Deepen Your Faith: Weekly Devotionals

Day 1 (Monday):
“The Goals That Fail Us”

You’ve made the promises before. This year will be different. More disciplined prayer life. Consistent Bible reading. Regular church attendance. Generous giving. Better behavior. And you mean it when you set those goals.

But here’s what happens. A few weeks pass and you’re right back where you started. The guilt settles in. You look over your shoulder, wondering if God is disappointed. Again. So you make new promises, set stricter goals, try harder. The cycle continues.

Scripture: Hebrews 10:1-4
Additional reading: Romans 7:18-19 – “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.”

The Old Testament sacrificial system worked the same way. Year after year, the priests offered the same sacrifices. Bulls, goats, grain offerings. Over and over. Because it never actually worked. The author of Hebrews says it plainly: “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”

God designed it that way. The sacrifices weren’t broken or insufficient by accident. They were meant to point to our desperate need for something better. Every repeated sacrifice was God saying, “This isn’t working. You need a Savior.”

Your failed spiritual goals aren’t evidence that you’re a terrible Christian. They’re evidence that you’re human. And they’re God’s way of driving you back to the cross, where the real work was done. When you want to do good but keep failing, that’s not the end of the story. That’s God pointing you toward the only One who succeeded where we all fail.

Reflect: What spiritual goal have you set and failed at repeatedly? What if that failure is actually God’s way of showing you that you need Jesus more than you need better performance?

Day 2 (Tuesday):
“God Wants Your Heart, Not Your Hands”

The religious person’s great temptation is to show up physically while checking out emotionally. Church attendance while mentally planning the week ahead. Prayer that’s just going through the motions. Giving that happens on autopilot. Service that feels like obligation.

We bring our hands to the task and leave our hearts at home.

Scripture: Psalm 51:16-17
Additional reading: Micah 6:6-8 – “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Throughout Scripture, God makes His position clear. When David organized the priesthood and established the sacrificial system, he also wrote in Psalm 40 that God doesn’t actually desire sacrifices and offerings. Samuel told King Saul that obedience is better than sacrifice. God told Isaiah He was sick of burnt offerings. In Hosea, God says He desires steadfast love, not sacrifice.

Why? Because anything that allows you to bring your hands to a task while leaving your heart at home doesn’t honor God. Your hands are temporary. Your works will be burned up. But God placed eternity in the human heart. That’s what He’s after.

This matters for how we approach spiritual disciplines in 2026. Prayer, giving, service, church attendance—these aren’t boxes to check so God will get off your back. They’re expressions of a heart that’s been transformed by grace. They flow from love, not fear. From freedom, not guilt.

When you understand that God wants your whole heart, not just your busy hands, everything changes. You stop performing and start responding to His love.

Reflect: Where in your spiritual life are you bringing your hands but leaving your heart at home? What would it look like to bring both?

Day 3 (Wednesday):
“One Sacrifice, Forever Finished”

The priest never sat down. Inside the temple, there was no chair, no bench, no place to rest. He stood all day, every day, offering the same sacrifices repeatedly. Bulls in the morning. Goats in the afternoon. Grain offerings in between. Day after day, year after year. The work was never done because the sacrifices never worked.

That’s the point.

Scripture: Hebrews 10:11-12
Additional reading: John 19:30 – “When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

The author of Hebrews draws a sharp contrast. Every priest stands daily offering sacrifices that can never take away sins. But when Christ offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God. That posture matters. It changes everything.

When Jesus sat down, He was declaring the work complete. The work isn’t mostly done. It’s not simply good enough for now. It is completely finished. One sacrifice, offered once, for all time, for all sins, for all failures, for all sinners. Period.

This means you can stop trying to add to what Jesus already completed. You don’t need to offer one more sacrifice, make one more promise, set one more goal to finally earn God’s favor. It’s already yours in Christ. The debt is paid. The work is finished. Jesus sat down.

Going back to the magazine rack of self-help solutions and “try harder” religion is insanity. A religion that never ends is faith that has never worked. But faith in Jesus—whose work is finished—that changes everything.

Reflect: What are you still trying to add to Jesus’ finished work? What would change in your daily life if you truly believed “it is finished”?

Day 4 (Thursday):
“When Failure Becomes a Gift”

The worst part about failure isn’t the failure itself. It’s what happens after. The shame that settles in. The voice that says you’re not good enough, you’ll never change, you might as well give up. The enemy loves to use your failure as evidence that you don’t deserve to approach God.

But what if your failure is actually God’s gift pointing you back to grace?

Scripture: Hebrews 10:14
Additional reading: 2 Corinthians 12:9 – “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

Here’s the stunning truth: the very reality of your failure is the way God points you to Christ’s success. Every time you fall and Jesus reaches down with His nail-pierced hand saying “I know, but take My hand again, come back to the cross again, experience the resurrection again”—that’s when God gets glory for redeeming sinners.

Your failure doesn’t make you unworthy. You already weren’t worthy. None of us are. But through Christ, we’ve been invited to come boldly before the throne of grace. Not because we’ve earned it, but because He already did everything necessary.

The enemy whispers that you’re disqualified. God says you’re invited. The enemy points to your track record. God points to Christ’s finished work. The enemy says try harder. God says rest in what’s already done.

This doesn’t make your sin okay. But it does mean your sin doesn’t get the final word. Grace does. And every time you experience that grace after failure, God is glorified as the One who redeems broken people.

Reflect: What failure has the enemy been using to convince you that you’re disqualified? How is God using that same failure to drive you back to the cross?

Day 5 (Friday):
“Living From Freedom, Not For It”

You serve. You pray. You read Scripture. You give. You come to church. But why? That’s the question that changes everything. Are you doing these things to earn God’s favor, or because you already have it? Are you trying to get God off your back, or responding to His love?

The difference between those two motivations is the difference between religion and gospel.

Scripture: Hebrews 10:19-22
Additional reading: Galatians 5:1 – “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

If you are in Christ, you don’t have to look over your shoulder. The work is done. The sacrifice is complete. You’ve been made holy through the offering of Jesus Christ once for all. That reality doesn’t change based on your performance. It’s settled.

So when you pray, you’re not earning God’s attention. You’re talking with a Father who already delights in you. When you give, you’re not buying favor. You’re responding to extravagant grace. When you serve, you’re not working off a debt. You’re living out your freedom.

This is what it means to live from freedom rather than for it. You already have everything you need in Christ. Your spiritual disciplines aren’t the path to God’s love. They’re the overflow of having received it.

As you move through 2026, you’re going to fall. You’re going to fail. Some days will feel like victories, others like defeats. But here’s what doesn’t change: Jesus sat down because the work is finished. You don’t have to keep trying to complete what He already accomplished. Just keep returning to the cross, taking His hand, and living from the freedom He already won.

Reflect: How would your spiritual life change if you truly lived from freedom rather than for it? What’s one area where you’re still trying to earn what’s already yours in Christ?