Practicing His Presence

Lean food rations, waterproof boots, and a map are some of the essentials carried by hikers on the John Muir Trail. The John Muir Trail is a 211-mile path in the western United States that winds across creeks, around lakes and woods, and up and over mountains, encompassing 47,000 feet of elevation gain. Because traversing this trail takes about three weeks, carrying the right amount of supplies is critical. Too much and you will run out of strength to carry it all; too…

You may be familiar with the story of Mary and Martha, the two sisters who eagerly welcomed Jesus into their home. Like many of us, Martha busied herself with tasks and preparations, ensuring that the Lord would be served well. Meanwhile Mary sat with Jesus and listened to Him. He eventually said to Martha, “You are worried and distracted by many things; but only one thing is necessary” (Luke 10:41-42). None of Martha’s tasks were inherently bad, and Jesus didn&rsquo…

What do I pray, Lord? What is this about? Pause. This is a really, really helpful place to begin—to ask God what to pray. I don’t know what’s going on. I’m looking at the equivalent of a two-headed rooster on my windowsill. I don’t know why God brought this up. So I ask him. Remember the disciples asking Jesus, “Teach us to pray”? Too many times we just jump in and start praying (making prayer speeches to God), and it doesn’t…

God is not “out there somewhere” in some dramatic way, waiting to commune with us by earthquake or fire or signs in the sky. Instead, he desires to talk with us in the quietness of our own heart through his Spirit, who is in us. It is his voice that has whispered to us about a Sacred Romance. What do you hear when you listen for that gentle, quiet voice? What I so often hear, or feel, is a restlessness, a distractedness where it seems that dozens if not hundreds…

“Why should I fast?” It’s a question many Christians ask, and one the Bible answers. In Scripture, fasting is often associated with seeking God for a specific purpose. Daniel fasted in order to plead for Israel’s release from Babylonian captivity, which God had promised (Dan. 9:1-3). Nehemiah fasted for a similar reason when he heard of the desperate state of the Jews who had returned to the land after captivity (Neh. 1:4). When we look closer at…

Jesus’ values are nothing like the world’s, so grasping who we are as God’s children can be hard (Rom. 8:16-17). Since the culture’s way of thinking is powerful and at times intoxicating, it’s easy to lose our way while pursuing the abundant life God promises. If that happens, the freedom we expected to experience in Christ can feel weighed down by sinful behaviors and thought patterns—not least of which is worry. Anxiety comes readily…

Did you ever peek ahead to the end of a story because you just couldn’t wait for the conclusion? This is oftentimes what we long to do in our own life, especially in difficult seasons. We want to know when our affliction will end. But only God knows the future, so we must learn to trust Him in the meantime. Joseph probably wished he could glance into the future to find out when his life would stop spiraling downward. Between the hatred of his brothers who sold him…

Abiding in the love of God is our only hope, the only true home for our hearts. It's not that we mentally acknowledge that God loves us. It's that we let our hearts come home to him, and stay in his love. MacDonald says it this way: When our hearts turn to him, that is opening the door to him ... then he comes in, not by our thought only, not in our idea only, but he comes himself, and of his own will. Thus the Lord, the Spirit, becomes the soul of our souls ...…

Love is the highest value in the kingdom economy, but it’s not the only value. The triumvirate of love, joy and peace show up again and again in Jesus’ teachings, and the writings of Paul. They are the core reality we aim at in our spiritual journey with Jesus. All three are more than just emotions, they are overall conditions of the heart. They aren’t just pleasant feelings; they are the kinds of people we become through our apprenticeship to Jesus, who…