Tag Archives: Treasure

Truth and Honesty Can Be Painful A commitment to honesty and truth often puts us in unexpected spiritual situations—something David experiences in 2 Samuel 7. David thinks he will build God a great house—a temple—but instead God plans to build … Continue reading →

Serving the Glory of God When we avoid community, we may develop an inflated opinion of our own character. It’s easy to think we’re kind people when we’re not held accountable to others. It’s easy to think we’re always right … Continue reading →

Vengeance versus Blessing Comparing the passages of 2 Samuel 3:1-4:12 and 1 Peter 3:8-22 teaches us that all Scripture can be used for instruction: Some passages provide wisdom on how to become more like Christ, while others are best regarded … Continue reading →

When Kings Mourn No one can tell you how to mourn. You have to mourn as you see fit, making sure you don’t introduce sin into the grieving process. Several people who were dear to my heart have died. Each … Continue reading →

Emotion versus Logic Reacting is easy. What’s difficult is overcoming emotions in a time of adversity. Although emotions are not bad, they can lead us astray. At the same time, when we stray too far in the other direction and … Continue reading →

Jack-in-the-Box Pride It’s dangerous to become too confident in the maturity of our own faith. Our pride is like the spring of a jack-in-the-box: Just when we think it’s broken or that we’ve gotten the lid on tight, it springs … Continue reading →

Reframe It “ ‘Too often they have attacked me from my youth.’ Let Israel say, ‘Too often they have attacked me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me’ “ (Psalm 129:1-2). As these verses show, sometimes problems can be … Continue reading →

Surprise Redemption We often fail to be amazed at redemption. Perhaps we’re only dimly aware of our own failings, or (worse) we are blind to how amazing it is that God has shown us grace at all. In Psalm 126 … Continue reading →

Unity in Adversity Distress can unite people. In difficult moments, in shared pain, we discover our true friends. When David fled from King Saul, his divided family was suddenly supportive of him, as was every man in the region who … Continue reading →

Eternal Hope We don’t often realize where we put our hope. We can seek sustenance, energy, or relief in the most transient, innocuous things, from our morning coffee to a vacation we’ve been anticipating for months. These things are not … Continue reading →

Best Friends Forever This generation has more opportunities for communication than any before it, with email and social networking making it possible to interact with others 24/7. Yet suicide rates are higher than ever, and antidepressant medications have become almost … Continue reading →

Oppressors, Victims, and a Just God Contemporary culture is often pegged as self-indulgent: We live in a have-it-now world, and we don’t always think about the repercussions of our actions. But when we read James’ letter to the early church, … Continue reading →

Moving Forward Moving on after a person, a hope, or a dream has died can be one of the most difficult challenges of life. It certainly was for Samuel. The prophet Samuel believed that God had chosen Saul as king, … Continue reading →

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 →