Having doubt does not mean we have a weakened faith. The only thing that undermines our faith is not believing God’s promises and moving toward them in trust and surrender. If God knows everything, why would we want to keep our doubts out of our daily conversation with him? The tendency to doubt resides in all of us to one degree or another, and it never entirely goes away. The problem comes when...

Unrelenting fear of the seemingly insurmountable has invaded our society’s collective consciousness. Ravaged our spiritual confidence. And in many cases hijacked our lives to a faraway prison with solitary confinement. But this is certainly not a new phenomenon. God knows everything about this monster with roots that trace all the way back to the Garden. The presence of this destructive force in our...

Are you allowing negativity to produce a pessimistic view of life that keeps you from listening and hearing God? How would it feel to banish that destructive threat? Give it a try. MY APPROACH I start by asking God to help me fight off pessimism before it prevents me from listening, hearing, and responding to him. Then I focus on these five steps to help me hear God when pessimism crashes over the...

Are you allowing negativity to produce a pessimistic view of life that keeps you from listening and hearing God? How would it feel to banish that destructive threat? Give it a try. MY APPROACH I start by asking God to help me fight off pessimism before it prevents me from listening, hearing, and responding to him. Then I focus on these five steps to help me hear God when pessimism crashes over the...

There are many spots on Mt. Everest where there is only one place—one specific, precise spot—where the climber’s primary anchor in the layers of redundant protection MUST be placed. Deviation of any kind will put the climber at risk to a range of horrible outcomes ranging from discomfort to serious injury to death. Our faith walk requires the same precision when it comes to our anchor in life. I know...

Before I get to the shocking pay-off to that headline, it’s important to take a peek at the back story. All of us know about the devastating impact caused by the negative voices knocking around in our head, right?    Of course. That’s why we must be diligent about spending time in God’s Word and prayer to keep that possibility from turning into pain. But underneath that threat lurks another...

The time I spent with God early in my faith walk was nothing more than transactional dance of checking a box on my self-made spiritual to-do list. God’s perfect perspective has shown me that this shallow and misguided approach was my way of feeling better about my faith and connection with Jesus. And it got progressively worse.    My emptiness persisted even when I started reading the Bible...

Have you ever taken the time to think about the word ENOUGH? Not just the definition and what it means generally, but how it influences and animates your life. Your faith walk. Your ability to understand how God wants to use you for his Kingdom.  “You don’t have enough” is nothing more than a lie from the dark voice whispering in our ear. Its premise pivots off the promise that happiness is correlative...

Have you ever felt like there was a hole in your heart? That the weight of your emotional distress made it impossible to stand up, let alone move? That it felt like you were a million miles from God? I have, and it’s horrible. When I was chasing money and success, the stress became debilitating and caused much pain in my life. But setting aside all of that anguish, I can say without equivocation that...

Early in my faith walk I thought the feelings of hopelessness that emasculated my identity in Christ were the result of me not being like the “good Christians” who never entertained a dark thought or made a mistake. I had it wrong. Here’s the story… With that disconcerting backdrop of doubt and uncertainty, my only conclusion was that I had fallen short of becoming one of the so-called “good Christians”...