Daily Readings by Wild at Heart

We need Jesus like we need oxygen. Like we need water. Like the branch needs the vine. Jesus is not merely a figure for devotions. He is the missing essence of your existence. Whether we know it or not, we are desperate for Jesus. To have his life, joy, love, and presence cannot be compared. To know him as he is, is to come home. A true knowledge of Jesus is our greatest need and our greatest happiness. The purpose of your being here on this planet, at this moment in time, comes down to three things:1) To love Jesus with all that is within you. This is the first and greatest command. Everything else flows from here.2) To share your daily life with him; to let him be himself with you. On the beach, at supper, along the road—just as the disciples did.3) To allow his life to fill yours, to heal and express itself through yours. There is no other way you can hope to live as he did and show him to others.Love Jesus. Let him be himself with you. Allow his life to permeate yours. The fruit of this will be ... breathtaking. Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

Our search for the Golden Moment is not a search in vain; not at all. We've only had the timing wrong. We do not know exactly how God will do it, but we do know this: the kingdom of God brings restoration. The only things destroyed are the things that are outside God's realm—sin, disease, death. But we who are God's children, the heavens and the earth he has made, will go on. "The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together" (Isa. 11:6). "And Jerusalem will be known as the Desirable Place," the place of the fulfillment of all our desires (Isa. 62:12 NLT). This is significant because it touches upon the question: What will we do in eternity? If all we've got are halos and harps, our options are pretty limited. But to have the whole cosmos before us — wow. Thus George MacDonald writes to his daughter, whom he will soon lose to tuberculosis:"I do live expecting great things in the life that is ripening for me and all mine — when we shall have all the universe for our own, and be good merry helpful children in the great house of our father. Then, darling, you and I and all will have the grand liberty wherewith Christ makes free opening his hand to send us out like white doves to range the universe." (The Heart of George MacDonald)Want more? Order your copy of The Journey of Desire today

What if? What if those deep desires in our hearts are telling us the truth, revealing to us the life we were meant to live? God gave us eyes so that we might see; he gave us ears that we might hear; he gave us wills that we might choose; and he gave us hearts that we might live. The way we handle the heart is everything. A man must know he is powerful; he must know he has what it takes. A woman must know she is beautiful; she must know she is worth fighting for. “But you don’t understand,” said one woman to me. “I’m living with a hollow man.” No, it’s in there. His heart is there. It may have evaded you, like a wounded animal, always out of reach, one step beyond your catching. But it’s there. “I don’t know when I died,” said another man. “But I feel like I’m just using up oxygen.” I understand. Your heart may feel dead and gone, but it’s there. Something wild and strong and valiant, just waiting to be released.If you are going to know who you truly are as a man, if you are going to find a life worth living, if you are going to love a woman deeply and not pass on your confusion to your children, you simply must get your heart back. You must head up into the high country of the soul, into wild and uncharted regions and track down that elusive prey. Want more? Order your copy of Wild at Heart today

When the young prophet Samuel heard the voice of God calling to him in the night, he had the counsel from his priestly mentor, Eli, to tell him how to respond. Even so, it took them three times to realize it was God calling. Rather than ignoring the voice, or rebuking it, Samuel finally listened.In our modern, pragmatic world we often have no such mentor, so we do not understand it is God speaking to us in our heart. Having so long been out of touch with our deepest longing, we fail to recognize the voice and the One who is calling to us through it. Frustrated by our heart's continuing sabotage of a dutiful Christian life, some of us silence the voice by locking our heart away in the attic, feeding it only the bread and water of duty and obligation until it is almost dead, the voice now small and weak. But sometimes in the night, when our defenses are down, we still hear it call to us, oh so faintly — a distant whisper. Come morning, the new day's activities scream for our attention, the sound of the cry is gone, and we congratulate ourselves on finally overcoming the flesh.Others of us agree to give our heart a life on the side if it will only leave us alone and not rock the boat. We try to lose ourselves in our work, or "get a hobby" (either of which soon begins to feel like an addiction); we have an affair, or develop a colorful fantasy life fed by dime-store romances or pornography. We learn to enjoy the juicy intrigues and secrets of gossip. We make sure to maintain enough distance between ourselves and others, and even between ourselves and our own heart, to keep hidden the practical agnosticism we are living now that our inner life has been divorced from our outer life. Having thus appeased our heart, we nonetheless are forced to give up our spiritual journey because our heart will no longer come with us. It is bound up in the little indulgences we feed it to keep it at bay. Want more? Order your copy of The Sacred Romance today

Henri Nouwen once asked Mother Teresa for spiritual direction. Spend one hour each day in adoration of your Lord, she said, and never do anything you know is wrong. Follow this, and you’ll be fine. Such simple yet profound advice. Worship is the act of the abandoned heart adoring its God. It is the union that we crave. Few of us experience anything like this on a regular basis, let alone for an hour each day. But it is what we need. Desperately. Simply showing up on Sunday is not even close to worship. Neither does singing songs with religious content pass for worship. What counts is the posture of the soul involved, the open heart pouring forth its love toward God and communing with him. It is a question of desire.Worship occurs when we say to God, from the bottom of our hearts, “You are the One whom I desire.” As Thomas à Kempis prayed, “There is nothing created that can fully satisfy my desires. Make me one with You in a sure bond of heavenly love, for You alone are sufficient to Your lover, and without You all things are vain and of no substance.”I spent a year in the Psalms at the same time I was resting from the duty of Sunday morning. I wasn’t studying them with my head; I was praying them from my heart. It gave me a voice for the cry of my soul—the anguish, the weariness, the joy, the sorrow. It’s all there. What is remarkable is that no matter where the poet begins, he almost always ends in worship. This is no coincidence. It is where our journey must lead us. In the most often quoted phrase from Augustine, he says, “Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee.” He is referring to desire. Our only hope for rest from the incessant craving of our desire is in God, and us united to him. The full union, of course, is coming. We rehearse for the wedding now through worship. Want more? Order your copy of The Journey of Desire today

