Tag Archives: devotion

Bible Gleanings, devotions

Keep Ducking | Bible Gleanings | October 11-12, 2025

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I always duck my head when I put away the dishes. But not because my wife stealthily wields a frying pan, eager to cash in on some life insurance. No, I instinctively lower my head because of our poorly placed cabinet door—and my poor memory of its existence. It sits right above the dishwasher, and I have a bad habit of leaving it open while I put away plates, mugs, and cutlery. And having hit my head on it many times, I have learned to automatically duck—even while it is closed.

And the other day, the old adversary vanquished me again. Vibing to some good music with my headphones on, I forgot to duck, and a thud echoed across the kitchen. And a pulsing abrasion on my balding head served as a reminder that no matter how many times you’ve learned your lesson, old problems can still get you. Many dangers remain in place, waiting for you to forget they are there.

Paul the apostle understood this problem profoundly. After twenty-something years of continual Christian maturity, he admitted in Romans that he still “hit his head” from time to time:

“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate . . . For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing . . . So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand” (Rom. 7:15, 18-19, 21).

Struggling with the same old sins and suffering from setbacks is a part of every saint’s sanctification. Sin isn’t going away until we are away from our bodies and present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). Until then, we must remain diligently watchful and continue ducking our heads to avoid sin and the headaches it induces. The real danger is thinking there is no danger—that is precisely when sin inflicts another bruise on our heads. As Paul also said, “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). 

And when sin hits us on the head due to our carelessness, the good news is that God will lift us up by His grace. The writer of Proverbs 24:16 promised, “For the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.” The psalmist likewise assured, “Though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the LORD upholds his hand” (Psalm 37:24). Keep ducking your head, Christian. And when you forget to do so, remember that God raises the humble heads of those who have been wounded by their besetting sins.

Brandon is the pastor of Bandana Baptist Church in Bandana, Kentucky, where he lives with his wife, Dakota, and their three dogs. Brandon and Dakota previously served as foster parents through Sunrise Children’s Services of Kentucky. Brandon is also a published author and his Bible Gleanings columns are featured in over sixteen publications throughout Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee, and Indiana. He is also a devotional contributor for Kentucky Today, a news publication of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, and an editor at Reforming the Heart.

Bible Gleanings, devotions

Know Your Enemy | Bible Gleanings | October 4-5, 2025

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Countless wars have been won following its principles, and countless more have been lost by ignoring them. Written over 2,400 years ago by a Chinese military strategist named Sun Tzu, The Art of War is essentially the Proverbs of conflict. Sun Tzu poured his greatest war wisdom into this treatise, and one of its most prominent principles is this: “Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril. If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril.”

This proverbial proposition is particularly pertinent in our struggle against the devil. Satan succeeds in seducing us when his schemes remain a secret. But our chances of triumphing over the Tempter increase when we recognize his tools, tactics, and tricks. “Knowing is half the battle,” as G.I. Joe used to say, and we can only craft a battle plan against Satan once we understand his. And the Bible reveals Satan’s playbook in Luke 4:1-13, where he employed three strategies to tempt Christ in the wilderness: doubt, deception, and distortion.

The devil first enticed Jesus to turn stones into bread, not to relieve His hunger, but to doubt the provision of His Father (v. 3). Satan was essentially insinuating, “What kind of God would starve His only begotten Son? You better make bread because your ‘God’ isn’t providing for you this time.” And his wicked whispers reach our ears, too: “What kind of loving God would allow your prayers to go unanswered? What kind of Father allows His children to go without?”

The slithering serpent also tried to lure Christ into temptation through deception (vv. 5-7). The father of lies claimed that all sovereignty and dominion belonged to him, and he could, therefore, grant Jesus the greatest empires of the world. But the truth is that all power, authority, and glory are the Lord’s (Matt. 6:13b). Thus, Satan tells non-truths and half-truths but never the truth.

Lastly, the master of deceit used distortion to tempt the Lord Jesus (vv. 9-11). He twisted Psalm 91:11-12 to encourage Christ to leap from the temple roof to His death. The devil knows the Scripture and knows how to modify, misrepresent, and misuse it. He mixes lies with truth so that it is difficult to discern the difference. And this is not surprising since the first words uttered from his lying lips were, “Hath God said?” (Gen. 3:1a, KJV).

