Everyone experiences guilt at times, but how do we handle it? Religious people often turn to religious acts to appease their god or gods. Irreligious people often attempt to redefine moral standards, dismissing guilt as unnecessary. But are either of these approaches effective? In Psalm 51, we get to see how David dealt with his guilt in a way that brought about the transformed heart that God desires.

For better or for worse, we are all marked by our relationship with our fathers. That can be reflected in our relationship with God, because we often project our relationship with our natural father onto God. But the Bible paints a picture of God as the perfect Father we all long for.

There are times in the Christian life when we experience spiritual dryness — when we feel distant from God and find ourselves going through the motions of our faith. But we don’t have to stay in that season of dryness. In Psalm 24, David highlights three aspects of our lives that either help or hinder our hearts' connection to God.

One theologian wrote “What comes into your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you.” What comes into your mind when you think about God? How did you reach those conclusions? Often it’s our trials and disappointments which form our beliefs about Him. But what if our conclusions are wrong? What if God is better than we think? That’s what David discovered and that is why he invited us “to taste and see that the Lord is good.”

What is the purpose of Antioch? What are we hoping to accomplish? It can be summed up by two short words: devotion and mission. Our desire is to lead people into greater devotion to Jesus and enable them to join in what He is doing throughout the earth. Because people who have a deep connection to Jesus are people who change the world.

Our thought life is often where the battle for anxiety is won or lost. That’s why Paul talks about the mind 40 times in his writings, in which he gives clear instructions on what we should and should not be thinking about.

In our battle for peace, one of the most potent weapons is gratitude. Learning to be thankful is a gateway into God’s presence, it breaks the power of the victim mindset, and helps us grow in our ability to trust God.

Prayer is the main strategy God gives us for overcoming anxiety, so when anxious thoughts begin to dominate our thoughts that’s our cue to pray. David modeled for us in the Psalms how to deal with anxieties in prayer by instructing us to pray with gut-level honesty — what he called, “pouring our hearts out to the Lord”. It’s as we get real with God that we exchange our anxieties for His peace.

We’re experiencing unprecedented levels of anxiety in our culture. It can be even worse for Christians, who feel guilty about their anxiety when we’re supposed to be peaceful. Thankfully, God longs for us to experience genuine peace. And while there are steps we can take to deal with anxiety, peace is ultimately found in a person — Jesus.

Did Jesus really rise from the dead? And if He did, what relevance does a miracle that occurred 2,000 years ago have on our life today?