Some hopeless people who anticipate only death cite Scripture that says I desire to depart and be with Christ (Phil. 1:23). But Christ is not what hopeless people really want. The God-talk is misleadi...
Since the desires for power and control are in every heart, you don’t have to look overseas for lawless brutality. It happens every day between parents and children, boyfriends and girlfriends, husban...
Only people who know they have burdens can be delivered from them.
One reason Christians respond positively to a needs psychology is that it takes people's pain seriously. However, this perspective can actually make pain worse. It compounds pain by suggesting that no...
Once we get over the mild jolt to our pride—I would like my spouse to love me because she thinks I am the greatest male alive—we couldn’t ask for anything better. The character of God is the basis for...
No one cares about their reputation or their bank account when they find themselves in the shadow of death.
James intentionally enlarges the scope of suffering when he writes, trials of many kinds. By doing this, he invites those who experience depression to learn that, whatever the cause, depression will t...
God created you to trust him and love others. When you are not trusting or not loving, you are disconnected from your purpose, and hopelessness will thrive.
Anxiety asks for more information so it can be prepared for the coming apocalypse. It also asks for more information so it can manage the world apart from God.
Psychiatric diagnoses are considered to be technical and bounded; you are either in or out. In contrast, a biblical perspective puts many interpersonal differences on a continuum: people may have more...
When you are confident that you are the Father’s treasured possession, you are also confident that his loving care will continue forever. Building warehouses is a waste of time and space. His gifts to...
We loathe worthlessness, and for good reason. We have a primal sense that we exist for something better and, indeed, we do. We are created in the King’s image and created to be with him. But there is...
Therefore, we cannot rightly say, My God is not a God of judgment and anger; my God is a God of love. Such thinking makes it almost impossible to grow in the fear of the Lord. It suggests that sin onl...
The more you read Scripture, the more you actually talk to God rather than think about fear.
The key to learning the fear of the Lord is to stay in Scripture. When you are in the Scripture, pray that God would teach you that he is the Holy One.
The key to learning the fear of the Lord is to stay in Scripture. When you are in the Scripture, pray that God would teach you that he is the Holy One. 1. Review the creation psalms: Psalms 8; 19; 29;...
The fear of man is the sinful exaggeration of a normal experience.
The circumstances of life do not have the power to turn us away from Jesus or to make us love him more—those are the jurisdiction of the heart.
Suffering nags us with questions about God in a way that comfort never could.
Put a dozen relatively like-minded people into the same crisis and you will see a dozen different responses. Some are heroes; others are cowards. Some are leaders; others are followers. Some are optim...