Day 1: Who Do You Say He Is? Reading: Mark 8:27-30
Devotional: It is one thing to know facts about Jesus. It is another to surrender to him as Lord. Peter’s confession was historically correct but personally incomplete. He named Jesus as Messiah while quietly holding onto his own vision of what that meant. We do the same. We confess Christ with our lips while quietly expecting him to serve our preferences. Today, sit with the question Jesus asked his disciples and let it land personally. Not who does your tradition say he is, not who does your church say he is, but who do you say he is? Let your answer cost you something.
Day 2: The Danger of a Scripted God Reading: Mark 8:31-33
Devotional: Peter rebuked Jesus for announcing a path that did not match his expectations. The word used was forceful, the kind of correction you would give someone who had made a serious error. And yet it was Peter who was wrong. When God leads us into seasons of suffering, loss, or uncertainty, our instinct is often the same as Peter’s. We pull Jesus aside and suggest a better route. But as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1, the apparent foolishness of God exceeds the greatest wisdom of humanity. Lay down your script today. Trust that God’s path, however unexpected, is purposeful.
Day 3: The Normal Christian Life Reading: Mark 8:34-38
Devotional: Jesus did not reserve the call to cross-bearing for a spiritual elite. He called the crowd alongside his disciples and spoke plainly. Deny yourself. Take up your cross. Follow me. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, writing from a Nazi prison cell, understood this clearly. He wrote that when Christ calls a person, he bids them come and die. This is not a call to misery but to meaning. The self-centered life, the security-obsessed life, and the reputation-protecting life all promise satisfaction and deliver emptiness. The surrendered life promises loss and delivers true living. What area of your life are you still managing rather than surrendering?
Day 4: Praying Without Controlling Reading: Matthew 6:9-13, Luke 22:42
Devotional: Jesus teaches his disciples to pray with honesty and boldness, asking freely and persistently. Yet his own prayer in Gethsemane ends with the words, not my will but yours. These two postures are not in conflict. We are invited to bring our genuine desires, not our demands. We are called to anchor our requests in God’s character rather than our own predictions about how things should unfold. And we are freed from the burden of managing outcomes. Ask boldly. Trust completely. Leave the results at the altar. God’s assignment is to govern the universe. Ours is to seek him faithfully and release what we cannot control.
Day 5: The Glory That Makes It Worth It Reading: Mark 9:2-8
Devotional: The transfiguration was not a detour from the way of the cross. It was a glimpse of where that way ultimately leads. Peter, James, and John saw the radiance of Christ’s true nature breaking through his human form, and they were overwhelmed. Moses and Elijah, representing the law and the prophets, stood with him discussing the exodus he was about to accomplish, the ultimate rescue from sin and death. Every sacrifice made in faithful discipleship is moving toward this. The glory Jesus offers is not the fleeting applause of momentary achievement. It is eternal. The Father’s voice over his Son is the voice that will one day speak over every faithful follower. Listen to him.
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