Articles by Desiring God

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?”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

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.

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.”

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

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

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?

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?

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?

Marshall Segal | Forgiveness may feel impossible right now, but you can find peace, even pursue peace, by learning to trust God and his coming, perfect justice.

Greg Morse | If we really believed in hell — in eternal, conscious torment — might we have more courage to tell people about Jesus?

Jon Bloom | How can we respond when faced with profound and seemingly senseless evil? We can begin by cultivating the spiritual discipline of handing the fruit back to God.

David Mathis | Eternal conscious punishment may be the most emotionally difficult doctrine to affirm in our day. How do we handle the existential angst that hell creates?

Scott Hubbard | Many of us try to make the best parts of this life last forever. But God made our best seasons short to prepare us for a better season that will never end.

Greg Morse | The Bible tells us that the prayers of the saints will usher in the end of the world. What will those kinds of prayers be like, and how will they come true?

Marshall Segal | Many of us who never abuse alcohol still experience a kind of respectable drunkenness, an indulgence in something good that dulls our hearts to God.

David Mathis | Getting our hearts happy in God can be hard work, but our Lord loves to meet us and warm us as we put away excuses and train our souls for true delight.

Scott Hubbard | Men of the world may chase physical beauty no matter where it leads — to bed, to idols, to ruin. But beauty without discretion is a gold ring in a pig’s snout.

Jon Bloom | When our children go far from home to follow Jesus, we have an opportunity for paradoxical joy. We can join the happy fellowship of the left behind.

Marshall Segal | Sometimes the last three words in our prayers — in Jesus’s name — slowly lose their weight and meaning. Here are six reasons to slow down and savor them.

David Mathis | Teaching is the pastors’ first and greatest calling, but it’s not the only way we put God’s word to work. Paul gives us four ways to use Scripture in Christian ministry.

Greg Morse | If we let envy have its way with us, the gifts we have fuel pride and the gifts we don’t breed bitterness. How can we train our eyes with grace?

Scott Hubbard | If the apostle Paul joined our prayer circles, we might be surprised how different his prayers seem. We often focus on circumstances, but he takes aim at the heart.

Marshall Segal | His first cancer diagnosis sent Tim Keller on a quest to experience the awe and intimacy that God promises to those who pray. Twelve years later, he wrote the book on what he learned.

David Mathis | Resolved: to put the voice of Jesus first in 2024 — first in preference, first in practice, and first in priority.

Scott Hubbard | If you want to plan in a way that honors God, plan like a mortal. Plan like a child. Plan like a worshiper. Plan like a dreamer. Plan like a sub-planner.

Jon Bloom | Why do millions love to sing “Be Thou My Vision,” a hymn crafted from the words of an unknown poet? Because the lyrics paint the burning heart of a truly Christian life.

Greg Morse | While fewer today may realize it, mankind was born for poetry. We were made to find and savor the right words for unspeakable realities.

David Mathis | Majesty himself came at Christmas — but with no majesty that humans yet could see. But the one who came without splendor would soon come into unsurpassed majesty as the risen and reigning Messiah.

Marshall Segal | As you open your homes and presents this Christmas, make the feast as Christian as possible. Fix your eyes on the Son who came, and will come again.

Scott Hubbard | Past joys now gone can rob us of present happiness. But the wise of heart will thank God for what was, aching for what is still yet to come.

Greg Morse | If the spirits of the damned could visit our Christmas feasts and festive trees, what might they say of our holiday? A story from the Gospels gives us an idea.

Marshall Segal | God is the giver of every good thing you might lose, and he is the giver of every good thing you might crave. That makes gratitude a great weapon against temptation.

Jon Bloom | “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” What might it look like for us to actually show that kind of love to our neighbors this Christmas?

Greg Morse | “This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.” In the darkness of suffering, light often dawns when we pause, remember, and call to mind our Lord.