It doesn’t matter if it’s a good day, a hard day, or somewhere in-between—we need the hope God offers every day. Max shares words of hope and help through simple, one-minute daily devotionals to encourage you to take one step closer to Jesus.
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In these tough times, could you use a word of encouragement? From Max Lucado, a pastor for over 40 years and bestselling author whose books have sold more than 145 million copies in over 50 languages, The Max Lucado Encouraging Word Podcast is all about the greatest story ever told—the living Savior who brings you a lifetime of hope. With rich biblical insight, heartwarming storytelling, and Max’s comforting tone, you’ll be empowered to place your faith in a loving God who is always near you ...
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Listen to Today's Devotion God’s purpose from all eternity is to prepare a family to indwell the kingdom of God. “’For I know the plans I have for you’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV). God’s plotting for our good. In all the setbacks, he’s ordaining the best for…
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371: Trust God’s Training
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27:19Hi, friend. I hope you’re well today. Today we’re talking about tests. What do you do when you face a test? How do you respond? If you’re struggling to see the value in your struggle, try this: Don’t look at your test as an interruption to life, but as training for life. No one ever said the road would be easy or painless, but God will use this mes…
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Listen to Today's Devotion Seems too easy. Doesn’t mom need to experience what she gave? A few years wondering if she’ll see her daughter again, some pain-filled nights, a bit of justice. Isn’t some vengeance in order? Of course it is. God cares about justice more than we do. In Romans 12, Paul says, “Never pay back evil for evil. Leave that to God…
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Listen to Today's Devotion Your family history doesn’t have to be your future. The generational garbage can stop here and now. Don’t give your kids what your ancestors gave to you. Talk to God about it, in detail. “God, every day I came home from school to find mom drunk, lying on the couch. I had to take care of baby brother, do homework on my own…
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Listen to Today's Devotion Revenge builds a lonely house. Space enough for one person. The lives of its tenants are reduced to one goal: make someone miserable. They do—themselves! Keep a sharp eye out for the weeds of bitter discontent. God’s healing includes a move out of the house of spite, toward the spacious ways of grace. Away from hardness, …
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Listen to Today's Devotion Were your growing up years your hard years? Family pain is the deepest pain because it was inflicted so early. It involves people who should have been trustworthy. You were too young to process the mistreatment. You didn’t know how to defend yourself. Besides, the perpetrators of your pain were so large. Your dad, mom, un…
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Listen to Today's Devotion My friend Rob cried freely telling his story about his young son’s challenging life. Daniel was born with a double cleft palate, dramatically disfiguring his face. He had surgery, but the evidence remains, so people constantly notice and occasionally make remarks. Daniel, however, is unfazed. He just tells people God made…
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370: Do What Pleases God
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29:57Hello, friend. I hope you’re having a good day. Some of the most difficult challenges in life come our way thanks to bad luck, bad timing, or bad actors. And when we’re dealt a bad hand, it’s easy to justify our choices. To be tempted by shortcuts or quick fixes. When you find yourself in such a situation, be encouraged by the example of Joseph in …
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Listen to Today's Devotion God notices the grateful heart. He took a praise-singing shepherd boy and made him a king. There’s no hint of God getting out of sorts if we aren’t thankful, but there is evidence we’re affected by our own ingratitude. What of the disastrous days? The nights I can’t sleep and the hours I can’t rest. Are we still grateful …
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Listen to Today's Devotion If you feel the world owes you something, brace yourself – you’ll never get reimbursed. Henry Ward Beecher said, “A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.” The sky’s never blue enough, the steak isn’t cooked enough, the universe isn’t good enough to deserve a human being li…
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Listen to Today's Devotion Some things were not made to co-exist. Long-tailed cats and rocking chairs? Bad combination. Bulls in a china closet? Not a good idea. Blessings and bitterness? That’s the mixture that doesn’t go over well with God. Perhaps you’ve sampled it? Gratitude doesn’t come naturally. Self-pity does. Belly aches do. Yet they do no…
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Listen to Today's Devotion Suppose I invited you to experience the day of your dreams. Twenty-four hours on an island paradise with your favorite people, food, and activities. The only stipulation? You’ll need to begin the day with one millisecond of distress. Would you accept my offer? I think you would. A moment is nothing compared to twenty-four…
