I found quite a few good reads this week:

Our Father Values His Children, HT to the Story Warren. “The Father certainly feeds the birds and takes care of us. We can easily see how He takes care of us when we have all we need. But what about those times when the resources we typically depend on dry up, and from your viewpoint all looks impossible.”

You Need God When Life Is Good: Three Ways to Remember Your Need. “It doesn’t usually happen on purpose, but quietly, thoughtlessly. We slide into self-reliance not because we don’t need God, but because the comfort of the moment dulls our awareness of just how much we do.”

The Cool of the Day. “But this…this is worship too. God speaks in the heat of the kitchen as well as the cool of the day, if I have ears to hear.”

Does Your Prayer Life Point to the Beauty of Christ? “Prayer continues to be the most difficult of all the spiritual disciplines for me. Prayer is hard. Maybe you’ve had the same thought: ‘I don’t like to talk about this, but it’s really hard for me to pray. It’s awkward, and I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to do it.‘”

Let God’s Word Shape Your Prayers. “While we know that we’ve been given an indescribable gift in prayer, we often miss its full potential, offering only intangible and vague petitions such as ‘be with so-and-so as they go through this trial.’ We want to pray, but we lack the right words to shape our prayers. How do we pray beyond the surface need and get to the heart of the matter?”

Fallen Behind on Your Bible Reading Plan? HT to Redeeming Productivity. “This is the time of year when many readers give up on their Bible reading plans. Despite their best intentions, their plans fall by the wayside. But there’s no need to wait until next January to start over. Now is the time to ‘go’ for it and get back into the rhythm and routine of Bible reading. After all, the person who is truly blessed is the one who delights in and meditates on God’s instruction day and night (Psalm 1:2). Here are some strategies to help you get going if you have been struggling to read Scripture daily and thoughtfully.”

Cultivating Flavor. “When my children were trying solid foods for the first time, many helpful advice-givers encouraged me to try varied tastes, textures, and types of foods so that the kids would grow into healthy adults. It makes me want to cultivate this type of flavor in their education and entertainment choices. I don’t only want to put my time and effort into growing herbs in the garage to flavor their food. I also want to shape the moral palates of each of my children so that they will love virtue and live as lights in darkness.”

Master Your Moments and Master Your Days. “God is more interested in who we are becoming than in what we are accomplishing. Great deeds done from bad motives please God less than small deeds done from great character. And character’s primary focus is always on the matter at hand, the duty of the moment.”

Being the Best Christian, HT to Challies. “You would think that after almost 34 years of walking with the Lord, this ‘be the best’ mentality would hardly be a problem anymore, a thing of the past that I’ve outgrown. While the Lord has given me more wisdom and discernment to see it, it still entangles me from time to time.”

Facing the Midlife Spiritual Plateau, HT to Redeeming Productivity. “For those who’ve been following Jesus for years, it’s not uncommon to hit a spiritual plateau, often in midlife. You’re reading the Bible, going to church, part of a growth group, serving where you can—but it feels like you’re no longer growing. Not like you once did. Instead, it’s like you’re coasting.”

What’s Lost Isn’t Always Lost. HT to the Story Warren. “Our most memorable losses are sometimes the most inconsequential ones. Once when I was five, my brother and I were bored outside of church, because our parents were talking to the big people again. So we started playing catch with my Luke Skywalker action figure and after one fumbled throw, Luke dropped through the iron grate of a storm drain. I still have the memory of seeing my prized toy only four feet away, but absolutely inaccessible.”

Diapers of Glory, HT to Challies. “Now that I’m a stay-at-home mom, success looks different than it once did—and, like the disciples, I realize I’ve been asking the wrong questions.”

Diabolus Ex Machina, HT to Challies. This is an unsettling “conversation” with AI in which it repeatedly lies. (Note: not from a Christian source).

Your relationship with God will never be any stronger, more vibrant, or more genuine than your relationship with the Word of God. Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth