Spiritual Formation

How can looking back deepen our trust in God for the future? An often-overlooked passage from Matthew’s Gospel provides an answer.

In this “hurried life,” how can we find more time with God? And how can we go deeper with God this Advent season when shopping, parties, and Christmas events get added to an already packed schedule?

The Bible refers to death as a great enemy. In American culture, there are two ways we usually deal with death: denial and despair. But Scripture offers a different way.

I love being the center of attention. However, when I think my life is about me, I limit my ability to see the life God has called me to and I stop myself from having the courage to follow him on an amazing adventure.

As we stare down the arrival of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I wonder what it would look like for us to cultivate excitement about what we can give rather than expectation of what we’ll receive.

Sometimes God displaces us and sometimes we choose displacement to survive, thrive, or walk in obedience to God. However we end up being displaced, whether through persecution, a natural disaster, or by choice, such as taking a specific job, God uses displacement to shape us and draw us closer to him. 

What we are called says something about our identity and our purpose.

Now more than ever, there is a prophetic call on our lives as children of the Creator God to be set apart from the ways technology can turn art into an idol. I am not advocating that we as Christians walk away from the art of this world. But I do have some suggestions for how we can live responsibly into this call.

Lately, I’ve been struggling a great deal with feelings of disappointment with Jesus. I’m not entirely sure when they started, but I can see the impact they’ve had: I start to distance myself from Jesus. I shy away from taking risks for the sake of God’s kingdom. I sink into my couch.

Do I really believe that change would come if I stopped my “actions” and “just” prayed for reconciliation and justice and provision for those in need? And do I really believe, when I am working for justice, that it’s actually God who brings about the change, and not me? Most of the time, I’m not sure I do.