The Condition We Skip “And this is the confidence (the assurance, the privilege of boldness) which we have in Him: [we are sure] that if we ask anything (make any request) according to His will (in agreement with His own plan), He listens to and hears us.” — 1 John 5:14 We love to quote this verse. We claim the confidence, the boldness, and the promise that God hears us. But too often we rush past four words that hold the whole verse together: according to His will. God Is Not Obligated to Your Plans Here is the pattern Read More
Close the Books: Living the Love That Keeps No Record
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Corinthians 13:4–7) Some of us are carrying ledgers we were never meant to keep. We remember the exact words spoken in anger, the date the promise was broken, the moment we were overlooked. We file every offense away, ready to pull Read More
Deepest Recesses of Your Heart: Form or Power?
When the music stops, what’s left? When the lights go down, the band goes home, and the room goes quiet, does your worship stop with it? Matt Redman’s “The Heart of Worship” was written to bring a church back to this question. God is not after the sound. He is after the one behind it. If God searched the deepest recesses of your heart tonight, what would He find? Some of us want the form but not the power. We know the songs, the posture, and the language. We can lift our hands on cue; but Paul warned Timothy about Read More
Proximity Is Not Purpose: Lessons from the Last Supper
At the Last Supper, Jesus said something that still unsettled me: “It is the one to whom I am going to give this piece [of bread] after I have dipped it.” So when He had dipped the piece of bread [into the dish], He gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot.” (John 13:26). Think about that. Jesus — the Bread of Life Himself — dipped bread with the very man who would betray Him within hours. Proximity to Jesus did not change Judas’s heart. Access to the anointing is not the same as agreement with the assignment. That’s the Read More
Trusting God: The HOW Is Not My Business
I keep a note on my laptop titled “Musings.” It’s nothing fancy, just a running list of things I’m thinking about, wrestling with, or talking to the Lord about when nobody else is around. A couple of weeks ago, my pastor said something that landed in that note and hasn’t left me alone since. She said: “The HOW is not my business; Trust God!” I sat with that for a long time. Because if I’m honest, I’ve prayed plenty of prayers where I said the words “I give this to You, Lord” and then spent the rest of the week Read More
The Prepositions of Grace: In Him, By Him, Through Him
There is a language the Spirit of God loves to speak, the language of “In Him.” Scripture declares, “For in Him we live and move and exist [that is, in Him we actually have our being]” (Acts 17:28). This is not poetic exaggeration. It is the foundation of your existence. Before you were a believer, before you knew His name, your very breath was sustained in Him. But salvation moves that truth from the natural to the supernatural. Now you don’t just exist in Him, you live in Him. John’s Gospel opens with a declaration that changes everything: “In Him Read More