Looking for today's Disciplines Devotion? Click here to read it.

About Disciplines

The Upper Room Disciplines provides an opportunity to look more deeply at scripture by offering a week of devotions by a single author on a particular theme.

Read More

Latest Disciplines Devotions

Sent into the World - May 7, 2018

May 7, 2018

Every night my daughter, Sarah, asks me to tuck her into bed and pray with her. She’s comforted to know that as the night comes, she’s safe and secure because I’m...

Read More

A Wonderful World - May 6, 2018

May 6, 2018

Sometimes I don’t understand Jesus. This is one of those times. I’ve wondered what his joy is that he not only wants in me but also desires to complete in me....

Read More

A Wonderful World - May 5, 2018

May 5, 2018

While yesterday’s epistle metaphor of parent and child is susceptible to a hierarchical power dynamic, today’s Gospel lesson portrays a mutuality of the divine-human relationship that is so nonhierarchical it’s mind-blowingly...

Read More

A Wonderful World - May 4, 2018

May 4, 2018

Today’s epistle lesson and tomorrow’s Gospel lesson describe the radical difference faith in Jesus Christ makes in who we become through him. Both offer antidotes to a religion of “oughts,” “musts,”...

Read More

A Wonderful World - May 3, 2018

May 3, 2018

Some in the early Christian communities asserted that Jesus was fully divine but not fully human. The writer calls them liars and antichrists (2:22). It’s easy to appreciate his passion. If...

Read More

A Wonderful World - May 2, 2018

May 2, 2018

The psalmist invites us to join the choir for the Lord’s victory celebration. There will be instrumental accompaniment, strings, and brass. Even Creation’s children will be there: the seas roaring, the...

Read More

A Wonderful World - May 1, 2018

May 1, 2018

Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” Peter realizes if the answer is no, all heaven will break loose...

Read More

A Wonderful World - April 30, 2018

April 30, 2018

In his book, The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion, sociologist of religion Peter L. Berger describes how we humans create worlds of meaning to combat the anxiety...

Read More

A Braided Love - April 29, 2018

April 29, 2018

Notice these three phrases from Psalm 22: “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall worship before [God]....

Read More

A Braided Love - April 28, 2018

April 28, 2018

This scripture deals with more than exclusion, more than boundaries, more than power. Three in the story are active in their own way: the Spirit, Philip, and the Ethiopian. And each...

Read More