“You talk too much” has been the hook of many songs through the years from rock’n’roll parody group Sha-Na-Na to Run DMC to George Thorogood to The Strokes—just to name a few. Then there’s a line you are no doubt very familiar with: “Open mouth, insert foot” which evolved from the original phrase “to put your foot in it,” meaning to say or do something inappropriate and embarrassing.    You...

Some people take verses like Luke 11:9-10 and try to twist God’s protection promise around to mean that Christians should never suffer in life and that everything will be perfect and everyone will be wealthy if they only believe. They believe God wants everyone to have spiritual, physical, emotional, and material blessings, prosperity in all things, and untold abundance. Just ask for riches, and they...

Most of us want to be remembered for something of significance beyond what the world defines as success. That is certainly true for me.    I don’t want to be remembered as someone who didn’t know the difference between earning a great deal of money and being truly rich in life.    I don’t want to be remembered as the successful CEO who left my kids money but forgot to leave them...

I’m trapped!    Have you ever felt like that in the midst of life’s challenges? I certainly have.    The sobering reality is that committing to God’s “Protection Promise” is extremely difficult in the midst of fear and doubt. It runs counter to our human nature.    It’s like being trapped in a flood. Even though the water may be all around us, it will eventually recede...

Our phones are definitely getting smarter, but our knowledge of God’s Word has become more like a “Dumb Phone.”    We have become biblically illiterate Christians because many of us have marginalized Scripture in favor of singing contemporary songs, attending fellowship barbeques, and taking superficial topical study classes.    We are experiencing a famine—a famine of Bible knowledge....

Instead of panic when fear and worry intrude into our lives, we should pray. That may sound simplistic, but why should it? After all, God’s truth and promises haven’t changed just because a war threat is mounting on one of life’s borders. The issue isn’t whether or not the storms will chase us—they will—but whether or not we stay on God’s road or get off. Fear and worry will trouble us, but those...

An integral part of the faith process is being strong against adversity!    Faith is moving against your fears and worries. God says, “If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength!” (Proverbs 24:10). When we don’t turn our doubts over to God, we will fan those embers and they will burn emotional and physical holes through our souls. When we worry and fret so much that we...

Trying to protect ourselves from everything that might happen in life is trying to play God. It’s wrong and it lands us at a fork in the road with one way leading to fear and the other to trust in God our Protector.    Choosing to go toward God at the fork does not obviate our responsibility to be careful and prudent about how we live our lives. We don’t just roll over and play dead. We...

Even in the pain and depression phase I suffered through earlier in my life, I could sense God urging me to “jump” toward him. That is a tough move to make when one is in pain and stress, the sort of pain and stress I was experiencing at the time. Jumping toward God was the last thing on my mind. It would be like a frightened first-time parachutist who cowers in the plane’s belly and says “no way”...

God wants us to wait for his refining work and look for his perspective even while we are in the vortex of affliction. He wants us to trust the divine timing and not get discouraged while we’re in the waiting period. The best approach to stop discouragement early is to pray. But as clear and logical as that is, many believers seem to respond in exactly the opposite way. That is, the bigger the trouble,...