Over the years, the Wild at Heart team has learned a great deal about prayer – mostly through facing our own trials, crying out for help, studying the Scriptures and asking Jesus, like the disciples, “Teach us to pray!”This lead to the creation of the Daily Prayer. We've found it so effective we don’t let a day go by without praying some version of it. Now, hundreds of thousands around the world pray this same prayer each day. If you're curious about the purpose and power of each paragraph you can listen to this podcast where John explains and prays through the Daily Prayer. Click here to listen.We invite you to pray it today as well. It's a powerful way to align yourself with God each morning. If you'd like to hear John or Stasi read the Daily Prayer as you read the text below, click on one of these links:The Daily Prayer (read by John) The Daily Prayer (read by Stasi) The Daily PrayerMy dear Lord Jesus, I come to you now to be restored in you, renewed in you, to receive your life and your love and all the grace and mercy I so desperately need this day. I honor you as my Lord, and I surrender every aspect and dimension of my life to you. I give you my spirit, soul, and body, my heart, mind, and will. I cover myself with your blood—my spirit, soul, and body, my heart, mind, and will. I ask your Holy Spirit to restore me in you, renew me in you, and lead this time of prayer. In all that I now pray, I stand in total agreement with your Spirit and with all those praying for me by the Spirit of God and by the Spirit of God alone.Dearest God, holy and victorious Trinity, you alone are worthy of all my worship, my heart’s devotion, all my praise, all my trust, and all the glory of my life. I love you, I worship you, I give myself over to you in my heart’s search for life. You alone are Life, and you have become my life. I renounce all other gods, every idol, and I give to you, God, the place in my heart and in my life that you truly deserve. This is all about you, and not about me. You are the Hero of this story, and I belong to you. I ask your forgiveness for my every sin. Search me, know me, and reveal to me where you are working in my life, and grant to me the grace of your healing and deliverance and a deep and true repentance. Heavenly Father, thank you for loving me and choosing me before you made the world. You are my true Father—my creator, redeemer, sustainer, and the true end of all things, including my life. I love you, I trust you, I worship you. I give myself over to you, Father, to be one with you as Jesus is one with you. Thank you for proving your love for me by sending Jesus. I receive him and all his life and all his work which you ordained for me. Thank you for including me in Christ, forgiving me my sins, granting me his righteousness, making me complete in him. Thank you for making me alive with Christ, raising me with him, seating me with him at your right hand, establishing me in his authority, and anointing me with your love and your Spirit and your favor. I receive it all with thanks and give it total claim to my life—my spirit, soul, and body, my heart, mind, and will. Jesus, thank you for coming to ransom me with your own life. I love you, worship you, trust you. I give myself over to you to be one with you in all things. I receive all the work and triumph of your cross, death, blood, and sacrifice for me, through which my every sin is atoned for, I am ransomed, delivered from the kingdom of darkness, and transferred to your kingdom; my sin nature is removed, my heart circumcised unto God, and every claim being made against me is cancelled and disarmed. I take my place now in your cross and death, dying with you to sin, to my flesh, to this world, to the evil one and his kingdom. I take up the cross and crucify my flesh with all its pride, arrogance, unbelief, and idolatry [and anything else you are currently struggling with]. I put off the old man. Apply to me all the work and triumph in your cross, death, blood, and sacrifice; I receive it with thanks and give it total claim to my spirit, soul, and body, my heart, mind, and will.Jesus, I also receive you as my Life, and I receive all the work and triumph in your resurrection, through which you have conquered sin, death, judgment, and the evil one. Death has no power over you, nor does any foul thing. And I have been raised with you to a new life, to live your life—dead to sin and alive to God. I take my place now in your resurrection and in your life, and I give my life to you to live your life. I am saved by your life. I reign in life through your life. I receive your hope, love, faith, joy, your goodness, trueness, wisdom, power, and strength. Apply to me all the work and triumph in your resurrection; I receive it with thanks, and I give it total claim to my spirit, soul, and body, my heart, mind, and will.Jesus, I also sincerely receive you as my authority, rule, and dominion, my everlasting victory against Satan and his kingdom, a

A week or two after the foot washing, following the cross and the empty tomb, Jesus appears on the shore just across from where the boys are fishing. He acts like a guy out for a stroll, asks if they had any luck, suggests they try one more spot, and reproduces the catch that caught them all in the beginning. Watch how Peter responds this time:The disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. (John 21:7)Peter is a hundred yards offshore. That’s about three city blocks—a long way to swim, especially in a full-length robe. It would be like trying to swim wrapped in a bed sheet. Peter doesn’t care. He doesn’t wait for the boat, forgets about the fish, and as quick as you can say, “Jack be nimble” he hits the water, swimming, thrashing, gasping for air, then stumbling ashore fast as he can to get to Jesus. Do you think he then drew another line in the sand? “Hello, sir. Mr. Christ, may I approach?” Peter is a passionate, emotional, impulsive guy. He just swam a hundred yards in his bathrobe. I’ll bet dollars to donuts he ran right up to Jesus, sopping wet as laundry from the washer, and hugged him, soaking the risen Lord.If Peter didn’t do it, you know Jesus did, adding his tears of joy to the wet embrace.Beautiful. That’s the way to do it, friends. Just begin to make a practice of loving Jesus. Relate to him as you see his friends did in the Gospels. Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

Is there a reality that corresponds to the deepest desires of our heart? Who gets the last word — the Romance or the Arrows? We need to know, so we are constantly, every moment of our lives, trying to make sense out of our experiences. We look for coherence, a flow, an assurance that things fit together. Our problem is that most of us live our lives like a movie we've arrived at twenty minutes late. The action is well under way and we haven't a clue what's happening. Who are these people? Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Why are they doing that? What's going on? We sense that something really important, perhaps even glorious, is taking place, and yet it all seems so random. Beauty catches us by surprise and makes us wish for more, but then the Arrows come and we are pierced.No wonder it's so hard to live from our heart! We find ourselves in the middle of a story that is sometimes wonderful, sometimes awful, often a confusing mixture of both, and we haven't the slightest clue how to make sense of it all. Worse, we try to interpret the meaning of life with only fragments, isolated incidents, feelings, and images without reference to the story of which these scenes are merely a part. It can't be done, because, as Julia Gatta pointed out, "Experience, no matter how accurately understood, can never furnish its own interpretation." So we look for someone to interpret life for us. Our interpreters will usually be the primary people in our lives when we are young, our parents or grandparents or another key figure. They shape our understanding of the story in which we find ourselves and tell us what to do with the Romance, the Arrows, and our hearts. Want more? Order your copy of The Sacred Romance today

