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Articles by Desiring God

Articles by Desiring God

602 episodes — Page 4 of 13

Forget Your First Name: How to Live for Legacy

Greg Morse | We are a generation of first names, of forgotten pasts and rootless family trees. But in Christ, God empowers us to live for something bigger, greater, and far longer lasting.

Jul 27, 202412 min

Does God Delight in Me? His Pleasure in (Imperfect) Holiness

Scott Hubbard | How can the present holiness of Christians bring God pleasure? Because true holiness, however imperfect, beats sin with God’s own pleasure in himself.

Jul 25, 202412 min

‘Enter into My Happiness’: Jesus’s Invitation to Infinite Joy

David Mathis | Nine times in rapid succession, Jesus invites us into the very happiness of God. Surprising as that may be, his conditions for entrance may shock us even more.

Jul 23, 202411 min

Keep Watch Over Souls: A One-Verse Charge to Pastors

Greg Morse | Hebrews 13:17 offers a solemn and glorious charge to every pastor: keep watch over immortal souls as those who will give an account to Christ.

Jul 20, 202416 min

War Your Way to Heaven

Greg Morse | The Christian life is one of fierce holiness. Christ calls us to hoist crosses, hack off limbs, gouge out eyes, contend for souls, and wage war against spiritual powers.

Jul 16, 202414 min

What Makes God Happiest? Enjoying His Signature Joy

David Mathis | Lay God’s many pleasures side by side, and ask which one is his deepest delight. Across the scope of Scripture, one clear answer emerges.

Jul 13, 202416 min

Save a Soul from Death: How We Bring Wanderers Back

Greg Morse | Do you know someone who is wandering away from Jesus? God may have a word for you in the final verses of James, a letter to spiritual wanderers.

Jul 9, 202415 min

A Republic — If God Keeps It

David Mathis | At the founding, perhaps only as few as 10 percent of Americans were church members. So, what happened in the early 1800s, and what might we learn from it today?

Jul 4, 202412 min

A Father’s 5-to-9: The Holy Ambition of Godly Dads

Scott Hubbard | Children need to see a dad ambitious to spread God’s kingdom in the world. But with equal surety, children need to see a dad ambitious about being dad.

Jul 2, 202411 min

Speak to Men Like Men

Greg Morse | In our overly sensitive society, have we lost the ability to talk to men like men?

Jun 29, 202413 min

The Wild Glory of an ‘Ordinary’ Life

Jon Bloom | A typical human life is a lot like grass — brief, quiet, and apparently ordinary. But one day we will see that no human life could ever be considered ordinary.

Jun 28, 20249 min

The Skies We Die Under: Common Deathbed Deceptions

Greg Morse | Many hopes make death easier. Many give a sense of life well-lived. Many bring comfort. But only one hope will not prove flattering and false in the end.

Jun 25, 202413 min

The Blessings of Being Bound: Finding Freedom Through Commitment

Scott Hubbard | Many imagine the more options, the more happiness. But from the beginning, it was not so. God made us to find freedom in loyalty, blessing in being bound.

Jun 22, 202411 min

My Body Is Not My Own: How God Redeems What Sin Seized

David Mathis | Magnifying Christ in our bodies depends, in part, on understanding the story of our bodies — how God redeems what sin has seized and fits our flesh for glory.

Jun 18, 202414 min

The Strong Legacy of a Weak Father

Jon Bloom | Don’t underestimate the impact a debilitated father can have on his children. Sometimes, the strength our kids need to see most comes through profound weakness.

Jun 16, 202416 min

The Undistracted Soldier: Six Marks of Christian Manhood

Greg Morse | How might men of God live like the disentangled soldiers God calls us to be? We might learn from the example of a soldier slain for refusing to play civilian.

Jun 15, 202415 min

Love (All) Your Neighbors: A Surprising Test of True Faith

Scott Hubbard | If you want to assess the health of your faith, don’t simply consider your acts of religious worship. Consider the depth of your love for neighbors.

