A WORD FOR TODAY, February 16, 2026
Peggy Hoppes
We pray you have been blessed by this daily devotion. If you received it from a friend, you can see other devotions and studies by visiting our website at www.awordfortoday.org.
Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, February 16, 2026
“May Yahweh answer you in the day of trouble. May the name of the God of Jacob set you up on high, send you help from the sanctuary, grant you support from Zion, remember all your offerings, and accept your burned sacrifice. Selah. May he grant you your heart’s desire, and fulfill all your counsel. We will triumph in your salvation. In the name of our God, we will set up our banners. May Yahweh grant all your requests. Now I know that Yahweh saves his anointed. He will answer him from his holy heaven, with the saving strength of his right hand. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we trust in the name of Yahweh our God. They are bowed down and fallen, but we rise up, and stand upright. Save, Yahweh! Let the King answer us when we call!” Psalm 20, WEB
Dr. Charles McCoy had been a preacher for many years at a congregation in Oyster Bay, New York when he retired at 72. He spent most of his life pursuing an education, collecting seven college degrees over the years. In the end it all seemed futile to him. “I just lie on my bed thinking that my life’s over, and I haven’t really done anything yet. I’ve been pastor of this church for so many years, but nobody really wants me much - and what have I done for Christ? I’ve spent an awful lot of time working for degrees, but I haven’t won very many people to the Lord.”
We may not have the education that Dr. McCoy accomplished, but we are all called to do whatever we can to learn about God. We gain confidence and authority as we write His Word in our hearts. We do this through Bible study and devotional reading. It is often difficult because some of the stories are too bloody and violent for us. We don’t always understand the poetry or the apocalyptic language. We don’t get the point of view because it is so different than ours today. And we struggle with some of the stories. How can ever we understand a God who would ask Abraham to sacrifice his beloved child for whom he waited a lifetime? How can we accept the word of a God who would require the destruction of everything in a town by His invading army, even the animals and property? How can we believe the stories when they seem completely unbelievable? It is no wonder we question whether we’ve had an impact on God’s kingdom. If we don’t understand, how can we share the truth with others who would rather reject the idea of God?
The stories seem ridiculous to us. Gideon had an army of thousands, but God told him he had too many. In the end, only three hundred men accomplished the defeat of the Midianites. Moses was stuck with a nation of people who did not want to wander around the desert for forty years. They complained about
everything: no water, no meat, no bread, too much meat, weird food that’s kind of like coriander that they made into bread. They wanted to go home. They wanted it to be done. They wanted someone else to lead them because Moses was not doing things the way they thought it should be done. Yet, in the end they followed Moses because God was with him and God proved Moses to be true.
Is God with us as we do the work we are called to do? Dr. McCoy doubted his impact, but in doing so, he also doubted God’s work through his life. We often have the same questions, not only about ourselves, but also about those who lead us. Imagine how the army felt about Gideon! “300 soldiers? Are you crazy?” and Moses took the brunt of the people’s grumbling. God has a purpose for all of us. We might not always agree with the way others, especially our leaders, are doing their work. We may not like their agenda. We might think that their expectations are ridiculous. I’m not sure I would follow some people into battle or move to a new place if the circumstances were like those found in the scriptures. Yet, we are called to pray for our leaders, to hold them up before God and seek prosperity under their leadership. We might not understand why God has chosen them for this time and place, but we can trust that God knows what He’s doing in all things.
And so, let us take a moment on this Presidents’ Day to pray for our leaders. It is up to us to pray that they will listen to God and do His will so that He will bless them and us through them. When the leaders are blessed, whether they are leaders in a local organization or a global enterprise, whether they are kings or prime ministers or presidents, whether they rule over ten or ten million, the group will be blessed through their leadership. Whether we like them or not, the community is centered on them for a season, and it is up to us to pray for them so that they will do God’s will for the sake of those they lead.
I have learned over my lifetime that when we live for the Lord, He makes amazing things happen, many of which we never see. A life of faith is expected to bear the fruit of that faith, but that fruit comes from God’s grace. We have to trust that God is working in and through us, even when we don’t see the evidence we expect. Sadly, sometimes we look back over our lives and wonder if we have really accomplished anything worthwhile for the Lord.
Dr. McCoy thought his life was fruitless, but God had a greater plan. His seemingly useless degrees became a doorway to a great ministry in the East. The fruit of his parish ministry may not have been as visible as those from his later years, but there must have been fruit. A good tree can’t bear bad fruit. We live in a time when we are so divided about what it means to be a good tree, and we look at the accomplishments of our leaders with doubt. Are they really doing God’s work? Have their accomplishments glorified God?
