Deepen Your Faith: Daily Devotionals

These short daily studies are designed to extend the conversation from Sunday’s sermon.

DAY 1 — MONDAY
The Trip to Cancún That Never Existed

If someone walked up to you right now and said, “I’m sorry your two-week vacation to Cancún just got canceled,” you probably would not be upset. Unless you actually had that vacation planned. You cannot be let down by something you never counted on. But change the scenario. You have been planning that trip for months. The bags are packed. And then it falls apart. Now the disappointment is real. The difference is not the trip. The difference is the expectation.

Scripture: Luke 24:13–21

Additional reading: Proverbs 13:12 – “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”

I mentioned yesterday that unmet expectations are the greatest source of our frustration. Expectations before marriage become demands after marriage. The hope for the job, the house, the relationship, the report from the doctor.

Every one of those “but I had hoped” moments carries real weight. Cleopas and his companion on the road to Emmaus were not upset about a vacation. They had watched the person they believed was the Messiah die on a cross.

Their expectations were not just unmet. They were buried in a tomb. And yet here is the thing.

You cannot avoid having expectations. People without expectations have their own kind of turmoil. We need goals and dreams.

They just cannot be our goals and our dreams. They have to be His.

Reflect: What expectation are you carrying right now that has quietly become a demand? What would it look like to open your hands and say, “God, this was my plan, but I’m listening for yours”?

These devotionals are taken from this week’s message from God’s Word at CBC. To listen to the sermon or for more resources like this, visit us online at ourgoalislove.com.

DAY 2 — TUESDAY
Seven Miles of Dusty Road

Imagine walking down that long road, trying to make sense of the worst week of your life. You are arguing back and forth. It cannot be true. It has to be true. They would not lie about it. Your brain is spinning and your chest is tight. And then a stranger falls into step beside you and asks, “So, what are you two talking about?”

Scripture: Luke 24:15–17

Additional reading: Psalm 34:18 – “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”

Jesus could have revealed Himself immediately. He could have pulled back the hood and ended their grief in an instant. But He did not.

He walked beside them, hidden, and He asked a question He already knew the answer to. That detail has stayed with me all week. Jesus made them talk about it.

He made them relive the whip sounds, the mocking, the hammer hitting the spike. He forced Cleopas to say out loud what he was really feeling. Why would a loving God do that? Because sometimes we are not ready to receive the answer until we have been honest about the question.

I have learned in my own life that sometimes I do not get the answers I am looking for because I am not ready to ask the right questions yet. Jesus walks with us in the despair, not to punish us, but because the journey itself is doing something necessary in our souls.

Reflect: Is God asking you to be honest about something you have been avoiding? What question has He been walking beside you long enough for you to finally ask?

These devotionals are taken from this week’s message from God’s Word at CBC. To listen to the sermon or for more resources like this, visit us online at ourgoalislove.com.

DAY 3 — WEDNESDAY
“He Was a Prophet”

There is a moment in grief when you start adjusting the story. The relationship was probably not going to work out anyway. The job was not that great. The dream was unrealistic. You lower the stakes so the loss does not hurt as much. It is a way of protecting yourself. But it comes at a cost.

Scripture: Luke 24:19–27

Additional reading: Isaiah 53:3 – “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”

When Cleopas described Jesus to the stranger on the road, he used a small word that carries enormous weight. He called Jesus a prophet. Past tense. “A man who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word.” For most of us, being called a prophet would be a promotion.

For Jesus, it was a demotion. Cleopas was not elevating Jesus. He was lowering his expectations.

He had gone from “This is the Messiah who will redeem Israel” to “He was a good teacher who got killed like all the other prophets Jerusalem has killed.” We do the same thing with God. When the prayer goes unanswered, we quietly downgrade Him. We stop expecting Him to move.

We start reading the Bible for comfort instead of for truth. Jesus responded by walking them through every book of the Old Testament, showing that the Christ was always meant to suffer before entering glory. They had been reading the right book with the wrong expectations.

Reflect: Have you quietly downgraded your view of who God is because of a disappointment? Where have you stopped expecting Him to show up?

These devotionals are taken from this week’s message from God’s Word at CBC. To listen to the sermon or for more resources like this, visit us online at ourgoalislove.com.

DAY 4 — THURSDAY
The Bread That Broke Different

You have driven that route a hundred times. You have had that conversation a thousand times. Someone has invited you to church a dozen times. It is all ordinary. Familiar. Routine. And then one day, for reasons you cannot fully explain, the ordinary cracks open and something eternal breaks through.

Scripture: Luke 24:28–32

Additional reading: Psalm 119:18 – “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.”

Jesus sat down at the table, picked up a loaf of bread, and broke it. They had seen bread broken at a hundred meals. There was nothing unusual about it.

But this time, the bread cracked in a way different from any other meal they had ever shared. In that instant their eyes were opened and they recognized Him. And then He vanished.

What stayed behind was not a physical presence. It was a burning. They turned to each other and said, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road?” Here is what grips me about that moment.

They could not see Jesus while they were walking with Him. But once they paused, once they sat down at the table, they were able to look back over those seven dusty miles and realize He had been there every single step. When you are in the valley, it can feel impossible to hear His voice.

But when you come through the other side and look back, you will see that you never walked alone.

Reflect: Is there an ordinary moment in your life right now where God might be trying to open your eyes? What would it look like to slow down and sit at the table with Him today?

These devotionals are taken from this week’s message from God’s Word at CBC. To listen to the sermon or for more resources like this, visit us online at ourgoalislove.com.

DAY 5 — FRIDAY
Deton on the Chest

Think about the last gift you received that you never thought to ask for. Not something from a store. Something that arrived quietly. A friendship at the right moment. A word that landed exactly where you needed it. A small hand reaching for yours. The best things God gives rarely show up on our wish list.

Scripture: Luke 24:36–45

Additional reading: Ephesians 3:20 – “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.”

I shared on Sunday about a quiet Friday afternoon with my grandson. We had been watching a service together on TV, and he fell asleep right there on my chest. I grabbed my camera because I knew one day he would not be that small.

And as I looked at that picture, I believe God leaned in and said, “It’s great, right? I don’t recall you asking for that.” He was right. I am way too dumb to ask for that. I was busy asking for possessions and security and ease of life.

And right there in front of me, holding that child, was the most wonderful thing. I never would have thought to request it. That is who our God is.

He will walk with you as far as you need to go. He will let you walk seven miles or fourteen or fourteen hundred. He will walk as far as He needs to, for you and me to develop a callus or two on our feet and realize we need to stop walking.

And then He will give us something we never knew we needed. So here is the question this week has been building toward. Are you willing to trade the Jesus you had hoped for, the one you built in your mind to serve your plans, in exchange for the one who actually rose from the dead? He is worth so much more.

Reflect: What is one thing God has given you that you never would have thought to ask for? What would it look like to trust Him with the things still on your list?