Jun 11, 202413 min

Throw Yourself Away in Hope: The Sacred Death of Fatherhood

Greg Morse | Fathers give life through death. They lay themselves down to die, like seeds planted in the earth, trusting that God will grant a future harvest.

Jun 8, 202410 min

Lord of All the Law: How Jesus Handled the Ten Commandments

David Mathis | Are the Ten Commandments binding on Christians today? Pay careful attention to the words of Jesus, how he handles the Ten, and the greater authority he brings.

Jun 7, 202425 min

God Beckons Through Beauty: Where Our Deepest Longings Lead

Jon Bloom | The longings we feel at the sight or sound of beauty point to something beyond the beauty itself. They point to the place and the person from which all the beauty comes.

Jun 1, 202410 min

Give Them Time to Grow: Learning the Power of Patient Love

Scott Hubbard | If we could imagine the coming glory of the Christians we know, we might find the grace we need today to remain patient with their slow growth.

May 28, 202411 min

The Splendor of His Queen: How the Church Reflects Christ’s Majesty

David Mathis | For now, the church appears with spots and wrinkles and many blemishes. But the day is coming when Jesus will present her to himself in splendor — as the reflection of his own majesty.

May 25, 202421 min

When Love Takes You by the Shoulders: Embracing the Gift of Exhortation

Jon Bloom | Sometimes, the encouragement we need most is not tender but firm — not a shoulder to cry on, but someone to lovingly take us by the shoulders.

May 24, 202410 min

Bring Out Her Best: The Privilege of Christian Husbands

Scott Hubbard | Among the various ways we can describe a husband’s calling, one may help to capture our focus, and give us a lifetime of work: bring out your wife’s best.

May 21, 202412 min

Grace Has Taught Our Hearts to Fear

Greg Morse | Many today downplay or dismiss the fear of God. But in one of the Bible’s most staggering promises, God names fear as one of the best gifts of the new covenant.

May 18, 202413 min

The Lost Son Who Never Left: Imagining the Older Brother’s Return

Jon Bloom | Like the older brother in Jesus’s parable, we can be lost in our moralism and condemned in our duties. He too needs to return home. Here is his story.

May 11, 202414 min

See Through Enemy Eyes: Expecting Temptation Before It Comes

Greg Morse | If you want to discern your most vulnerable points of spiritual attack, try asking, “If I were Satan and wanted to destroy my soul, how would I do it?”

May 7, 202413 min

Examine Yourself, Forget Yourself: Help for the Overly Introspective

Scott Hubbard | Self-examination can leave us feeling lost in the mirror of me. But done rightly, self-examination can lead to health, freedom, and self-forgetful joy in Christ.

May 4, 202413 min

Head of Every Head: How to Lead Like Jesus

David Mathis | Every husband is a head, and every husband has a head: Jesus. And husbands lead best when they first know themselves weak and in need of his help.

May 3, 202413 min

Better Than Our Bitter Thoughts: The God of Surprising Goodness

Greg Morse | Hard and bitter thoughts about God reveal far more about us than about him. He is the good God, the wonderful God, far better than our best thoughts of him.

Apr 27, 202414 min

Be Ready to Speak of Jesus: Evangelism as Spiritual Warfare

Scott Hubbard | In spiritual war, Christians do not simply hold fast or stand firm — we advance and march with our King, boldly sharing Christ with a lost world.

Apr 20, 202412 min

The Unimpressive Path to Immortality

Greg Morse | Does the Christian life feel uncomfortably ordinary a lot of days? Come and remember the startling glory of this narrow, simple path.

Apr 13, 202414 min

Life Beneath a Sovereign Lord: How His Power Unleashes Us

Scott Hubbard | If God really is as sovereign as the Bible says, how should we live? His sovereignty invites us to pray more boldly, take greater risks, and draw even closer to heaven.