Stasi Eldredge's book "Free to Be Me" helps teen girls become the young women God created them to be. Every human being has some vital place in her life where she is not living in the victory she longs for, and it colors how she views herself. Every person’s personal struggle rooted in her past, be it a deep-rooted self-hatred or a pressing need to control her world, makes her desperate for God. We all have something that brings us to our knees. It isn’t something we would ever choose for ourselves or wish on anyone else, but we all have an area — or ten — in our lives that drives us to need God. We can’t free ourselves. We are weak, aware that something inside is broken and starving. It is a wonderful grace when we finally give up and fall down before the One who is strong. Want more? Order your copy of Free to Be Me today

When we set out to hear God's voice, we do not listen as though it will come from somewhere above us or in the room around us. It comes to us from within, from the heart, the dwelling place of God. Now, most of us haven't been trained in this, and it's going to take a little practice "tuning in" to all that's going on in there. And there's a lot going on in there, by the way. Many things are trying to play upon the beautiful instrument of the heart. Advertisers are constantly trying to pull on your heartstrings. So is your boss. The devil is a master at manipulating the heart. So are many people—though they would never admit that is what they are doing. How will you know what is compelling you? "Who can map out the various forces at play in one soul?" asked Augustine, a man who was the first to write out the story of listening to his heart. "Man is a great depth, O Lord ... but the hairs of his head are easier by far to count than ... the movements of his heart."This can be distressing at times. All sorts of awful things can seem to issue from your heart—anger, lust, fear, petty jealousies. If you think it's you, a reflection of what's really going on in your heart, it will disable you. It could stop your journey dead in its tracks. What you've encountered is either the voice of your flesh or an attempt of the Enemy to distress you by throwing all sorts of thoughts your way and blaming you for it. You must proceed on this assumption: your heart is good. Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

When we hear the phrase “trust totally in God,” most of us probably sigh, hearing it as one more requirement that we have never been able to live up to. But what if we were to listen to our hearts, and hear it as a need to faint, a need to lay down our “doings” and simply make our needs known to Christ, and rest in him?How do we go about actually “doing” rest?When Jesus was preparing for his public ministry, as well as his battle with Satan, he went to the desert—away from the synagogue, away from people, away from family and friends. Matthew tells us that God’s Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He prepared for spiritual battle by separating himself from all dependency on the provisions of this world, starting with the most basic: food. He fasted for forty days. He abided in prayer, in communion with his Father in heaven. When Satan came to test him with the things of this world, he answered him not with intellectual argument, but rested in the truth of Scripture. And when he had resisted the devil by abiding in the Spirit, angels came and ministered to him.There is a place on each of our spiritual journeys where the Spirit also desires to lead us into the desert. We hear him calling to us in the restlessness and weariness of our own heart. The first time the Spirit speaks to us, we don’t know it is him. We assume we are just not doing enough to be spiritual, and so we renew our religious efforts instead of fainting. Sometimes, like Samuel when God spoke to him in the night, we go through this process two or three times before we realize it is God speaking to us in our heart and follow him into the desert. Want more? Order your copy of The Sacred Romance today

In the short book of Philippians—only four chapters long—Paul uses the word joy sixteen times. Paul didn’t write this book during spring break. He wrote it from a prison cell in Rome while he was waiting to be executed. In what should have been the darkest days of his life, he wrote the most encouraging book in the Bible. Paul did not write from a position of denial but from a position of sober and joyful reality. Right there in his chains, he wrote about “the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things” (Phil. 3:8). Paul knew something; he experienced something. The word he uses here to describe his experience—his knowing—isn’t theoretical. It’s not knowing like you might know about the ancient Sumerians or the law of thermodynamics. The word is gnosis, a deep, personal, intimate knowledge. Paul had experienced God in such a way that even in jail he could find a very real joy as he fixed his gaze on Jesus. He wasn’t faking it either; he wasn’t living in some form of spiritualized denial. Here in his treatise on joy he speaks honestly of his sufferings (Phil. 1:29–30). He later describes being “poured out like a drink offering” (2 Tim. 4:6). Paul wrote his letters with an indisputable hope that burned all the brighter because he didn’t deny his suffering. Whatever else this means, it tells us that joy is available no matter our circumstance. Good heavens—Jesus went to the cross with a view of joy before Him (Heb. 12:2). As the psalmist wrote, “Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Ps. 30:5). This isn’t the Christian bait-and-switch. This isn’t for “someday.” No. Joy is promised now, and it is our inheritance. There is a way to joy. The key is walking that way with our gaze set on Jesus, even when the way is dotted with suffering. Want more? Order Your Copy of Defiant Joy today

The purposes of Jesus Christ are not finished when one of his precious ones is forgiven. Not at all. Would a good father feel satisfied when his daughter is rescued from a car accident, but left in ICU? Doesn’t he want her to be healed as well? So God has much more in mind for us. Listen to this passage from Isaiah (it might help to read it very slowly, carefully, out loud to yourself) ... The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,because the LORD has anointed meto preach good news to the poor.He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,to proclaim freedom for the captivesand release from darkness for the prisoners,to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favorand the day of vengeance of our God,to comfort all who mourn,and provide for those who grieve in Zion —to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,the oil of gladnessinstead of mourning,and a garment of praiseinstead of a spirit of despair. (61:1–3) This is the passage that Jesus pointed to when he began his ministry here on earth. Of all the Scriptures he could have chosen, this is the one he picked on the day he first publicly announced his mission. It must be important to him. It must be central. What does it mean? It’s supposed to be really good news, that’s clear. It has something to do with healing hearts, setting someone free. Let me try and state it in words more familiar to us: God has sent me on a mission.I have some great news for you.God has sent me to restore and release something.And that something is you.I am here to give you back your heart and set you free.I am furious at the Enemy who did this to you, and I will fight against him.Let me comfort you.For, dear ones, I will bestow beauty upon youwhere you have known only devastation.Joy, in the places of your deep sorrow.And I will robe your heart in thankful praisein exchange for your resignation and despair. Now that is an offer worth considering. What if it were true? I mean, what if Jesus really could and would do this for your broken heart, your wounded soul? Read it again, and ask him, Jesus—is this true for me? Would you do this for me? He can, and he will ... if you’ll let him. Want more? Order your copy of Captivating today

