We fail at many things and in many ways. Failure can be accompanied by feelings of inadequacy and shame that make us want to quit. The uniqueness of the gospel is not that it gets us to do something entirely new, but that it sends us back to what we’ve been doing all along, but […]
Have you ever received a pump-up speech from God? Before Jeremiah spoke a word of prophecy to anyone the Lord tells him in chapter one that He has holy plans for his life. We never make the first move, God is always previous. He assures Jeremiah through his doubt and does the biblical equivalent of […]
Wisdom doesn’t mean you always have the right answers, but rather the right responses. Here in Proverbs 4, and the beginning of chapter 5, wisdom is a guide to healthy living. When God is at the center of our lives, He helps us stay on the path of good sense and avoid the pitfalls that […]
Peace is not passive. We often view it as the absence of war, clamor, or bothersome neighbors. But here in the fifth chapter of Romans, Paul teaches that God pours into us instead of removing outside circumstances. When we let God in, he doesn’t turn us into hermits, but fills us with the Holy Spirit. […]
Jacob was cunning and opportunistic. He deceived his father and stole his brother Esau’s birthright. Here, years later, he is about to encounter his older brother and is understandably terrified. In the midst of strategizing on how to survive this meeting, he wrestles with the Lord in one of the most meaningful interactions between God […]
