It may have been a long time since we deferred to God on any question that really mattered to us, and the thought of openly admitting how poorly we’ve lived our lives is embarrassing, to say the least. Pride dies a hard death.
Let us not despise the purity that can come out of grief. When our hearts hurt so badly that words fail us as we try to speak to God, let us not be afraid simply to shed our tears, if they will come, and to let our groanings be a sufficient prayer.
It is unthinkable that we would approach God with anything less than a humble, contrite spirit. If we have any idea of how serious our sins really are, we will make every effort to show respect to the King against whom we have so foolishly rebelled.
When we try to conform externally to some of God’s will without giving Him our whole hearts, the attempt is frustrating. Halfway measures involve far more grief than wholehearted efforts. The joy of commitment can’t be enjoyed by the uncommitted.
Seeking God can never be a merely intellectual pursuit. Having thoughtfully read what God reveals of Himself in the Scriptures, we then have to take those truths and investigate them in our most practical relationships, such as our home and family.
It is reasonable to want to understand the world, and it does take a certain amount of information to do that. But if we’re not careful, we’ll be drowned in a sea of useless “news.” We need to learn about what is old as well as what is new.
Both the ability to look backward and to look forward have the potential for great harm if they are not managed wisely. We can only do with the present moment what God would want us to do if we hold to a productive view of the past and the future.
For every human being there is at least someone whose acceptance it is important for that person to have. And the difficult question is this: what if doing God’s will does not result in that someone’s acceptance and approval? Will we obey anyway?
If our relationship with God is based upon love, we can ill afford to let self-centered (though we would simply call them “practical”) motives enter in. Our enjoyment of God cannot depend on whether some desired payoff is being received from Him.
How much risk are we willing to take in order to obey God, particularly in situations where Hiss instructions go against our instincts or our preferences? Real trust requires that we cling to God alone and let go of any other safety or security.
Our sinful past will try to pull us back — and sometimes the pull can be very strong. We wouldn’t have been what we used to be if there weren’t ...
The more we learn to love our Father, the more our hearts are going to hurt when we realize we’ve failed Him. The person who rarely sees any sin in ...
“Nominal” Christians are Christians in “name only.” They are the modern embodiment of the mentality God spoke of in Isaiah’s day: “[They] draw near with their mouth and honor me ...
God will help us and discipline us (Hebrews 12:5-11). But having been disciplined by God, we will have to discipline ourselves. We will have to exert ourselves to go uphill ...
When we start following our own will in the “secular” parts of life, we tell ourselves that we won’t let these “other things” get out of hand. But we are ...
Wonder of all wonders, God is willing to forgive us of our treason against His rightful rule over us. But His grace requires that we begin doing what we have ...
Very people few are willing to “seek first the kingdom of God,” even among professed believers. Especially in the modern culture of so-called “Christian nations,” very few do more than ...
Confession of sin comes from “a broken and contrite heart” (Psalm 51:17), and it hurts. But the joy of forgiveness is on the other side of this sorrow, and the ...
Are we willing to accept God in general matters like love and faith, but when it comes to His instructions in the Scriptures about how these principles are to be ...
As creatures living in a world broken by sin, we have never experienced what it is to be a human being — not fully and perfectly. But God does not ...
It is only in Christ that we can be refreshing in the ways that people most seriously need refreshment. We should see being a Christian not only in terms of ...
It’s a huge step in our return to God when we acknowledge that our sins against Him have been deliberate. If all we can say is, “What I did was ...