And for each of these strategies, there is one proven defense: the word of God. Christ resisted every temptation by declaring, “It is written” (v. 4, 8, 12), and we must wield the sword of the Spirit in Satan’s face. A dusty Bible on our shelves will not help us, but the word of God stored upon the shelves of our soul certainly will. To vanquish Satan, you must know your enemy and know your Bible.

Brandon is the pastor of Bandana Baptist Church in Bandana, Kentucky, where he lives with his wife, Dakota, and their three dogs. Brandon and Dakota previously served as foster parents through Sunrise Children’s Services of Kentucky. Brandon is also a published author and his Bible Gleanings columns are featured in over sixteen publications throughout Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee, and Indiana. He is also a devotional contributor for Kentucky Today, a news publication of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, and an editor at Reforming the Heart.

Bible Gleanings, devotions

Waiting Without Withering | Bible Gleanings | September 27-28, 2025

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True love waits, but it might nearly kill you. In 2016, a man named Alexander Cirk determined to see his online girlfriend five-thousand miles away in China. He booked a flight and sent his sweetheart photos of his ticket and dreamed of embracing her. But when he arrived, he embraced no one—his darling was nowhere to be found. 

Assuming she was running late, Cirk waited for her in the airport. And he waited for ten days until, according to NBC News, “authorities reportedly took a frail-looking Cirk to a local hospital for treatment.” When his girlfriend was eventually tracked down, she thought he was joking about the trip! Two lessons arise from this: (1) be careful with online dating—you might end up in the hospital and in the hole, and (2) waiting is incredibly difficult. And the latter lesson is one that the Lord teaches us throughout His word.

We are commanded in Psalm 27:14, “Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!” We must wait with patience—for answers to prayer (Ps. 40:1), for God’s guidance (Prov. 3:5-6), for deliverance from tribulations (Ps. 37:7), for the provision of our needs (Ps. 33:20), for justice to be done (Rom. 12:19), and for the fulfillment of His plan and promises (Ps. 138:8). And waiting is particularly challenging because we are conditioned against it. We can microwave our supper, send a text or e-mail instantaneously, and receive packages from Amazon in two days. But there is no fast-forward button on God’s plan (Eccl. 3:11).

But although waiting is hard, it is also holy. Waiting provides an opportunity to stretch out our faith across time. Waiting expresses trust in God’s goodness and wisdom, as waiting essentially says, “God knows better than I do. My life and times are in His hands” (cf. Ps. 31:15). And thankfully, we do not have to wither while waiting, for God promises to strengthen us: “But they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Isa. 40:31).

Jacob of old waited fourteen years for Rachel, but it “seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her” (Gen. 29:20). And when we believe that God and His good plan are worth waiting for, how long we must wait will matter very little. As the Puritan George Swinnock wisely stated, “To lengthen my patience is the best way to shorten my troubles.” That is, the more we resolve to wait and trust in the Lord’s perfect timing, the less we will think about how long our suffering must last. Waiting is worthwhile, so let us take our eyes off of our clocks and calendars and fix them upon our Creator whose timing is always perfectly precise.

Brandon is the pastor of Bandana Baptist Church in Bandana, Kentucky, where he lives with his wife, Dakota, and their three dogs. Brandon and Dakota previously served as foster parents through Sunrise Children’s Services of Kentucky. Brandon is also a published author and his Bible Gleanings columns are featured in over sixteen publications throughout Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee, and Indiana. He is also a devotional contributor for Kentucky Today, a news publication of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, and an editor at Reforming the Heart.

Bible Questions, devotions

Refuge for a Nation in Ruin | Bible Gleanings | September 20-21, 2025

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“If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3). In light of the abominable and anti-American tragedies that have occurred in recent days, many believers are asking this question. The assassination of Charlie Kirk, murder of Iryna Zarutska, and continual school shootings have left many believers helpless and hopeless. What can American Christians do when the fundamental cornerstone of free speech is threatened by the bullets of political extremists? What can we do when there are no longer any safe spaces from such violence? 

First, we must recognize the problem. The moral foundations of our great nation are eroding. For decades, the federal government has attempted to redefine, and thereby undermine, the societal groundwork that holds America together. A moral society cannot survive when it jettisons basic truths—truths found most of all in the Scripture—truths such as: God-ordained marriage is between one man and one woman for life (Gen. 2:24); you are the gender your chromosomes say you are (Gen. 1:27); children in the womb should not be slaughtered—but protected by the law (Psalm 139:13-16); those who take human life should be penalized to the highest extent of the law (Gen. 9:6); and the government’s job is to inflict terror upon evildoers which, therefore, allows morality to flourish on its own (Rom. 13:3-4).

