When it comes to fears, anxieties,and  insecurities (like double-thinking everything), we have two options. We can either feed these said fears and insecurities or we can starve them.

How do we feed them? By giving them our attention and thought. By dwelling on them and arguing with them in our head. By worrying over our worrisome thoughts.

How do we starve them? By ignoring them and refusing to give way to them. By not letting them get a foothold in our hearts and minds.

The gentle, quiet-spirited woman of 1 Peter 3 is “not afraid with any terror” (NKJV). She does not give way to fear, which means when fear comes knocking at the door, she shuts it out and does not invite it in.

Now this requires diligence and patience. If you are commonly giving way to these things, it is going to take real Read More

When I was in college, I became aware of just how unhappy I was. I saw no real reason to be unhappy: I was healthy, I had friends, I had parents who loved me, I had food enough and clothing and shelter. But I found that none of these things satisfied me. Life seemed futile and meaningless, and so it was.

I began asking others if they were happy, deep-down happy, but I always got the same negative response. Pretty much universal unhappiness out there in the world.

Now I can look back on that time knowing that happiness for creatures is impossible apart from a restored relationship with the Creator. Those apart from Christ will always try to find happiness in all the worst places. It is only found in Christ, and what a relief unspeakable it was for me to find that in Him!

But even Christians can sometimes find themselves unhappy, which is antithetical to our calling in Christ. Christians can sin and get bogged down and distracted. But we know the way back and the door is always Read More

Most mornings Doug and I read (well, he reads to me while I drink my coffee and try to wake up) selections from a couple of books of daily readings. Every day is full of good stuff, though I may not be fully awake enough to appreciate it all. But I must have been wide awake this morning, because it was so good that I wanted to post it up for you. It’s from C.S. Lewis (A Year with C. S. Lewis, Daily Readings from His Classic Works) called “Love Your Neighbour as Yourself.” It’s really supposed to be read on July 25, but we press on. It’s a quotation from Mere Christianity. (Don’t be confused by the British spellings and punctuation. It’s the way they do it over there.) Here it is:

Well, how exactly do I love myself?

Now that I come to think of it, I have not exactly got a feeling of fondness or affection for myself, and I do not even always enjoy my own society. So apparently  ‘ Love your neighbour’ does not mean ‘feel fond of him’ or ‘find him attractive’. I ought to have seen that before, because, of course, you cannot feel fond of a person by trying. Do I think well of myself, think myself a nice chap? Well, I am afraid I sometimes do (and those are, no doubt, my worst moments) but that is not why I love myself. In fact it is the other way round: my self-love makes me think myself nice, but thinking myself nice is not why I love myself. So loving my enemies does not apparently mean thinking them nice either. That is an enormous relief. For a good many people imagine that forgiving your enemies means making out that they are really not such bad fellows after all, when it is quite plain that they are. Go a step further. In my most clear-sighted moments not only do I not think myself a nice man, but I know that I am a very nasty one. I can look at some of the things I have done with horror and loathing. So apparently I am allowed to loathe and hate some of the things my enemies do.”

Back when I was learning how to lead a Bible study (before I was married), I remember a little booklet my father-in-law wrote called “Too Many Opinions.” It’s been a while since I read it, but you can read it on his blog (as I linked above). It discusses how easy it is to get off the point in a Bible study, and rather than looking at the clear meaning of the text before us, we can lurch into “Well, I think it is saying….” or “I think it means….” etc. The point was to not ask, “What do you think this means?” but rather to ask a question that could be answered by looking at the text. Read More

Things happen. Unexpected things happen. Hard things happen. Life is funny that way. So, how do we react when tough things happen? We should view it the way the Bible tells us to view it. This is a test. God sends His children pop quizzes and tests from time to time to see if we are learning our lessons, if we are paying attention, if we are reading our assignments.

If we view unexpected events as tests from a loving Father, we know how to proceed because we all know how to take tests. We have done our homework. We can roll up our sleeves and try to ace the test.  Unless we’ve been dozing in class, not doing our homework, and spacing out during the lectures. In that case, we need to repent, and then we need to get back on task.

Life is full of trials and tests. We are told to count them all joy. If we’ve been learning our lessons, and the pop quiz comes unexpectedly (like all pop quizzes do), we are prepared. And it’s a whole lot easier to count it all joy when we meet various trials (and tests) when we are prepared.