Friday, January 16, 2026

Happy 2026, Friend,

It’s the Smart Edit! The year is young👶 — let’s stop letting the world dictate the pace and start moving under Kingdom Kadence!

This week: Evening-first strategies, angels at work, and real-world Kingdom strength.

Your Day Begins the Evening Before

Each week, we highlight a Kingdom Dynamic, a key insight into how God’s Kingdom works in real life …

Those paying attention are saying something simple and disruptive: your morning starts the evening before.

We’ve been told to fix our mornings—earlier alarms, tight morning routine, more discipline, morning mastery. There’s some wisdom here.

But the Kingdom highlights a different approach. In the Hebrew way of thinking, the day begins at sundown. “And there was evening, and there was morning…” (early Genesis). Creation itself moves from rest to work. Evening first.

🎯 That’s not poetic. It’s strategic.

Psalm 127.1-2 presses the issue: “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain … In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for he grants sleep to those He loves” (NIV).

Or, it could be translated, “For while they sleep he provides for.”

This confronts the average default mode …

We rise early. We stay up late. Grind. Plan. Scroll.

Then wonder why we wake up heavy and reactive.

But the WAY OF THE KINGDOM doesn’t take that posture. It exposes it. Anxious, grinding toil is not proof of faithfulness. It’s a Trust Fail.

Jesus asleep in a storm

At the turn from Mark 4 to 5, Jesus tells His disciples they’re “crossing over to the other side.” It’s an assignment—one that will free a man bound by a legion of demons and unlock an entire territory and it’s people.

🌩️ Before they arrive, a violent storm hits. (Inside info: the storm is demonized.) They were swamped in chaos. Fear. Threatened. And amazingly, Jesus is asleep in the boat!

When awakened, he rises and rebukes the storm. The point here isn’t just his authority over nature—it’s his REST BEFORE THE BREAKTHROUGH.

Jesus could sleep because the mission was settled in the evening. The outcome was already secured with the Father.

For Jesus (and for us), victory didn’t begin after the storm. It began the night before as the storm was forming. That’s the real day … evening to evening.

Kingdom order says this …

Building starts with surrender. Provision flows through rest. God does some of his best work while we’re asleep. I don’t know, maybe all of his best work.

So start the day (evening) like a true believer. Put the phone down. Write the gratitude. Yield the outcome of the next day. In the evening, consecrate the hours after you rise to the Lord of Everything. Entrust the unfinished work to the Builder who never sleeps.

If you want a more impactful morning and afternoon, don’t start with that nasty alarm. Start with your evening.

I think this is a vital approach to steward time optimally … for the Father’s glory and story.

Let’s pray:
Father, the days belong to you. Evening to evening. I will consecrate them with the Word & Prayer. Align me with your building activity. Amen.

(We’re using the New American Standard Bible for Scripture quotes, unless we note otherwise.)

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On the POD

By Faith We Understand: Accessing Jesus’ Intelligence in Daily Life (Ep 351). Faith unlocks understanding. In this episode, we explore how to access the intelligence of Jesus for real-life decisions, challenges, and clarity. Wisdom from above outperforms human reasoning—because true insight begins with knowing the Holy One.

Follow the link to listen. The JesusSmartX podcast is also available on your favorite podcast listening app including Spotify.

📆💪 Christmas 365 “Muscular” Devotional!

‘Christmas 365’ didn’t launch in December (that one’s on me), but it’s nearly complete—and expanded. Bigger and deeper than planned, this Kingdom project features 25 devotional entries from the Christmas narratives in Matthew and Luke. But it’s designed for use any time of year to help see Kingdom Dynamics at work in daily life. It’s kind of muscular!

STELLAR QUOTE
Trusting God to Make It Real

Faith in God accesses superior reality …

Faith is seeing what is invisible and trusting God to make it real.

A.W. Tozer

HEALTH
Light for Healing and Wellness

Missing the sun? I am. Sunlight is scarce for most of us in January. Consider Vitamin D3 supplementation, 5,000 I.U., ideally paired with Vitamin K2.

Why sunlight and Vitamin D matters: It triggers feel-good beta-endorphins, aids pain relief and wound healing, lifts moods, supports immunity, and helps fight inflammation.

Exposing your skin to a red light lamp, device, or laser energizes your mitochondria, boosting cellular energy.

Potential benefits include support for dementia, dental pain, hair loss, osteoarthritis, tendinitis, and wrinkles. For ongoing use, consider investing in your own device—but always consult your doctor first.

Angels at Work, Part 2

Following up on last week, Part 2 explores more ways angels serve God’s people. Heaven doesn’t just watch—angels perform God’s Word, moving as we pray, speak, and act in faith.

  • Give physical strength — Daniel 10:18–19 shows an angel empowering Daniel for his mission. In Matthew 4.11, angels “came and ministered” to Jesus after his 40-day temptation experience in the wilderness.

  • Perform super-human feats — Revelation 20:1–3 laying hold of the Dragon and casting him into a bottomless pit for a thousand years during the Millennium.

  • Worship God“Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne… saying with a loud voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain…” (Revelation 5.11-12 NKJV).

  • Release God’s judgment – In Acts 12.20-24, and angel struck Herod because he “… did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died. But the word of God grew and multiplied” (NKJV). (Corroborated by the first-century Jewish historian Josephus.)

  • Serve the elect – Hebrews 1:14 calls them ministering spirits attending those who inherit salvation.

Notice the invisible at work today—your prayers, your words, and your faith-in-action are the channels angels move through to bring God’s purposes to life. I have to ask this question: “Am I fully aligning with this Kingdom resource?”

Appreciate you.

Thanks for reading! If you value the Smart Edit, tell your friends to subscribe. If you have any questions or comments, reach out at [email protected].

Best,
Brian Del Turco

When you "buy a coffee," you're empowering a mission to level-up Christ-followers with clarity in a critical time.

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*It's a friendly metaphor, not real coffee. Each "coffee" is $5.

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