As the Israelites sung this psalm, they were looking forward in their faith, they were looking forward to the promise of the coming of the Messiah. For us, Jesus has already come, He lived, He died, and He rose again, and He will come back. So what are we to do in the meantime?

Critical thinking builds up and being critical tears down. Critical thinking creates a conversation...it begins with a question. It requires work and intentionality. Being critical requires zero work and zero intentionality. When it comes to our relationship with God, are we critical of Him or are we critical thinking how we can grow our dependence on Him?

For those of us who are followers of Jesus, it’s true of our relationship with God that until we’re honest to Him about our lives, we won’t fully experience Him in our lives. As long as we’re living in denial towards God, even just a little bit of denial, we will limit our connection with Him and our experience of Him.

Most of the emotional stuff we cover up and refuse to deal with revolves around loss. We all struggle with expectations that went unmet, goals we failed to achieve, or dreams that were broken. How we handle our loss matters. It impacts the quality of our lives. If we bury those negative emotions alive, they will come back to haunt us . . . and the people we love.

Establishing healthy habits will benefit the relationships you care most about. Others will reap from the emotional habits you sow.

Many of us learned from an early age to hide what we were feeling from other people. We even learned to hide our emotions from ourselves. But hiding isn’t a sign of courage or strength. If we want to grow, we have to stop saying, “It’s fine,” and start being honest—with ourselves and others—about what’s going on inside.

Is finding approval a good thing? Is it a wise decision? We'll see how this is very important for men, especially dads, this Sunday.

Pride is thinking highly of yourself that you din’t need help. Perhaps you’ve thought: I’ve always done it on my own before. And that’s worked out for me in the past, so I’m fine. Or even they don’t see in me what I see in myself. How does pride lead to strife, which hurts yourself and others?

In reality when you lie, when you bend the truth, what you’re really doing is setting a timer. Will it pay off? Will it prolong or preserve or protect something?

The early church living in Rome lived out God’s values and outlasted the Roman Empire, which was not founded on the same principles as America. So imagine the impact on living out God’s values in America, which was founded on values influenced by the Church?