“You’re not good enough.”    “You’re not like the “good Christians.”    “You’re never going to find God’s peace. Ever.”    Those are just a few of the piercingly negative thoughts that created a deceptive narrative which would torment me earlier in my life. It felt like a tape was playing on an endless loop in my mind. A painful story to be sure, but one I want to share...

Early in my walk with Christ I wanted to find an easy way to subordinate ME and my desire to play boss so I could promote God to be the CEO of my life. Something like, let’s say, simply drawing a line through the word SELF!    It didn’t take long to toss that nonsense aside and realize an “easy way” does not exist! So I got down on my knees to ask God for his answer. Here’s what happened.    God...

That image above represents the Jaguar sports car I coveted as a young and hard-charging, success-driven CEO earlier in my life while I was living out what I call Destination-Point Happiness (DPH)—a pervasive and deluded view of the future.    In my own life, DPH was a dangerous game that came from playing boss and not yielding everything to God. This dynamic presented itself through an...

I spent 20+ years earlier in my life living with embers of fear, doubt, and worry ready to catch fire. And they did. The resulting conflagration left much pain and travail in its wake. The consequences were horrific, but God has used all of that for good. In fact, he’s using it right here with you. Here’s the story.    The tendency to doubt and worry resides in all of us to one degree or...

Looking back to when I learned to ride a unicycle as a kid has taught me a powerful lesson as an adult–never grow weary of listening for God, no matter how strong we feel our faith is and how smooth our lives seem to be going.    Even after I mastered the technique (and that took a while), I still needed to fully concentrate when I was pedaling on one wheel. If not, I would fall instantly....

Have you ever ignored that warning as it blinks annoyingly to nab your attention?    I have. Many times, in fact. And each time it happens I think of how easy it is to ignore what God wants to say to us through Scripture, the Holy Spirit, prayer, our circumstances, and other followers of Jesus.    IT’S ALL ABOUT INTENT    We must want to hear what God’s direction is for...

That’s right, the door to God’s grace—his unmerited love to us—is UNLOCKED.    I spent many years fiddling with different keys to open that door, but never even checked the knob to see if it would open! It reminds me of a great story from famous magician Harry Houdini’s life that makes the point perfectly. In one famous stunt gone awry, Houdini panicked when he couldn’t open the last lock...

I confess!    I used to believe with a lower case b. I did.    During this time of my life it was very difficult for me to believe that God would honor his promises and “that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6).    Everything changed one day listening to my pastor Rick Warren talk about what it meant...

My tendency to feel unworthy as a child of God earlier in my life increased with each new “mistake” I made or bad thought that crossed the cinema of my mind. This negative cycle created and reinforced a damaging self-perception that I could never live a Christ-like life. It was a LIE! Thank God I learned the truth.    Thinking we’re no good for God leads us to start thinking we are no good...

I lived for many years with a self-destructive “NEGATIVITY FORCE” roiling in my head and creating a barrier between me and God. It was HORRIBLE. The noisy and painful narrative that invaded my mind took the form of thoughts like: Nothing counts and nothing ever matters. This can never and will never change. My life’s glass if always half-empty. I’m the victim and it is their fault. Eventually, they...