What About Jesus? Devotions

WELS
  • 4.6 (8)
  • Christianity
  • Updated Daily

Discover God’s great truths for your life and your future!

  1. 21h ago

    The Solid Foundation – July 16, 2026

    https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260716dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 3:10-11 The Solid Foundation Every building needs a foundation. You can touch up paint. You can change the carpet. You can move furniture. But if the foundation crumbles, the whole building is in trouble. The apostle Paul knew that the church in Corinth had plenty of problems. They argued. They compared leaders. They acted immaturely. They misused the sacraments. They were tempted to build their faith on personalities, wisdom, talent, and human success. Paul pointed them back to the only foundation strong enough to hold them: Jesus Christ. That is still the only safe foundation. Your life cannot fully rest on your intelligence. It will eventually fail you. Your reputation can change in a moment. Your health can weaken. Your money can disappear. Your family, as precious as they are, cannot carry the weight of your soul. Your own faithfulness is not a strong enough foundation either. You know how often you stumble. But Jesus does not crumble. There is no storm in life stronger than him. There is no earth-shaking event that can make him waver. He is strong and secure through it all. That means when guilt accuses you, you have a foundation: Jesus died for you and your sin. When your faith feels weak, you have a foundation: Jesus holds onto you. When you are scared, you have a foundation: Jesus is with you. Build on the foundation of Jesus Christ. Find your rest in it. Be at peace in it. That foundation is the one you need in this life. Prayer: Lord Jesus, keep me from building my hope on anything that cannot last. You are my foundation in life, in death, and forever. Amen.   Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

    The Solid Foundation – July 16, 2026

  2. 1d ago

    Only Servants – July 15, 2026

    https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260715dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 1 Corinthians 3:5-7 Only Servants Paul worked as a missionary bringing the good news about Jesus to the people of Corinth for the first time. He spent a lot of time there teaching the basics of the Christian faith. He faithfully and diligently shared how Jesus forgives sins by his death and resurrection from the grave. After Paul left, another gospel worker came to Corinth: a man named Apollos who was a gifted and passionate preacher. He watered the seed that Paul planted. Both Paul and Apollos were talented in their own ways, but the people in Corinth had picked their favorites. One said, “I like Paul.” Another, “I like Apollos better.” Still another, “I like this other teacher best.” The Corinthians were doing what people still do today. They made too much of the messenger and too little of the God who sent the message. Paul brings them back to reality. He and Apollos are only servants. They did not make the seed grow; only God could do that. It is natural to have preferences for preachers. Some are fiery, some are thoughtful. Some make you laugh; some make you think. Some are great storytellers, and some preach verse by verse. But the best preacher is the one who faithfully shares God’s Word with you. A preacher’s style cannot save you. A preacher’s personality cannot forgive your sins. A clever illustration cannot raise the dead. Only God can make faith grow, and God does that through the Word of Christ. When the Word is preached faithfully, Jesus gives you what you need most. He gives you the law that exposes your sin. He gives you the gospel that forgives your sin. He gives you himself. One servant plants, another waters, but God makes it grow. Prayer: Lord God, thank you for faithful servants who bring me your Word. Help me listen past human style and hear the saving voice of Jesus. Amen.   Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

    Only Servants – July 15, 2026

  3. 2d ago

    Watered with the Word – July 14, 2026

    https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260714dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:10-11 Watered with the Word It doesn’t look like much from a distance, just a white line on the horizon. But as you get closer, the line has contours and dips and domes. It turns into a white ridge of snow-covered mountains. That snowpack may look quiet and still, but in the spring and summer months, it’s doing an important job. Melting. In places like the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the snowmelt is crucial for area agriculture. As snow melts, water runs down into rivers and reservoirs. It waters farms and orchards and carries communities through the dry months of summer. God says his Word works like that. Rain and snow do not fall from the sky and return without watering the earth. They accomplish God’s purpose. So does his Word. It may not look powerful. Bible passages read around the family dinner table. A devotion next to a hospital bed. A Sunday sermon. But God says his Word does not return empty. That promise is great comfort, especially when we feel spiritually dry. Maybe your faith feels weak. Maybe guilt has hardened your heart. Maybe grief has left you cracked and tired. God’s Word is not powerful because of how strongly you feel it. It is powerful because God is working through it. The same Lord who sends rain to make the earth bud and flourish sends his Word to give faith, forgiveness, peace, and life. The good news of Jesus is not empty. Jesus’ death for your sins was not empty. His promise to forgive you is not empty. He left the tomb empty so that every promise he made is fulfilled. So, use God’s Word. Read it. Speak it. Share it. Rest in it. God will use it for his purpose. Prayer: Lord, water my dry heart with your Word. Make faith grow in me and use your Word through me to comfort others with Jesus. Amen.   Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

