We listen for the voice of God, and we know He speaks in ways different from the constant noisy assault of pushy salesmen, mindless chatter and marketing schmuck. His voice is different.

It’s time we stop seeking the hand of God and start seeking His face. The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him.

Joy demands a bit of effort. It asks that I be satisfied with God‘s sovereign working in my life. It doesn’t offer the same short term emotional pay off that happiness does, but ultimately a change is near the foundational level.

Today, God seeks those within whom He can plant the seeds of His calling, and then He waits to see how each person will respond.

In response to His holiness, we as His chosen ones could live lives that resemble this righteous character. Likewise, because of the fact that He also is the savior of sinners, we respond to God’s revelation in humble living, constantly confessing our sins and living in a state of repentance toward the living Yahweh.

Instead of noticing God’s provision for us, we focus on the problem and our need to escape. God has not forgotten us, and He’ll even grow strawberries in life’s rockiest patches to prove it.

We need to reconnect with the romancing God whose story ignites our imagination.

We cherish the absence of pain and do much to guard it. However, God seeks to birth in us something far more valuable than the absence of pain: the fruit of pain’s deep soul-plowing.

In the desert, we face our weakness, but there we find his strength. We must learn to look to God as he calls out our name.

God often allows difficulties into our lives right before moving or ushering us into a new level in our relationship with Him.