Bible Truth for Everyday Life
Bible study tools, devotions, and free resources to help you encounter God in your quiet time and apply Biblical truth to your everyday life.
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How to Worry Less and Enjoy Life More
I’ve always been a planner and a worrier. However, I’ve been learning how to worry less and enjoy life more. Perhaps you can relate. Maybe you want to stop stressing out and savor your life, but you don’t know how to stop your mind from spiraling into worries. Today, I’ll share an insight that has helped me shift from worry to peace, and I’ll also share a list of practical ways to worry less and enjoy life more. How to Worry Less and Enjoy Life More My journey into this way of thinking began as I stood under a pale crescent moon and took a hard look at my life.…
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Time With God: Devotional Time Tips for Life’s Busy Seasons
The morning opens wide and foretells the season’s change. I wonder how we keep turning from one season to the next with ever-increasing urgency. Life has been busy and full lately. I’m desperate for some quiet devotional time with God, but I hardly know how to make it happen. I’m watching a V-shaped line of geese flap overhead when I hear my little boy pitter down the steps. He comes into the room and rubs his eyes. His short brown hair stands on end in a playful salute. I’m sure God smiles at sleepy children. “Get me cuppy, Mom,” he demands, and I extend grace about the manners since he’s…
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5 Prayers for Spiritual Healing and Replenishment
Not long ago, I realized I was facing spiritual burnout. As I pursued restoration, I began regularly praying several prayers for spiritual healing and replenishment. I invite you to join me on the morning when I recognized the source of my exhaustion, and I’ll share my prayers for healing. 5 Prayers for Spiritual Healing and Replenishment The rose-colored glow rising from behind the spruce trees reminds me of alpenglow against the Rockies at dawn. Somehow, God’s light shining into our dark places is magical no matter where in the world we find ourselves. As I sit in the morning light, I long to draw near to God. As usual, the…
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5 Inspiring Quotes to Help You Live Your Best Life
I sit on the deck as the ironweed bows its royal head in the late-summer breeze. I could list my favorite memories from the summer, but it seems fitting to close this season by reflecting on the words others have spoken into my life. These five inspiring quotes to help you live your best life have challenged me to rethink the rhythms of my days, the ways I seek God, and my priorities. These words remind me to keep watching and listening for God’s hand in every corner of my life. I pray these words will challenge you to slow down and let God speak into your quiet places, busy…
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Passion for God: 8 Ways to Fan the Flame
A thin band of sunlight slips through the window and illuminates a dried bouquet of thistle across the room. Lately, my passion for God seems to be wilting like the dried bouquet. I remember the day we gathered the thistle. It was warm for November, and the threat of the impending months of darkness and snow weighed on me. We went to the fields and gathered thistle, horsetails, and milkweed. We hoped that bringing life inside might somehow lengthen the months when the weather would stop us from wandering through fields of wildflowers. Months later, I gaze at the bouquet as worship music plays. I silently ask God to give…
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Hope for Your Hidden Pain and Unspoken Struggles
Our kids looked adorable together, and someone said something about taking a photo. It was after the comment about how they’ll look nice together at prom someday that his eyes filled with embarrassed tears. He buried his face in his mom’s hip and wiped them away on the hem of her shirt. The moment got me thinking about our hidden pain in life. I understood the little guy’s struggle. I hid my tears throughout most of my childhood too. No one ever made fun of me for crying. I simply thought I needed to appear strong. All the time. The Truth About Hidden Pain We all have struggles and weaknesses.…
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5 Tools for the Days When Your Quiet Time With Jesus Is Boring
We’re sitting on my couch when my friend asks a question that no one has ever asked me: “Is your daily quiet time with Jesus bringing you into life-giving encounters with him?” I stare blankly at my friend while the wrens chatter outside the window. Then, I tell her the gut-honest truth: Most days, I’m just checking “quiet time with Jesus” off a list of things to accomplish for the day. It’s one more task on a never-ending list. I wonder if you can relate. Perhaps you want to connect with God in the quiet moments of your days, but you’re distracted, restless, and quite possibly even bored. If you’re like…
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Be the Real You: 5 Reasons to Be Authentic
Do you ever feel like you won’t fit in if you decide to be the real you? Last summer, I drove eight hours to attend a conference with a large group of talented female writers. I walked into the hotel where I would be staying on a scorching July evening, and every woman in the foyer looked poised, gorgeous, and entirely put-together. I looked like I’d just run five miles and then hopped in the car and driven for eight straight hours. Suddenly, I noticed the distance between the woman I sensed I ought to be and the woman I actually am. (Click here to read about this moment.) Most…
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How to Embrace New Thoughts about Old Things – with Kelly Balarie
“What a wee little part of a person’s life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself. All day long, the mill of his brain is grinding, and his thoughts, not those other things, are his history.” Mark Twain As Caleb bangs plastic toys into one another like there’s a war happening in his bedroom naptime, I watch sun gleam through smudged window panes and read these familiar words: “And he answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all…
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Am I Going to Heaven? (How to Have Confidence)
My friend looks at me through watery eyes and asks, “Am I going to heaven? I’m so scared that I won’t make it in.” She just lost a loved one. In her grief, she’s been thinking about eternal life. “I’ve always tried to be a good person,” she adds. “Do you think I’ve been good enough?” I wish I could tell her that being a good person is enough to get into heaven. I wish I could tell her that a vague belief that all pathways lead to God is enough, but I can’t lie. In response, I open up and tell her my story. Am I Going to Heaven?…