Second, we must revive our concern for our country. Believers in Christ must not retreat into the shadows, rather, we must expose the works of darkness and bring Christianity back into the public square (Acts 17:16-34; Eph. 5:11), never backing down from speaking the truth in love (Eph. 4:15). We must love harder and proclaim the gospel of Christ bolder than ever (Mark 12:31; 16:15). We must work harder than ever before to rebuild our nation’s crumbling moral foundations. And to spread salt and light throughout our society (Matt. 5:13), we must elect and support lion-hearted and constitution-following men and women who possess unbreakable moral backbones, and refuse to settle for anything less.

Third, we must take refuge in the Lord (Psalm 11:1; Prov. 18:10). This doesn’t mean retreating into our prayer closets and ignoring the ills around us—it means relying upon the Lord in the midst of trouble. Taking refuge in the Lord does not mean fleeing from the battle, but having faith in God during the battle. More than ever, we must believe against what our eyes see—trusting that God is still good, His word is still true, His promises are still trustworthy, His sovereignty is still real, His providence is still active, and His plan cannot be thwarted. And part of trusting in God is repenting of our trust in the golden calf of politics. Neither the donkey nor the elephant can save us or our nation, but the Lamb of God can.

Brandon is the pastor of Bandana Baptist Church in Bandana, Kentucky, where he lives with his wife, Dakota, and their three dogs. Brandon and Dakota previously served as foster parents through Sunrise Children’s Services of Kentucky. Brandon is also a published author and his Bible Gleanings columns are featured in over sixteen publications throughout Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee, and Indiana. He is also a devotional contributor for Kentucky Today, a news publication of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, and an editor at Reforming the Heart.

Bible Gleanings, devotions

Seeing the Unseen Work | Bible Gleanings | September 13-14, 2025

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I had witnessed a miracle: an apartment building had magically sprung up overnight. I was perplexed because I had driven through the area many times before, and never noticed any work being done—no work trucks, no construction crew, and no building materials. If someone living there had said a fourplex apartment was being built, I would have thought they were joking or lying. How, then, did an apartment structure appear out of nowhere? It didn’t—my view of the work was obscured by a grassy hill.

The big hill faces the road and the apartment building is nestled behind it—only the top floors and roof are visible. The hill hindered me from seeing months of hard labor: the laying of the foundation, the beams being raised, and the walls being put in place. Just because I couldn’t see work being done doesn’t mean work wasn’t happening—the problem was my perspective. Had I stood on the other side of the hill, I could have seen the work that was hidden from my sight.

Similarly, there is a “hill” obscuring our perception of the unfathomable work that our gracious God is always doing for our good and His glory—a veil between the physical realm we live in and the spiritual realm where God performs His sovereign will. But just because we sometimes do not see His providential work for our soul-betterment and His renown does not mean He is idle. The Lord is the hardest worker in existence—never clocking out or taking a break from doing whatever it takes to fulfill His good plan for His children (Rom. 8:28). He “neither slumbers nor sleeps” (Ps. 121:4), and as Jesus said, “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (John 5:17). Because of this, every believer can say with the psalmist,

“The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me; thy mercy, O LORD, endureth forever; forsake not the works of thine own hands” (Psalm 138:8, KJV).

From our limited perspective, we may think that God is inactive—not working in our efforts to reach the unsaved, not working in our marriage and in our kids’ lives, not working in our church, not working in our personal sanctification, and not working amidst our heartbreaking troubles. But God assures us, as He assured the prophet Habakkuk: “For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told” (Hab. 1:5b). Thus, we are commanded to “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7), trusting His plan and promises even when we cannot see the fulfillment of them with our physical eyes. The unseen God is at work in your life, and one day, when you stand in His presence on the other side of the hill, His perfect plan will be made plain. As Jesus promised, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand” (John 13:7).

Brandon is the pastor of Bandana Baptist Church in Bandana, Kentucky, where he lives with his wife, Dakota, and their three dogs. Brandon and Dakota previously served as foster parents through Sunrise Children’s Services of Kentucky. Brandon is also a published author and his Bible Gleanings columns are featured in over sixteen publications throughout Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee, and Indiana. He is also a devotional contributor for Kentucky Today, a news publication of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, and an editor at Reforming the Heart.

