
Articles by Desiring God
626 episodes — Page 7 of 13

The Rare Courage of Real Friends: Why Love Will Sometimes Wound
Marshall Segal | Ask God for the kind of friends who love your soul more than your feelings, who will prize your eternal destiny even above the friendship itself.

The Pro-Child Life: Three Ways We Love the Littlest
Scott Hubbard | If we want to oppose the anti-child forces in this world, we will need more than a pro-life position, a high view of motherhood, and a robust Sunday school program.

Uncomfortably Affectionate: Toward a Theology of the Kiss
David Mathis | It says something profound about our God that his people, in ancient Israel and the early church, are a kissing people.

For Fathers of Young Children: Lessons from the Last Graduation
Jon Bloom | The years of fatherhood are few and precious. The days may seem long, the sleep short, and the seasons tiring, but in the end, you’ll look back and wish to have much of it again.

Live for Days You Will Not See: The Beauty of Christian Legacy
Scott Hubbard | Live for yourself, and your life will mean little to those beyond you. But spend your life on others, and it will grow a harvest in due time.

O Me of Little Faith
Greg Morse | Sometimes we settle for weaker faith because we fear what greater faith might cost us in this life.

How to Love an Immortal
Marshall Segal | What might it look like to study and work, to date and marry and parent, to disagree and forgive, like you’ll live forever?

Did Jesus Pursue His Own Glory? The God-Centeredness of the God-Man
David Mathis | We might assume the God-centeredness of God would lead to the Christ-centeredness of Christ, but the Gospels present a more complex and wonderful picture.

That Kind of Happy: The Wide Eyes of a Psalm 1 Man
Marshall Segal | Some men read the Bible assuming they’ve seen it all before. Others open the same book always expecting to find some new reason to treasure God.

Imagine Lust: A Lost Weapon in the Fight for Purity
Scott Hubbard | Many in the battle against lust try to shut off the imagination, but what if God means for you to win the battle through imagination?

Stabbed by Joy: The Longings That Led Me to Christ
Greg Morse | Some joy does not leave you satisfied, but still aching for a pleasure barely glimpsed, hardly heard. The longing is inconsolable, until it leads our hearts to Christ.

Gentleness Made Him Great: Learning from the Strongest of Men
David Mathis | The world has its own visions of manly strength. In Scripture, what sets godly strength apart is its added ability to be gentle.

Your Life of Unlikely Courage
Marshall Segal | ‘The Hobbit’ resonates with us so deeply, all these years later, because the tension in Bilbo is a tension in all of us. We love comfort, but we were made for mountains.

A Problem in Prayer: Learning to Ask as We Ought
Greg Morse | Jesus says, “Ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.” Did he really mean that? If so, what would that prayer sound like today?

No One Who Abides in Him Keeps on Sinning
Scott Hubbard | The born again are not perfect, but they are new — irrevocably, eternally, mightily new. And new people can’t keep peace with old sins.

What Does God Sound Like? Hearing the Voice of Majesty
David Mathis | The people of God perceive his majesty not only with the eye, but by the ear — in the greatness, power, and surprising glory of his roaring, thunderous words and his still, small voice.

Goats in Sheep’s Clothing: Why We Warn the Lukewarm
Greg Morse | A professing Christian may live years in the church, even decades, yet in the end still hear those haunting words of Jesus: “I never knew you.”

‘My Kingdom Is Not of This World’: The Lordship of Christ and the Limits of Government
John Piper | The New Testament opposes Christians looking to the state to teach, defend, or spread ideas or behaviors as explicitly Christian. The sword is not to be the agent of religion.

Entrusted with Agony: How to Love a Suffering Soul
Jon Bloom | What qualities make someone the kind of person suffering people seek out and trust? He offers judicious counsel with discernible humility and kindness.

When God Sets Sunsets Free: Imagining the World to Come
Marshall Segal | One day soon, God will make all we know unmistakably new. Have you learned to long, and pray, for the wonders of a better world to come?

Good Leaders Fail Well: How Mistakes Become a Staircase
Scott Hubbard | As men step into leadership, many expect the burdens of responsibility, decision-making, and initiative. Fewer are prepared for just how often they may fail.

Confrontational Christlikeness
Greg Morse | Faithfully following Jesus will put us at odds with those who ignore or refuse him. Does anyone in your life dislike how Christian you are?

When Was I Born Again? How ‘Regeneration’ Blossoms in Reformed Theology
David Mathis | You must be born again, says Jesus, to receive his saving grace, but how does ‘regeneration’ relate to predestination, justification, and the rest of salvation?

Reversing Romans 1: A Glimpse of the Godward Life
Joe Rigney | Do you want to catch a clear and beautiful vision of the Godward life? Take a text about the ugly futility of mutiny against God and turn it on its head.

