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How We Can Help Syrian Refugees this Christmas

3 Things We Can Do Right Now to Make a Difference

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Many of you FaithWalkers know I have been critical of how our nation has handled the Syrian refugee crisis. But that does not mean I do not care about the families who are running for their lives from the evil that is ISIS.

It has been challenging to know what to do to help them where they are. But I am proposing some simple steps we can take as we head into Christmas.

We can make a difference right now for these refugees in the name of Jesus by doing 3 things.

Click here to read my post at Patheos and discover what we can do.

I took some down time with family and friends last week and so my posts have slowed briefly. Look for more in the coming weeks and helpful resources in the coming year.

I am excited about the journey ahead and especially about the new FaithWalkers podcast coming in January.

Thanks to all who have responded to my emails to give input on topics and questions to address.

See you out on the trail….

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How Fasting Helps You Discover God’s Will

One Discipline You Can Use to Focus Your Faith

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What’s the one thing you can do that is guaranteed to focus your faith and help you discover God’s will for your life? Here’s a hint: it may be the spiritual discipline most often ignored in Western Christianity. Figured it out yet? It’s fasting. And it can help you more than you can imagine.

Thanksgiving is hardly gone, and here I am talking about going without. Maybe some of us need to take a few days off from eating at this point to preserve our waistlines. But the kind of fasting I’m talking about is not for dietary reasons; it’s for the many other benefits it can bring to help you discover God’s best for your life.

Fasting may be the most underutilized spiritual discipline the Christian has in his or her backpack for the journey to live an authentic life with abundant faith.

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The Seventh Secret You Need to Know about God’s Will

We Won’t Hear God’s Voice if We’re Not in the Habit of Listening

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Have you ever faced a key life decision and wondered why God wasn’t giving you clear direction? I mean, how hard would it be for Him to rent a billboard or at least shoot you an e-mail to say, “Click here to know what to do next.”

Doesn’t God own the data on a thousand servers as much as He owns the cattle on a thousand hills? I confess that I have never needed any cattle, but I sure could have used an email with divine direction at key times in life.

When we don’t hear clear direction from God, why is it we always assume it is God’s fault?

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The Sixth Secret You Need to Know about God’s Will

How Serious Are You about Talking with God?

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I came across an intriguing but sad comment by a reader recently. He said that he once asked God for direction, but God didn’t answer. So he had to make his own way, and it hadn’t turned out well. I couldn’t help but wonder if God had not answered or if this reader simply had not listened or not liked what he heard.

In fact, he had made some pretty serious, even criminal mistakes, all of which he blamed on God for not responding to his request for direction.

I know in my own faith walk, when I choose poorly, it is often the result of trusting in my own wisdom instead of waiting for and insisting on an answer from God.

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The Fifth Secret You Need to Know About God’s Will

If We Trust God with Eternity, Why Do We Worry about Today?

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Ask just about any Christian if he or she trusts God to take them to heaven to live with Him forever, and you’ll get an immediate and resounding yes. So why do those same Christians – myself included – struggle to trust Him with all the stuff in between here and now and there and then?

Paying bills, making life decisions, navigating relationships, avoiding temptation – you name it, we worry about it. We fret about stuff we have no control over. We lose sleep trying to make sure we’ve thought of every contingency. We exhaust ourselves working to get just one more thing done or to make a few dollars more.

And then we say we trust God with the fate of our souls. Hmmm…..

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The Fourth Secret You Need to Know about God’s Will

Are You Using What God Has Given You?

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Panic! It’s what we do when we don’t know what to do. It’s understandable. It’s common. But it doesn’t have to happen when we don’t know what God wants us to do next.

The fourth secret in this series of posts sharing 7 secrets we need to know about God’s will is one I learned — and continue to learn — from coming face to face with uncertainty every day. My first instinctive reaction almost every time, no matter how many times God has provided and led me in the past, is to panic and try to figure it all out on my own.

Maybe I’m the only one to fall into this trap of self-reliance. But I doubt it. When we’re face to face with adversity, our worry clouds our view. Panic sets in. And we tend to miss what is right in front of us — God.

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The Third Secret You Need to Know about God’s Will

Why Being "Not Sure" May Be a Very Good Thing

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I don’t like not knowing what God wants next.  I am wired to perform at my best when I have a plan in place, a structured schedule, and plenty of margin to account for unexpected events. But my quest for certainty often presents a barrier to my relationship with God, because living by faith requires uncertainty.

If you are at all like me, you spend a lot of time and energy trying to get to a place that feels secure. I want to know where the money is coming from, what life direction I should take (or not take), and what I am forgetting to do—before it’s too late.

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The Second Secret You Need to Know about God’s Will

Do You Know Where to Start?

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When you’re trying to figure out God’s will for your life, where do you start? I shared seven questions each of us should ask to figure out What God Wants Us to Do Next here. This post is the second in a series of seven in which I share some secrets I’ve learned the hard way about discerning God’s will for your life.

In the previous post, I shared Secret #1 — If you don’t expect to hear God’s voice, you won’t attempt to listen. 

If you don’t expect to hear God’s voice, you won’t attempt to listen. #7Secrets

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Secret #2 comes from an understanding of how God led Moses and the Israelites when confronted by the challenge of the Red Sea and the Egyptian army. And from what we learned from selling our house and stepping to the unknown with six kids in tow.

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When Your Story Takes a Detour

Why I've Paused the Series about God's Will

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Commitment. It’s a big thing for me. The way God has wired me, once I make a commitment, I keep it — or die trying. My dedication can be a very good thing. But it can also make it very easy to become over-committed and very difficult to do anything — no matter how good — that might make me look like I’m not committed.

“The greatest ability is dependability.” I don’t know who said it, but I embraced that character value from an early age. So it makes it especially challenging to let you know I need to push pause on blog posts for the rest of the summer.

I’ll be back to finish my series 7 Secrets You Need to Know about God’s Will. In fact, I have a lot more plans  to develop resources to help you live a story worth telling and figure out God’s best for your life.