Bible Gleanings, devotions

Lord, Teach Us to Pray | Bible Gleanings | September 6-7, 2025

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“Teach me how to play like that,” I requested, after watching the old man shred on the guitar. All I knew how to play was “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Smoke on the Water,” but I felt compelled to learn from his example after such an impressive performance. And after closely watching Jesus while He prayed, one of the disciples was so impressed that they inquired, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1b). This prompted the Master-Prayer to give His disciples then and now what is known as The Lord’s Prayer, which should be called The Disciples’ Prayer, since it is a model prayer for Christ’s followers to imitate (Matt. 6:9-13).

According to Jesus, God-pleasing prayer is God-centered prayer. Instead of giving God a long list of wants, believers should pray with a focus on the Father and His fatherly care for their needs (Matt. 6:9). Thus, children of God should pray with confidence and boldness because God is their Father (Matt. 6:5-8; cf. Heb. 4:16), but also with reverence and respect because God is their Father (Matt. 6:9b; cf. Psalm 3:4). Furthermore, when believers pray, they should contemplate and consider what God wants and wills, rather than what they want (Matt. 6:10). All faithful prayer begins with a concentration and meditation upon the Lord and His desires—not our own. 

God-pleasing prayer is also God-believing prayer. That is why Jesus urged His followers to bring all of their needs to the Lord in prayer, believing that He will meet them. Jesus said that believers should pray for daily necessities like bread, trusting that the omnipotent God will provide them without lifting a finger (Matt. 6:11). He also advised believers to pray for their spiritual needs, such as daily sin-cleansing, knowing that God will purify and forgive according to His abundant mercy (Matt. 6:12; cf. Psalm 51:1). Last but not least, Jesus instructs His saints to pray for the power and grace required to withstand temptation and the Tempter, Satan (Matt. 6:13).

The greatest Pray-er who ever lived knew a thing or two about God-glorifying prayer, and His model prayer is worthy of imitation. Therefore, start with God when you pray, and fixate upon His providence, goodness, mercy, grace, and holiness. Move on to praying about your physical and spiritual needs next, and “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:6b). When you concentrate on God first and your needs last, you will find your problems and worries shrinking in comparison to the great God to whom you pray. David was scared to death that he was going to be killed until he recounted who the Lord was—then he laid down and slept like a baby (cf. Psalm 3:1-6). What would change in your life if you prayed more often like Jesus taught?

Brandon is the pastor of Bandana Baptist Church in Bandana, Kentucky, where he lives with his wife, Dakota, and their three dogs. Brandon and Dakota previously served as foster parents through Sunrise Children’s Services of Kentucky. Brandon is also a published author and his Bible Gleanings columns are featured in over sixteen publications throughout Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee, and Indiana. He is also a devotional contributor for Kentucky Today, a news publication of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, and an editor at Reforming the Heart.

Bible Gleanings, devotions

The Divine Drawbridge | Bible Gleanings | August 23-24, 2025

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The man was sickly, impoverished, and defenseless. The apothecary gave him a cordial, but it was watered-down liquor. A landowner lent him coins, but they slipped through the holes in his satchel. When wolves encircled his home, he drove them away with sticks and stones, only to suffer greater wounds each night. But his dwindling hope revived with a promising thought: “Perhaps the king shall take pity upon me.”

Legends of the king’s wisdom in medicine, abundance of wealth, and vast armory spread among the villages. The king was also known to be generous. In desperation, the man boldly sought the king’s help—something peons would never entertain. And after journeying three days, he beheld the king’s towering castle with relief, only to find the drawbridge raised. With no way inside, the man began hiking home—until he heard a horse galloping behind him. 

Its rider drew close and asked, “Friend, I saw you at the entrance of the king’s castle, appearing vexed. What burdens you?”

The man initially hesitated, but finally confessed: “I am dying, famished, and plagued by wolves each night. I believed the king could help, but I dared not force my way in.”

The rider nodded and said, “I shall see what may be done.”

The man’s eyes glimmered with hope, and he asked: “Truly? And may I ask—who are you?”

The rider smiled and answered, “I am the king’s son. Return tomorrow.”

And the horse-mounted prince rode off into the dusk. 

At daylight, he returned—and there stood the king’s son beside the drawbridge. He commanded the drawbridge to lower, and sat the man on his own horse and proceeded inside.

