This 5-day devotional draws directly from Jason May's sermon “Rock City Guest Speaker Howard Tryon - 2026-06-22” so you can keep engaging with the message all week. Read, reflect, and share it with your small group or friends.
The Right Club for the Right Moment
Monday — Understanding the Truth
Have you ever tried to solve a problem with the wrong tool? Maybe you've used a butter knife as a screwdriver, or Googled something you really needed a trusted friend to help you think through. It works — sort of — but not the way it was meant to.
Today's Scripture "All Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." — 2 Timothy 3:16–17
Reflection The Bible isn't one long book that says the same thing over and over. It's a library — a carefully assembled collection of different kinds of writing, each one crafted for a specific purpose. The Gospels introduce you to Jesus and invite you into a relationship with him. The letters and epistles help you grow and walk in that faith. The wisdom books like Proverbs give you practical, moral guidance for the everyday decisions of real life.
God didn't hide his will from you. The word "revelation" itself means disclosure — God purposely opening the curtain and saying, here is what you need to know. The Bible claims to be true, trustworthy, and completely sufficient for the life you're living. That's not a small claim. It means that whatever you're facing today — a hard relationship, a big decision, a quiet fear — there is wisdom already given to you.
The question isn't whether God has spoken. The question is whether you know where to listen.
Today's Step Take one minute today and simply ask: Which part of the Bible am I least familiar with — and what might I be missing because of that?
A Closing Thought God's word is a gift already placed in your hands. This week, let's learn how to open it fully.
You Already Have What You Need
Tuesday — When It's Hard
Be honest — does the Bible sometimes feel like a book you're supposed to read more than you actually do? You know it matters. You've heard it your whole life. And yet it can feel dense, confusing, or just hard to connect to your actual Tuesday.
Today's Scripture "The sum of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting." — Psalm 119:160
Reflection Here's the honest struggle: most of us approach the Bible the same way every time. We open to a familiar passage, read a verse or two, and hope something sticks. It's like a golfer who only knows how to use one club — it'll get you somewhere, but you're leaving most of the course unplayed.
The difficulty isn't that the Bible is inaccessible. The difficulty is that we've never been shown how to navigate it. Nobody handed us a map. So we either stay in the safe, familiar territory — the Psalms, the Sermon on the Mount, John 3:16 — or we wander into a chapter of Leviticus and quietly give up.
And underneath that frustration is often a deeper fear: What if I'm doing this wrong? What if I'm missing something important? Those feelings are real, and they're worth naming. But here's the grace in all of it — God's word was written to be understood. It was given as a gift, not a test. The same God who breathed life into scripture is the one who breathes understanding into you when you ask for it.
You're not behind. You're just getting started.
Today's Step Pray this simple prayer today: God, I want to understand your word better. Show me where to begin.
A Closing Thought The struggle to understand scripture isn't a sign of weak faith — it's often the beginning of deeper faith.
Pick Up the Book and Start Somewhere
Wednesday — Putting It Into Practice
What if getting more out of the Bible didn't require a seminary degree — just a little bit of intention and a willingness to start in a new place?
Today's Scripture "Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding." — Proverbs 3:13
Reflection Here's a practical place to begin: choose one book of the Bible and commit to understanding its purpose before you read it. Every book has one. The Gospel of John was written so that you would believe Jesus is the Christ and have life in his name. Romans was written to ground you in the faith you already have. Proverbs was written to give you wisdom and moral coaching for the everyday decisions of your life — the kind no one teaches you in school.
When you know why a book was written, the pieces start to fit together. It's like doing a puzzle with the picture on the box. Suddenly the individual verses aren't floating — they're part of something bigger.
Start small. Pick a short book — Philippians, James, or the Gospel of Mark. Read the first few verses and ask: Who is writing this? Who are they writing to? What problem are they trying to solve? You don't need a commentary to ask those questions. You just need curiosity and a few minutes of quiet.
The Bible was given so that you might be fully equipped — not partially, not occasionally, but completely — for the life God has called you to live.
Today's Step Choose one book of the Bible today and read just its first chapter, asking: What is this book trying to do?
A Closing Thought You don't have to read everything at once — you just have to start somewhere with intention.
When the Right Words Show Up at the Right Moment
Thursday — What This Looks Like in Real Life
Think about a time when exactly the right words reached you at exactly the right moment — a sentence in a book, something a friend said, a verse that seemed to find you instead of the other way around.
Today's Scripture "So walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude." — Colossians 2:6–7
Reflection Imagine someone who has been a Christian for years but always felt like they were reading the Bible in pieces — a verse here, a chapter there, never quite sure how it all connected. Then one season, facing a decision that felt too big and too complicated, they decided to slow down and actually study the book of Proverbs from the beginning.
What they discovered wasn't a list of fortune-cookie sayings. They found a book with a shape — wisdom built layer by layer, starting with the basics and moving toward the kind of deep discernment that helps you navigate real life: relationships, money, pride, honesty, the quiet voice that leads you wrong when you stop paying attention.
The decision they were facing didn't get easier overnight. But something shifted. They started to see patterns. They started to recognize the kind of thinking that leads toward life and the kind that leads away from it. The word wasn't just something they read anymore — it was something they were being built by.
That's what Colossians describes: not just receiving Christ, but being rooted and built up in him — growing deeper, growing stronger, growing more like the person you were made to be.
Today's Step Ask yourself: Am I just reading the Bible, or am I letting it build me? There's a difference — and it's worth sitting with.
A Closing Thought The word of God doesn't just inform your life — it shapes it, slowly and surely, if you let it.
Take the Whole Bag With You
Friday — Carrying It Forward
You've made it to Friday. And maybe this week stirred something — a quiet nudge to go deeper, to pick up a book of the Bible you've never really studied, to stop treating scripture like a vending machine and start treating it like a relationship.
Today's Scripture "The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever." — Isaiah 40:8
Reflection Everything else you'll carry into this weekend has a shelf life. Your energy, your plans, your worries — they'll shift and change by Sunday evening. But the word of God? It stands. It was true before you were born and it will be true long after every problem you're currently facing has been resolved.
That's not just a theological statement. It's an invitation to build your life on something that won't move.
This week, the image of a golfer and his clubs was a reminder that the Bible isn't one-size-fits-all. It's a full set — each part crafted for a purpose, each part needed at some point on the course. The Gospels to bring you to Jesus. The epistles to help you walk with him. The wisdom books to help you make good decisions along the way. Revelation to remind you where all of this is headed.
You don't have to master it all at once. But you can commit, starting today, to knowing it better than you did last week. Pick one book. Learn its purpose. Read it slowly. Let it do what it was made to do.
The course of life is long, and some of the shots ahead will be hard. Bring the whole bag.
Today's Step Write down the name of one book of the Bible you want to study this month — and take one small step today to begin.
A Closing Thought God's word was given to equip you for every good thing ahead — trust that it's enough, and let it lead you forward.