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369: God’s Presence, Your Passion
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31:19Hi, friend. Welcome back to the Encouraging Word Podcast. Today’s episode is for anyone who knows what it’s like to lose everything, who knows what it’s like to feel far from God. Listen to this promise found in Psalm 139: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my b…
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368: Believe What God Believes About You
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24:53Hello, friend. Thanks for joining me. Today’s episode finds us in the pit with Joseph. Sold into slavery by his own brothers and sent to Egypt with nothing. Nothing except a dream given to him by God. No matter how dire his circumstances, nothing could take away the call of God on his life. And nothing can take away the call of God on yours, my fri…
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367: You Will Get Through This
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22:35Hello, my friend. I hope you’re doing well today. For the next few episodes, we’ll be looking at the life of Joseph in the book of Genesis. He didn’t have it easy—abandoned, abused, wrongfully imprisoned. Perhaps you can relate to some of what Joseph faced. If so, I’m going to give you a sneak peek at the big promise of his story: with God’s help, …
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Hello Friend! I'm coming to you with a special bonus episode on this Good Friday. I pray you have a blessed Easter weekend. He is risen, indeed. Purchase Never Give Up here.Von Max Lucado
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366: The Last Word on Life
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26:32We’ve arrived at Holy Week. This is the most significant week in the Christian calendar. In the coming days, someone will attend a church service for the first time. Someone will hear the gospel for the first time and choose to follow Jesus. And the celebration in heaven will be jubilant. We’ve spent the last few episodes discussing the promises of…
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365: Heaven’s Whoever Policy
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21:50Hi, friend. I sure hope you’re doing well. Today’s episode zeroes in on one of my favorite words in John 3:16: “whoever.” Whoever believes in him. Such a wonderful promise. The gift of salvation and the hope of heaven is available to whoever believes. And who isn’t a “whoever”? Purchase Never Give Up here.…
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364: The Heart He Offers
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25:01Hello, friend. I hope you’re well today. No one is immune to the anxiety in our world. Global concerns—wars, catastrophic weather events, a worldwide pandemic still fresh in our memories. Personal concerns—mental health issues, relationship challenges, financial concerns. The bottom line is this: it’s not a good time to be at odds with God. A heart…
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363: Hope For The Hard Heart
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27:04Hi, my friend. I hope you’re doing well today. For the next few weeks on the podcast, leading up to Easter, I’ll be sharing from one of my favorite verses. I’ve been asked what I would choose if I could only preach one topic or one passage for the rest of my life. I think this is it—John 3:16. The Hope Diamond of the Bible. “For God so loved the wo…
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362: More Like Jesus: Forgiveness
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23:29This week on the podcast we're looking at what is, for many people, the challenge of life. Forgiving people who have hurt us. Forgiveness is not easy but, I believe with the Lord's help, the grace we have received from God can overflow into the lives of others. Purchase Never Give Up here.Von Max Lucado
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361: More Like Jesus: Grace
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26:27Our topic for this episode is God's greatest gift to us, grace. I've preached a lot of sermons on grace, I've written a few books on grace, but I never get tired of talking about this gift of being made right with God through his grace. As perfectly summarized in 1 Corinthians 5:18-21, "All this is from God. Through Christ, God made peace between u…
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360: More Like Jesus: Prayer
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22:47This week on the podcast we’re turning our attention to a favorite passage of mine found in Matthew chapter 6: “Give us this day our daily bread.” No prayer better summarizes our relationship with God than this expression of trust. God’s treatment of fear has always been trust. These are fear-filled days, aren’t they? We see it in newscasts and on …
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359: More Like Jesus: Worship
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22:30What happens when we believed we are loved by God? What do we do? How do we act? Might I suggest that the primary purpose of the Christian is this: to worship. When we worship God for who he is and all he has done for us, it reinforces what we know to be true of God’s character, enables us to receive his love, and changes how we see the world as pe…
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358: More Like Jesus: Faithfulness
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24:31Our theme for today’s episode is faithfulness, and to help us understand the concept of faithfulness we’re looking at the life of Joseph. Joseph’s story reminds us that when we trust God and respond with faith, He can bring triumph from tragedy. Purchase Never Give Up here.Von Max Lucado