We might think our life is fruitless and the lives of those with which we don’t agree, especially our leaders, but God has a greater plan than we can imagine. Just as Dr. McCoy’s degrees and distinguished appearance opened the door for him to change his corner of the world. We are reminded that God can use even those who do not live up to our expectations to do what he intends. Gideon won the battle with 300 men, Moses delivered Israel to the Promised Land despite their grumbling, and our presidents manage to accomplish things we don’t always see or understand. It is up to us to pray for them, to seek God’s guidance in our choices, and to trust that He can do amazing things in ways that seem ridiculous and unfruitful to us but glorify Him in the end.
A WORD FOR TODAY is posted five days a week – Monday through Friday. The devotional on Wednesday takes a look at the scripture from the Revised Common Lectionary for the upcoming Sunday. A WORD FOR TODAY is posted on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Word-for-Today-Devotional/339428839418276.
Peggy Hoppes
We pray you have been blessed by this daily devotion. If you received it from a friend, you can see other devotions and studies by visiting our website at www.awordfortoday.org.
Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, February 16, 2026
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism to death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection; knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him; knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him! For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” Romans 6:1-13, WEB
I had a doctor’s appointment this morning, and I treated myself to a trip to the donut shop afterward. It is Fat Tuesday, after all, the day before the beginning of Lent when cultures prepare for the coming days of fasting. Lent was a time to give up common foodstuff, foods forbidden during the penitential season. The people abstained from eating meat as many do today, but milk, yeast, eggs, and fat were also forbidden. It is difficult to make bread without those items, but industrious people did manage to find a way. As a matter of fact, pretzels with their “little arms” were invented using just flour, salt and water as a reminder that Lent is a period of penance and devotion. Since dairy and fat were forbidden, the people had to rid their homes of those items before Ash Wednesday.
Traditional foods and celebrations grew out of the need to get rid of these items. Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, became a day of indulgence. It is also known as Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday. The foods are often a type of sweet bread or cake that use dairy and fat. In England, they eat pancakes that are much like crepes. In Sweden, the cake is called a semla and is filled with cream. In Madeira, they are called malasadas. In Pennsylvania they eat Fastnacht, which are deep-fried potato donuts.
When I was young, we simply purchased donuts, but I learned to make Fastnacht with my mother-in-law’s recipe. Though they aren’t very sweet, they can be covered with confectioner’s sugar, chocolate, honey or cinnamon sugar to make them a special treat. We no longer make these treats to rid our homes of forbidden foods, but the traditions and celebrations continue. The recipe makes many more Fastnacht than we need and I didn’t have time for the hours long process, so our treats from the donut shop this morning will have to do.
It is hard to imagine as we watch the frivolities of Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras), but this day is actually meant to be a deeply religious day. It is also called Shrove Tuesday. The fun is definitely expected, but an important part of Shrove Tuesday has been lost. The word “shrive” means “to hear confession and give absolution” or to “to make confession.” This day is about confessing our sins openly, hearing the joyful words of forgiveness from Jesus Christ before walking into that wilderness time of Lent when the “Hallelujahs” are packed away. For the next seven weeks we will journey together toward the cross.
Instead of a time of confession, Fat Tuesday has become the day to get all our lusts and desires out of our system. We are meant to enter into Lent humbly, knowing that we are sinners in need of a Savior. Lent is a time of penance, a time to seek God’s mercy for our failure to live as He has called us to live.
Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, which is traditionally a time of fasting. Modern fasts tend to focus on the things we love like coffee, video games, or chocolate, the things that draw our attention away from God. A meme online suggests fasting from things like harsh words, anger, pessimism, and selfishness. Many people encourage taking up good disciplines rather than just giving up bad ones. Some Lent practices include clearing clutter or filling boxes for a food bank.
How will you fast? What will you add to your day to focus on God and His Light? How will you prepare for Holy Week and Easter? As you party today, enjoying donuts, pancakes or whatever your own tradition offers, remember that you are a sinner in need of a Savior. Confess your sins so that you might begin this Lent looking forward to the light and forgiveness that lies at the end of the journey. Seek ways to empty your life of the things that keep you from a right relationship with our Father.
We are just beginning the season of Lent, but we look forward to the end: Easter. We are humbled by the reality that this journey would be unnecessary if we were perfectly able to keep the Law. Even more than Easter, we need the cross of Christ to make us right before God. Even if we do not cleanse our homes of dairy and fats, it is good to cleanse our hearts today so that we can enter into the Lenten journey free to pursue a deepening relationship with God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, keeping our eyes on the purpose of Jesus Christ’s life and death: the forgiveness He won for us on the cross.