MY Devotional: Daily Biblical Encouragement & Prayer from Leading The Way

Yesterday we looked at two types of soil Satan targets. Today, Dr. Michael Youssef turns to the third: spoiled soil—a heart that isn’t hard or shallow, but overcrowded.

In this episode of the MY Devotional Podcast, you’ll hear how Jesus describes the seed “among thorns” as someone who hears the Word, yet becomes unfruitful because the worries of life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke spiritual growth (Matthew 13:22). The problem isn’t the seed—God’s Word is powerful. The problem is competition: distractions and “competing seeds” the enemy tosses into the mix to drain your focus, sap your energy, and smother your witness.

Dr. Youssef challenges you to examine what’s crowding your life:

Is busyness strangling prayer and Scripture intake?

Are anxiety and constant worry becoming a chokehold on joy?

Have ambitions, comforts, or resentments become functional idols?

Then comes the hope: good soil—the guarded heart that hears, understands, and produces a crop that lasts (Matthew 13:23). This devotional will help you identify what kind of “soil” you’re living with right now and call you to vigilant, daily protection of God’s Word so it can flourish.

Prayer: Father, forgive me for the things in my life that have hindered Your Word from fully developing in me. I pray that You would nurture Your seeds of Truth in my life. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Today's my devotional has been provided by Leading The Way.

The voice you hear on the MY Devotional podcast is digitally generated with Dr. Youssef's permission. If today’s devotional stirred a question, burden, or need for prayer, you don’t have to walk through it alone.
🙏 Pastoral Care & Prayer Teams
Our trained prayer partners and pastoral care team are available to pray with you and offer Biblical support.
https://ltw.org/care
💬 Receive personal answers to your faith questions—anytime, day or night—at:
https://myfaithassistant.com
If you’ve been blessed by this podcast, please consider a tax-deductible donation to help extend this ministry—so another person can be encouraged, prayed for, and pointed to Christ.
❤️ Support Leading The Way:
https://www.ltw.org/donate

The enemy targets both the spiritually strong and the spiritually weak—with one goal: spiritual stagnation. In today’s episode of the MY Devotional Podcast, Dr. Michael Youssef points to Jesus’ warning in Matthew 13: the sower and the seed are unstoppable, so Satan focuses on corrupting the soil—your heart—so the Word won’t produce lasting fruit.

Dr. Youssef explains that the devil has no power over God or His Word, but he can distract, harden, and shallow out our hearts—making us resistant to truth, quick to drift, and slow to mature.

Jesus highlights multiple kinds of soil where the seed suffers, and today Dr. Youssef focuses on the first two:

The hardened path (wayside soil) — When someone hears the message but doesn’t understand it, the enemy snatches it away. Unconfessed sin and bitterness can harden the heart, dull spiritual sensitivity, and cloud understanding (Matthew 13:19).

The rocky, shallow soil — Some receive the Word with joy, but without depth they wither under pressure. New believers can fall back into old habits when mocked, and longtime believers can remain “spiritual infants” if they never mature beyond surface-level faith (Matthew 13:20–21).

If you’ve felt stuck, spiritually numb, or easily shaken, this devotional will help you identify what kind of “soil” you’ve been living with—and call you to ask the Holy Spirit to make your heart fertile ground for the Truth that brings joy and freedom.

Prayer: Father, show me if I am one of these types of soil where the seeds of Your Word are not able to take root. And by Your Spirit, make my heart fertile ground for Your Truth that brings joy and freedom. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Today’s MY Devotional has been provided by Leading The Way.

The voice you hear on the MY Devotional podcast is digitally generated with Dr. Youssef's permission. If today’s devotional stirred a question, burden, or need for prayer, you don’t have to walk through it alone.
🙏 Pastoral Care & Prayer Teams
Our trained prayer partners and pastoral care team are available to pray with you and offer Biblical support.
https://ltw.org/care
💬 Receive personal answers to your faith questions—anytime, day or night—at:
https://myfaithassistant.com
If you’ve been blessed by this podcast, please consider a tax-deductible donation to help extend this ministry—so another person can be encouraged, prayed for, and pointed to Christ.
❤️ Support Leading The Way:
https://www.ltw.org/donate

In Middle Eastern farming, the pathway between two fields becomes hard-packed ground—unprepared to receive seed. Dr. Michael Youssef says that strip of earth is a vivid picture of what can happen to the human heart.

In today’s episode of the MY Devotional Podcast, Dr. Youssef connects this image to Jesus’ parable of the sower: Christ is the sower, your heart is the soil, and the enemy works relentlessly to keep the seed of God’s Word from producing life. One of Satan’s most effective tactics is getting you to substitute human wisdom for God’s Word—then snatching away the Gospel before it can germinate.