    Watered with the Word – July 14, 2026

  4. 3d ago

    Easy to Find – July 13, 2026

    https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260713dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. Isaiah 55:6-7 Easy to Find My children love to play hide-and-seek. They can get creative with their hiding spots. But when I play with my three-year-old, and it is my turn to hide, I keep it simple. I might leave a foot sticking out from behind the chair or make a little noise from the next room. At age three, she does not have a long enough attention span to seek more than a few minutes. So, I make sure that I am not too hard to find. When Isaiah says, “Seek the LORD while he may be found,” we might picture God as someone who is hidden far away, waiting to see whether we can find him. But God is not playing that kind of game. He is not trying to make himself hard to find. He is calling out to us. He is near. The problem is not that God has hidden himself too well. The problem is that sin leads us to look in the wrong places. We search for peace in our own plans. We search for comfort in distractions. We search for validation by making excuses or comparing ourselves to others. We go our own way and trust our own thoughts. But God calls us back. “Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them.” We find him in his Word, in his promises, in the good news of Jesus. Jesus did not come to stay hidden from sinners. He came near. He came into our world. He went to the cross to pay for our wandering ways and sinful thoughts. He rose so that mercy and pardon would not be hard to find but freely given. So, seek the Lord where he promises to be found. Call on him. Open his Word. Hear his promise. He is not hard to find. He is near with mercy in Jesus. Prayer: Lord God, when I seek peace and forgiveness in the wrong places, call me back through your Word. Thank you for coming near with mercy and free pardon in Jesus. Amen.   Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

    Easy to Find – July 13, 2026

  5. 4d ago

    God is Near – July 12, 2026

    https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260712dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Isaiah 55:6 God is Near Does something strike you as amazing in today’s Bible verse? What jumps out at me is the idea that the Lord is near us, that he allows himself to be found by us. After all, why should he? Why should he be near us? Why should he allow himself to be found by us? Just look at us! We’re angry, bitter, selfish. We’re lustful, greedy, rebellious. We fail to love God; we fail to love each other. Instead of loathing sin as we should, we find ourselves listening to the devil’s temptations, perhaps even desiring to give in to those temptations. We fail to see the value and importance of eternal matters and get far to focused on temporal matters. Shouldn’t God turn his back on us? Shouldn’t God banish us from his presence forever? Yes, he should! Instead, he stays near! In amazing grace, he even allows us to “find him” in his Word and in the sacraments. And when we find him, what do we discover? We discover that he loves us dearly and treats us with amazing compassion and boundless love. And so, call on him! Seek him! Rejoice in the fact that your God is near, near to you! Prayer: O Savior, continue to draw near to me, and no matter how I might struggle, continue to draw me near to you. Amen.   Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

