One of the greatest desires of humanity is to be content. We are driven to find peace and satisfaction. Often, the choices and changes we make in life are rooted in our need to be satisfied. We pursue new marriages and new jobs and new homes and new churches, trying to move from discontent to…
What Is Better Than Life?
Human life is often viewed as the ultimate thing to cherish and preserve. We call life precious. We call it a treasure. We call it irreplaceable. We will go to great lengths to save a life. And we often view the greatest gift and sacrifice is when someone gives their own life for someone else….
Do We Need God or Want God? There’s a Difference
Our desire to pray is directly connected to our need for God. When I do not pray, I am deceiving myself that somehow I am sufficient apart from God. Now, most Christians would never say they are sufficient apart from God. But the reality is their actions (or lack of actions when it comes to…
Four Ways Daily Prayer Walking With Your Spouse Is Good For Your Marriage
Recently my wife and I made the commitment to prayer walk our neighborhood street every day for a week. This is a practice that we are desiring to continue on a regular basis. As we have been prayer walking together, I have been thinking about how this daily routine strengthens our marriage relationship. And so…
The Gratitude Of Serving God
I believe one of the greatest testimonies of a genuine faith in Christ is when gratitude is present in a person’s life in the middle of difficult circumstances. It is a reminder that they are living out of a hope that is not rooted within themselves. The Apostle Paul regularly demonstrated that supernatural gratitude in…
Do My Circumstances Define My Mission?
I have to admit that sometimes my circumstances can define how focused and passionate I am about living out the mission of Christ. If life is good, then I can find myself enthusiastically and joyfully seeking out Gospel opportunities. But when life is challenging or discouraging, I can find myself lacking the desire to look…
What Is Really Important?
In Charles E. Hummel’s classic work “The Tyranny of the Urgent” he writes about the tension between the urgent things of life and the truly important things. Hummel states, “Christians who are too busy to stop, take spiritual inventory, and receive their assignments from God become slaves to the tyranny of the urgent. They may…
The Outward Opportunity of Halloween
When our kids reached the age where they could go trick-or-treating, my wife and I were faced with the decision that many Christian families wrestle with: do we participate in this holiday? So much of the holiday welcomes a celebration of the dark side of life or to be more direct: a celebration of evil….
Prayer-Walking Our Neighborhood
Last week Jeff invited people to take on a challenge to prayer-walk their neighborhood every day for seven days. Jeff and I had prayer walked our neighborhood already several times, but this was a new level of discipline, making sure it happened consistently every day for a week. Now that the week is at an…
Persevering Prayer
If Christians were completely honest with themselves, I believe that many would confess that nothing is actually happening when we pray. It is easy to not see any impact from our personal prayer life therefore relegating the practice and discipline of prayer to something that is secondary or less important in our relationship with Christ….