This 5-day devotional draws directly from Jeremy Wood's sermon “"Scattered or Sent? The Making of a Spiritual Father" A” so you can keep engaging with the message all week. Read, reflect, and share it with your small group or friends.
Deployed, Not Abandoned
Monday — Understanding the Truth
What if the worst moment of your life turned out to be the beginning of something you never saw coming?
Today's Scripture "Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word." — Acts 8:4
Reflection The early church had just watched their friend Stephen get stoned to death. Then the persecution came for all of them. Families grabbed their children in the middle of the night. People walked away from their homes, their businesses, everything they had built. It was chaos. It was grief. It was the worst possible moment.
And then something remarkable happened. The people who were running for their lives opened their mouths and talked about Jesus. Wherever they landed — whatever city, whatever house — they carried the gospel with them like a fire that couldn't be put out.
Here's the truth that Acts 8 is trying to show you: God doesn't wait for the storm to pass before he moves. He moves through the storm. The scattering that looked like defeat became the very thing that spread the gospel further than it had ever gone.
Whatever scattered season you're in right now — a hard marriage, a job loss, a relationship that fell apart, a season where nothing feels settled — God is not waiting on the sidelines for things to calm down. He is at work in the middle of the mess, and he wants to move through you in it.
You don't have to have it all together. You just have to keep following Jesus.
Today's Step Take a moment today and ask honestly: What scattered season am I in right now, and am I willing to believe that God is still moving in it?
A Closing Thought The fire that looks like it's consuming you might just be the thing that lights up everyone around you.
You Don't Have to Have All the Answers
Tuesday — When It's Hard
There's a voice that shows up when life falls apart — and it knows exactly what to say to make everything worse.
Today's Scripture "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." — Romans 8:28
Reflection When everything is falling apart on the outside, something starts happening on the inside. A voice begins to speak. It says things like: You are not enough. You can't provide. You can't lead. You don't have what it takes.
That voice is a liar — but it's a convincing one, especially when the circumstances seem to back it up.
The pastor who preached this week shared honestly that he's been there. Not just years ago, but this very week. Walking five miles in anger, wrestling with doubt, fighting to surrender. He said something that's worth sitting with: his family didn't need him to have all the answers. They needed to watch him trust the One who does.
That's the hardest part, isn't it? We want to fix things before anyone sees us struggling. We want to lead from strength, not from the middle of our own mess. But that's not what faith actually looks like in real life.
Faith looks like praying over a situation instead of panicking about it. It looks like opening your Bible even when you don't feel like it. It looks like saying I don't know how this ends, but I know who holds it — and meaning it.
The struggle is real. The doubt is real. And God meets you right there in it, not on the other side of it.
Today's Step What is the voice inside telling you that you can't do right now? Bring that specific lie to God today and ask him to replace it with truth.
A Closing Thought You don't have to perform strength you don't feel — you just have to keep reaching for the hand that's already reaching for you.
One Step Is Enough
Wednesday — Putting It Into Practice
You don't need a dramatic overhaul. You need one step — and you need to take it today.
Today's Scripture "Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ." — Acts 8:5
Reflection Philip didn't have a plan. He didn't have a platform or a title or a perfectly prepared speech. He was scattered, grieving, and probably exhausted. But he went. One step, in one direction, toward a broken place — and everything changed.
Your Samaria might not be a city. It might be a conversation you've been avoiding. A family member you've written off. A relationship that's been broken so long you've stopped believing it can be repaired. A person at work who gets on your nerves and clearly needs someone to actually see them.
Spiritual fatherhood — the kind of influence that actually changes people — isn't built in big dramatic moments. It's built on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. In the ordinary moments when nobody's watching.
It's your kids seeing you open your Bible before the house wakes up. It's your family watching you pray over a hard situation instead of fall apart. It's going back to someone you hurt and saying, I was wrong. I'm sorry. It's reading one verse at bedtime. It's showing up consistently, even imperfectly.
You don't have to be fearless to take the step. Philip wasn't fearless. He was scared. But the fire inside him was bigger than the fear. That same fire is available to you.
Today's Step Pick one concrete thing you can do today — one verse to read aloud, one conversation to start, one apology to make — and do it. Just one.
A Closing Thought The step doesn't have to be big. It just has to be real.
The Atmosphere You're Already Creating
Thursday — What This Looks Like in Real Life
Whether you know it or not, you are already creating an atmosphere everywhere you go.
Today's Scripture "And there was great joy in that city." — Acts 8:8
Reflection Imagine a dad who's going through a genuinely hard season — finances are tight, stress is high, and the future feels uncertain. He doesn't have answers. But every morning, before the rest of the house wakes up, he sits at the kitchen table with his Bible open.
His daughter starts noticing. She peeks around the corner and sees him there. She doesn't say anything. Neither does he. This goes on for months — quietly, consistently, without fanfare.
Then one morning he looks up and catches her watching. And she asks him: "Dad, when you get done reading that, what are you going to read next?"
He doesn't hesitate: "I'm going to read it again."
That moment didn't happen because he had it all together. It happened because he kept showing up. His daughter wasn't watching a performance — she was watching something real. And what she saw was a man who trusted God even when things were hard.
That's what Philip brought to Samaria. Not a polished program. Not a perfect résumé. Just a life that carried something real — and the result was joy for a whole city.
Real fatherhood, real spiritual influence, is measured by one thing: who becomes stronger because of your investment?
The atmosphere you create in your home, in your friendships, in your workplace — it matters more than you know.
Today's Step Ask yourself honestly: What kind of atmosphere am I creating right now — not the one I intend to create, but the one I'm actually creating?
A Closing Thought You may never see the full impact of your faithfulness — but someone around you is watching, and it is changing them.
The Fire That Can't Be Put Out
Friday — Carrying It Forward
You made it through the week. Now the question is: what do you carry with you into the days ahead?
Today's Scripture "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." — Romans 12:2
Reflection The world's message is loud and consistent: protect yourself. Stay comfortable. Avoid broken things, because broken things will break you.
The gospel says the opposite. Philip didn't run away from Samaria — the wounded, divided, complicated place nobody wanted to deal with. He ran toward it. And what happened there was nothing short of miraculous.
That same call is on your life. Not to be fearless. Not to be perfect. Not to have everything figured out before you take a step. But to carry what you have — the presence of Jesus, the hope of the gospel, the simple willingness to keep following him — into the broken places around you.
This weekend, your Samaria might be a family dinner that feels tense. A neighbor you've been meaning to check on. A friend who's been distant. A moment with your kids where you choose patience instead of frustration. A quiet morning where you open your Bible instead of your phone.
You are always creating an atmosphere. The question is just what kind.
You don't have to be the loudest voice in the room. You don't have to have a ministry or a title or a platform. You just have to keep following Jesus — in the mess, in the scattered season, in the ordinary Tuesday of your life.
That's what spiritual fatherhood looks like. That's what changes the world.
Today's Step Identify one "Samaria" in your life — one broken place or person you've been avoiding — and ask God for the courage to take one step toward it this weekend.
A Closing Thought The fire in you cannot be put out by the hard season you're in — and the world around you desperately needs what you're carrying.