Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:13).

Your rest is coming. Sooner than you know you will receive your “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading inheritance” (1 Peter 1:4). And when it comes you will understand why your faith was more precious than gold (1 Peter 1:7). This is where Peter wants your hope to fully rest.

But today is a time for war, not peace. It’s a time for faith, not sight. It’s a time of grievous trials that test the genuineness of your faith (1 Peter 1:6–7). So it’s a time to prepare for the action of battle, to keep sober.

Your ba…

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If you mainly breathe the world’s air—the atmosphere controlled by the “prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2)—it’s like breathing pot smoke. It alters your mind and mood. It produces everything from a false sense of well being to paranoia, or even hallucinations. It’s seductive, addicting, and distorting.

You know you’re breathing too much of it when God and his priorities feel trivial or uninteresting or unreal to you.

So here’s a drug test. First, read the following paragraph:

Everything in redemptive history has been God acting for his glory, therefore everything in your life is to join him in that purpose. The reason you’re on the planet is to join God in making mu

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“Spatial disorientation” is what a pilot experiences when he’s flying in weather conditions that prevent him from being able to see the horizon or the ground. Points of reference that guide his senses disappear. His perceptions become unreliable. He can no longer be sure which way is up or down. It can be deadly — it killed John Kennedy, Jr.¹

The only way a pilot can overcome spatial disorientation is to trust his cockpit instruments more than his intuitive senses to tell him what is real. That’s why flight instructors force student pilots to learn to fly planes by the instruments alone.

There is a spiritual parallel. I’ve experienced it. On a spring day in May 1997, I flew into a spirit…

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“…let us also lay aside every weight…and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).

Do you want to be productive? Don’t get organized. Get enthralled. Get smitten. Get on fire. Really want to do something. Want to do it bad enough that you are willing to say no to good things that will inhibit your doing what you really want to do.

Then work on organizing. Productivity systems will only help you when you know what you want to be productive about. Otherwise you’ll always have more books to read, projects to complete, emails to answer, people to meet than you can possibly organize. You’ll just shuffle stuff.

If you’re passionate, you will prioritize …

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“The Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Luke 12:40). Jesus said this of second coming. But it’s also a familiar pattern of Jesus’ dealings with us in almost all areas. His reasons for this are mysterious and glorious, as the woman at the well in John 4 experienced.

Let’s imagine this Samaritan woman many years later as Photine¹, living in Rome and listening to a young friend, Clodia, expressing her discouragement in waiting on Jesus.

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Photine sensed Clodia’s invisible burden. “What’s on your mind, dear?”

“Nothing.”

“You know I don’t accept that response. Would you hand me the basket of pears?”

Clodia passed the basket. “I know. But nothing is what’s on my mind .…

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Cursed are the anxieties that choke the word and blind us to glory and true joy. Even the anxieties over things legitimate in themselves (Luke 10:40-42).

They frequently surround us and constantly demand our attention. The meal needs to be made, the car needs cleaning, the garage is out of control. Let’s not talk about the laundry room. Are you ever going to read that parenting book? You’re not saving enough for retirement! When are you going to complete that course? Have you updated your will yet? Has the child finished his chores? Oh for goodness’ sake, look at the bathroom!

Legitimate things all of them, and a thousand others like them. None of them is wrong to do in themselves. …

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Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation (Hebrews 11:1–2).

Hebrews 11 is in the Bible to remind us that God hides his most precious treasures for his saints in their most difficult and painful experiences.

When we read this chapter we are supposed to stop and reflect more deeply on this strange motif because it’s just a brief summary (“And what more shall I say, for time will fail me to tell of…” (Hebrews 11:32).

Think of how Abraham and Sarah agonized with infertility, then waited 25 years for God to fulfill his promise of Isaac. Think of how Isaac and Rebekah agonized over the treachero…

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There is nothing more wonderful than seeing and nothing more horrible than blindness.

But I’m not talking about physical blindness. Some whose physical eyes can’t see can see far, far better than others whose head-eyes see just fine (John 9:39). It’s blindness to glory—spiritual blindness—that is so horrible, so impoverishing to the soul.

That’s because “the deepest longing of the human heart is to know and enjoy the glory of God. We were made for this.”¹ To the degree that we do not see the glory of God, we live in the shadow-lands, wondering why our lives and affections seem so thin, why nothing satisfies.

Perhaps the greatest blinder of our spiritual eyes is our self-obsess…

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There is more mercy than we realize when God chooses not to tell us everything. When the disciples were with Jesus on the Mount of Olives just before his ascension to the Father, one of them asked a question that must have been on everyone’s mind: “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).

It had been a long wait. 2,000 years had passed since Abraham had been promised a seed that would bless all the families of the earth. It had been 1,500 years since Moses foretold that a great prophet would arise to lead the people and 1,000 years had gone by since David had been promised an eternal heir to his throne.

Now, after Jesus's glorious, triumphal resurr…

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As a Christian, when you experience a painful providence like an illness or a rebellious child or a broken marriage or a financial hardship or persecution, do you ever wonder if God is punishing you for some sin you committed?

If you do, there is some very good news from the letter to the Hebrews.

The original readers of this letter had been experiencing persecution and affliction for some time. They were tired, discouraged, and confused — why was God allowing such hardships? And some were doubting.

So after some doctrinal clarifications and some firm exhortations and a few sober warnings (so they could examine if their faith was real) the author of the letter brought home a v…

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