Walking With God

We need God to help us understand his Word. We can’t separate a walk with God from our reading of Scripture. The two go hand in hand. Like having a tour guide as you wander the halls of the Louvre. “If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives…

How do we pray for guidance? First off, do whatever you can to reduce the pressure. Pressure is a killer; it nearly always gets in the way of hearing from God. As best you can, lay down the pressure as you seek guidance. Drama never helps; stress never helps. Give the search some breathing room. Take a deep breath yourself. Second, be open to whatever it may be that God has to say to you. If you are, in truth, only open to hearing one answer from God—yes, you should…

Paul spent years serving Christ, yet he experienced continual suffering. It doesn’t seem fair, does it? Why would God let him go through so much pain? It’s a question many of us ask today about ourselves. We think the Lord should protect us from hardships, but He doesn’t always do so. Maybe our reasoning is backward. We think faithful Christians don’t deserve to suffer, but from God’s perspective, suffering is part of being a Christian. If we…

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…

During hard times, it’s easy to wonder why the Lord is taking so long to bring relief. Like the psalmist, we cry to God “out of the depths” for help (Psalm 130:1), but as time drags on, we may be tempted to take matters into our own hands. Believers, however, are not to operate as the world does, determining a course of action based on human reasoning or the example of others. Instead, our guidance is to come from God, and our hope is to be in His Word …

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…

Trusting in the Lord is easy when life is pleasant and running smoothly. However, when circumstances are not as we desire, our confidence in God can become shaky. Yet even in difficult times, He guides us and helps us through. God wants us to cultivate faithfulness to Him in every circumstance. To do this, we must commit to His way instead of getting frustrated or trying to manipulate things to get our desired outcome. While it would be easy for us to become anxious or…

Caring for our own hearts isn’t selfishness; it’s how we begin to love. Yes, we care for our hearts for the sake of others. Does that sound like a contradiction? Not at all. What will you bring to others if your heart is empty, dried up, pinned down? Love is the point. And you can’t love without your heart, and you can’t love well unless your heart is well. When it comes to the whole subject of loving others, you must know this: how you handle…

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…