You have a strength, and it is needed. When a man feels that to be true of him, he rises up and engages like a man. As a boy begins to become a young man, there are some key issues at stake. He needs to know he possesses a genuine strength, and he needs to know that strength is ultimately for others. There is a bravery that must be cultivated in him, for it will be called upon in every other stage of his life. Adventure comes into play to develop the masculine soul, because adventure calls us out, requires us to be something we want to be but aren’t sure we are. Adventure nourishes and strengthens a man’s heart in ways that cannot be fully articulated, must be experienced. It works like nothing else I know. As Norman Maclean wrote of the men who parachute into rugged country to fight forest fires, It is very important to a lot of people to make unmistakably clear to themselves and to the universe that they love the universe but are not intimidated by it and will not be shaken by it, no matter what it has in store. Moreover, they demand something from themselves early in life [the cowboy stage] that can be taken ever after as a demonstration of this abiding feeling. (Young Men and Fire) As I explained in Wild at Heart, adventure is a spiritual longing set in the heart of every man. Notice that in the tales told in Scripture, whenever God gets hold of a man he takes that man into an adventure of the first order. Abraham, called out of Ur, to follow this God to a land he has never seen, never to return. Jacob, wrestling with God in the wilderness in the dead of night. Peter, called out of the boat to Christ in a raging storm. Paul, called out of his prominent role as the ultimate Jew, to become apostle to the Gentile world of east Asia. The stories of his journeys are one narrow escape after another. Want more? Order your copy of Fathered by God today

Remember, the purpose of this thing called the Christian life is that our hearts might be restored and set free. That's the deal. That's what Jesus came to do, by his own announcement. Jesus wants Life for us, Life with a capital L, and that Life comes to us through our hearts. But restoring and releasing the heart is no easy project. God doesn't just throw a switch and poof—it's done. He sends his Counselor to walk with us instead. That tells us it's going to be a process. All sorts of damage has been done to your heart over the years, all sorts of terrible things taken in—by sin, by those who should have known better, and by our Enemy, who seeks to steal and kill and destroy the image bearers of God. At best, "hope deferred makes the heart sick" (Prov. 13:12). Certainly there's been a bit of that in your life. "Even in laughter the heart may ache" (Prov. 14:13), which is to say, things may look fine on the outside, but inside it's another story.We're told to "trust in the LORD" with all our hearts (Prov. 3:5), but frankly, we find it hard to do. Does trust come easily for you? I would love to trust God wholeheartedly. Why is it almost second nature to worry about things? We're told to love one another deeply, "from the heart" (1 Peter 1:22), but that's even more rare. Why is it so easy to get angry at, or to resent, or simply to grow indifferent toward the very people we once loved? The answers lie down in the heart. "For it is with your heart that you believe," Paul says (Rom. 10:10). And in Proverbs we read, "The heart of a man is like deep water, but a man of understanding draws it out" (20:5 NASB). Our deepest convictions—the ones that really shape our lives—they are down there somewhere in the depths of our hearts. Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

Women are image bearers of God. Women are co-heirs with Christ. Women are valued, worthy, powerful, and needed. There is a reason the Enemy fears women and has poured his hatred onto our very existence. Let him be afraid, then. For “we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor. 4:8–9). We are more than conquerors through Christ who strengthens us, and we will not be overcome. God is our strength. Jesus is our defender. The Holy Spirit is our portion. And in the name of our God and Savior, we will choose to love him. We will choose to bow down in surrendered worship to our God. And by the power of Christ in us, we will choose to rise up and be women of God, bringing his kingdom in unyielding and merciful strength. Want more? Order your copy of Becoming Myself today

Where is this supposed coming? The current expression of that goes much more cleverly, like this: “But every age has thought that Jesus was about to show up. Even Paul did — and he was wrong. Who knows when it could be; it might take another thousand years.” It sounds so reasonable ... except for the fact that this is the forbidden attitude. Yes, every age has thought that Christ would return any moment, and well they should. They were right to do so because “any moment” could have been their moment. They were right to have expected his return because they were commanded to by Christ himself. They were wise to do so because it is the antidote to so many harmful things; when the “wicked servant” embraces the posture that his master is still far off, he turns his heart toward the indulgences of this world, trying to slake his kingdom thirst with everything within reach. At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’ Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” (Matthew 25:1–13) If this doesn’t stir in you that good old tonic called the Fear of the Lord, I don’t know what will. Half those waiting for it are “shut out” of the feast—and all that follows after. Now, I appreciate how forthright Jesus is on the matter. He admits in every story he tells that it looks like his coming is a long ways off; in this one he admits the bridegroom was a long time in coming(!). Jesus doesn’t dodge the matter. But he goes right on with the very same lesson: keep watch; look for his coming; be ready. Keep your lamps burning, even if he comes in the second or third watch. Want more? Order your copy of All Things New today

In the time of our innocence, we trusted in good because we had not yet known evil. On this side of Eden and our own experience of the Fall— whatever our own Arrows have been and however the adversary has woven them together into our particular Message of the Arrows— it appears that we are left to find our way to trust in good, having stared evil in the face.Most of us remember the time of our innocence as a Haunting. I (Brent) mean innocence not as being sinless but as that time before our experience with the Arrows crystallized into a way of handling life which is the false self. The Haunting calls to us unexpectedly in the melody and words of certain songs that have become our "life music": the crooked smile of a friend; the laughter of our children (or their tears); the calling to mind of a mischievous face that still believed in joy; the smell of a perfume; the reading of a poem; or the hearing of a story. However the Haunting comes, it often brings with it a bittersweet poignancy of ache, the sense that we stood at a crossroads somewhere in the past and chose a turning that left some shining part of ourselves — perhaps the best part — behind, left it behind with the passion of youthful love, or the calling of a heart vocation, or simply in the sigh of coming to terms with the mundane requirements of life. Want more? Order your copy of The Sacred Romance today

