Happy Wednesday, {{first_name | everyone}}!
Trust me when I say that I understand how difficult it can be to “trust in the Lord, especially when his methods, his way, and his timing sometimes makes no sense to us.
In today's email…
🔍 The Hebrew words beneath "trust," "lean," and "acknowledge"
🪞 A reflection and one concrete step to take today
📚️ A few resources to go even deeper in study..
MEMORIZE 🧠
_____ in the ____ with all your _____, and do not ____ on your ___ _____________. In all your ____ ___________ ___, and he will ____ ________ your _____.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Want to review all your memorized verses in one place? Try our new iPhone app here.
CONTEXT 📕
What does it actually mean to trust God?
In my own walk with the Lord, it’s been a thing of learning to surrender.
It's human to want to know the plan, the timeline, and feel a sense of control.
But the 3 commands in our memory verses can show us how to let go, open our hands, and surrender control to God:
Trust | Lean | Acknowledge
To “trust in the Lord” (bāṭaḥ) is to place the weight of one’s confidence in him. Picture someone stepping onto a bridge: trust is not admiring the bridge from a distance but entrusting one’s full weight to it by stepping onto it.
To “not lean (šāʿan) on your own understanding” is to refuse to make your own judgment the bridge that supports your life. We instinctively lean on finite things that can change in the blink of an eye: our plans, feelings, resources, other people, or idols. God commands us to lean on him — our infinite and unchanging God.
To acknowledge (yādaʿ) him is to know, recognize, and consider him in everything we do. It’s bringing every part of our lives under his Lordship: our decisions, relationships, work, words, desires, and plans. In order to do this well, we have to be near him, spending time with him through prayer and reading his Word.
Together, these three (trust, lean, and acknowledge) show us what it means to live before God in wholehearted surrender.
This is what our memory verses so aptly describe as putting aside our own understanding, so that we can live his way.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
A life surrendered to God’s ways means I don’t always understand why, how, or when; but it means I trust, lean on, and acknowledge him every step of the way.
Consider how our proverb played out in the life of Hezekiah:
He trusted (bāṭaḥ) in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. For he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses. And the Lord was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered.
APPLY AND RESPOND 🏃♂
🤔 Reflect
What do each of these look like in your own life?
Trust: “God, I bring ___ before you today”
Lean: “God, I turn to you instead of to ___”
Acknowledge: “God, guide my steps as I ___”
🏃♂ Act
Take it into action:
Trust: Turn your worries into prayers. Write them down.
Lean: Spend 5 minutes with God where you rest in him.
Acknowledge: Compare your plans with what the Bible teaches.
🙏 Pray
Father, help me to trust you, lean on you, and acknowledge you in all I do. Amen.
MALACHI DAILY X GRACE COFFEE
How We’re Lifting Children Out Of Poverty in Jesus’ Name
Back in August we asked you all how you like your coffee…Well, thanks to your feedback, we worked with my friend Claudio and the Grace Coffee team to craft our own blend!
The Malachi Daily Blend tastes and smells incredible…
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When you subscribe, your first order comes with a postcard of the specific child your coffee helps sponsor: including their name, country, and photo.
So you can stick it on the fridge, pray for them by name and spark meaningful conversations with your kids or grandkids. You can even send your child a note of encouragement or this week's memory verse!
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p.s. The free mug says "the taste of grace" inside the rim, a nod to Psalm 34:8 (send us a pic when you take your first sip and we may or may not feature you in the newsletter! 🙂).
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES 📚
Here are a few resources to help you dig deeper into our memory verse and its themes:
📚 Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts by Jerry Bridges (link)
📚 God's Wisdom for Navigating Life by Timothy Keller (link)
📚 Trustworthy: Overcoming Our Greatest Struggles to Trust God by Lysa TerKeurst (link)
📹 Proverbs Overview by The Bible Project (link)
📱 Our iPhone app for Scripture memorization (link)
☕ Try our coffee blend & join us in lifting children out of poverty in Jesus' name (link)
🎵 Proverbs 3:5-7 by the Verses project (Spotify | Apple Music)
Did you know? Over 7,000 Malachi Daily subscribers are people who came to faith recently, or are returning after a long season away. Which is great news! God is pursuing people who have been distant from him for decades — and they are responding!
These 7,000 people found us, but there are millions more out there who haven't yet.
Malachi Daily is free because monthly supporters choose to keep it that way. A few dollars a month helps us reach the people still looking for exactly what you found here.
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ANSWER KEY ✅
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6
If you missed our emails from earlier this week, you can read them here:
Best,
The Malachi Daily team 🙏
Today’s Contributors
Eljoh is a South African writer, editor, and artist with a Master’s in Practical Theology. She creates resources to help believers of all ages abide in Christ and grow in faith. Explore more free resources and creative tools at Vine Creative Studio.
Kieran is a husband and father living in NJ. In addition to Malachi Daily, he writes a personal newsletter about the intersection of faith, fatherhood and entrepreneurship.
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Try our iPhone app 📱
Want to go even deeper with memorizing Scripture and learning its context?
Our iPhone app, Within allows you to:
Memorize 1 verse every single week and learn its context through daily devotionals you can read (or listen to)
Memorize any verse you want in your favorite bible translation
Store all of your previously memorized verses in one place (and review them regularly with interactive games)
And much more!
What are the differences between Within and Malachi Daily?
Malachi Daily 📧 | Within 📱 | |
|---|---|---|
Type of tool | Email newsletter | iOS mobile app |
Cost | Free | 7-day free trial, then $5.99/mo or $49.99/year |
# of verses | 4 verses per month as a community | 4 verses per month as a community + unlimited for any verse you want |
Who chooses the verse | We choose | We choose AND you can memorize any verse you want, anytime |
Bible translation(s) | ESV | ESV, NIV, NLT, KJV, and NASB |
Reviewing previously memorized verses | You do this on your own | Use the built-in memory bank |
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