Mercy Swallows Any Sorrow: Struggling Beside a Sea of Blessing
Marshall Segal | Are you weighed down with the burdens and sorrows of life? Despite all of your afflictions, if you’re in Christ, his mercy is more.

Assurance for the Unassured: Finding Hope in the Names of God
Scott Hubbard | Those who often deal with doubts over their own salvation may find deeper assurance from a surprising source: God’s infinite commitment to his name.

Train Them Up in Jesus: The One-Verse Vision for Dads
David Mathis | What does it mean to raise children in the “discipline and instruction” of the Lord? These two concepts represent indispensable facets of faithful Christian fatherhood.

Find Your Way to Help the Hurting
Marshall Segal | When suffering comes to those around you, don’t assume someone else will step up and help. Assume God plans to meet one of their many needs through you.

Grumbling Obedience: Resisting a Common Temptation
Joe Rigney | How often is there a hitch in your obedience, or an edge to your obedience, or self-pity in your obedience?

Roast What You Kill: Becoming a Man Who Follows Through
Greg Morse | Meet the sophisticated sloth: he dates but never marries, attends church but never joins, works hard only when others watch — and rarely finishes what he begins.

Slow to Chide, Swift to Bless: Vision for Earthly Fathers
David Mathis | As sinful as we are, our heavenly Father is “slow to chide, and swift to bless.” How much more should earthly fathers aspire to be the same with our children?

Wise Women Build Homes: Motherhood’s Lasting Influence
Scott Hubbard | As an imperfect but God-fearing woman builds her house, she becomes for her children Wisdom’s first face, first voice, first touch.

Not All Obedience Is Christian
Joe Rigney | Christians do not work for our salvation, but we do work out our salvation as God powerfully works within us. All Christian obedience, then, begins on the inside.

Flee the Gospel of Me
Marshall Segal | The greatest news in the world is that, through Jesus, people made by God, and who have rejected God, may still get to have God.

We Travel to a World Unseen
Greg Morse | The ground beneath our feet, the hills around our house, the sky above our heads — these seem as real as real can be. But another world is still more real.

Love the Place You Want to Leave
Scott Hubbard | If today you woke up in a place you don’t like, dare to believe that God has purposes for you here, however much you may want to leave.

The Forgotten Habit: Fellowship as a Means of God’s Grace
David Mathis | Fellowship is an irreplaceable means of grace in the Christian life and offers us two priceless joys: receiving God’s grace through the helping words of others and giving his grace to others through our own.

Sleep Beneath His Promises: Learning Rest from the Psalms
Scott Hubbard | How did the psalmists fall asleep on the most unlikely nights? They laid every care and sorrow before the Lord who is our shield, shepherd, comfort, and life.

Appointed and Disappointed: Four Lessons for Passing Leadership
Jon Bloom | Every earthly calling you accept will be one you eventually have to release. Have you thought about how to do that well?

God So Loved Himself: Overlooked Help from a Well-Known Friend
David Mathis | God created the world to glorify himself. But does this truth diminish his love for his people in Christ? Consider Jonathan Edwards’s enduring answer.

The Ministry of the Pew: Sunday Morning for Normal Christians
Greg Morse | How many of us arrive on Sunday mornings, sing, listen, and then leave?

Why Do Christians Struggle to Love?
Jon Bloom | If God gives the Holy Spirit to those who believe in Jesus, why do we still have such a hard time walking in love?

Join That Church: Why God Made You for Membership
Marshall Segal | In an age of independence and suspicion of authority, becoming a church member is a loud, arresting statement of our devotion to Christ and our need for his body.

Raw Passion and Messy Missiology: A Tribute to George Verwer (1938–2023)
John Piper | On April 14, 2023, one of the greatest missions leaders of the last hundred years passed into glory — and only glory can measure the global influence he left behind.

The Art of One-Anothering: How the Church Loves Like Christ
Scott Hubbard | To love another well, we need to put on Christ himself. We need to have his mind, offer his welcome, speak his words, show his love, and give his grace.

Beware of the Birds: How Satan Sabotages Sermons
Greg Morse | What if the distractions keeping you from listening to sermons are an act of spiritual warfare?

The Syntax of Sacrifice: Introduction to Leviticus
Joe Rigney | The book of Leviticus can seem as mystifying as a foreign language — until we learn the basic nouns, adjectives, and verbs of the sacrificial system.

The Easter Yet to Come
Marshall Segal | How pitiful would your life seem if Jesus did not rise? How promising and thrilling is it if he really did?

Tree of Shame: The Horror and Honor of Good Friday
David Mathis | Jesus endured the cross, Hebrews tells us, “for the joy that was set before him.” What joy did Jesus see on the other side of Good Friday’s shame?

The Most High on His Knees: Learning Humility from the Last Supper
Greg Morse | Before Jesus gave his hands to the nails, he used them to wash the dirt from his disciples’ feet. What thoughts caused one so high to go so low?