The role models we need are people whose lives we can enter, whose houses we can sit in. We need their wholeness—their mornings, their afternoons, their evenings.

Can you imagine what your day would be like if you actually started every conversation with “What would you have me to do for you?” and then proceeded to serve each person you met in whatever way they had a need?

God’s message is not to spiritual seekers, wrestling with their faith. His message is not to Christ-followers, weary or struggling with sin, but still struggling. His message is for those of us who trifle with God, attempt to manipulate Him with our games, who think we have Him figured out and caged up, those of us who have grown quite comfortable dismissing Him.

Jesus did not come to bring peace; He came to bring the truth of God, and through that comes peace.

Throughout the bible, God shows us how we can fight our battles in grace.

When God calls on us to believe in Him, He is asking us to do more than just mentally assent to certain doctrines and decrees. He is commanding us to be so convinced of who He is that we allow the truths of His words to transform our life and mind.

Look up, and remember that there is much more than this. Refresh your perspective. Our Creator is big, and our existence is greater than we know.

God doesn’t stop loving us when we stray from consistent, meaningful fellowship with Him, or when we don’t live up to our calling, as Paul wrote about in Ephesians 4. Instead, God waits patiently.

The simple little things that are so subtle but so beautifully wonderful are drowned out by the complex comings and goings of our modern lives. That’s why God gives us rainy mornings, times when we can sit and be amazed by the little things that happen all around us.

It is important that we see prayer as a two-way conversation, both speaking and listening to God, and to get to know His voice and be open and honest as with a friend.