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How Do I Know if It’s God’s Will or My Own Desire?

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Photo by Sixteen Miles Out There are moments in life when we desperately want God to simply tell us what to do. Take the job. Don’t take the job. Move. Stay. Start the business. Let it go. Say yes. Say no. We pray and wait. We look for signs. We open our Bibles hoping a verse will somehow jump off the page with the answer. And sometimes we already know what we want the answer to be. Is this really God leading me, or is this simply what I want? It can be one of the hardest questions in our walk with God because our own desires aren’t always wrong. Sometimes the thing we want very much may also be something God is leading us toward. So how can we tell the difference? There isn’t a formula that guarantees we’ll never misunderstand God’s direction. But Scripture gives us some very good ways to examine our decisions, our motives, and our hearts. And its not always about asking God to confirm what we want, but with becoming willing to follow Him even if His answer is different. Because some...
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The Seasons of Life: Trusting God Through Every Change

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Photo courtesy of  Aaron Burden   There is something about the beginning of fall that makes me reflective. Maybe it is the first cool breeze after a long summer. Maybe it is watching the green leaves slowly turn shades of gold, amber, and red. Maybe it is the way the sunlight begins to look a little softer, or how the evenings arrive just a little earlier. Fall reminds us that change can be beautiful. And yet, when change happens in our own lives, we do not always see it that way. We often want to hold tightly to the seasons that feel comfortable. We want the people we love to stay close. We want our plans to work out the way we imagined. We want doors to remain open, relationships to remain unchanged, and life to feel familiar. But just as God created seasons in nature, our lives have seasons too. Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” There are seasons of beginning and seasons of ending. Seasons of abund...
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Let Your Yes Be Yes: The Importance of Keeping Your Word

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  “All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’” — Matthew 5:37 There was a time when a person’s word was considered one of the most valuable things they possessed. A promise did not need pages of fine print. A handshake meant something. If someone said they would be there, help, call, repay what they owed, or complete a responsibility, others trusted that they would do their best to follow through. Our word still matters today, perhaps more than we realize. Every time we make a promise, accept a responsibility, or tell someone they can count on us, we place something into their hands: an expectation. They may arrange their plans around what we have said. They may stop searching for other help. They may allow themselves to hope. They may trust us with something vulnerable or important. When we keep our word, we communicate, “You matter. Your time matters. Your trust is safe with me.” When we repeatedly fail to keep it, our actions communicate something very different—even if hurtin...
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Forgiveness, Respect, and Understanding: Loving Others the Way Jesus Taught Us

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“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” — Ephesians 4:32 It is easy to speak about forgiveness, respect, and understanding when life is peaceful and everyone is getting along. It is much harder when someone has hurt us, disappointed us, spoken unfairly about us, or simply sees the world very differently than we do. Jesus did not call us to love only the people who are easy to love. He did not tell us to show kindness only when it is returned, to forgive only when an apology is offered, or to treat people with dignity only when we agree with them. He called us to a deeper kind of love—one that reflects the heart of God rather than the behavior of the person standing before us. That does not mean accepting abuse, excusing sin, or remaining in situations that are harmful. It means allowing Jesus to shape how we respond, even when wisdom requires distance or boundaries. Forgiveness, respect, and understanding are connected. Forgi...
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Creating Through Anxiety, Faith, and the Work No One Sees

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Anxiety is a difficult thing to explain to someone who has never truly experienced it. It isn't simply being worried about something. It isn't always something you can reason your way out of or fix by telling yourself that everything is fine. Sometimes your mind knows perfectly well that you are safe, capable, and okay, while your body seems determined to convince you otherwise. Those who have lived with anxiety understand the battles that can happen quietly and, many times, completely unnoticed by everyone around you. Sometimes the victory is simply doing the thing anyway. Getting up. Showing up. Creating. Making the phone call. Doing what you need to do. Sitting down at the computer and tackling the next task when your mind would much rather have you retreat somewhere safe and quiet. Some days are easier than others. I've learned over the years that I don't necessarily have to wait until I feel fearless to move forward. I can be afraid and still take another step. But...
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The Gift and the Keeping: Biblical Stewardship in Everyday Life

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  There is a word we don’t hear nearly as often as we once did: stewardship . We tend to hear it in church when someone is talking about money, giving, or tithing. And while stewardship certainly includes our finances, it reaches much further than what we put in the offering plate. Stewardship is how we care for everything God has entrusted to us . Our money. Our homes. Our possessions. Our time. Our talents. Our work. Our relationships. Our creativity. Our land and resources. Even the ordinary things sitting in our cupboards and closets. When we begin looking at life through the lens of stewardship, something changes. Instead of constantly asking, What do I want next? we begin asking, What has God already placed in my hands, and how am I caring for it? We Are Owners—or Are We? Our culture places a great deal of emphasis on ownership. My house. My money. My career. My talents. My time. Scripture gives us a different starting point. “The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof...
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The Curious Case of Number Seven

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I've always liked the number seven. Now, before anyone starts thinking I've become one of those people who searches for hidden messages in license plates or counts the pickles on a cheeseburger, let me assure you—that's not where this is going. I was born in 1970 , on December 8th , the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. I've always thought that was a pretty neat birthday to have. The year starts with a seven, the day carries special meaning in my faith, and if you ask me the perfect temperature outside is exactly 70 degrees . Not sixty-eight. Not seventy-two. Seventy. Seventy degrees means I can throw open the windows, hear the birds, convince myself I'm going to spend the afternoon gardening, and then somehow end up with a cup of tea watching the squirrels instead. Life happens. I've never considered seven a lucky number. The Bible doesn't describe it that way either. Still, it has always fascinated me how often it quietly appears throughout Scriptur...
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