Lift Up Your Day
Lift Up Your Day with Pastor Rodney Coe — a 5-minute Christian devotional podcast for the heart that needs lifting.
Every Take 5 episode is a true story from history and Scripture about ordinary people God used to do extraordinary things. Pastor Rodney Coe — author of 5 books, devotional writer, and pastor — tells the stories warm, well-paced, and pointed at the part of your day that needs the most lifting.
You'll meet missionaries saved by angels (John Paton), a watchmaker's daughter who forgave a Nazi guard (Corrie ten Boom), a Tennessee farm boy who took a hill in the Argonne (Alvin York), a Senate chaplain who wasn't ready (Peter Marshall), a man who walked with God at 4 a.m. (George Washington Carver), and more.
Each episode ends the same way: "And that, friend, is how God lifts up your day."
Free 7-day devotional When Worry Won't Let Go at rodneycoe.com/worry-devotional. Books and blog at rodneycoe.com.
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Lift Up Your Day
Martin Luther: The Fear That Sparked a Reformation
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July 2, 1505. A young law student named Martin Luther is walking back to university through the German countryside when the sky turns black.
A bolt of lightning slams into the ground right next to him. Terrified, certain he is about to die and face a holy God he cannot satisfy, he cries out. Saint Anne, help me! I will become a monk!
He lives. And he keeps the vow.
Luther became a monk, and he was a good one. He fasted until his body gave out. He confessed his sins for hours. He once said that if anyone could have earned heaven by being a monk, it would have been him. But none of it brought him peace.
Then came the night in the tower. Luther was studying Romans, and he came to chapter 1, verse 17.
"The just shall live by faith." Romans 1:17.
The fear that had crushed him for years finally lifted. And the man who had hated God now loved Him with everything he had.
That discovery, one sinner finding grace in one verse, became the hammer that would crack a thousand years of religious darkness wide open.
If you have spent years trying to earn what God is holding out as a gift, hear the verse that set Luther free. The just shall live by faith. Not by your performance. By faith in the One who kept the record for you.
Keep looking up,
Pastor Rodney
July 2nd, 1505. A young law student named Martin Luther is walking back to university through the German countryside when the sky turns black. A storm rolls in fast, and before he can find shelter, a bolt of lightning slams into the ground right next to him. The blast throws him down into the mud. Terrified, certain he's about to die, and face a holy God he feels he cannot satisfy, he cries out to the patron saint of his father's people, Saint Anne, help me. I will become a monk. He lives and he keeps a vow, but the terror that puts him in the mud is only the beginning. Stay with me. You're going to want to hear the rest of the story. Welcome to Lift Up Your Day, a five-minute devotional short stories of the Biblical Heartbeat. I'm Rodney Coe, and today how one man's crippling fear of God became the spark that lit the Reformation. Martin Luther became a monk, and he was a good one, maybe too good. He fasted until his body gave out. He confessed his sins for hours until his fellow monks were worn out listening. He once said that if anyone could have earned heaven by being a monk, it would have been him. But none of it brought him peace, because Luther had one word that haunted him, and that word was righteousness. He read in Scripture that God is righteous, and to Luther that meant only one thing. God is the perfect judge who punishes sinners. And Luther knew he was a sinner. So the more he thought about the righteousness of God, the more he trembled. He later admitted that he did not love God. He hated him. He hated a God he could never please. Then came the night in the tower. Luther was studying the book of Romans and he came to chapter 1, verse 17, The Just Shall Live by Faith. He read it again and again. And slowly the truth broke over him like sunrise. Luther had always read God's righteousness as a sword hanging over his head. Now he saw something else. It was a gift God gives, a right standing handed to the guilty and received by faith in Jesus Christ. He said it was if the gates of paradise swung open and he walked through. The fear that had crushed him for years finally lifted. And the man who hated God now loved him with everything he had. That discovery, one sinner finding grace in one verse, became the hammer that would crack a thousand years of religious darkness wide open. Maybe you know Luther's fear. Maybe somewhere deep down you believe God is mostly disappointed in you, that you have to earn your way back into his good graces, and you are always falling short. Here are the verse that set Luther free. Romans 1 17. The just shall live by faith, not by your performance, not by your perfect record, by faith in the one who kept the record for you. The God you may be afraid of is holding out a gift, right standing with him, bought by Jesus, offered to you for free. You do not have to climb up to him, he came down to you. Luther spent years trying to satisfy God, and it nearly destroyed him. Then he stopped trying to earn what God was waiting to give. That is the day everything changed. And that, friend, is how God lives up your day.