Our Enemy is a thief, and of all the precious things he has stolen from our hearts, his worst act of treachery has been to steal our future from us. He has stolen all the magic and promise and wonder of the happily ever after. Very few of us live with hope. To those without faith, he has whispered, "Your story ends with an accident, and then...there is nothing. This is as good as it gets."Small wonder people drink too much, eat too much, watch too much TV, basically check out. If they allow themselves to feel the depth of their actual longing for life and love and happiness, but have no hope that life will ever come ... it's just too much to bear.But to those who search in faith for the ending of the Story, our Enemy has whispered an even more diabolical lie, harder to dispel because it is veiled in religious imagery: "Heaven will be a never-ending church service in the sky." All those silly images of clouds and harps. I've heard innumerable times that "we shall worship God forever." That "we shall sing one glorious hymn after another, forever and ever, amen."It sounds like hell to me.Seriously now—even though we were given Eden as our paradise, this whole wondrous world of beauty, intimacy, and adventure, in the life to come we will be sent to church forever because that's better somehow? There is no hope in that. That's not what's written on our hearts.I mean, really. We have dreamed better dreams than God can dream? We have written stories that have a better ending than God has provided? It cannot be.I have some really good news for you: that's not the so-called Good News. Not even close. Want more? Order your copy of Epic today

The more you give the parts of your life over to Jesus, the more his life is able to invade yours. The relief alone is worth the price.Last night Stasi and I were at a dinner party with friends we love and enjoy. It was one of those occasions where, for some reason, my internal world was not in sync with the external. All night long I was constantly aware of awful things inside me—wanting to be the center of attention, getting irritated at people for their idiosyncrasies, pride puffing up when someone told a story of personal failure—just a nightmare of sin. This morning when I woke the temptation was like New Year’s Day—rushing to make all sorts of resolutions to be a better person. As I sat down to pray, I felt myself resolving to do this and that, despising this and that about me—basically, trying to kill the unattractive parts and buttress myself to be good.It was a train wreck waiting to happen.The Achilles’ heel of this sort of “repentance” is that it is all still based in self effort. Thank God I saw it, and turned to Christ in me—asked Jesus to come and have my life more deeply. The relief was almost immediate. Not in the sense that all those flaws went poof like in a fairy tale, but rather that first, I was rescued from days and weeks of striving and self-resolve. Second, that the presence of Jesus in me does make those flaws recede into the background—some crucified, others to receive his healing grace. But the point being, this time I was able to turn to Christ in me as my only hope of transformation, and the fruit of this turning-to is profound relief.Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

We're certainly warned about forgetfulness in Scripture, both in word and by example. In the Old Testament, the pattern is so predictable, we come to expect it. God delivers his people from the cruel whips of Egypt by a stunning display of his power and his care—the plagues, the Passover, the Red Sea. The Israelites celebrate with singing and dancing. Three days later, they are complaining about the water supply. God provides sweet water from the bitter desert springs of Marah. They complain about the food. God drops breakfast out of the sky, every morning. Then it's the water again. God provides it from a rock. Enemies attack; God delivers. On and on it goes, for forty years. As they stand on the brink of the Promised Land, God issues a final warning:Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. (Deut. 4:9, emphasis added)They do, of course, let it slip from their hearts. All of it. This becomes the pattern for the entire history of Israel. God shows up; he does amazing things; the people rejoice. Then they forget and go whoring after other gods. They fall under calamity and cry out for deliverance. God shows up; he does amazing things; the people rejoice—you get the picture. Things aren't changed much in the New Testament, but the contrast is greater, and the stakes are even higher. God shows up in person, and before he leaves, he gives us the sacraments along with this plea: Do this to remember me. They don't—remember him, that is. Paul is "shocked" by the Galatians: they are "turning away so soon from God, who in his love and mercy called you to share the eternal life he gives through Christ" (1:6 NLT). He has to send Timothy to the Corinthians, to "remind you of what I teach about Christ Jesus in all the churches wherever I go" (1 Cor. 4:17 NLT).Want more? Order your copy of The Journey of Desire today

Teaching is exalted. Church feels like a seminar — could be intellectual, could be motivational. Good content is what matters. Doctrine is fiercely defended. Members can explain to you theories of the atonement, or seven steps to success, but can’t name one intimate encounter they’ve had with Jesus. Not once in their lives have they heard him speak to them. I’ve met heads of Christian education departments, chaplains, and seminary faculty who by their own admission don’t know Jesus personally. You can talk about sunshine and live your life underground; you can even go to the sea but never dive in. A great deal of what is adamantly taught about Jesus is taught by people who frankly don’t know him very well.Question: Are your leaders close friends of God? People who actually know and experience this Jesus, helping you to know and experience him?Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

If joy is a fruit of the Spirit (and it is), then we are meant to experience and enjoy it, regardless of our circumstances. Whatever may be swirling around us, the eye of the storm is joy. But how do we get there? The simple answer is we need to come to know God more deeply. When we do, we can believe and rest in His faithful, immovable, immeasurable love for us in every moment we are in. Joy is the heartbeat of heaven, the very light that emanates from Jesus’ heart, so as we grow closer in relationship with God, we’ll also grow in joy. We’ll see that He is not spending His moments wringing His hands, as we are some- times prone to do. He is not braced against the future or overcome by serious hardship. His joy is never up for grabs. Rather, His joy is immovable, just as He is. It is an essential part of His very person. Thirteenth-century mystic and poet Meister Eckhart wrote: Do you want to know what goes on in the heart of the Trinity? I will tell you. In the heart of the Trinity the Father laughs and gives birth to the Son. The Son laughs back at the Father and gives birth to the Spirit. The whole Trinity laughs and gives birth to us. (Meditations with Meister Eckhart)We are born from the laughter of the Trinity. What an amazing thought. As image bearers of the Living God, surely joy is written deep in our very hearts. Want more? Order your copy of Defiant Joy today

