONAL STEPS: STEP 1 - RECEIVE (Receive God's Word and Grow in Bible Knowledge) After years of persecuting the church, Saul, now known as Paul, became its fiercest advocate. What could take an enemy and turn him into an ally? Nothing less than a miracle. Find out more about Paul's dramatic conversion and put yourself in the sandals of the early disciples as they regard this new member of their flock. STEP 2 - REFLECT (How does this Scripture Apply to your life?) Have you ever felt like giving up? Like, what's the point of continuing if you're not even going to win? Tom is here today to share about a time that he quit. But through some wisdom from his coach and some encouragement from the Bible, he found what he needed to carry on. Let his example encourage you today. STEP 3 - RESPOND (How will you Win Today?) Imagine being a teenage girl, engaged, and pregnant – with the Son of God! Through this difficult situation, Mary demonstrated a very important part of spiritual fitness – perseverance. Sherri Kreps talks about the importance and the blessings of humbly and continually pursuing God in all things! Today, give up control and trust God instead. Continue to persevere by believing in His promises, giving thanks, and praying for your needs, with thanksgiving! STEP 4 - REVEAL (How will you reveal Jesus to others today through praying and sharing?) Reading or listening to God's Word is something we're all familiar with. But that's only half of the equation. Karmin is here today to remind us to live out what we learn. Join her in prayer as we seek opportunities to demonstrate Christ to our community. BONUS STEP Click HERE for your DAILY FORWARD DEVOTIONAL

Read Psalm 16:1-2, 5-6, 9-11 Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance…Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Reflect How content are you with your current life? If you are longing for more of something, when do you think you’ll have enough of what you desire to be fully satisfied? Our culture is experiencing an unhappiness epidemic that some authors and researchers refer to as “the abundance paradox.” One researcher summed up the paradox like this: “the more comfortable you get, the less meaning you tend to find.” Here in the US, we see this paradox on full display. As a society, we have so much wealth, so much excess. There has never been a generation who has more access to more convenience, more technology, more information, more options, more leisure, more entertainment. We have also never lived in a time in which we have been freer to do whatever we want, whenever we want. Individualism and autonomy are celebrated at an unprecedented level. So surely, we all must be perfectly satisfied, deeply content, and giddy with happiness. But the research has actually found the opposite. In 2024, Gallup released new research in the World Happiness Report which found that the United States has dropped out of the top 20 happiest countries in the world. And while self-reported happiness has decreased among all age groups, it is lowest among young adults who cited loneliness and low quality relationships as reasons for their discontent. Even more tragically, the CDC reported that 49,000 people died by suicide and 13.2 million people seriously considered committing suicide in 2022. Clearly, unhappiness and discontent is a serious problem in our society and everything we have is not enough to satisfy the longings of our hearts and souls. But what do we think the solution is? What do we think will make us happy? When will everything that we have be enough? In today’s psalm, David expressed his trust and contentment in the Lord. Because he asked the Lord to preserve him, we can assume that David wrote this psalm when he was in some kind of trouble—which he often found himself in! And yet, David did not seem worried or distressed. Rather, he seemed to be at peace, totally confident that God will take care of him, and completely content with what God had already given him. It’s worth noting that instead of exercising autonomy, David submitted to God as His Lord and acknowledged that He was the source of all goodness. David was satisfied with his lot in life, seeing his boundaries as God ordained and for his own good. In his Enduring Word commentary, David Guzik wrote: “David’s words here speak of contentment. He is content with what God has given him. A mark of our age…is discontentment, boredom, and restlessness. The generation with short attention spans, the constant need for excitement and adrenaline rushes, and 24-hour-a-day entertainment, needs to know by experience what David knew.” What did David know? That contentment can only be found in the Lord. It’s easy to see the application to our own lives. Apart from the Lord, nothing we have will ever be enough for us. We keep accumulating more and more only to come up empty. More fame, more money, more power, more sex, more stuff…we all come to realize that none of it is capable of filling the hole in our souls. So what can we do? Well, we can stop trying to fill up our emptiness with worldly things and seek the Lord Himself. We can take a page from David’s book and submit to God’s will for our lives. We can embrace our lot in life and look at all of the good and the beautiful that He’s blessed us with and we can choose to be grateful. If we do that, we’ll come to realize the simple and profound joy that can be found in His presence alone. Nothing else will ever, ever be enough. Respond Lord, I confess that at times, I look in all the wrong places for joy and contentment. I want to be happy but no matter how much I have, it’s never enough. But, in Your presence, there is fullness of joy. You are my Lord. I submit to You, depend on You, and trust You. Only You can satisfy. Amen. Reveal Like David, find a way to express your gratitude to God for the life that He has given you in the presence of someone else today. As Christians, our contentment should be a powerful testimony that we have something the rest of the world longs to have even if they don’t know what they’re searching for—the Lord Himself.