When they reached the throne room, he began to petition the king: “My lord and king, I,” but the king’s son raised his hand to silence him.

“Father, this man is poor,” said the prince, “He is sick and beset by foes. And he has come seeking your mercy.”

Immediately, the king answered, “Let it be done. Fill his pockets with my own gold. Give him the healing cordial I have prepared. And arm him plentifully, that he may ward off the wolves.”

The Bible speaks of another needy man, another King, another Son, and another drawbridge. As sinners, we are impoverished beggars—sick because of sin, spiritually bankrupt, and defenseless against the wolf, Satan. But God can heal our souls, enrich us with His grace, and equip us with weapons to withstand the devil. And we can enter the throne room of the King to receive what we need, so long as we believe that Jesus, the Prince of Peace, can bring us into God’s presence (John 14:6). God lowers the drawbridge of prayer to those accompanied by His Son. That is why the Scripture says, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).

Brandon is the pastor of Bandana Baptist Church in Bandana, Kentucky, where he lives with his wife, Dakota, and their three dogs. Brandon and Dakota previously served as foster parents through Sunrise Children’s Services of Kentucky. Brandon is also a published author and his Bible Gleanings columns are featured in over sixteen publications throughout Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee, and Indiana. He is also a devotional contributor for Kentucky Today, a news publication of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, and an editor at Reforming the Heart.

Bible Gleanings, devotions

Farewell to the Flesh | Bible Gleanings | August 16-17, 2025

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The house was deserted and devoid of life. The front door was cracked open, the once-attractive exterior color had retired to a glum grayish-brown, and the silence of death packed the halls. The bubbling tide washed this abandoned residence right up to my feet—it was a suntanned shell, formerly occupied by a hermit crab that vacated it during molting. There comes a moment in every hermit crab’s life when they must depart their old shell in search of a new one. These ten-legged crustaceans do not typically die when they surrender their obsolete housing to the ocean—they simply move on and move into an upgraded version.

The time will come when every Christian must say goodbye to the shell of their old flesh as well. The body is merely a temporary residence and the tide of death will bury your mortal frame six feet beneath a headstone. But the real you—your soul, that is—will live on. If you believe that the death of Christ was the deathblow to death, the earthen vessel of your body is all that truly dies (cf. John 11:25). You will bid adieu to your old shell and live in the eternal presence of the Author of life (Phil. 1:23), and the Lord shall grant you a new and improved body when He returns: “[Jesus] will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Phil. 3:21).

A believer’s death, therefore, is not the end. It is simply the end of living in the fragile shell of the flesh. “For we know,” promised Paul, “that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling” (2 Cor. 5:1-2). And the new shell will be unlike anything you have ever known before:

“Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:51-53).

A now-omitted stanza in the cherished hymn Sweet Hour of Prayer, written by William W. Walford (1772-1850), puts it splendidly:

“May I thy con­so­la­tion share,
Till, from Mount Pis­gah’s lof­ty height,
I view my home and take my flight:
This robe of flesh I’ll drop and rise
To seize the ev­er­last­ing prize.”

Brandon is the pastor of Bandana Baptist Church in Bandana, Kentucky, where he lives with his wife, Dakota, and their three dogs. Brandon and Dakota previously served as foster parents through Sunrise Children’s Services of Kentucky. Brandon is also a published author and his Bible Gleanings columns are featured in over sixteen publications throughout Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee, and Indiana. He is also a devotional contributor for Kentucky Today, a news publication of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, and an editor at Reforming the Heart.

Bible Gleanings, devotions

Stagehands for the Savior | Bible Gleanings | August 9-10, 2025

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Every person’s pupils were practically glued to the pandemonium among the pirates and pillagers. Buccaneers swung from the crow’s nest to the main deck, battling raiders and robbers with their blood-drawing blades. “Avast ye! Give no quarter to these scurvy dogs!” yelled the captain. After a brief brawl, the invaders were repelled and the ruckus settled down. And that’s when I saw it: a man stepping out of the shadows to mop the deck.

While watching the Pirates Voyage Dinner & Show in Panama City, Florida, I couldn’t help but notice the stagehands who quietly emerged from behind the scenes to keep the stage safe and prepare for the next act. They unhooked ropes, removed and repositioned props, and checked on the actors to ensure everything was running smoothly. They weren’t the center of attention—their job was to guarantee that the stage was set for the main actors who were. They weren’t the stars of the show and received no applause. They had one mission: to ensure the spotlight shined on the real stars. 

