These are challenging times to be a believer. There is a huge clash of worldviews. The truthfulness of God’s Word is being attacked on many fronts. Perhaps, you are being attacked personally for standing for the truth. How should a believer respond to those attacks?
Also, read about the source of our strength, the value of staying where God has placed us, and the importance of earnestness in prayer.
Most of us love quizzes that test our intelligence or our knowledge of trivia or pop culture. We like to know where we stand in comparison to others. We like checklists to see how we measure up. Today, as we read Colossians 3, we will see what we might call a checklist or a quiz of a different kind.
Itching ears, false worship, and the queen of heaven: what do they have to do with one another? We might say they all have to do with our theology or how we view God and his Word.
And we all have some kind of theology. It may be formal or it may not. It may even be the result of things we have heard and practiced for many years, even as children. But because something is popular, our religious tradition, or “the way we have always done it,” doesn’t make it biblical.
In today’s Old Testament passage, God condemned the nation of Israel for their false religion and idolatry. Centuries later, when a Samaritan woman met Jesus and pointed out what was popular in her religious tradition, He told her, “… those who worship [God] must worship in spirit and truth” (Jn. 4.24)—spirit, with the right heart attitude, and truth, according to His Word.
So what has formed your theology? And is it biblical?
God had a problem with those in Jeremiah’s time. So, He sent the Prophet to warn them of coming judgment. Instead of listening, their leaders assured the people they were fine with God. After all, they were His people, they had His temple and He would never let it be destroyed. And when the Prophet and others tried to speak the truth, it was a reproach to them. They hated it and refused to listen.
Sadly, many of our leaders today have, also, compromised the truth. Rather than biblical morality, they are more concerned about popularity, being politically correct, and being re-elected than the well-being of the nation, spiritually or otherwise.
Even many of our spiritual leaders seem more concerned with not offending anyone than with speaking the truth. While we can’t fully understand all the motives, it seems that selling books and filling their churches are more important. Even whole denominations have twisted the truth to accommodate the culture in which we live and have deceived many.
And from our New Testament reading, how did the Apostle Paul pray? Could his prayers become a model for ours and hold a key to how we should pray for our families, our leaders, and our nations?
Jesus said in Matthew 11 that He came to give us rest or we could say peace in our souls. Are you enjoying that kind of peace of mind? Or are you full of anxiety, restlessness, and discontent? If it’s the latter, it turns out that learning to enjoy God’s peace of mind is neither impossible nor mysterious. You can read more in today’s post.
How much do you and I want to know Jesus? The answer reveals a great deal about our hearts. The Apostle Paul, who had all the Jewish credentials: education, a great family pedigree, as well as his own achievements, said he counted it all as garbage, literally “dung,” in comparison to the ability to actually know Jesus. So, how much do you really want to know Him? In today’s post, we’ll talk about the how and why of doing that.
What comes to mind when you hear the word “holiness”?
Rules?
Restrictions?
A joyless Christian life filled with don’t do this and don’t do that?
Sadly, that’s how many people see it.
But what if holiness is almost the opposite?
What if growing in holiness is really about becoming more like Christ—gaining wisdom, making better decisions, experiencing greater peace, avoiding needless consequences, and increasingly living the kind of life God designed us to live?
If that’s true, why wouldn’t we want more of it?
But there’s another side to today’s discussion.
How does a person move in the opposite direction?
How does someone become a habitual liar—even lying when the truth would make more sense?
How does anger become a way of life?
How does someone become so trapped in sexual sin, addiction, bitterness, or another pattern that he can barely see what it is doing to him and everyone around him?
Scripture gives us a sobering principle:
Sin leads somewhere.
So does obedience.
And the direction we repeatedly choose can affect not only what we do—but eventually how clearly we are able to see.
Have you ever been convinced that your way made more sense than God’s?
Maybe you knew what Scripture said.
You knew the right response.
You even knew what obedience would look like.
But another way seemed easier, faster, safer, or simply more reasonable.
So you chose it.
And then things got harder.
Philippians 1:6 gives us one of Scripture’s great promises:
God will complete the work He has begun in us.
He is committed to transforming His children into the likeness of Christ.
But here’s the question:
How often do we make that process more painful because we keep resisting the very things God is using to change us?
Sometimes we want God to remove the trial when His plan is to take us through it.
Sometimes we want relief when He is producing endurance.
Sometimes we want another route because His way simply doesn’t look right to us.
And sometimes, like Nemo and Dorie trying to avoid the gap, our attempt to find an easier way leads straight into the jellyfish.
So how can we tell when we are trusting God—and when we are merely trying to escape what He is using for our good?
Why are so many children angry?
We see it in stores, schools, families, and sometimes in our own homes.
Of course, children are responsible for their own choices. Even the best parenting cannot guarantee that a child will respond rightly.
But Ephesians 6 gives parents a sobering warning:
“Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath.”
Which raises an uncomfortable question:
Could we be provoking our children without even realizing it?
Sometimes the problem isn’t the rules themselves. It may be inconsistency, hypocrisy, marital conflict, selfishness, or expecting one standard from our children while living by another ourselves.
Children notice more than we think.
And Ephesians 6 doesn’t stop with parenting.
Paul moves from the home to the workplace and then to a battlefield, telling believers to “put on the whole armor of God.”
That can sound mysterious or even mystical.
But what does it actually mean?
How do you put on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, or the helmet of salvation before you walk out the door tomorrow morning?
It may be much more practical than you think.
Who—or what—is controlling your life?
Most of us would probably answer, “No one controls me. I make my own decisions.”
But Scripture suggests the question isn’t quite that simple.
Paul warned believers not to be controlled by wine. But alcohol isn’t the only thing that can exert control over us. Our desires, ambitions, fears, possessions, relationships, need for approval, or determination to get our own way can influence how we think, speak, and behave.
So what happens when the Holy Spirit is the controlling influence instead?
After spending three chapters explaining everything believers possess “in Christ,” Paul begged the Ephesians to “walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.”
Then he began showing them—and us—what that kind of life actually looks like.
And some of the clearest evidence may show up in places much closer to home than we expect: our words, our attitudes, our gratitude, and especially our relationships.
We’ll take a closer look today.
And Isaiah describes something else that may sound strangely familiar: truth stumbling in the streets, justice nowhere to be found, and those who turn from evil becoming targets themselves.
How should God’s people live when the world around them looks like that?
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