Category Archives: Spiritual Nuggets

Honor, Credit, and Godly Wisdom We’re primed to seek validation. Earning “likes” on our social media outlets gives us a sense of self-worth. Getting kudos for a good idea at work makes us feel important. When this is how we … Continue reading →

Recasting Faith Faith is often cast as a type of intellectual pursuit: It’s something our minds rise up to, conform to, or simply agree with. But in the Bible, faith is often portrayed as rather mystical: Jonathan somehow knew that … Continue reading →

Faith Sometimes it’s difficult to view our lives as a whole. We fulfill different roles as we interact with different people at school, home, work, and even church. In the natural donning and discarding of these roles, we might be … Continue reading →

Discernment, Knowledge, and Action We often wonder whether God hears our prayers. Even when we acknowledge that God deals with each petition we send His way, we experience doubt because we don’t understand how He has handled our plea. Yet … Continue reading →

Making Distinctions We’re often entranced by those who have what we don’t, riches, popularity, position, and power. We want to befriend cool moms, hipsters with ironic mustaches, and supervisors who can get us to the next step on the corporate … Continue reading →

God’s Unseen Work We often fail to discern when and how it happens: God will work something out in our lives that seems virtually impossible. We get an unexpected insight into the workings of God in 1 Samuel 5. After … Continue reading →

Conflict and Certainty Conflict drives fiction and riveting movies, but if we had it our way, we’d live stable, stress-free lives. We might crave the excitement or change of a vacation, but we rarely welcome an unexpected complication. So when … Continue reading →

God Makes Good Out of Trouble God often shows His goodness to us through trials, making good out of human error. We see this principle in the lives of Elkanah and Hannah. Elkanah was prone to make mistakes. His first … Continue reading →

By Your Example By nature, we are creatures of imitation. Children mimic the traits of their parents, and even in later life we are influenced by the habits of our friends. People naturally imitate, even if they don’t realize it … Continue reading →

Behind the Scenes Sometimes life can look so bleak that it seems as if all hope is gone. This was the situation for Esther and Mordecai: “Letters were sent by couriers to all the provinces of the king to destroy, … Continue reading →

Meet and Greet “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house and do not speak a greeting to him, because the one who speaks a greeting to him shares in … Continue reading →

The Truth About Truth John the Evangelist’s letter to the “elect lady” presents a picture of joy and hope, as he “rejoiced greatly to find some of [her] children walking in truth, just as we were commanded by the father” … Continue reading →

A Famous God Fame can have startling effects on people. Those who attain power and influence suddenly become less available: They’re selective with the phone calls they take, the emails they answer, and the people they associate with. Those who … Continue reading →

From Concern to Action When I approach God, I often try to persuade Him that I am worthy of something or that He should act on my behalf. But there is no reason God should act on our behalf—none is … Continue reading →

It’s Simple I tend to complicate matters. Determined to understand the nuances of a problem, I spend more time constructing a solution than I need to. Often, delaying a simple solution is my way of avoiding action that requires me … Continue reading →

Discernment and Prayer “For all of them sought to frighten us. . . . And now, God, strengthen my hands” (Nehemiah 6:9). While God calls us to “love [our] enemies and pray for those who persecute [us]” (Matthew 5:44), he … Continue reading →

Love and Peace “You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it finds rest in you.” Augustine’s prayer, spoken so many years ago, is still poignant for us today. It appeals to our created purpose: bringing … Continue reading →

Position, Prayer, and Strategy Trying to make a difference in the world can be disheartening; it’s easy to feel like merely a drop in the bucket. When Nehemiah first heard about the suffering of His people, he could have been … Continue reading →

Man vs. Nature As a teenager, I devoured stories about men and women at odds with nature. These man vs. nature struggles always told of a battle of wills. Nature was always at its most magnificent and most frightening: untamed, … Continue reading →

The Story Behind the Story The Bible is full of unexpected moments. Some events seem almost coincidental, where people are in the right place at the right time. This is exactly the case with Ezra. In ancient times, it was … Continue reading →