And this is precisely what Christians are called to do for Christ. Believers are stagehands for the Savior. Jesus is highly exalted “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named” (Eph. 1:21a), and our job as believers is to keep it that way in our hearts and lives. The mission statement of our lives ought to be that of John the Baptizer: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). As the reformer John Calvin once said, this world is a “theater for God’s glory,” and our divine duty is to ensure that the spotlight shines on the real Hero: Jesus. 

This means fighting the temptation to “think of [ourselves] more highly than [we] ought to think” (Rom. 12:3). We must see ourselves as “unworthy servants” (Luke 17:10) whose principal assignment is to shine the light of our good works upon Him (Matt. 5:16). Everything we do should draw people’s attention to Christ, so “that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified” (2 Thess. 1:12a). Our soul’s greatest passion should be that of Psalm 115:1, where the psalmist prayed, “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!”

One day, Jesus will return to take center stage and every eye will see Him (Rev. 1:7). Everyone in the universe will “take a bow” not to receive glory, but to give glory to the Morning Star (Phil. 2:10-11; Rev. 22:16). And those who hogged the spotlight will be humbled and eternally regretful that they did not make Jesus the center of their lives (Luke 14:11). But, saints who served as stagehands will be eternally glad they did not steal the spotlight (Rev. 4:10-11). Are you a stagehand for the Savior?

Brandon is the pastor of Bandana Baptist Church in Bandana, Kentucky, where he lives with his wife, Dakota, and their three dogs. Brandon and Dakota previously served as foster parents through Sunrise Children’s Services of Kentucky. Brandon is also a published author and his Bible Gleanings columns are featured in over sixteen publications throughout Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee, and Indiana. He is also a devotional contributor for Kentucky Today, a news publication of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, and an editor at Reforming the Heart.

Bible Gleanings, devotions

Endure Until the End | Bible Gleanings | August 1-2, 2025

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Wham! A gouging left-hook pierced his right eye. Boof! The world champion heavy-weight boxer threw another lethal strike. “Raaah! Whooo!” shouted the crowd, as Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa battled in the ring. Bif! Bam! Bop! With machine-like accuracy, Creed hammered Rocky’s bloodied face. And then Rocky went down, but he was not out—he slowly rose to his feet, weary but determined.

His handlers begged him to throw in the towel. But with blood streaming down his face, Rocky warned, “You stop this fight, and I’ll kill you!” Then he launched into Creed with the fury of a mad tiger. But even after fifteen rounds of ruthless beating, neither boxer delivered a knockout, and the fight was eventually called. The announcer declared from the mic, “Tonight we have had the privilege of witnessing the greatest exhibition of guts and stamina in the history of the ring!”

Rocky Balboa didn’t win the match, but he finished it. He endured until the end. He wasn’t trying to knock out Apollo Creed. He simply sought to go the distance and prove he could take a beating. To him, finishing well was better than winning every round.

Rocky was right, and the Scripture also teaches that endurance is better than winning every fight. When Paul the apostle was at death’s door, he did not say, “I have won the good fight,” but rather, “I have fought the good fight” (2 Tim. 4:7). The Christian life is not about avoiding failure entirely—it’s about getting back up in faith after being knocked down. True believers stay in the ring and rise for the next round through the strengthening grace of God. As Proverbs 24:16 says, “For the righteous falls seven times and rises again.”

No Christian can always slay their flesh, defeat the devil, or triumph over the enticements of this sinful world. But even when struck down, beaten-up believers can rise again because, “though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the LORD upholds his hand” (Psalm 37:24). When flattened out on the canvas, the believer can say, “Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me” (Micah 7:8). True believers can testify with Paul: “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor. 4:8-9).

So, don’t give up. Keep on keeping on. Endure until you hear the final bell—the trumpet of Christ’s return (1 Cor. 15:52). Finishing well is better than a perfect performance. As Rocky himself said, “It’s not about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward.”

Brandon is the pastor of Bandana Baptist Church in Bandana, Kentucky, where he lives with his wife, Dakota, and their three dogs. Brandon and Dakota previously served as foster parents through Sunrise Children’s Services of Kentucky. Brandon is also a published author and his Bible Gleanings columns are featured in over sixteen publications throughout Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee, and Indiana. He is also a devotional contributor for Kentucky Today, a news publication of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, and an editor at Reforming the Heart.