As Samuel is about to choose David as the next king of Israel, God reminds Samuel that "the Lord looks on the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). God cares more about the state of our hearts than what everybody else can see in our behavior. This is the place in us that holds what we love most...what we crave...

If our true worth and significance and identity come from something so solid and eternal as God Himself, we don’t have to pretend when we are imperfect. We don’t stand on our accomplishments and personality and performance. We stand securely on the nature of an infinite, loving God. We don’t have...

A truly dangerous person is one who has nothing to lose. Saul and all of the Israelite men were protective of themselves, their freedom, their comfortable lives. David did not see what he might lose, he saw God; he saw God’s glory and name being mocked, and in faith he was motivated to bring glor...

Many of us hear the word obedience and based on past experiences we feel pressure, and words like rules, punishment, and shame come to mind. Deep in the crevasses of present-day Christendom lies the backward theology that good behavior pleases God. But morality—doing good things for the sake of d...

So often as believers we are afraid to question God. *Question.* And don't apologize. As if He can’t handle our doubt or questions or hurt or disappointment. We are how He made us: weak and needy, confused and complicated and in need of God. *I need a God whom I cannot understand.* I need a God b...

There are two places we typically run when we see our sin: we run and hide under our religion or morality, or we run in outright rebellion like the prodigal son. Both responses take us further from freedom, further from God's love. Repentance is the confession of the specific ways I have offended...

Surrender does feel costly when our lives are falling apart, but surrender sometimes feels even more difficult in the mundane everyday. And God calls us to trust Him with both. Surrendering to God means we will willingly receive whatever He has for us. He takes our surrendered lives and pours the...

What do we long for more than any other thing? The holes every person tries to fill from birth till death are the needs to be known and to be loved. We chase everything trying to fill these God-given holes. He left space in us for Him. That’s just plain cool. He made us incomplete without Him and...