This 5-day devotional draws directly from Renew Alliance Church's sermon “RENEW Sunday Morning - June 21, 2026 - 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 Mirror and the Window
Monday — Understanding the Truth
Have you ever glanced in a mirror and seen something you weren't expecting — a smudge on your face, a tired look in your eyes — and thought, when did that happen? Mirrors tell the truth, even when we'd rather not look.
Today's Scripture "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good." — Psalm 14:1
Reflection Psalm 14 is a mirror. When David writes that humanity has "turned aside" and become corrupt, he's not pointing fingers at a particular group of people. He's describing the human condition — the default setting of a heart left to its own devices.
The word fool here isn't an insult about intelligence. In the original Hebrew, it describes someone who is morally closed off to God — someone who has rejected him, not simply someone who hasn't found him yet. And the rejection, David says, starts in the heart before it ever reaches the mind or the hands.
That's the uncomfortable truth: our deepest problem isn't out there somewhere. It lives inside us. The heart, left to itself, will always choose comfort, self-preservation, and the path of least resistance. Jeremiah put it plainly — the heart is deceitful above all things. We're not just people who occasionally do wrong things. We're people who need a new heart altogether.
But here's the hope hidden inside that hard truth: if the problem is a heart condition, then what we need isn't more effort or better information. What we need is a Healer.
Today's Step Sit quietly for a moment and ask: In what area of my life am I trusting my own heart more than I'm trusting God?
A Closing Thought The mirror isn't meant to shame you — it's meant to point you toward the One who can actually change what you see.
What Creation Has Been Saying All Along
Tuesday — When It's Hard
When was the last time you stopped and actually looked at the sky? Not glanced at it — really looked?
Today's Scripture "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge." — Psalm 19:1–2
Reflection There's a reason it can feel hard to sense God's presence in the middle of an ordinary Tuesday. It's not that he's gone quiet. It's that we've gotten very good at filling every moment with noise.
Psalm 19 opens with a stunning claim: creation never stops speaking. The stars, the sunrise, the mountains, the rain — all of it is a continuous sermon about who God is. Powerful. Creative. Present. Worthy.
But here's the honest struggle: we live in a world that has perfected the art of distraction. Screens in our hands, voices in our ears, notifications pulling our attention in a hundred directions at once. The enemy doesn't have to convince us God doesn't exist. He just has to keep us too busy to notice that God does.
Paul echoes this in Romans 1 — God has made himself plain through what he's created. No one is without a witness. But we suppress what we already know, trading the glory of God for the next shiny thing that catches our eye.
The hard truth is that missing God's voice is rarely about a lack of evidence. It's usually about a lack of attention.
Today's Step Step outside today — even for two minutes. Look up. Let yourself notice something in creation and simply say, God, I see you in this.
A Closing Thought Creation has been singing his praises since the beginning; you're always invited to join in.
Dust It Off
Wednesday — Putting It Into Practice
Most of us own at least one Bible we haven't opened in a while. Maybe more than one.
Today's Scripture "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." — Psalm 19:7–8
Reflection Psalm 19 moves from the witness of creation to something even more personal: God's word. If creation shows us that God exists, scripture shows us who God is — his heart, his character, what he loves, what he calls us toward.
And look at what the psalm says God's word actually does. It revives. It gives wisdom. It brings joy. It brings clarity. These aren't abstract promises — they're descriptions of what happens when you actually engage with it.
Here's the practical challenge: the Bible doesn't do anything sitting on a shelf. A pastor once described going six months without opening his Bible during a chaotic season of life — and said the enemy had a field day with him during those months. That's not a guilt trip. That's just honest.
The good news is that starting again doesn't require a grand plan. It requires five minutes and a willingness to show up. You don't have to read a chapter. Read a psalm. Read a few verses. Let one line sit with you through the day. Psalm 119 puts it simply: "I have stored up your word in my heart that I may not sin against you." That's not about religious obligation. That's about having something real to hold onto when life gets hard.
Today's Step Pick up your Bible — or open your phone's Bible app — and read just one psalm today. Let one verse stay with you.
A Closing Thought God has already said everything you need; the only question is whether you'll give him a few minutes to say it to you.
A New Heart, Not a Better Performance
Thursday — What This Looks Like in Real Life
Imagine someone who has spent years trying to be better — more patient, more generous, less reactive — through sheer willpower alone. They make progress, then fall back. Make a resolution, then break it. Sound familiar?
Today's Scripture "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." — 2 Corinthians 5:17
Reflection The problem was never a lack of trying. The problem was trying to fix a heart condition with effort alone.
This is the turn Psalm 14 and 19 together invite us to make. David doesn't end his diagnosis of humanity's broken condition by saying try harder. He cries out, "Oh, that salvation would come from the Lord!" He knows the solution has to come from outside of us.
Picture someone who finally stops white-knuckling their way through life and surrenders — not in defeat, but in trust. They begin spending time in God's word not as a religious chore but as a lifeline. Slowly, something shifts. Not because they became more disciplined, but because they stopped relying on their own heart and started letting God's word reshape it. The desires begin to change. The reactions soften. The things they used to reach for first stop having the same pull.
That's not self-improvement. That's transformation. That's what a new heart looks like in real life — not perfection, but a different direction. Not having it all together, but being genuinely remade from the inside.
As Tim Keller once put it: we are more flawed than we ever dared believe, yet more loved and accepted in Jesus than we ever dared hope.
Today's Step Where in your life have you been trying to change through effort alone? Offer that specific thing to God in a simple, honest prayer today.
A Closing Thought God isn't in the business of making you a better version of yourself — he's in the business of making you new.
Every Hour, Not Just Sunday
Friday — Carrying It Forward
The week is almost over, and the weekend is full of plans. Before you close this out, take one more minute.
Today's Scripture "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer." — Psalm 19:14
Reflection This single verse is how Psalm 19 ends — and it might be the most honest prayer in the whole Bible. After all that talk of creation singing and God's word restoring, David lands here: Lord, let what comes out of me reflect what you've put in me.
That's the invitation for your weekend. Not to be perfect. Not to have everything figured out. But to carry a posture of dependence into whatever comes next — the family gathering, the quiet afternoon, the hard conversation, the moment of temptation, the unexpected frustration.
This week we've seen that the heart left to itself will wander. We've seen that creation is constantly pointing us back to God. We've seen that his word has the power to revive, reshape, and redirect us. And we've seen that the solution to a broken heart was never trying harder — it was surrender to the One who makes things new.
The foolish person says, I've got this. The person being made new says, Lord, I need you — not just on Sunday, but every hour.
That's not weakness. That's the beginning of wisdom.
Today's Step Carry Psalm 19:14 into your weekend as a quiet, ongoing prayer. When the day gets loud or hard, come back to it: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, Lord.
A Closing Thought You don't have to have it all together going into this weekend — you just have to know who does.