Only the Bible changes lives - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2026

He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy. And they glorified God in me.
Galatians 1:23–24

Only the Bible changes lives
Elie Wiesel (1928–2016), a Jew and a Holocaust survivor, believed “that only education offers hope that this [the Holocaust] will never happen again.” Yet preventing evil is not a matter of education, for education has never made anyone more loving and considerate, or less selfish.

Marcel Reich-Ranicki (1920–2013) was also a Jew and a Holocaust survivor. He was Germany’s most popular, controversial and contentious literary critic. In his autobiography, he talks about the usefulness of music and states: “What did Mozart or Schubert achieve? Did they change the world?” He confesses that he never expected literature to educate people and change the world. And he argues: “Did Shakespeare’s tragedies and histories prevent even a single murder? Did Lessing’s Nathan the Wise at least curb the growing anti-Semitism in the 18th century? Did Goethe’s Iphigenia make people more humane and did at least a single individual become noble, helpful and good after reading his poems?” He himself never thought literature had any significant pedagogical function and couldn’t imagine that there was any literature that changed the world.

Only the gospel, the good news that God proclaims, changes people. There, as seen in today’s verse, a persecutor and destroyer of faith becomes a proclaimer of faith; there, the greatest sinner becomes an example, and enemies become “holy and faithful brothers”. What a change, what a miracle! (1 Timothy 1:15–16; Colossians 1:2, 21)

Today’s reading: Jeremiah 6:1-30 · Luke 20:41-47