Jesus needs to disciple these fishermen, tax collectors, and political revolutionaries who dropped their careers to follow him. I’m not sure we’ve understood the ramifications of his decision. We just think, Oh, yeah, the disciples, and forget what was actually required for them to become apostles. This is going to take a lot of work. There’s no fairy godmother waving her wand here; these pumpkins don’t just turn into coaches.To be a crowd-drawing teacher can be a rather heady experience, all eyes looking to you for the next bit of wisdom to drop from your lips. It’s easy to be gracious when you’re adored. But when your class keeps missing the point, challenging you, running down rabbit trails, changing the subject, misunderstanding, breaking out into a brawl — that’s when your character is exposed. I never really saw the endurance of this. I think the shining brilliance of what Jesus is teaching has obscured the process involved here, all that this required of him. We’ve become so used to Jesus being gracious, kind, and patient, we miss the humility of it. Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

Name one thing in the entire created world more precious than a human heart.It can’t be done.You might say “love,” but that would be silly because we cannot love without a heart. You might point to some immortal work of art, or breathtaking sacrifice, or some noble feat of arms, but none of those could have happened without the human hearts behind them. Even the highest heights of worship cannot be realized without the heart. There is, of course, the surpassing greatness of the Gospel, and the Cross, but the Gospel is the story of God ransoming and restoring human hearts. Without the heart, the Gospel cannot achieve its intent. The heart is God’s most magnificent creation, and the prize over which he fights the kingdom of darkness. Want more? Order your copy of Love & War today

When Isaiah promised that the Messiah will come to heal the brokenhearted, he was not speaking poetically. The Bible does use metaphor, as when Jesus says, "I am the gate" (John 10:9). Of course, he is not an actual gate like the kind you slammed yesterday; he has no hinges on his body, no knob you turn. He is using metaphor. But when Isaiah talks about the brokenhearted, God is not using metaphor. The Hebrew is leb shabar (leb for "heart," shabar for "broken"). Isaiah uses the word shabar to describe a bush whose "twigs are dry, they are broken off " (27:11); to describe the idols of Babylon lying "shattered on the ground" (21:9), as a statue shatters into a thousand pieces when you knock it off the table; or to describe a broken bone (38:13). God is speaking literally here. He says, "Your heart is now in many pieces. I want to heal it."The heart can be broken — literally. Just like a branch or a statue or a bone. Can you name any precious thing that can't? Certainly, we've seen that the mind can be broken — or what are all those mental institutions for? Most of the wandering, muttering "homeless" people pushing a shopping cart along have a broken mind. The will can be broken too. Have you seen photos of concentration camp prisoners? Their eyes are cast down; something in them is defeated. They will do whatever they are told. But somehow we have overlooked the fact that this treasure called the heart can also be broken, has been broken, and now lies in pieces down under the surface. When it comes to "habits" we cannot quit or patterns we cannot stop, anger that flies out of nowhere, fears we cannot overcome, or weaknesses we hate to admit — much of what troubles us comes out of the broken places in our hearts crying out for relief.Jesus speaks as though we are all the brokenhearted. We would do well to trust his perspective on this.Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

More of God comes to us as we love God. The more that we love God, the more we are able to experience him. Part of this has to do with the nature of God, and part of it has to do with our own human nature.You understand from your own relationships, your story of love, that you don’t give your heart away to just anyone. You don’t give access to the deeper places in your soul to just any idle acquaintance — certainly not to someone who is at the same time keeping themselves distant from you. We know from our own experiences that when someone loves us, we are much more ready to make ourselves available to them. What we keep forgetting is that God feels the same way.For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. (2 Chronicles 16:9 NIV)The LORD says, “I will rescue those who love me.” (Psalm 91:14 NLT)The Father himself loves you because you have loved me. (John 16:27 NIV)I’m really surprised that the human race expects God to pour himself and his blessings into their lives when he is not even the slightest priority, let alone a close and dear friend. Would you give the best of your life to people who couldn’t care less whether or not you exist? God’s outpouring of himself is conditional. I know, I know — we’ve been told all about the unconditional love of God. Absolutely — his grace is unconditional; his forgiveness is available to all. However, intimacy with him, the treasures of his presence, the outpouring of his vibrant being into our thirsty souls—that’s for those who love him. Even in the best friendship, the act of giving and receiving love ebbs and flows with the willingness of the two involved to make it a priority, to invest themselves. God’s heart is very much like yours in this way, for your heart is made in his image. Want more? Order your copy of Get Your Life Back today

Resting in Jesus is not applying a spiritual formula to ourselves as a kind of fix-it. It is the essence of repentance. It is letting our heart tell us where we are in our own story so that Jesus can minister to us out of the Story of his love for us. When, in a given moment, we lay down our false self and the smaller story of whatever performance has sustained us, when we give up everything else but him, we experience the freedom of knowing that he simply loves us where we are. We begin just to be, having our identity anchored in him. We begin to experience our spiritual life as the “easy yoke and light burden” Jesus tells us is his experience.In Matthew 24, Jesus tells us that in the last days, people will have lost the Sacred Romance altogether. Having no anchor, their faith will grow cold and they will be literally swept away in panic, as all but what cannot be shaken is shaken. Only those of us who are securely anchored in him in our heart will be left standing to share the Sacred Romance with those who are lost.We have come to the shores of heaven together, to the border of the region where our Christianity begins to move from a focus on doing to one of communion with Christ, our Lover and Lord. The spiritual disciplines of silence, solitude, meditation (heart prayer), fasting, and simplicity practiced by Christ and passed on to us by the traditions of the Desert Fathers bring us through our emptiness and thirst into the presence of God. When we begin to abide in God’s heart, the blades of grass on heaven’s outskirts no longer puncture our feet. Here and there, a fresh and exotic scent reaches us from heaven’s very borders. Want more? Order your copy of The Sacred Romance today