Reading or listening to God's Word is something we're all familiar with. But that's only half of the equation. Karmin is here today to remind us to live out what we learn. Join her in prayer as we seek opportunities to demonstrate Christ to our community.

There is a moment in the book of Joshua that ought to stop every Christian who reads it. Moses is dead. The man who led Israel out of Egypt, who stood on the mountain, who spoke with God face to face, is gone. The people are camped on the wrong side of the Jordan River, looking across at a land full of fortified cities and giants and enemies who have no intention of giving up their ground. And the leadership has just passed to Joshua, who has spent forty years as a faithful second but has never carried the weight himself. What God says to him in that moment is one of the most repeated commands in the opening chapter of the book. "Be strong and courageous" (Joshua 1:6). Then again, two verses later, "Only be strong and very courageous" (Joshua 1:7). And again at the end of the chapter, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go" (Joshua 1:9). God says it three times because Joshua needed to hear it three times. We need to hear it just as often. Notice that this is a command, not a suggestion. Courage is not an optional virtue for the Christian life. It is required. God does not say to Joshua, "Try to feel braver." He says, "Be strong and courageous." It is something Joshua is expected to do, not something he is expected to feel. That distinction matters. We have been trained by our culture to wait for the right feelings before we act, but Scripture rarely speaks that way. It commands us to act, and trusts that obedience will form what feeling alone could never produce. The reason God gives for the command is not a promise of easy circumstances. He does not tell Joshua the conquest will go smoothly, or that the giants will be smaller than expected, or that the fortified cities will fall without a fight. He gives him one reason, and it is enough. "For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go" (Joshua 1:9). The basis of biblical courage has never been the size of the obstacle. It has always been the presence of the One who goes with us. Joshua was not commanded to be brave because the task was small. He was commanded to be brave because his God was great. We need to recover this. Much of what passes for Christian encouragement today is really just optimism dressed in religious language. It tells us things will probably work out, that the season will pass, that we have what it takes. None of that is what God said to Joshua. God did not promise easy. He promised His presence. And that is a far better promise, because circumstances change but God does not. The One who was with Joshua at the Jordan is the same God who is with His people now. He has not weakened. He has not stepped back. He is with us wherever we go. Before the marching orders, God gives Joshua something else worth noticing. "This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success" (Joshua 1:8). The strength Joshua needed was going to come from the Word of God. Not from his own resolve. Not from rallying speeches. Not from positive thinking. From Scripture, soaked in deeply enough that it shaped how he led, fought, and decided. That is still where the courage of a Christian comes from. A believer who is not in the Word will not have the strength to face what is in front of them, because they will be drawing from a well that runs dry. A believer who is in the Word, day and night, who lets it sit on their lips and settle in their bones, will find that something steady is being built underneath them. They will not be braver because they have manufactured bravery. They will be braver because God's promises have become real to them in a way that the world's threats cannot match. Joshua was given specific ground to take. So are we. The territory looks different now, but the call has not changed. God has given each of us a sphere of responsibility, a family to lead, a workplace to bear witness in, a church to serve, a community to love, convictions to hold when holding them costs something. That is your Jordan. That is the ground He has put in front of you. And the same God who told Joshua to be strong and courageous is telling you the same thing today. We must not soften it. The land was not going to take itself. Joshua had to cross the river, march around the walls, draw the sword, and trust God in actual battles. Faith was active. Obedience was costly. The same is true for us. The Christian life is not a passive waiting on God to do everything while we watch. It is a strong, courageous, obedient walking into the ground God has assigned, trusting that He goes with us as we go. "Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed" (Joshua 1:9). That command is for you. There will be fear. Joshua had it, or God would not have needed to address it three times. There will be moments when the giants in the land look bigger than the promises in your hand. There will be days when retreat seems more reasonable than advance. In those moments, the answer is not to wait until you feel brave. The answer is to remember whose presence goes with you, to open the Word that strengthens you, and to take the next step of obedience anyway. Courage in the Christian life is not the absence of fear. It is action taken in the presence of God despite it. The same God who brought Israel across the Jordan brings His people through every river they face. He is faithful. He keeps His promises. And He calls you, as He called Joshua, to be strong and courageous on the ground He has given you. Not because the task is small. Because He is with you wherever you go. If you want to dive into more stories just like this one, join me on Back to the Bible Daily every weekday for bite-sized Bible teaching to center your day on God's Word.

As opposition to the early church grew, it was only a matter of time before it turned to violence. And in this dramatic portion of Acts we're introduced to two men who would have a significant impact on the history of the church. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, who preached a powerful sermon even as stones were hurled at him, and Saul, a passionate persecutor of the church whose story was just beginning.

Today, Coach Ricky Kennedy introduces you to “quick, slow, slow” – an important spiritual fitness principle that sets the pace for patience and understanding rather than anger! Today, memorize James 1:19 and start being quick to listen to God in His word and slow to speak.

Whatever you're going through, God can help you. Join Jon today as we pray that God will continue to be with us through every challenge life presents.