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357: More Like Jesus: Love
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25:01This week is Valentine’s Day, so it feels appropriate to bring you an episode about love. February 14th may prompt us to show extra affection to those dearest to us, but what do we do when people are hard to love? May these words from the apostle John serve as an encouraging reminder: “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one …
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356: More Like Jesus: Kindness
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27:02Thank you for joining me this week on The Encouraging Word podcast. The last few episodes we’ve been talking about the fruits of the spirit, and our topic today is kindness. In this episode I share a story from the Bible about two figures you likely know and one you may not. I can think of no better story to illustrate the lasting impact of the kin…
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355: More Like Jesus: Patience
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28:44Hello friend. Thanks for joining me on the Encouraging Word Podcast. This week we're discussing the importance of patience. The reality is we are all "works in progress" until the return of Christ. Purchase Never Give Up here.Von Max Lucado
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354: More Like Jesus: Peace
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31:50Hello, my friend. What do you do when an unexpected storm blows into your life and disrupts everything? Where do you find strength to battle anxiety and fear? The Bible offers an answer in Philippians chapter 4. "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And th…
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353: More Like Jesus: Joy
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27:10Hello there my friend. Thank you so very much for joining me today. We're beginning the year with some episodes looking at the big ideas of the Bible. We started last week by talking about the purpose of the Bible, why it matters and why it's important to study it. This week we're moving on to some concepts found in scripture that you might know as…
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352: More Like Jesus: Bible Study
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27:13Happy New Year! Welcome back to the Encouraging Word podcast. It's resolution season. All over the world people are resolving to exercise more, spend less, try a new hobby. A common resolution for people of faith is to read the Bible more and if that resonates, today's episode is for you! The Bible is the most important book for the Christian. It a…
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351: The Perfect Gift for Jesus
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33:57It’s that time of year when we're choosing gifts to give for Christmas. As the hero of the holidays, Jesus deserves our finest gift. But what could that be? We can look to the angels to know what Jesus really wants from us this Christmas. As a reminder, The Encouraging Word Podcast will be off next week, but we’ll back with new episodes in January.…
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350: At the Right Moment
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23:29Hello friend. Thanks for joining me today. Can you believe we’re halfway through December? Christmas will be here in just a few days. As you’re no doubt busy preparing for the holidays, I pray today’s episode gives you a few moments to reflect on the Savior who comes at just the right moment. Purchase Never Give Up here.…
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Hi friend. I hope you’re doing well today. The past few episodes we’ve been talking about what it looks like to live in a way that reflects God’s glory to the world around us. We’ve considered different aspects of life where we can take the focus off ourselves and put it on God. For some, the most difficult time to do that is when we’re succeeding.…
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348: Why God Let's Us Struggle
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31:48Hello my friend. I hope you’re having a good day. As we continue this series about living a life that reflects the glory of God, might I suggest that includes your struggles? We all have things in our lives we would change, things we wish we didn’t have to deal with. Illness, financial challenges, difficult relationships. But take comfort in this t…
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Hello friend. I hope you’re doing well today. This week on the podcast we’re looking at an issue that plagued the Philippian church—legalism. They trusted the work of Jesus but were trying to add a little something on their own. If you ever find yourself looking for “Jesus plus” something else, the apostle Paul says to you what he said to the Phili…
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Hello friend. Thanks for joining me on the Encouraging Word Podcast. We’re tackling a new topic today. For the next few weeks we’ll be talking about living a God-centered life. Now that might sound simple, but living a God-centered life means not living a me-centered life. Not quite so easy, but with God as our helper, it’s possible. Purchase Never…
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Hello, my friend. I hope you’re having a good day. 1 Corinthians 13:7 says, "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things." God calls us to walk out sacrificial love. I pray this message encourages you. Purchase Never Give Up here.Von Max Lucado