    God is Near – July 12, 2026

  6. 5d ago

    A Heavy Burden – July 11, 2026

    https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260711dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion [Jesus said] “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 A Heavy Burden We know what it is like to carry a heavy burden. Our arms begin to ache as we strain to hold up the weight. Our back muscles tighten, and our legs tire under the strain. We can only carry the load so long, and we are forced to put it down and rest. Sometimes the burden we carry is not with our arms, back, and legs, but on our hearts. Burdens of sadness, loneliness, discouragement, and dismay are very real and cause us to long for rest from their weight. Our spirits can be crushed if these burdens get too heavy and we carry them too long. While Jesus understands these kinds of burdens and is present to help us carry them, these burdens aren’t the most oppressive. When our Savior invites us to come to him for rest, he means a different kind of burden that makes people weary and tired. That is the burden of sin and how sin disrupts our relationship with God. The Bible tells us, “Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10). The demand that the Law of God makes is impossible for us to keep. We cannot perfectly fulfill its requirements. We can’t get out from under the burden of sin by our own power. There is only one way for us to have relief. Jesus came to lift sin’s burden off our hearts. He carried that heavy burden of sin’s guilt for us and gives us rest. He gives us the assurance that our sins are forgiven and that God doesn’t count us guilty. We have the peace of knowing that our relationship with God is restored. Through Jesus, there is now no fear of God’s strict judgment of condemnation against us. We are free from sin’s burden. In Jesus, we have rest! Prayer: Dear Jesus, I know that I have sinned in many ways and the guilt on my heart is a burden that is too heavy to bear. I praise you for taking the burden of my guilt and carrying it for me—suffering and dying to free me of its load and giving me the rest of full forgiveness. Amen.   Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

    A Heavy Burden – July 11, 2026

  7. 6d ago

    Carrying the Cross – July 10, 2026

    https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260710dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion [Jesus said] “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:29 Carrying the Cross The Bible teaches that the burden of sin and selfishness is great because God’s judgment always follows. Simply put, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Adam’s first sin is a perfect illustration. He followed the path of self-indulgence. “When you eat of [the tree],” Satan promised, “your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). But when Adam pursued that path, he discovered that God’s promises always stand. God had promised, “When you eat from it, you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:17). In our arrogance, we think we can get away with our self-centered sinfulness. But God’s all-seeing holiness hones in on us, noting every godless thought, word, and deed. His perfect law closes every loophole, rejects every excuse, and refuses every rationale. Which makes the saving work of Jesus and his glorious cross all the more stunning! Jesus took the shackles of God’s law on himself and carried the burden for us without stumbling. Then he picked up the heavy cross of God’s judgment and laid aside his Father’s righteous verdict against us by taking up our sin and penalty. He truly became “sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness [perfection] of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus took our great burden from us, and now he invites us to take up an entirely different cross, the cross of discipleship. “Take my yoke upon you,” Jesus says, “and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart.” Our Savior God offers free lessons in carrying crosses. He models for us the self-sacrificing love we are created to have for others. And this new glorious cross doesn’t end in judgment. It ends with his promise: “You will find rest for your souls.” Prayer: Dear Jesus, give me the strength to carry every cross that comes my way as a result of following you. Amen.   Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

    Carrying the Cross – July 10, 2026

  8. Jul 9

    First Weariness, Then Rest – July 9, 2026

    https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260709dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion [Jesus said] “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 First Weariness, Then Rest Jesus spoke in no uncertain terms about the details of Christian discipleship. He said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). At first blush, self-denial seems like a relatively easy standard to meet. But Christian self-denial requires us to keep God’s great commandments perfectly: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” “Love your neighbor as yourself.” It requires us to abandon self-love completely and to concentrate all our time, energy, and effort on others. Jesus is the perfect model of self-denial and love for others. He came into this world “not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). Now he calls us to expend our lives completely on others. “As I have loved you,” Jesus commanded, “so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34,35). This kind of perfect love is difficult and wearisome, and not just because we are selfish and sinful. It was also a challenge for the perfect Son of God who “offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death” (Hebrews 5:7). He was truly tempted to abandon his love for others (Hebrews 4:15). So, when he commands us to take up our cross and sacrifice ourselves for others, he knows the burden intimately. He carried that burden himself! Yet to us who now carry the cross of Christian discipleship, Jesus makes an astounding offer: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” The one who carried the burden of the cross, loaded down by our sin, now offers his strength, help, and guidance as we pick up our cross of discipleship. At first glance, our cross looks heavy, covered with sharp splinters. But Jesus’ love and saving power replace our weariness with true rest and power for godly living, and we see our cross in all its glory. Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me carry the cross of discipleship with confidence and joy. Amen.   Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

    First Weariness, Then Rest – July 9, 2026
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Discover God’s great truths for your life and your future!

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  • Creator
    WELS
  • Years Active
    2011 - 2026
  • Episodes
    14
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2019 Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. All Rights Reserved. www.wels.net
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    What About Jesus? Devotions

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