"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” - 2 Corinthians 12:9Scripture does not portray weakness as a spiritual deficiency to be overcome before God can use you. It portrays weakness as the very condition in which God's strength operates...

"The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.” - Proverbs 22:3We live in a culture that rewards reaction. We've become skilled at crisis response and far less practiced at quiet, unhurried attention to what God may already be trying to show us in the calmer moments before crisis comes. But the wisdom literature of Scripture tells a different story. The prudent...

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” - Psalm 23:4David didn't write Psalm 23 as a theoretical comfort for hypothetical suffering. He wrote it as someone who had actually been in the valley — the kind of valley where the shadow is real and the darkness is not metaphorical. And what he foun...

"This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” - Psalm 118:24This day — the one you're actually living — is a gift from God, and it is worthy of gladness.There is a spiritual discipline embedded in gratitude that doesn't get nearly enough attention: the practice of receiving. Most of us are far better at enduring hardship than we are at receiving goodness. When life is...

"Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!” - Ecclesiastes 4:9–10Think of the wilderness journeys in Scripture — they were almost never walked alone. Moses had Aaron and Hur, who literally held his arms up when he grew too weary to keep them ra...