PLAY PODCASTS
Articles by Desiring God

Articles by Desiring God

626 episodes — Page 9 of 13

The Secret Failure of Many Leaders

Greg Morse | Even good leaders and pastors can grow self-reliant over time and need the reminder that no ministry can succeed without their Lord.

Dec 8, 202213 min

A Rest for Any Restlessness

Scott Hubbard | If you wrestle with restlessness, you’re not strange. You’re human. And your restlessness can lead you to the rest you long to enjoy.

Dec 7, 202210 min

Awesome and Fearsome: God’s Majesty in the Eyes of His Friends and Foes

David Mathis | When God flashes the glory of his great size and strength, his people stand in awe and declare his majesty, while his foes cower in fear and feel terror.

Dec 5, 202211 min

You Can Be Forgiven: What Christmas Says to Our Sins

Marshall Segal | Deep down, we long for forgiveness — to be washed clean from our sins and welcomed home to our God. And Jesus lived, died, and rose to make that forgiveness possible.

Dec 4, 202213 min

The Joy of Christian Duty

Joe Rigney | Is there a good, wise, and Christian Hedonistic way of celebrating the value of duty in the Christian life?

Dec 2, 202212 min

Disorient, Distort, Deceive: Satan’s Core Strategy Against Us

Jon Bloom | If you have no battle plan in the war against temptation, you give Satan the advantage. Take time to learn from the only one who never sinned.

Dec 1, 202211 min

Two Kinds of Pastors

David Mathis | Should pastors be paid or unpaid? Scripture shows that both come with benefits, and a blend of both can be vital to healthy churches.

Nov 28, 202214 min

Honor an Old Face: The Lost Art of Respecting Our Elders

Greg Morse | In a day that prizes technology, beauty, and youth, we easily neglect a command once taken for granted: honor the elderly among you.

Nov 27, 202214 min

How to Keep Praying: Four Lessons from the Master

Scott Hubbard | Before you close your eyes to pray, take a moment to remember what prayer really is. Let Jesus reawaken you to the wonder of having God’s ear.

Nov 25, 202210 min

The Sweetness of a Godward Meal: Dad’s Wisdom for Thanksgiving Day

Joe Rigney | “My son, eat honey, for it is good.” On Thanksgiving Day, a father and son discuss taste buds, honey, and the sweetness of wisdom to the soul.

Nov 24, 202212 min

Can Christians Date Nonbelievers?

Marshall Segal | Should Christians date nonbelievers? God says no. And you might too if you could see all it might mean in marriage.

Nov 21, 202213 min

Lead Me, O Lord: Ten Prayers for Christian Leaders

Jon Bloom | Good leaders are good followers first. They depend on God for wisdom, guidance, courage, and everything else they need.

Nov 20, 202212 min

Screen Sabbaths: A Modest Proposal for a Digital World

Scott Hubbard | As we seek to resist the gravitational pull our phones exert, we might find help from an ancient Israelite practice: Sabbath.

Nov 17, 202212 min

The Current State of Complementarity: Five Years After Nashville

John Piper | As lovers of God’s revealed truth, we confront the cultural perversions of the day — and more. We apply the truth to all of life.

Nov 16, 202214 min

How to Fail a Wife: Learning Marriage from a Bad Husband

Marshall Segal | It’s a lot easier to be a bad husband than a faithful one — even in paradise. So what can men learn from the first husband’s failure?

Nov 15, 202214 min

How to Care for a Pastor: Five Ways to Uplift Your Shepherds

Greg Morse | Many of us want to bless our pastors better, but don’t know how. Here are five ways to love the men entrusted with watching over your soul.

Nov 14, 202212 min

To Groan Is Human — And Christian: Learning from the Emotions of Jesus

David Mathis | Some of the more stunning glimpses into the humanity of Jesus are the moments when he expresses sadness or grief. What might we learn from the groans of Christ?

Nov 13, 202211 min

How a Head Loves a Body: Watching Husbands and Wives Dance Well

Joe Rigney | In the church and in marriage, the head and body are profoundly interdependent. You can’t have one without the other.

Nov 12, 20229 min

Why Don’t We Have Good Friends?

Marshall Segal | It’s never been easier to make new friends and connect with old ones, so what’s keeping us from having more meaningful friendships?

Nov 7, 202213 min

Am I Ready for Ministry? Three Tests for a Man’s Aspiration

Scott Hubbard | How can a man discern if he genuinely aspires to pastoral ministry? He can begin by asking where his aspiration comes from, where it aims, and what shape it takes.

Nov 6, 202212 min

The Pastors We Didn’t Expect: Four Contours of Christian Leadership

David Mathis | We might expect Jesus to appoint world-class executives or entertainers to lead his church. Instead, he adopts a comparatively quiet plan: local teams of sober-minded teachers.

Nov 3, 202212 min

The Five Not-Points of Calvinism

Scott Hubbard | To grasp both the offense and the comfort of Calvinism, we would do well to consider what the five points do not mean, what TULIP never taught us.

Oct 31, 202215 min

The Indispensable Lives of Ordinary Christians

Greg Morse | When the world judges us as unimpressive, and we see ourselves as expendable, Jesus turns to us and speaks one word: “indispensable.”

Oct 30, 20229 min

Messy, Late, and Happy: How to Survive Sundays with Small Kids

Marshall Segal | Young families have some good reasons to stay home on Sunday morning. But we have even better reasons to gather the kids, pile in the car, and see God’s people face to face.

Oct 27, 202210 min

How Can God Forget My Sins? What We Remember at the Table

Jon Bloom | When we take the Lord’s Supper, we hear God the Father say, “Because my Son has shed his blood for the forgiveness of your sins, I will remember your sins no more.”

