When God and spirituality are reduced to our standards or our feelings, God will never be to us the awesome Holy One of Israel. With God reduced in our eyes, a fear of people will thrive.
We can think that God is good, and we are pleased with him, though we might be pleased less with him than we are with the ease of our lives. Then, when life is hard—especially when life remains hard—t...
Try changing the subject so it is more about God than about your shame. The basic idea is to focus on the matchless worth of the Lord God and then get connected to him. For you are a people holy to th...
Though the cross and everything leading up to it violate our sensibilities and we are rightly aghast, the reality is that human beings have never liked God very much. At the cross, the nature of God w...
This is the last word. Jesus always has the last word, and it is always a good last word. It is always about him and it always takes you by surprise with his love and acceptance. What is your response...
The rule of thumb is that if someone is able to be verbally or physically abusive, he or she is able to understand that the behavior is wrong.
Our goal is to love people more than need them. We are overflowing pitchers, not leaky cups.
Imagine the presence of one who deeply loves you and is powerful enough to deal with the things you fear. It turns fear into confidence. But, like all spiritual growth, this change only comes with pra...
If our failure to consistently worship the true God is the key feature of sin, we are sinners all.
Hiding. Covering up. Self-protection. Feeling exposed. They are telltale signs of shame.
God really does speak in our suffering, and we have good reason to believe that the words he says are good and powerful enough to lighten our pain.
Fear in the biblical sense is a much broader word. It includes being afraid of someone, but it extends to holding someone in awe, being controlled or mastered by people, worshipping other people, putt...
Fear has given birth to extreme parenting. It looks like love, but it is love mingled with fear.
Faith feels many different ways. It can be buoyant; it can be depressed and lifeless. Feelings don’t define faith. Instead, faith is simply turning to the Lord.
Augustine wrote, That first way [to truth] is humility; the second way is humility, and the third way is humility.1 If humility does not precede our wisdom and help, our efforts are meaningless. Paul,...
As a counselor, I have spoken with many people who want to know their spiritual gifts. They come hoping for some sort of diagnostic test that will precisely locate them. My impression is that this per...
Aren’t most diets, even when they are ostensibly under the heading of health, dedicated to impressing others? The desire for the praise of men is one of the ways we exalt people above God.
Others, and so on. And anything that is opposed to God in our lives is actually one of the many gods of the kingdom of earth. You will always be running scared if you worship other gods, because idols...
When you believe what God has said rather than lies, you are doing valuable work. When you choose hope over despair, your choice has lasting significance. When you get out of bed and persevere in ordi...
When it comes to addictions, we tend to divide humanity into two groups: those who are prone toward addictions and those who aren’t. The reality, of course, is very different. All human beings have al...