But hardness doesn’t stop there. Dr. Youssef warns that unconfessed sin, unforgiveness, resentment, and bitterness can become spiritual concrete. When we cling to these attitudes and elevate them above fellowship with God, they become idols—quietly displacing His rightful supremacy.

Using a striking story of an idol being shattered to reveal hidden treasure, Dr. Youssef offers a hopeful promise: every idol you surrender may feel costly in the moment, but it always yields far more—new freedom, deeper prayer, and fresh treasures of grace and peace.

Prayer: Lord, my desire is to destroy every idol in my life. Please show me anything I am not surrendering to You and grant me the ability to surrender it to You today. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Today’s MY Devotional has been provided by Leading The Way.

The voice you hear on the MY Devotional podcast is digitally generated with Dr. Youssef's permission. If today’s devotional stirred a question, burden, or need for prayer, you don’t have to walk through it alone.
🙏 Pastoral Care & Prayer Teams
Our trained prayer partners and pastoral care team are available to pray with you and offer Biblical support.
https://ltw.org/care
💬 Receive personal answers to your faith questions—anytime, day or night—at:
https://myfaithassistant.com
If you’ve been blessed by this podcast, please consider a tax-deductible donation to help extend this ministry—so another person can be encouraged, prayed for, and pointed to Christ.
❤️ Support Leading The Way:
https://www.ltw.org/donate

What would make someone sweep the whole house, light a lamp, and search relentlessly for a single missing coin?

In today’s episode of the MY Devotional Podcast, Dr. Michael Youssef explores Jesus’ parable in Luke 15:8–10 and reveals a detail many miss: in Jesus’ day, a woman’s ten-coin headdress (a semdi) signified her engagement—so losing one coin wasn’t minor inconvenience, but a public heartbreak and deep shame. That intensity, Jesus says, pictures how precious you are to God and how far He will go to seek the lost.

But there’s a sobering twist: unlike the lost sheep, the lost coin is missing at home. Dr. Youssef warns that church attendance, Bible studies, and religious familiarity cannot save anyone. Without Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, a person can be just as lost sitting in a pew as someone far from church.

Jesus ends with joy: heaven celebrates one sinner who repents. If you’ve assumed proximity to Christian things equals salvation, this devotional invites you to respond to Christ personally—and be part of the celebration.

Prayer: Father, thank You for Your sacrifice to save me. May I not lose sight of You. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Today’s MY Devotional has been provided by Leading The Way.

The voice you hear on the MY Devotional podcast is digitally generated with Dr. Youssef's permission. If today’s devotional stirred a question, burden, or need for prayer, you don’t have to walk through it alone.
🙏 Pastoral Care & Prayer Teams
Our trained prayer partners and pastoral care team are available to pray with you and offer Biblical support.
https://ltw.org/care
💬 Receive personal answers to your faith questions—anytime, day or night—at:
https://myfaithassistant.com
If you’ve been blessed by this podcast, please consider a tax-deductible donation to help extend this ministry—so another person can be encouraged, prayed for, and pointed to Christ.
❤️ Support Leading The Way:
https://www.ltw.org/donate

What happens when good gifts—money, success, stability—quietly become your trust?

In today’s episode of the MY Devotional Podcast, Dr. Michael Youssef draws from two of Jesus’ most sobering teachings about wealth. First, the story of the rich young ruler in Mark 10: a man who wanted to follow Jesus, yet couldn’t release his grip on riches. Jesus offered him treasure in heaven, true security, and salvation—but his possessions held his heart so tightly that he walked away sorrowful.

Then Dr. Youssef turns to Jesus’ parable in Luke 12 of the rich landowner who expanded his barns and planned for a comfortable future—yet failed to plan for eternity. In a single night, everything changed, exposing the danger of living as though this life is all there is.

This devotional is a timely reminder that the only refuge that stands in every storm is Jesus Christ. Markets rise and fall. Economies shift. Peace and turmoil come and go. But those who run to Christ are secure—life or death—because in Him, you already have everything you need.

Prayer: Father, help me to press on in this life with whatever circumstances You have deemed for my good—whether riches or want—remembering the hope of glory that is mine today. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. 

Today’s MY Devotional has been provided by Leading The Way.

The voice you hear on the MY Devotional podcast is digitally generated with Dr. Youssef's permission. If today’s devotional stirred a question, burden, or need for prayer, you don’t have to walk through it alone.
🙏 Pastoral Care & Prayer Teams
Our trained prayer partners and pastoral care team are available to pray with you and offer Biblical support.
https://ltw.org/care
💬 Receive personal answers to your faith questions—anytime, day or night—at:
https://myfaithassistant.com
If you’ve been blessed by this podcast, please consider a tax-deductible donation to help extend this ministry—so another person can be encouraged, prayed for, and pointed to Christ.
❤️ Support Leading The Way:
https://www.ltw.org/donate