Devotions from Romans

Passage Read: Acts 28 - Romans 1 Meditation Verse: Romans 1:21 It is a dangerous thing to acknowledge God but not allow Him to be God. Men who know God but do not glorify Him as God by submitting to His every decree are taking…

Passage Read: Romans 2-3 Meditation Verse: 2:25 The problem with trusting in signs and marks is that we don't bother to walk in the way we are called to, we think the mark we have received guarantees our acceptance. So it was with the Jews…

Passage Read: Romans 4-5 Meditation Verses: 5:3-5 Afflictions produce patience, patience produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. Because we must endure affliction and can't do much to change it, we have to learn endurance and patience. Though we might be in a hurry…

Passage Read: Romans 6-7 Meditation Verse: 7:8 "Apart from Law, sin is dead." This cannot mean that there was no sin before the Law, because he's already said sin was in the world before the Law, but it was not imputed without the Law. God…

Passage Read: Romans 8-9 Meditation Verses: 8:35-39 This was such a happy chapter up till this point. God won't withhold anything from us, we should be so happy! He wants to give us everything! He gave His own Son, how will He not freely give…

Passage Read: Romans 10-11 Meditation Verses: 11:19-23 Salvation by faith is not a once-for-all guarantee of salvation. Faith is only good for as long as it lasts. If someone should abandon faith, they will be lost. That is the point of Paul's letter to the…

Passage Read: Romans 12-13 Meditation Verse: 12:16 I need to be careful not to pay special attention to some and less attention to others. Not to be arrogant but to be humble, and not to give special treatment to the mighty or the powerful, but…

Passage Read: Romans 14-15 Meditation Verses: 14:20-21 There are those who believe certain foods to be wrong to eat, like the Hindus. If they were to come to Christ, they might have a difficult time accepting those who eat meat, especially cows. In sensitivity to…

Passage Read: Romans 16 - 1 Corinthians 1 Meditation Verses: Romans 16:17-18 Anyone who teaches doctrine contrary to what Paul taught needs to be avoided. Such men are not serving the Lord or the church, but their own bellies. They are seeking to gain leadership…

Passage Read: Acts 28 - Romans 1 Meditation Verses: 1:28-32 This is happening all over, and indeed a great apostasy has to happen before the end. But no matter how bad things get, I need to hold fast and continually submit and believe the Scriptures…

Passage Read: Romans 2-3 Meditation Verses: 3:18-19 If Jesus honors me with rank and title and position, He's still Lord and God, and I remain His servant and creation. My relationship to Him doesn't change just because I've proven sufficiently faithful to warrant His honor.

Passage Read: Romans 4-5 Meditation Verse: 4:8 But for this moment, I can remember that my sins will never be counted against me because I believe Jesus is the Son of God, and He died for my sins and rose again to give me life.

Passage Read: Romans 6-7 Meditation Verses: 6:17-18 I should no longer behave as if I had freedom of choice, but as if all choice were taken from me. I should simply do wherever the Lord asks of me, whatever His Word commands me, and be…

Passage Read: Romans 8-9 Meditation Verse: 9:18 There is no fighting against God. There is no changing what He has decreed. Those who were chosen from before the beginning of the world will be saved; no one else will. If a people or person is…

Passage Read: Romans 10-11 Meditation Verses: 11:20-24 Salvation is not so cut and dried, according to this passage. It is not set by a single prayer or commitment made years before. It is active and living, and dependent on our current state of belief. If…

Passage Read: Romans 12-13 Meditation Verse: 12:6 I can take heart that Jesus doesn't expect me to do more than I'm able, but He rebuked His disciples for the littleness of their faith. I don't think He'd be pleased if I never grew or attempted…

Passage Read: Romans 14-15 Meditation Verse: 14:13 I shouldn't create stumbling blocks that God has not imposed. I shouldn't judge others on matters that God doesn't care about, like eating or abstaining from meat, observing or not observing holidays, worship styles or anything else that…

Passage Read: Romans 16 - 1 Corinthians 1 Meditation Verses: Romans 16:17-18 God's Word is true and reliable. Anyone who teaches something contrary to what is recorded and taught therein, I need to watch out for. If they're doing it deliberately, they are trying to…

Passage Read: Acts 28 - Romans 1 Meditation Verses: Romans 1:28-32 Turning away from God results in all kinds of depravity, not just sexual immorality and perversion, but all kinds of unrighteousness and wickedness and greed and murder and strife and gossip and arrogance and…

Passage Read: Romans 2-3 Meditation Verse: 2:1 It is so interesting to read that those who pass judgment on others are guilty of doing the very same things. Like there's a heightened sensitivity to the things we feel guilty about doing, and perhaps we want…

Passage Read: Romans 4-5 Meditation Verse: 5:12 Through Adam, sin entered into the world and brought death with it. Death spread to all men because all men also sinned, even without any specific Law having been given. All men weren't condemned in Adam's sin, but…

Passage Read: Romans 6-7 Meditation Verses: 6:12-14 Sin has reigned in my mortal body, and I once willingly surrendered myself to it, submitting in slavery to it. It deceived me and I sold myself into slavery to it, because that looked right to me, to…

Passage Read: Romans 8-9 Meditation Verses: 8:23-25 It is the hope of the resurrection that enables and encourages obedience and endurance in the things of God. It is the promise that we will live forever, that we will receive a new, eternal body, freed from…

Passage Read: Romans 10-11 Meditation Verses: 10:3-5 There is God's righteousness and there is righteousness through the Law. Most Israelites didn't understand God's righteousness and thought the only way to righteousness was by obeying the Law, which Moses affirms as a way to live. But…

Passage Read: Romans 12-13 Meditation Verse: 13:3 I don't know of many governing authorities who will praise someone for doing good, though they all should desire for their citizens to do good. There are awards and such for those who do good, but it usually…

Passage Read: Romans 14-15 Meditation Verses: 15:17-19 Paul has cause to boast in Christ, and it is what Christ has accomplished through him, in particular resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, and the miraculous signs and wonders through the Holy…

Passage Read: Romans 16 - 1 Corinthians 1 Meditation Verses: Romans 16:17-18 Anyone who argues with sound doctrine, with the teachings that have been entrusted to the church through those who were Apostles of Christ, anyone who believes himself or herself to be wiser than…