Engaging Your Soul with a Silence and Solitude Practice
With the internet and social media at our fingertips, we are constantly bombarded with notifications that interrupt us. We need to purposely tune out the world’s noise and intentionally focus on the Lord. We need to enter a time of silence and solitude, when our phones are on “do not disturb,” and distractions are nonexistent.
So how do we do this? We schedule it.
Connecting with God: Engaging Your Five Senses
I’m in awe of how God wired us with the ability to see, hear, smell, touch, and taste. Yes, our senses help us navigate the world, but they can also help us draw closer to Him. Like a good father, God longs to connect with us throughout our day, and one way to cultivate this connectivity is by engaging our senses.
When You Don’t Feel Like Dancing
When we feel down, is God somehow absent, withholding divine pleasure from us? Is God frustrated with us for letting the weight of the world hinder our faith walk? No, He is present and active in our lives. But it doesn't fix these gloomy, depressed, stressed-out days. What can be done?
See Yourself as God Sees You
I needed to invite God into my world and give him the sacred space to reshape my identity. He lovingly led me into the pages of his word, where I found myself written all over his story.
3 Ways to Deal with Toxic Thoughts
Even after becoming a Christ follower at the age of twenty, I continued to worry constantly over what other people thought of me. I was easily offended and doubted anyone could truly love me. After many years now of a growing relationship with Jesus, I am learning how to deal with negative thoughts.
How to find your sense of security in the love of God
The God kind of love is so completely faithful and just and accepting that it has the ability to make us completely secure, and safe. So that we have no physical need for worry because there is nothing to worry about.
Borrowed Prayers for When You Don’t Know What to Say
Prayer is often seen as a solitary task using our own internal voice to connect with God. In borrowed prayer, we join with fellow Christians in the greater longing for God. I have found that no matter how often I repeat the same prayer, I can find new depth of meaning in its words and a greater sense of calm with each reciting.
How to Be More Present
In a busy world full of distraction and constant pressure to be doing something and going somewhere, it can be nearly impossible to be present. In fact, it has become our normal to find ourselves rushing from one place to the next, overwhelmed by to-do lists. But that’s not how God wants us to live.
Help, I Don’t Think About God
While there are extra holy moments with God, when we feel the divine presence closer than our breath, the reality is mundane most of the time. How can we keep our close feeling with God when ordinary times can leave us seemingly not even thinking about Him?
When Fears Try to Control Us
Sometimes it is the hidden fears that keep us from peace and limit our potential. They are like pets that we nurture and allow to become part of our identity, but with God’s help there is always hope to overcome.
Happiness vs. Joy: What’s the Difference and Why Does it Matter?
Recently, I was brought through a situation that was riddled with sudden loss. Where I would normally find joy, I only felt despair. Yet something unexpected happened. While my soul was wrapped in sorrow, my spirit was suddenly filled with complete joy. This was truly a miracle, a a Jesus miracle, for He is the only one who can bring true joy within the depths of pain and melancholy.
Create a Flexible Morning Routine that Makes Every Day Better
I used to feel frustrated most mornings. I didn’t need a new schedule or a better planner. What I needed was a flexible routine, a series of habits that didn't have to look exactly the same each day in order to bless my life. I needed to let go of something I thought would be perfect and focus instead on small, doable actions that would breathe life into my whole day.
Reconnecting with God After a Spiritual Drought
Where are you, Lord? I have whispered those words on more than one occasion throughout my spiritual journey, and I’m sure you also have. Experiencing a disconnection from the Lord can leave us wandering in a wilderness of doubt and questioning. But He never disconnects from us and longs to be close again.
Invited to Create with Purpose: How to Work as an Act of Worship, Not Performance
Instead of overhauling our lives in one fell swoop, Christ invites us to show up in the messy middle of the everyday and glorify Him there. You see, our invitation to create with Him is less about the end result, and all about the transformative work that takes place within us.
As God Makes Us: Trusting His Voice
I’ve realized that we will never hear God’s voice in the same way as someone else does, because, as poet Rainer Maria Rilke writes, God speaks to each of us as he makes us. Our intentional God knows every messy bit of our story more intimately than anyone ever has or will, lovingly familiar with our differences.
What Does Godly Self-Care Look Like?
We live in a confusing and conflicted world, particularly when it comes to the idea of self-care. As Christians, mixed messages tell us to take care of ourselves but also serve selflessly, putting the needs of others above our own. Luckily, we have one who has gone before us, providing the ultimate example of loving others well, including ourselves.
How To Overcome Obstacles to Spiritual Growth
I want my faith to flourish like wildflowers, but I must be more intentional in cultivating the conditions for spiritual growth. However well-intentioned we are to practice our spiritual disciplines, sometimes we run into obstacles. Here are two of the most common ones, and some thoughts on how we can overcome them.
Start with One Word: A Simple Process to Reach Your Soul
Despite knowing that healing and life can flow through my journal, those empty pages showed weeks since I regularly woke up early to capture my thoughts. We all have stretches where we stare at a blank journal page. We might want to write but are emotionally exhausted by life and only want to distract ourselves from how hard it has been. So let’s talk about how we can ease back into a rhythm while not overwhelming ourselves.
Listening for God In Your Difficult Moments
If we knew that God would answer us in every difficult situation, seeking Him would be our natural first instinct. So what if we made choices that show we do believe that? What if we choose Him, right here, in the middle of the hard moments? If you are longing to hear Him louder in those difficult times, here are five postures that will guide you towards Him in prayer.
How Gratitude Heals Us and Wakes Us Up to See God
The practice of looking for God’s goodness makes us more aware of what God is doing in our lives. Instead of looking at all that is going wrong, I’ve found joy in looking out for the traces of God. This is necessary to our healing. The connection of us seeing God at work in our lives reminds us of his deep love for us, anchors us to him, and restores our trust in him.