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344: A United Church in a Divided World
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21:23Hello, my friend. Thanks for joining me this week on the Max Lucado Encouraging Word Podcast. We really live in contentious times. This episode is releasing the day before a Presidential Election here in the United States. Regardless of the outcome, some people are going to be disappointed. Maybe angry. Including some Christians. But, no matter whi…
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Hello, my friend. I hope you’re having a good day. This week on the Max Lucado Encouraging Word Podcast we conclude our study of heaven’s timeline and what happens next. As I’ve studied and taught on this topic, I’ve been asked many times, “So, Max, are we living in the end times?” I think we are. And in today’s episode we consider the signs that i…
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342: Where the Soul Goes to Die
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26:46Hello, friend. Welcome to the Encouraging Word Podcast. For the past several weeks we’ve been studying heaven’s timeline and God’s plan for the ages. Today’s episode brings us to a challenging topic. What happens to those who reject Jesus? There will be a judgment day. It will be a sobering event. But you don’t have to fear it. You don’t have to wo…
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341: God Will Have His Eden
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25:43Hello, my friend. Thanks for joining me this week on the Max Lucado Encouraging Word Podcast. This world is not paradise. It doesn’t look like the perfect Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter one. Devastating weather events, ongoing war, famine and illness – all symptoms of our fallen world where Satan prowls. But a day is coming, friend. A day when C…
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340: The Crowns and the Crimson
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24:36This week on the Max Lucado Encouraging Word podcast, as we continue our study of heaven’s timeline, we’re looking at the second coming of Christ. It won’t be like the first. Baby Jesus, sleeping in the manger – this is a familiar image. But it’s not the image of Christ’s return. When he comes again, it will be to rule and reign and answer the pray…
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339: After the Saints Go Marching In
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22:11Hello, my friend. Welcome back to the Encouraging Word Podcast. We’re working our way down heaven’s timeline and God’s plan for the ages. Today we come to the period of tribulation. Scripture tells us this will be a dark, chaotic time, in part because the church and those who follow Jesus will be gone. But Scripture also tells us that this darkness…
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In last week’s episode of The Max Lucado Encouraging Word Podcast, we talked about the rapture, and today we’re talking about what happens to the church after the rapture. I know these can be unsettling topics, but take heart, my friend – great celebrations in heaven await us. Purchase Never Give Up here.…
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337: The Rebel and the Rescue
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30:06Today on the Max Lucado Encouraging Word Podcast we're continuing our study on the end times. What purpose does the rapture serve? How can I believe that it will take place? Those are the questions we're beginning to answer today... Purchase Never Give Up here.Von Max Lucado
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What do you know about the millennium? The 1,000 year reign of Christ as described in revelation. Maybe you've never heard of it, maybe you're confused by the thought of it, maybe you don't understand the purpose of it, or maybe you’re fascinated by it. Regardless of where you are in your consideration of this wonderful and intriguing promise, I th…
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335: God's Plan for the Ages
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30:07We're continuing our study on the end times, and on today's episode of the Max Lucado Encouraging Word Podcast, we're going to look at passage in the book of Daniel. Now bare with me, it is a bit challenging, but it is an important prophecy that warrants our careful examination. That's what we're doing today...digging into Daniel chapter 9. Purchas…
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334: It Looks Like Reign
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29:35Did you know that God has great plans for you? We get a glimpse of His plans for you in the Garden of Eden. A perfect garden where God's children, made in His image, live in perfect relationship with Him, with each other and perfected bodies in paradise. This story of the garden is more than a story...it's a picture, a description. It's a forecast …
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333: All Packed and Ready
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28:38Hello friend. As I mentioned last week this Fall on the Max Lucado Encouraging Word podcast we'll be in a series called "What Happens Next.” Over the next several episodes we're going to look back at major events in the bible and we'll look forward to what Jesus has promised for the future. Let's do this with hope and urgency, and standing firm on …
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