“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. (Mark 10:51)Recovering your true heart’s desire may involve facing some deep disappointment. Undoubtedly, it will require painful self-examination. But you do not need to fear what you will find.Many committed Christians are wary about getting in touch with their desires, not because they want to settle for less, but because they fear that they’ll discover some dark hunger lurking in their hearts. The father of lies takes many people out of the battle and ends their journey by keeping them in the shallows of their desire, tossing them a bone of pleasure, thus convincing them that they are satisfied. However, once you begin to move from that place, his strategy changes. He threatens you about going into the deep waters by telling you that your core desires are evil.Yes, you still struggle with a tendency to kill desire or give your heart over to false desires. But that is not who and what you truly are. If you really believe the new covenant, you’ll be able to embrace your desire. Jesus asks you a simple question: What do you want? Don’t minimize it; don’t try to make sure it sounds spiritual; don’t worry about whether you can obtain it. Just stay there until you begin to get an answer. This is the way you keep current with your heart.———————————This would be a good thing to journal about: What do you want these days? Don’t minimize it; don’t try to make it sound spiritual; don’t worry about whether you can obtain it. Just stay there until you begin to get an answer. Want more? Order your copy of Restoration Year today

From the place of our woundedness we construct a false self. We find a few gifts that work for us, and we try to live off them. Stuart found he was good at math and science. He shut down his heart and spent all his energies perfecting his "Spock" persona. There, in the academy, he was safe; he was also recognized and rewarded. "When I was eight," confesses Brennan Manning, "the impostor, or false self, was born as a defense against pain. The impostor within whispered, 'Brennan, don't ever be your real self anymore because nobody likes you as you are. Invent a new self that everybody will admire and nobody will know.'" Notice the key phrase: "as a defense against pain," as a way of saving himself. The impostor is our plan for salvation. So God must take it all away. He thwarts our plan for salvation; he shatters the false self. Our plan for redemption is hard to let go of; it clings to our hearts like an octopus.Why would God do something so terrible as to wound us in the place of our deepest wound? Jesus warned us that "whoever wants to save his life will lose it" (Luke 9:24). Christ is not using the word bios here; he's not talking about our physical life. The passage is not about trying to save your skin by ducking martyrdom or something like that. The word Christ uses for "life" is the word psyche — the word for our soul, our inner self, our heart. He says that the things we do to save our psyche, our self, those plans to save and protect our inner life — those are the things that will actually destroy us. "There is a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death," says Proverbs 16:25. The false self, our plan for redemption, seems so right to us. It shields us from pain and secures us a little love and admiration. But the false self is a lie; the whole plan is built on pretense. It's a deadly trap. God loves us too much to leave us there. So he thwarts us, in many, many different ways.Want more? Order your copy of Wild at Heart today

The spirit of our day is a soft acceptance of everything — except deep conviction in anything. This is where Jesus will suddenly confront the world as a great rock confronts the river flowing ever downhill. He is immovable. The cry used to be for “tolerance,” by which we meant, “We have very strong differences, but we will not let those be the cause of hatred or violence between us.” Now it is something else, where all convictions are softened to second or third place while we all agree to enjoy the world as much as we can. But truth is not like conviction. Conviction might be a matter of personal opinion, but truth is like a great mountain, solid and immovable whether we like it or even acknowledge it. Christianity is not a set of convictions — it is a truth. The most offensive thing imaginable. Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

God has a battle to fight, and the battle is for our freedom. As Tremper Longman says, "Virtually every book of the Bible — Old and New Testaments — and almost every page tells us about God's warring activity." I wonder if the Egyptians who kept Israel under the whip would describe Yahweh as a Really Nice Guy? Plagues, pestilence, the death of every firstborn — that doesn't seem very gentlemanly, now, does it?You remember that wild man, Samson? He's got a pretty impressive masculine résumé: killed a lion with his bare hands, pummeled and stripped thirty Philistines when they used his wife against him, and finally, after they burned her to death, he killed a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey. Not a guy to mess with. But did you notice? All those events happened when "the Spirit of the LORD came upon him" (Judges 15:14, emphasis added). Now, let me make one thing clear: I am not advocating a sort of "macho man" image. I'm not suggesting we all head off to the gym and then to the beach to kick sand in the faces of wimpy Pharisees. I am attempting to rescue us from a very, very mistaken image we have of God — especially of Jesus — and therefore of men as his image-bearers. Dorothy Sayers wrote that the church has "very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah," making him "a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies." Is that the God you find in the Bible?You can tell what kind of man you've got simply by noting the impact he has on you. Does he make you bored? Does he scare you with his doctrinal legalism? Does he make you want to scream because he's just so very nice? In the Garden of Gethsemane, in the dead of night, a mob of thugs "carrying torches, lanterns and weapons" comes to take Christ away. Note the cowardice of it — why didn't they take him during the light of day, down in the town? Does Jesus shrink back in fear? No, he goes to face them head-on. Want more? Order your copy of Wild at Heart today

Can it really happen? Can things in our lives be green again? No matter what our creeds may tell us, our hearts have settled into another belief. We have accepted the winter of this world as the final word and tried to get on without the hope of spring. It will never come, we have assumed, and so I must find whatever life here I can. We have been so committed to arranging for our happiness that we have missed the signs of spring. We haven't given any serious thought to what might be around the corner. Were eternity to appear tomorrow, we would be as shocked as I have been with the return of spring this week, only more so. Our practical agnosticism would be revealed. Pascal declared,Our imagination so powerfully magnifies time, by continual reflections upon it, and so diminishes eternity ... for want of reflection, that we make a nothing of eternity and an eternity of nothing.But of course we aspire to happiness we can enjoy now. Our hearts have no place else to go. We have made a nothing of eternity. If I told you that your income would triple next year, and that European vacation you've wanted is just around the corner, you'd be excited, hopeful. The future would look promising. It seems possible, desirable. But our ideas of heaven, while possible, aren't all that desirable. Whatever it is we think is coming in the next season of our existence, we don't think it is worth getting all that excited about. We make a nothing of eternity by enlarging the significance of this life and by diminishing the reality of what the next life is all about.Want more? Order your copy of The Journey of Desire today