Oct 25, 202210 min

Living Among Majesties: The Grandeur of the People of God

Joe Rigney | “As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.” The Bible sees a majesty in believers that believers themselves often miss.

Oct 23, 20228 min

King Over Kin: The Warm Danger of Earthly Loves

Greg Morse | If your wife or husband or child or parent left the faith and tried to pull you away with him or her, would you?

Oct 20, 202214 min

The Inner Man of Pastors: Six Glimpses into God’s Design

David Mathis | The apostle’s charge to a team of local elders in Acts 20 gives us six glimpses into the mature masculine soul and its particular fitness for Christ’s pastoral calling.

Oct 16, 202216 min

You Will Be Breathtaking: Why God Clothes Us in Glory

Marshall Segal | The glory due to God alone is not kept by God alone. Amazingly, God not only frees sinners to enjoy his glory, but he also gladly glorifies them.

Oct 13, 202211 min

Shades of Grace: Catholics and Protestants in Conversation

Greg Morse | Both Catholics and Protestants may love words like justification, righteousness, and grace, but the realities they see in those words expose two very different religions.

Oct 11, 202217 min

To the Uttermost: How Jesus Keeps Us Day by Day

Scott Hubbard | Three words are enough to silence the objections, calm the fears, and resurrect the hopes of Christ’s believing people: to the uttermost.

Oct 9, 202212 min

Not by Head Alone: The Warm Heart of Justification

David Mathis | The beloved Reformed slogan of “faith alone” does not make good works optional in the Christian life. Nor does it mean that saving faith involves the intellect alone and not also the heart.

Oct 6, 202213 min

The Beautiful Roots of Courageous Submission

Joe Rigney | God describes feminine courage very differently from how the world does. So what makes a godly woman brave, and how might that change her marriage?

Oct 3, 20229 min

Give Me More of God: Why Spiritual Intimacy Can Feel Elusive

Jon Bloom | The path to intimacy with God can sound so simple, yet those who follow this path often find intimacy with God more elusive than they expected.

Oct 2, 202212 min

What Is the Lord’s Supper?

David Mathis | This is a family meal ordained by Jesus Christ himself, meant to be enjoyed by his gathered church, in order to remember him and nourish our souls.

Sep 29, 20229 min

The Hands That Made the Meal: What the Supper Says About Ordinary Work

Marshall Segal | When Jesus broke the bread and shared the cup, he blessed the ordinary work of ordinary hands like ours.

Sep 26, 202210 min

Doubt: A Personal History

Scott Hubbard | One of the more disorienting parts of facing doubt is that so few talk about their own struggles with doubt. Part of overcoming temptation is realizing you’re not alone.

Sep 25, 202216 min

My Flesh Is True Food: The Meaning of an Offensive Image

Jon Bloom | “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” Few words of Jesus have been more misunderstood and misapplied.

Sep 19, 202210 min

Humbled, Whole, and Honorable: What to Look for in a Pastor

David Mathis | As our lists grow longer of what to beware in a leader, do we have any corresponding clarity on what to pursue?

Sep 18, 202213 min

How to Squander Your Spiritual Gifts

Marshall Segal | Are you wasting your God-given abilities? God builds the church through ordinary, everyday members taking the capacities he has given and gladly using them for the good of someone else.

Sep 15, 202211 min

Better to Have a Burden

Scott Hubbard | Don’t assume that the burdens you’re bearing in this season are somewhere outside God’s good plans for you. Assume they’re one of God’s plans for you. Because they are.

Sep 12, 202210 min

What Spoils the Lord’s Supper? How Not to Come to the Table

Joe Rigney | In many churches, the Lord’s Supper feels somber, heavy, and introspective. But is that what Jesus intended when he broke the bread and poured the cup?

Sep 11, 202210 min

We Work with You: How Pastors Serve Their People’s Joy

David Mathis | Pastors, remember your people want to be happy. Dignify your people as partners, not just recipients. And embrace ministry that is harder, not easier.

Sep 9, 202211 min

Escape from Every Temptation

Jon Bloom | How does Jesus help us in temptation? He gives us all his promises. He delivers us from the fear of death. He always intercedes for us.

Sep 8, 202210 min

The Dark Side of Equality

Greg Morse | Equality can be a gift and mercy in an unjust world. But when cries for sameness rise up against God-established authority, we see equality’s dark side.

Sep 5, 202211 min

The Messy Home of Blessing: Why Children Are Worth the Chaos

Marshall Segal | Does parenting feel trivial? Does it feel unrewarding? Does it feel futile? Let God remind you of the giant blessings buried in the chaos.

Sep 4, 202210 min

Why Bread and Wine? Enjoying the Meal Above All Meals

Scott Hubbard | If you want to taste more of Jesus’s love in the Lord’s Supper, take a closer look at the meaning of the bread and the wine.

Sep 1, 202210 min

Be Comforted in Your Smallness

Joe Rigney | Does one of your callings in life feel overwhelming? Let C.S. Lewis help you take comfort in your smallness.

Aug 31, 20229 min

Breakfast of Pastors: How God Feeds and Keeps Spiritual Leaders

David Mathis | How do you find your legs for life and leadership each day? God has given us a golden, well-worn, surprisingly ancient path for daily stability, clarity, and strength.

Aug 28, 202211 min

A Little Theology of Dinosaurs

Scott Hubbard | If dinosaurs could preach, what might they say? Trust the God of wisdom. Fear the God of power. Praise the God of wonders.

Aug 25, 202210 min