God Is Here Even Now
God is here even now, not tomorrow, not once you've pulled yourself together. He's sitting with you in this quiet minute, before you've said a single word to him.
He isn't here because you've earned it. It's simply who he is: he never leaves the place where you're standing empty.
Today's Guiding Word
“Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus who died, rather, was raised, who also is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.” Romans 8:34
This isn't a distant piece of theology. It means someone is saying your name to the Father in this exact second, and that someone is the risen Christ.
Walk Toward the Light in God's Presence
Jesus travels from town to town, proclaiming the kingdom of God, and he isn't alone. The Twelve are with him, and so are some women he had healed: Mary, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, Susanna, and many others. The Gospel tells us in one short line what they did next: they provided for him and the disciples out of their own resources.
That detail isn't small. These women had been in the deepest kind of darkness: sickness, possession, places you can't simply walk yourself out of. Once they were free, they didn't go home to their old lives. They set out, and gave from what they had. That's what freedom looks like for us too: not a passive relief, but something that gets you moving.
Paul, writing to the Corinthians on this same day, says all of this would be empty talk without Christ's resurrection. If Christ has not been raised, our faith is in vain, he says plainly. But he has been raised, and that isn't an old event we commemorate, it's a present reality still at work. One reflection today makes exactly this point: resurrection isn't an escape from the body, it's the body's transformation, its being clothed in glory, the way it happened to Christ himself.
This is where the two threads meet. The risen Christ didn't free someone once, long ago, and stop there. Seated at the Father's right hand, he is interceding right now, saying your name right now. The same motion that once set Mary, Joanna, and Susanna free is at work toward you too, not because you've earned it, but because that's who he is.
Give away something of what you were given for free
Think of one specific thing today that God has already freed you from: an old darkness, a habit, a shame you no longer have to carry.
Pass some of that freedom on today: a little time, attention, help, to someone standing where you once stood. Not to earn anything. A free person simply gives.
I Praise You, Living God
Heavenly Father, who seats the Son at your right hand to speak for me
I praise you for who you are. You didn't let the cross be the last word; you raised your Son and seated him at your right hand, so that from there, forever, he could plead for me. That wasn't a single gesture two thousand years ago. It's a standing reality, still holding this very minute.
I bless you, because your saving work never stops halfway: you don't just forgive, you give new life, the kind that even death can't take back. I exalt you, because when you healed Mary, Joanna, and Susanna, you didn't just touch their bodies or their spirits, you turned the whole direction of their lives. I praise you, because you do the same with me: you don't patch me up. You remake me.
Lord Jesus Christ, who lives, and still speaks for me
I praise you for who you are. You didn't stay in the grave, and you didn't just come back either. You live, forever, and from the Father's right hand you never stop pleading for me. When you healed Mary of seven demons, you didn't send her quietly home. You brought her with you, to witness what you were doing in the world.
I exalt you, because your love isn't a dead letter in an old book, it's a living voice, saying my name to the Father right now. That love doesn't wait for me to get it right first. It moves toward me, the way it once moved toward women no one else would give a chance. I adore you, because your resurrection isn't history. It's present tense. I praise you, because as long as you live, I'm never alone in what I carry.
Holy Spirit, who continues in me what Jesus began
I praise you for who you are. You're the one who won't let my freedom stop at me; you shape me into a serving heart, the way you shaped those women who gave from their own means to care for Jesus and the disciples. With you, gratitude never stays a feeling. It becomes a hand, a moment, a presence.
I bless you, because you don't let me believe my freedom is only about me. I exalt you, because every morning you remind me that what I received for free can be given away just as freely. I praise you, because it's your work that keeps a healed life from closing in on itself, and opens it toward others instead.
Holy Trinity, one living God who sets me free and sends me out
I praise you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one living God. The Father raises, the Son intercedes, the Spirit shapes a serving heart. These three movements never stand still on their own. Together, they carry forward anyone your grace has once touched.
Glory to you, because with you, being set free is never the finish line. It's the start. Amen.
Here I Am, Lord
Lord, I bring you this Friday, knowing that right now, this very moment, your Son is saying my name before you too.
I bring you my body, tiredness and all, and my soul, with the old darkness you long ago brought into the light. If I'm lonely today, or anxiety is sitting on my chest, I won't try to carry it alone. I'll set it before you, the way those women once set down everything they had.
I bring you my family, the people I'll meet today, and the ones I owe simple service to, even just an attentive word. Let me give today from what I was given for free, not from whatever scraps are left in me.
A Song to Carry Into Today
Don't just let the melody play today. Let the words say what the Gospel and Paul's letter both claim: your hope isn't a memory. It's a living person.
Living Hope
Phil Wickham · official music video
▶Listen on YouTubeThe risen Christ is saying your name to the Father right now.
View the sources used
- Today's Gospel · Luke 8:1-3 · the healed women travel with Jesus and provide for him out of their own means
- Today's second reading · 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 · Paul: if Christ has not been raised, our faith is in vain, but he has been raised, the firstfruits of the dead
- Barsitelekmm.blogspot.com · Fr. Balázs Barsi's reflection · 09.18.2026 · on bodily resurrection as transformation, not escape
- Regnum Christi devotional · "Christ's Unwavering Followers" · 09.18.2026 · on the healed women's faithfulness and service
- A Miracle Every Day (jesus.net) · 09.18.2026 · "Jesus Intercedes for You" · on Romans 8:34 and the risen Christ's ongoing intercession
- Daily Gospel newsletter (evangelium365.hu) · 09.18.2026 · confirms today's Gospel (Luke 8:1-3)
- Cistercian House, Baja (Hungary) · 09.18 · "Seek My Pleasure!" (subject line only – today's message again arrived as an image, with no text)
- Jesus Calling · most recent available: 09.17 · on strength and peace · today's edition had not yet arrived due to the time-zone gap
- Daily Hope (Rick Warren) · most recent available: 09.17 · on communication in marriage · a different topic; today's edition had not yet arrived due to the time-zone gap
Today's core message is the story of the healed women (Luke 8:1-3): once Jesus set them free, they set out and provided for him from their own means. Father Barsi's reflection today (barsitelekmm.blogspot.com, with today's own entry) connects to today's second reading (1 Corinthians 15:12-20) to say that resurrection isn't escape from the body, it's the body's transformation, which gave the devotional its backbone. Today's Miracle Every Day letter, drawing on Romans 8:34, is about how the risen, living Christ intercedes for us without ceasing, which gave today's guiding verse and the title its shape. The Regnum Christi devotional unpacks the same Gospel, through the example of the healed women's faithful service. The Cistercian House's daily message again arrived as an image with no text, but its subject line, "Seek my pleasure," echoes today's message: whoever is free stops living only for themselves. Jesus Calling and Daily Hope, both on US time, had not yet posted today's entry by 7 a.m. in Budapest, so yesterday's (09.17) editions are listed instead, a routine time-zone gap, not a missing source.
The road we walk together
Yesterday was about how even your smallest tear is enough to bring down forgiveness; today is about how the risen Christ, alive, is interceding for you without pause, and how that sets you moving to give away some of your own freedom.