I assume my own heart is the one place where I am always safe and always innocent. Oh, but how I’ve found that to be the opposite sometimes! My heart is fickle and selfish. It will always choose self-preservation over future pain. It would rather strike out at others than admit vulnerability. Some days, my […]

There are some lessons you feel you’ve grown beyond. You believe you’ve mastered the message. But if that were true, then why do certain situations still trigger a response from you? When someone or something taps into your deep emotions, it’s a signal to pay attention. God will often keep sending that same kind of […]

Want to try a different sort of resolution for 2018? You may have read a daily devotional in the past: something like Daily Guideposts or maybe Jesus Calling. They’re books that lead you through an entire year’s worth of readings devoted to spending time with God or learning about the Bible. Would you please join […]

So often, you see the end results of someone’s victorious triumph and forget all the tumbles that preceded the glory. You celebrate a birth with hardly a second thought to the months spent waiting in expectation. You celebrate a child’s first steps while crawling memories fade to the background. You attend a graduation and forget […]

In the holy and the hard You have always been my guard. (Ps 17:8) In the struggle, in the strife, You have breathed in me new life. (Jn 20:22) In the dullness or the grand You have never dropped my hand. (Is 41:13) When there’s loneliness and fear You have held my every tear. (Ps […]

Your mind writes stories based on what little facts you know. You predict what you think will happen when – truthfully – you have no idea because there’s no concrete evidence to support the worst case scenarios you’re convinced are coming your way. Instead of focusing on “what if,” you must look to “what is.” […]

Please, dear God, make this ache go away. And if you can’t make it go away, sit in the muck with me and help me endure. Please bring respite soon! Open my eyes to see the world around me: even dead leaves can remind me there can be beauty in letting go. Where there is […]

Someone I know hurt me with her words and I felt tossed aside and grace-robbed. I quietly began to tend my gaping wound. I begged God to put stitches in it, and He did. But before He could finish, I took the needle and thread from His hands. I kept stitching on my own and […]

God has numbered three tasks for our lives: to amplify His voice, magnify His glory, and testify for Him. Amplifying means listening so we can translate His presence in our personal testimonies. Magnifying means allowing Him to fill our lives so He becomes visible to others. Testifying happens when we tell the story of how […]

There have been times in my life when I acted on God’s nudges and followed Him, not realizing I would be entering a desert season. In my despair and confusion, I wondered why my obedience had such a painful outcome. If I’m following God, then shouldn’t the obedience be rewarded with a happy ending? Lovingly, […]