Our Daily Bread Podcast | Our Daily Bread Our Daily Bread Ministries

President Abraham Lincoln had emancipated people held in slavery two-and-a half-years earlier and the Confederacy had surrendered, yet the state of Texas still hadn’t acknowledged the freedom of enslaved persons. However, on June 19, 1865, Union army general Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas and demanded that all enslaved persons be released. Imagine the shock and joy as shackles fell off and those in bondage heard the pronouncement of freedom.

God sees the oppressed, and He’ll ultimately announce freedom for those under the weight of injustice. This is true now just as it was true in Moses’ day. God appeared to him from a burning bush, with an urgent message: “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt,” God said (Exodus 3:7). He not only saw Egypt’s brutality against Israel—but He also planned to do something about it. “I have come down to rescue them,” God declared, “and to bring them . . . into a good and spacious land” (v. 8). He intended to declare freedom to Israel, and Moses would be the mouthpiece. “I am sending you to Pharaoh,” God told his servant, “to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt” (v. 10).

Though God’s timing may not happen as quickly as we hope, one day He’ll free us from all bondage and injustice. He gives hope and liberation to all who are oppressed.

Holly Cooke didn’t have one single friend when she moved to London for a job. Her weekends felt miserable. The city itself tops the list for feeling blue—with fifty-five percent of Londoners saying they’re lonely, according to a global survey, compared to just ten percent of residents in neighborly Lisbon, Portugal.

For connection, Holly defied her fears and formed a social media group called The London Lonely Girls Club—and some 35,000 have joined. Small-group meetups every few weeks offer park picnics, art lessons, jewelry workshops, dinners, and even outdoor exercise sessions with puppies.

The challenge of loneliness isn’t new, nor is the Healer of our feelings of isolation.  Our eternal God, wrote David, “sets the lonely in families; he leads out the prisoners with singing” (Psalm 68:6). Asking God to point our way to Christlike friends is a holy privilege and, thus, a request we can freely take to Him. “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God, in his holy dwelling” (v. 5), added David. “Praise be to the Lord; to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens” (v. 19).

What a friend we have in Jesus! He grants us forever friends, starting with the glorious presence of Himself every moment. As Holly says, “Friend time is good for the soul.”

A few years ago, our church was invited to host refugees fleeing their country after a tumultuous change in political leadership. Entire families came with only what they could fit in a small bag. Several of our church families opened their homes, including some who had little room to spare. 

Their gracious hospitality reflects God’s command to the Israelites when they entered the promised land (Deuteronomy 24:19-21). As an agricultural society, they understood the importance of the harvest. The crops were essential to get them through until next year. This makes God’s command to “leave [some] for the foreigner, fatherless and widow” (v. 19) also a request to trust Him. The Israelites were to practice generosity not by giving only when they knew they had enough but giving out of a heart that trusts God’s provision. 

Such hospitality was also a reminder “that you were slaves in Egypt” (vv. 18, 22). They were once oppressed and destitute. Their generosity was a reminder of God’s graciousness to them in freeing them from bondage.

Believers in Jesus are similarly urged to be generous. Paul reminds us, “Though [Christ] was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). We give because He gave to us. 

In his first home game after the death of his father, National Football League running back Aaron Jones wore something special: a football-shaped pendant necklace that contained some of his dad’s ashes. At some point during the game, the necklace fell off and was lost in the vastness of the turf. One of the team’s athletic trainers searched the field for hours—into the early morning—until he found Aaron’s treasured pendant.

The irreplaceable value of the pendant is what prompted the trainer to persist in the search on Aaron’s behalf. His persistence reminds us of the earnest care God shows for people who are “lost” to Him. Jesus describes God’s pursuit of His children through two parables: one about a lost sheep, another about a lost coin. In both stories, the person who has lost something of great worth to them will “go after the lost sheep until he finds it” or will “light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it” (Luke 15:4, 8).

We’ve each been that lost coin or sheep. God seeks us persistently, sometimes using a person as His agent. Though we’re one of many people, we’re irreplaceable in His eyes; He’s unwilling to abandon the search. When we’re willing to be found by Him and accept His gift of forgiveness from our sin, there’s great “rejoicing in heaven” (v. 7). On this Father’s Day, may we realize how important each of us is to our heavenly Father.

When my “uncle” Emory passed away, the tributes were many and varied. Yet all those honors carried a consistent theme—Emory showed his love for God by serving others. Nowhere was this more exemplified than during his World War II military service, where he served as a corpsman—a medic who went into battle without a weapon. He received high military honors for his bravery, but Emory was most remembered for his compassionate service, both during and after the war.  

Emory’s selflessness lived out Paul’s challenge to the Galatians. He wrote, “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love” (Galatians 5:13). But how? In our brokenness, we’re hardwired to put self first, rather than others, so where does this unnatural selflessness come from?

In Philippians 2:5, Paul offers this encouragement: “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.” Paul describes Christ’s willingness to even experience death on a cross out of His great love for us. Only as His Spirit produces the mind of Christ in us are we set apart and enabled to sacrifice for others—reflecting the ultimate sacrifice Jesus made when He gave Himself for us. May we yield to the Spirit’s work in us.

During a Saturday morning Bible study, a father was perplexed because his beloved, wayward daughter had returned to the city, but he was uncomfortable with her in his home because of her behavior. Another attendee was not well in her body. The physical and medicinal effects of long-term disease and aging had taken their toll. Numerous visits to numerous doctors had yielded minimal progress. She was discouraged. By divine design, Mark chapter 5 was the Bible passage they studied that day. And when the study was over, hope and joy were palpable.

In Mark 5:23, Jairus, a father with a sick child, exclaimed, “My little daughter is dying.” On His way to visit the girl, Jesus healed an unnamed woman of her long-term health issue, saying, “Daughter, your faith has healed you” (v. 34). Jairus and the woman, compelled by faith in Jesus, sought Him out and they weren’t disappointed. But in both cases, prior to meeting Jesus, things had progressed from “bad to worse” before getting better.

Life’s dilemmas don’t discriminate. Regardless of gender or age, race or class, we all face situations that perplex us and send us searching for answers. Rather than allowing challenges to keep us from Jesus, let’s strive to have them stir us to deeper faith in the One who feels it when we touch Him (v. 30) and who can make us well.