Ezekiel 10:18; 11:23
There’s a particular kind of silence that happens when someone you love pulls away from you a little at a time. No slammed door, no final argument. Just a slow, quiet distance that you almost don’t notice until one day you realize they’re gone.
Continue reading “The Spirit of God Leaves the Temple”
Ezekiel 8:4
Most of us figure that if God’s calling us to something, life ought to start getting easier, not harder. So when it falls apart instead, we start wondering if we heard him wrong.
Continue reading “Taken into Captivity”
Ezekiel 3:10–11
Most of us have had a moment when we knew exactly what God wanted us to do, and we still hesitated. Not because we didn’t believe him. Because we didn’t feel ready.
Continue reading “Eat the Scroll”
Lamentations 3:24–25
Most of us know the strange quiet of a waiting room. The muffled television, the magazines nobody reads, the clock that seems to move slower than it should. Somebody else has the news. All we can do is sit there and wait for it.
Continue reading “The Only Portion That Lasts”
Lamentations 2:14
Most of us know the difference between a friend who tells us what we want to hear and one who tells us the truth. One feels better in the moment. The other may hurt, but it’s the friend we need most.
Continue reading “What They Wanted to Hear”
Jeremiah 51:20-23
Most of us have been handed a job we didn’t feel ready for. Not enough training. Not enough confidence. Not enough of whatever the moment seemed to require. We look at what needs doing and wonder why anyone thought we were the right person for the job.
Continue reading “The Hammer God Chose”
Matthew 10:32–33
Drive through any neighborhood in July and you’ll see them. Flags on porches, flags on trucks, flags snapping off the back of golf carts. A flag isn’t a quiet thing. It’s not tucked in a drawer or folded in a closet somewhere, waiting to be discovered. A flag exists to be seen. That’s the whole point of it.
Continue reading “The Flag You’re Afraid to Fly”
Jeremiah 48:29
There’s a certain feeling that comes when you finish something hard. The project that fought you for weeks is finally done. The repair holds. The goal you set back in January is checked off. You step back, look at the work, and something in you says, that’s good. Most of us know that feeling, and there’s nothing wrong with it.
Continue reading “The Sin Hiding in a Job Well Done”
Jeremiah 42:5–6 (ESV)
It’s easy to make a promise in the moment. Someone asks for our word, and we give it freely, without counting the cost. We tell a friend we’ll be there. We tell our kids we’ll change. We tell God, in a hard season, that if He’ll just get us through this, we’ll do whatever He says. The promise costs nothing to speak. It’s the keeping that gets expensive.
Continue reading “We’ll Do Whatever You Say”