Deepen Your Faith: Daily Devotionals

DAY 1
“No More Middle Way”

There’s a reason the founders couldn’t stay in the middle forever. For months, the Continental Congress had been arguing about whether to pursue reconciliation with Britain or break away entirely. They debated. They delayed. They sent letters. And then on June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee stood up and offered a resolution: these colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.

He didn’t create independence that day. He forced a decision about what was already true.

Scripture: 1 Kings 18:21 — “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.”

What Lee did for the Continental Congress, Elijah did on Mount Carmel. The people of Israel had been waffling for years — not rejecting God, not fully committing either. Elijah stands up and says the same thing Lee said: you cannot stay here. A decision is required, the middle is not actually a place you can live. The people go silent. That silence is familiar. It’s the sound of someone who knows what they believe but hasn’t said it out loud yet.

Agnosticism is a fine place to stop to check the map, but it is a terrible place to forward your mail.

Sooner or later, the resolution has to come.

Reflect: What decision have you been deferring that you already know the answer to? What would it look like to state out loud what you already believe to be true?

DAY 2
“You Can Be at Every Feast and Still Be Divided”

Most of us wouldn’t describe our struggle as choosing between God and something else. It feels more ordinary than that. We show up. We pray. We give. We also quietly make room for the other things — the approval we need from certain people, the financial security we’re building just in case, the identity we’ve constructed around our work or our family. We tell ourselves none of that is worship. We’re just being responsible.

That’s almost exactly what Israel told itself.

Scripture: 1 Kings 18:21 — “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.”

Israel hadn’t walked away from Yahweh. They still observed the covenant feasts. They still gave him his due. But Ahab’s marriage to Jezebel had brought the Baals into the palace and into the culture, and the people had accommodated. The Baals were the gods of weather, crops, family, and enemies — practical gods, cultural gods, the gods everyone around them honored. So Israel kept Yahweh and added the Baals, and told themselves this was just being reasonable.

Elijah calls it limping. Not apostasy. Not rebellion. Just the slow, ordinary drift of a people who kept showing up while quietly serving two masters.

The question isn’t whether you’ve walked away. It’s whether you’ve divided.

Reflect: What have you added alongside God that you’ve been telling yourself isn’t really worship? Where are you limping?

DAY 3
“No Voice. No Answer. No One There.”

Think about what you’ve given to the things you most want from this world. The hours. The energy. The version of yourself you perform when you need someone’s approval. The anxiety that sets in when the numbers aren’t right, or the relationship feels shaky, or the recognition doesn’t come. We pour ourselves into these things. And at some point, we notice they aren’t pouring back.

That’s the moment Elijah was waiting for.

Scripture: 1 Kings 18:26, 29 — The prophets of Baal called out from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made. And as midday passed, they raved on… but there was no voice. No one answered. No one paid attention.

The prophets of Baal did everything right by their own religion. They called out. They danced. They cut themselves and bled. And the silence that came back wasn’t a delay — it was the answer. There was no one there.

False gods always ask you to perform and bleed. Money can’t sit with you when a loved one is gone. Status disappears when the season of your life turns dark. Affirmation evaporates the moment you need it most. They take everything and offer nothing when it actually matters.

The God we serve didn’t ask us to bleed. He bled for us, so that we don’t have to.

Reflect: What have you been pouring yourself into that isn’t giving anything back? What would it look like to stop performing for something that cannot answer?

DAY 4
“Desperation Is the Blank Canvas He Prefers”

There are situations that feel too far gone. Too many things working against you. Too much water under the bridge, or over it. We tend to treat desperation as a disqualifier — as if God works best when we’ve got something to offer, some momentum going, some reasonable foundation to build on. But that’s not what the text shows us.

Elijah does something strange before he prays.

Scripture: 1 Kings 18:33–35 — He said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” And he said, “Do it a second time.” And they did it a second time. And he said, “Do it a third time.” And they did it a third time. And the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water.

Twelve buckets. Wet wood. A trench full of water surrounding it. Elijah made the conditions as impossible as he could, and then he prayed. Not because he was showing off, but because he understood something about God: desperation is the blank canvas that Jesus prefers to start with.

A soaked altar leaves no room for anyone else to take the credit. When the fire falls on something that should not burn, there is only one explanation. That’s exactly the kind of situation God tends to show up in.

If your situation feels waterlogged right now, that is not evidence that God has left. It may be exactly the canvas he’s been waiting for.

Reflect: What situation in your life feels most impossible right now? What would it look like to stop trying to dry it out first, and instead bring it to God soaked?

DAY 5
“You Are God. I Am Your Servant. Here Is What I Know.”

Most of our prayers are shaped by what we want. That’s not wrong. But there’s a different kind of prayer that doesn’t start with the request. It starts with what’s already true — about who God is, about where we stand in relation to him, and about what he’s already said. Elijah’s prayer on Mount Carmel is the clearest example of that kind of praying I’ve ever read.

It has four moves. They’re worth learning.

Scripture: 1 Kings 18:36–37 — “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.”

You are God. Elijah starts by declaring who God is and what only he can do. Not as a warm-up — as the foundation. I am your servant. He places himself inside God’s plan, not above it. He’s not the one calling the shots. I have done your word. Obedience is the ground he’s standing on. He’s not approaching God as someone managing their own agenda. Show your mercy. The whole point isn’t Elijah’s vindication — it’s that the people would know the truth and be turned back.

What would change if more of our prayers were built that way? Less bending God toward what we want. More finding our place in what he’s already doing.

Reflect: Which of these four moves is hardest for you right now — declaring who God is, naming yourself his servant, standing on obedience, or asking for his mercy over your own agenda? What would it look like to pray from that place today?