Discipleship – indycrowe

How to be Led by God

In Psalm 25, David repeatedly asks God to teach and lead him. He uses very similar language in Psalm 27 when he speaks of someone having no parents to guide them in life with wisdom and love (Ps. 27:10), and yet God steps into that role as our loving, heavenly Father and He teaches and leads us on the right path (27:11).

Notice the repetition of David’s requests or comments on God leading him in Psalm 25:

Endorsements for Your Wilderness Is Not A Waste

With the release of Your Wilderness Is Not a Waste: God’s Purpose in Suffering and Struggles, I wanted to share two of the endorsements. My hope is the book is an encouragement to those in a trial, in a season of waiting, disappointed by life’s circumstances, or confused by where God is leading them.

New Book Releases Today

I’m excited to announce my new book releases today with Moody Publishers. Your Wilderness Is Not a Waste: God’s Purpose in Suffering and Struggles can be ordered wherever you buy books, including Amazon, Moody Publishers, Barnes & Noble, Christianbook.com, 10ofthose, and WTSbooks,

The book walks through some of the physical and spiritual wildernesses in the Bible and offers us windows of hope to see how God works in our trials, troubles, and temptations. I’m praying it’s an encouragement for readers!

Don’t Lose Hope in Hardship

One of the many lessons I’ve learned from David’s time in the wilderness is not to let present hardship rob me of future hope.

Hold on to Hope: Eight Elements of Biblical Hope

“Hope is like the sun. If you only believe in it when you see it, you’ll never make it through the night.” Leia Organa in Star Wars: Episode VIII

“Remember, Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” Andy Dufresney in The Shawshank Redemption

What is Hope?

In the Bible, “hope” is not a wish, dream, or something that has a chance of happening. Hope doesn’t spring from optimism about circumstances but confidence in God. It’s something we can expect and anticipate, even have assurance of, though it might require much waiting and trust. Biblical hope is anchored in the character, promises, and work of God, which is why the Bible calls God our hope (Ps. 71:5; 1 Tim. 1:1) or the gospel a gospel of hope (Col. 1:23; Rom. 15:13).

“For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth.” (Ps. 71:5)

Live in the Land of “And Yet”: Why Faith Must Speak into Our Feelings

“Faith is a footbridge that you don’t know will hold you up over the chasm until you’re forced to walk out not it.” Nicolas Wolterstorff

What do you do when things don’t go the way you wanted, and now you’re in a mental, emotional, and spiritual funk? How do you escape the frustration, discouragement, or disappointment that feel so powerful in both the small annoyances and larger trials of the day? How do you get out of your own head or not be ruled by your feelings so you can instead seek, trust, and walk with God in the troubles of the day?

Earlier today, I felt frustrated and disappointed, and then I felt frustrated and discouraged because I couldn’t shake those feelings. (I’ll share more of the details later or below in this post.) What God nudged me toward was I needed to choose trusting and resting in Him rather than remain restless and frustrated over my circumstances. There were two parts in this movement toward experiencing God’s peace. I needed to shift my attention away from undesirable circumstances and onto the glorious God, and I needed to choose to trust in the objective truths of who God is rather than be ruled by the subjective feelings in my circumstances.

Much of the Christian life is learning to live in the tension of not feeling like trusting or praising God but still choosing to trust and praise God. You might feel frustrated, disappointed, and discontent, and yet part of how we respond to these normal experiences is by choosing to still trust that God is good, present, and at work for my good even in this situation.

Why Does It Matter that God is WITH His People (And What Happened When He Wasn’t)?

In the Bible, there’s a secret advantage that can turn any “mission: impossible” into guaranteed success. God calls His people to do difficult things they could never accomplish in their own strength or wisdom. How could a stuttering Moses who spent his middle age tending sheep in the desert tell Pharoah to free all the Hebrew slaves? How could Israel then make it all the way from Egypt to Canaan, both escaping Pharoah’s chariot in pursuit and enduring the desert littered with danger? How could Joshua lead God’s people into the promised land despite their overwhelming fear of its inhabitants? Or what supplied David with victory after victory despite overwhelming odds against him?

Fresh Air in the Atmosphere of Trinitarian Grace

“To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion…according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.” (I Peter 1:2)

Throughout his first letter, Peter reminds his readers their suffering, rejection, and experience as exiles is normal. The kingdom of light is no more welcome to a kingdom of darkness than the bedroom light being flipped on while I’m sleeping is welcomed. And yet, as exiles they are God’s people, and are called to reflect Him. Though kicked to the curb by the world we are called into a new family and given a sense of belonging by our Triune God. Even as we struggle in a world that’s against us we are empowered by a God who is for us. Only this God-given grace, not the weight of duty or demands, can motivate maturity and obedience when we’re constantly swimming upstream.

7 Facets of Christ from Dane Ortlund’s book, Deeper

Some of our staff is slowly reading through Dane Ortlund’s Deeper: Real Change for Real Sinners together. Like his book, Gentle and Lowly, it’s beautifully written and is simultaneously rich in theology, warm and pastoral in its tone, and immensely practical. I appreciate how he communicates deep truths in uncomplicated ways.

The thrust of the book is that to change or to grow, we grow in Jesus, meaning knowing more of who he is and then what means for us who are united to him. “Our growth is not independent personal improvement. It is growth in Christ.”

The Power of Habits

“Our habits incline us to act in certain ways without having to kick into a mode of reflection; for the most part we are driven by an engine that purrs under the hood with little attention from us.” James K.A. Smith

“Without planning, we’ll practice our Bible memory just once or twice and then no more. We’ll do lots of good things, but only a couple of times. One of the great strengths of good traditions in our lives is the repetition—not something done once, then something else, then another thing altogether—but good things done regularly, dependably, until they become habits.” Noel Piper

We’ve all had something in our life that we wanted to change, or knew we needed to change, but we never pulled the trigger. Or, we gave it a shot but gave up after a couple of days. That might be eating healthy or going on a new diet, an exercise routine, wanting to stop a behavior or pattern of behaviors, curbing spending and sticking to the budget, practicing a spiritual discipline such as Bible reading or prayer, or even just wanting to respond different than we have recently, like not responding in frustration or anger to those around us.