I have a proven tendency to mess things up. I have good intentions and even a few really good ideas. But sometimes things can go sideways so fast that I find myself questioning not only my actions but also my worth as a child of God. Not too long ago, I traveled to The Cove…
Unanswered Prayers
It’s easy to slip into the mentality that we somehow fell through the cracks of God’s good plans. Things are too final. The ink is too dry. The page has been turned. Their heart is too hard. Your heart is too hurt. The doctors have said impossible. The account is too bankrupt. The biological clock…
I Give Up Online Bible Study Week One — What Is Surrender Anyway?
God is not interested in signing off on even our best-made plans. God is much more interested in our surrender, our surrender to Him. ~ Laura Story So, here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life — your sleeping, eating, going-to-word, and walking-around life — and place it…
Surrender by Acting “As If”
When I find myself feeling unsure of my identity in God’s eyes, His Word offers me plenty of assurance about who I am in Christ. Ephesians 2, especially, gives me this helpful and hopeful reminder: But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even…
10 White Flag Prayers for a Surrendered Life
Editor’s Note: Surrender. Should we sit here and try to unpack that word together? We’d be here for a while, wouldn’t we? To cut to the chase, Merriam Webster defines “Surrender” this way, “to give up completely or agree to forgo especially in favor of another”. Though the Bible doesn’t give us a word for…
What Is Surrender Anyway?
I don’t know what you are facing today, but I know what it’s like to face circumstances that are out of your control. Life can be swirling around us, it can be overwhelming and hard. We long for peace over a situation, but we try to hold on tightly for control because we feel we…
Who Do I Surrender To?
A Great, Good, Trustworthy God Let’s say you need an operation on your heart. You can’t do it yourself, obviously. You’re going to have to trust a professional to open you up and fix whatever is wrong. You probably have a few criteria for someone who will crack your chest and take your heart in…
You Are Free Session One: To Be Free
We compete, and we compare, and we strive, and we put terrible pressure on ourselves to “keep up.” But the good news is that we were not made to keep up. We were made to be free… to be who we already are. ~ Rebekah Lyons Introduction Country music superstar Garth Brooks and Christian recording…
Will You Surrender?
Editor’s Note: It’s Sit & Listen Saturday at Devotionals Daily. Enjoy reading as well as listening to this devotion from Jefferson Bethke, from his bestselling book Jesus > Religion. Listen on the blog or on your Alexa device by enabling the skill and then prompting, “Alexa, ask devotionals to read today’s devotion.” Relax; you don’t…
Lent: Ask God What to Fast
It has been a few years — fourteen, now that I think about it — since we were in a church that celebrated Lent. We attended an Episcopal church in town back then and enjoyed it very much. It was there that we learned something of the observance of Lent, that forty-day period of personal…