I have a love/hate relationship with planning, it’s true. But I’ve learned quite a bit from what the scripture says about it.

Our difficulties create opportunity for the enemy to distract and discourage, even going so far as to suggest that God surely is not with us. These are times when we must lean in on the promises of God. And these are the times when if we falter, we can discover the richness and beauty of repentance and restoration.

So who is in charge in your home? Your job? Your club? Your town or country? You may have a title that says you are at the top of the ladder, but are you?

Wouldn’t it be great if we just knew how everything would turn out? But we don’t. And the disciples didn’t. But Jesus does.

Allowing idle thoughts can be good. But letting them lead us away from Jesus is dangerous. There are several ways to keep that from happening.

Questions abound . . . some of them good, some of them with motives that inspire even more questions. And some come from God himself.

Like you, I sometimes have trouble for a long time before deliverance appears. And sometimes it seems the wicked walk away from trouble and not into it. Did the wise writer of Proverbs get something wrong?

The only place I know to go in hard times is to Jesus. With all of my training and experience, I find myself running to Jesus again and again.

I have always been perplexed by the mixed responses from followers of Christ to the various instructions in scripture about submitting to rulers and authorities. It seems we tend to claim these verses when we like the elected official and ignore or explain away the instruction when we don’t.

Paul gives some valuable instruction about roles in the church we may not discuss enough. What should older men and women do to keep a church healthy?

As much as we like to think we can figure life out by ourselves and fix the broken pieces in us on our own, time and time again we fail. We are all in need of restoration.

Although both the Pharisees and the disciples wanted to see Jesus accomplish the same end, none of them understood the real reason for his coming.

We tend to think of this instruction of Jesus as applying most to those who serve far away where we can’t go. But every believer has the responsibility to be a disciple-maker in every area of their everyday life,

We remember Esther’s big “for-such-a-time-as-this” moment. But we need to think about all the less noted moments before that, moments that made this one possible.

Jesus was not the hero wanted and expected by those who first encountered him. But he accomplished his purpose in ways no one would have anticipated.

We all probably want the ones we love and, frankly, ourselves to be among the mature, because maturity brings the best chance at a healthy and purposeful life.

Timothy would soon be without his mentor Paul. He would also be facing new and more difficult challenges in his ministry, and his older and wiser mentor was trying to prepare him for the journey yet to come.

Just as Nehemiah’s detractors used fear to try to stop his work, fear may distract us from the work God has for us to do.

I don’t know exactly when I started repeating and praying these three verses. But for at least 15 years, they have been a part of my daily routine. They have reminded me why I don’t need to be afraid.

Experts say the problem is increasing, but Solomon’s ancient wisdom can help those trapped by burnout today.