Apr 8, 202412 min

Wrap Your Soul in Truth: Under-Armor for Spiritual War

David Mathis | Christians are people of the truth — lovers of the truth, speakers of the truth, armored in the truth, as we follow Truth himself.

Apr 6, 202412 min

To War, to Christ, to Glory

Greg Morse | If God is for us in spiritual war, then who can stand against us? Rise up, men of the cross, sisters of the crown, soldiers of Christ.

Apr 3, 202414 min

Risen to Love His Own: The Surprising Mercies of Easter

Scott Hubbard | On the first Easter, Jesus surprised our sorrow with joy, our guilt with forgiveness, our confusion with clarity. And so he still surprises today.

Mar 31, 202412 min

Life Is for Living

Greg Morse | How needful is it to know our end before we get there? How priceless to feel our fleetness before our ship sails?

Mar 30, 202413 min

Good Friday for Bad People

Marshall Segal | Good Friday bids us to stop and remember just how sinful we were — just how bleak it was for us before that darkest day in history.

Mar 29, 202411 min

Bring Your Grief to Gethsemane: The Healing Wounds of Maundy Thursday

David Mathis | Tonight is not first about our griefs. But as we draw near to the sorrows of Jesus, we do indeed find comfort for every grief — and grace for every sin.

Mar 28, 202411 min

What (Not) to Preach: How to Build and Cut a Sermon

David Mathis | After a preacher has wrestled for days, even weeks, with a sermon text, and wrestled hard with the needs of his particular people, he can ask, Which glories here am I most excited to preach?

Mar 23, 202411 min

Restore My Soul: In Pursuit of Personal Revival

Scott Hubbard | Follow Christ long enough, and you’ll find yourself in some spiritual valley, in desperate need of renewal. When you do, follow the map God has drawn for us: Remember. Return. Remove. Restore.

Mar 20, 202411 min

Sin Won’t Comfort You: How Satan Tempts the Hurting

Marshall Segal | The “comforts” of sin may seem safer and more appealing in the fires of your trials, but they will only make your pain that much worse.

Mar 16, 202411 min

Revival in the Making: God’s Central Means for Spiritual Renewal

David Mathis | Seeming revivals come and go, but genuine, God-wrought awakenings share one vital ingredient: they are centered on the word of God.

Mar 13, 202413 min

The Joy of Genuine Revival: Four Signs of the Holy Spirit

Marshall Segal | When the Holy Spirit fills a person, he brings supernatural, countercultural joy: joy that submits, joy that endures, joy that spreads, and joy that waits.

Mar 9, 202411 min

Start Small, Step Up, and Fail Well: How to Pursue Pastoral Ministry

Scott Hubbard | Before you are called to pastor Christ’s church, practice serving her, loving her, edifying her. Let your favorite word while you wait be “progress.”

Mar 6, 202413 min

Why We Long for Revival

Jon Bloom | Why do earnest Christians long for revival? Because revival gives us more of our heart’s deepest desire and strongest delight: Jesus.

Mar 2, 202411 min

Uprooting Sensibility: The Plain Speech of Godly Men

Greg Morse | Politeness and niceness are not the only categories of godly speech. Sometimes, the painful word is best, even if it incites offense.

Feb 24, 202415 min

Are You Sailing or Sinking? A Tool for Diagnosing Spiritual Health

Marshall Segal | If you want to assess the health of a soul, try asking these four questions from Tim Keller: Are you sailing? Are you rowing? Are you drifting? Or are you sinking?

Feb 21, 202414 min

Even Believers Need to Be Warned: How Hell Motivates Holiness

Scott Hubbard | When Paul mentioned hell, he warned not only the lost, but believers. Why might that be, and should we be warning one another in the church today?

Feb 18, 202413 min

The Gospel of God’s Happiness

Greg Morse | God was happy before this world existed, and he’ll be happy long after it passes away. Have you been properly introduced to the happiness of heaven?

Feb 16, 202414 min