Since ancient times, people have bowed down to idols in the appearance of humility and contrition. But their goal wasn’t to be mastered by the idol. People worship to get things. We choose idols in pa...
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.
The first steps out of shame will be the hardest. These are the anti-denial steps in which we will put shame into words. You can’t do battle with something nameless, and too often shame eludes accurat...
The important thing was the shedding of blood. Sounds barbaric, but the Old Testament was reminding us that there was a significant cost involved in moving from unclean to clean. You didn’t have to pa...
9:10). Since the fear of the Lord is the great treasure of life, Proverbs tries to woo us to it. It tries to make the fear of the Lord as attractive as possible. Those who fear the Lord will fear noth...
The ordinary is not good enough for us; our hubris wants something grandiose. But the ordinary done in obedience to Christ is beautiful, inspired, and oftentimes heroic.
When in doubt, look at the Lord. Lift up your eyes (Numbers 21:4–9). That will be something it will take all your life to master, but what better time to start than now? Still, you can’t imagine being...
God does not forgive you based on the quality of your confession or your resolve to be a better person. But you keep thinking otherwise. Your standard is what you would do to someone like yourself, an...
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.
He says I love you first, even when we respond with an indifferent shrug or the equivalent of a passing, Oh, thanks. And in this we discover why it might be hard for us to move toward others: the one...
Hope will only grow in the ground of humility.
Humility means that you acknowledge you don’t know everything, and you might be especially confused when it comes to God.
If you feel ugly you will experience shame. The two are bound together.
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...
Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride. Knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair. Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because he shows us both...
Shamed people rarely take stands against injustice. Such a stand would mean they would have to go public, which would only double the shame. Instead, once we are shamed, most of us try to make sense o...
On earth, however, God doesn’t prescribe a happy life. Look at some of the Psalms. They are written by people of great faith, yet they run the emotional gamut. One even ends with darkness is my closes...
When your emotions feel muted or always low, when you are unable to experience the highs and lows you once did, the important question is not How can I figure out what I have done wrong? but it is, Wh...
Worry’s magnetic attraction can only be broken by a stronger attraction, and David is saying [in Psalm 27] we can only find that attraction in God Himself.
The world was created by God as the abode of human beings. As created by God it is good, but as our abode it bears the mark of our sin. Therefore, in the New Testament, the term world is used to denot...
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