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.
-
On Hearing God’s Voice: One Thing God Will Never Say to You
There are hundreds of black flies rising from still water when I hear it. It’s a quiet whisper coming from someplace I can’t quite identify: “You’re not good enough for this.” For a split second, I wonder if I’m hearing God’s voice. I’ve heard this voice dozens of times: When I had that big dream that felt way beyond my reach. When I walked into the middle school cafeteria and couldn’t find a single friend. The day I was asked to stand on a podium and share my heart with an audience. When the superintendent told me I had one week to budget, purchase, curriculum-map, and design an entire classroom…
-
What Does God Want Me to Do With My Life?
Have you been asking, “What does God want me to do with my life?” God wants to reveal his will to you. Let’s talk about how to find God’s will for our lives. What Does God Want Me to Do With My Life? The cherry blossoms will soon be salmon with life and hope. I’ve often wondered why God chose to awaken these trees with springtime signs of life before their taller cousins. Maybe he knew we’d all need something remarkably beautiful by the end of the long winter months. Maybe he wanted to give us the best first, a sign of blessings yet to come. After long winter months,…
-
7 Ways to Connect With God and Refresh Your Spirit
Do you want a deeper or stronger relationship with God? You are in the right place. Today, we’ll explore 7 ways to connect with God in fresh ways. I invite you to join me as I gaze at the autumn tree line, and we’ll talk about how to draw near to God in refreshing ways. 7 Ways to Connect With God and Refresh Your Spirit The maples are splashed vermilion, and mist rises ashen from the valley. I take it all in from my morning watch by the window, trying to drink in all this color before the world turns grey. I’ve been contemplating how to have deeper fulfillment in…
-
How to Find Rest in God: A Review of Kelly Balarie’s New Book
It comes to me as I bend over the sink, tomato juice spattered on the windowpane, a heavy crate of big pinks ripening beside me on the countertop. It’s a subtle impression upon the innermost part of me, and it goes something like this: Don’t hurry through these tasks. These tasks are gifts, and divinity is threaded throughout them. Slow down, inhale slowly, and find rest in God while you do his work. Find Rest in God It’s the season of harvest here, which means there is much to do. There are vegetables to tend to, transitions to navigate, and articles to write. If I’m not careful, I can get…
-
Leaning on Jesus When You Feel Empty Inside
There are gaping holes between the boughs of the blue spruce. I’m surprised to notice thick clumps of pinecones at the end of each branch. The spruce is bearing fruit, even in the gaps. I’m reminded of what I’ve been learning about leaning on Jesus when I feel empty inside. When You Feel Empty We all face empty seasons. We wonder how we will possibly manage to bear good fruit in our lives. Meanwhile, Jesus offers an invitation: “Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself but must remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me” (John 15:4…
-
How to Draw Near to God: 3 Simple Tips
My family bought me Gerber daisies for Mother’s Day last year. The coral blossoms stood like beacons of hope on a dining room table cluttered with puzzles, markers, and an array of toys that seemed to have no rhyme or reason. This morning, I sat at that table with hard questions about how to draw near to God in the middle of my messy life. The disorganized table was the perfect metaphor for life that spring: piles of chaos with hope for new beginnings rising out of the mess. Sometimes this is what we all need most: a reminder that from the chaos, God will bring something new and vibrant…
-
God Pursues Us With Gifts: 8 Bible Verses About God Pursuing Us
The gray squirrel returned to the deck today. As warm spring days push back against the long winter, life seems to be reemerging. As I watched from my chair by the window, I sensed God’s goodness, almost as if he were pursuing me. I opened my Bible in search of truth about God’s love and found the following Bible verses about God pursuing us. 8 Bible Verses About God Pursuing Us At times, it feels like mishaps and misfortune are chasing us down. Trouble chases us in many ways: health crises, financial fallouts, and broken relationships. Meanwhile, the Bible tells a different story. God pursues us, and he carries gifts…
-
How to Turn to God in Times of Crisis
Shadows flutter on the wall as the candle flickers golden in front of us. I’ve gathered our three children to pray because I want to teach them how to turn to God in a crisis. As our time in prayer begins, I open the Bible. I read the words that have been floating through my mind for the past few weeks now: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14). By the yellow glow of…
-
The Importance of Balance in Life: What Does It Mean
This morning, snowflakes waltzed on the trodden lawn like tufts of cotton grass bobbing on a summer morning. I remembered summer with all its life and possibility, and the season we’d settled into felt more like a sterile waiting room where everyone just stared at the walls and prayed for our names to be called. I’d been thinking about the importance of balance in life, and that balance felt lacking. Sometimes it’s all you can do not to put every last ounce of hope in the day when the season finally shifts. With all your heart you want to put your hope in something bigger than your circumstances – Someone…
-
Instead of Pleading With God, Try This Prayer Posture
Layers of ivory piled heavenward for weeks—the kind of snow that melts and freezes a half-dozen times, leaving crusty layers like some seven-layer dessert gone horribly wrong. I’d been pleading with God to lead me out of a tough stretch. I had no idea he was about to open my eyes with a very clear object lesson in the form of a pleading child. We kept the yellow snow shovel propped right next to the front door that year. Every morning, we scraped the icy cement and threw out the salt. I didn’t appreciate the morning call to shovel the entryway. However, the four-year-old at my side saw it as…