For today's Daily Reading, we encourage you to listen to a podcast on praying with passion, confidence, and authority. Click here to listen. We also invite you into other rich podcast conversations we've had in the past several months. The topics span everything from Parenting without Fear, Choose Your Hard, the Restoration of the Heart to Letting Go of Shame. If you've never heard our podcasts — or simply missed a few — we encourage you to savor these messages. Just click on any of the links below to begin listening.To Be KnownA Rescue Psalm Making Room for God - series Part 1 and Part 2Inviting Our Children into the Larger Story Choose Your Hard - series Part 1 and Part 2Restoration of the Heart A Powerful Life - series Part 1, Part 2, Part 3Parenting without FearA Fellowship of OthersLetting Go of ShameThe Journey of Now Trauma and Restoration - series Part 1 and Part 2You can automatically receive our new podcast each week with the Wild at Heart App. It is totally free and features the Daily Reading, Prayers, Blogs and more. Click here for the Wild at Heart App. Want more? Receive the Wild at Heart Weekly Podcast!

There are actually only a handful of accounts of Jesus’ getting good and mad in the Gospels, which is surprising given how much provocation he was provided. In fact, the specific Greek word for “angry” is used only once to describe him, and where does he happen to be at that moment? Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. (Mark 3:1–5) Do you understand why the vast, beautiful heart of Jesus rises in anger toward these clerical bullies? This is the same ferocity we see in the temple. Do you understand the personality of God now, and the horrible nature of religious falsehood? Maybe it is more revealing to ask: Do you share his anger at this stuff? This is what infuriates Jesus, so it ought to be what infuriates us. What was the last piece of religious nonsense you were angry with? Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

Today's Daily Reading is an excerpt from Morgan Snyder's Becoming a King In the masculine journey, our early years of manhood often begin as a season of exploration and discovery. In youthful exuberance, we tend to view the world with ourselves at its epicenter. Passing through this in time, every man is faced with this profound, essential transition. While it may not be easy to name, the shift is felt deeply in the masculine soul. I am not the center of the story. A significant portion of my life is behind me.And for better and worse, my decisions have deep consequences in the lives of others. Sure, we are important and affect the lives of others at every stage of development. But at some point, for many in young to mid-adulthood, we find our lives bound with others in inextricable ways. This shift is often initiated by marriage, having kids, and taking on a full-time job or other major responsibilities. Do you remember this transition from a season of exploration and discovery into the season of being consequential to other people? While it caught me off guard, there were a handful of moments in which it was crystal clear that I’d been catapulted out of one season of life and had landed with bumps and bruises in another. And I, too, found myself on a huge roller coaster. And it was all I could do to hold on. Want more? Order your copy of Becoming a King today.

Today's Daily Reading is an excerpt from Morgan Snyder's book Becoming a KingThe desire to be powerful transcends both social constructs and our boyhood dreams of becoming firefighters, policemen, NFL football players, Olympic athletes, fighter pilots, or soldiers. This longing transcends because it is the image of God in us. We need to look no further than the opening chapter of Genesis for this reminder. God formed us from soil into his image, then breathed us to life in order that we might rule and reign under the authority of his goodness. To share valiantly and effectively in God’s power was the first mission entrusted to humankind. With deep anticipation, God declared to Adam and Eve, “I want you to rule.” When we strip away the religious veil, this command is more rousing than we might first think; it is the invitation to become who we were meant to be. As bearers of God’s image, we were meant to embody God’s heart, character, and power, partnering with God to fulfill his purposes in our days. As John shares in Waking the Dead, we were meant to rule, “like a foreman runs a ranch or like a skipper runs his ship. Better still, like a king rules a kingdom, God appoints us as the governors of his domain.” A kingdom is, as Dallas Willard pointed out, simply the range of our effective will. It is where we have say, where our will is done. It is within the context of kingdom language and kingdom thinking that we must reconsider God’s design for effective power-sharing with created yet creative human beings.Want more? Order your copy of Becoming a King today.

As one of my mentors put it, the interpretation you use to understand your reality and your role in it will be the single greatest force in shaping what becomes of your next decade. In the words of Dan Baker in What Happy People Know, “The stories we tell ourselves about our own lives eventually become our lives. ... The choice is ours.” Our life will be significant in proportion to the stories we choose to interpret our reality. What stories are you using to interpret your reality?The world, the flesh, and the evil one tempt us to settle for the smaller story: a narrow quest to arrange for the happy little life. Yet something deeper in us knows that a life arranged only for a sense of comfort, security, and personal happiness is far too small to hold the expanse for which the masculine soul was designed to thrive. We must remember Peter’s urging: “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings” (1 Peter 5:8–9). If we are to interpret our lives and understand the times, we must recognize the unseen war being waged for our soul as a man and let this be a central theme of our apprenticeship in warrior training for our unique place in the kingdom of God.Want more? Order your copy of Becoming A King today

Today’s Daily Reading is an excerpt from Morgan Snyder's book “Becoming a King”What is the Enemy’s plan for your life? It’s an important question for each of us to ask and keep asking.There are daily strategies, cultural strategies, and geographical strategies set up by the Enemy to “steal and kill and destroy” us (John 10:10). And then there are brilliantly and deviously crafted personal strategies that take into account our stories, our woundedness, and our most vulnerable places. The goal of these strategies is to destroy us before we ever become whole and holy, unstoppable forces of good in a broken world. That’s why Peter implored us to be on the alert — the Enemy prowls like a roaring lion seeking to devour us (1 Pet. 5:8) — and Paul urged us to be aware of Satan’s schemes (2 Cor. 2:11).Much of the treasure hunt for the restoration of our masculine soul is hidden in the story of our family of origin. Have you noticed the themes that so often run through family lines — passivity, infidelity, betrayal, violence, addiction? There is more going on than meets the eye; there are personal strategies and tactics that work against us over time. The Enemy learns how to weave a storyline that can cause division with distinct parts of our hearts. But he is not equal in power to God. He can be exposed if we will pursue a deeper awareness of how he’s operating. He overplays his hand.And you can be victorious. This is immensely helpful to understand. Yes, we must be trained. God is raising up kingdom warriors, his kingdom equivalent of Navy SEALs. He’s creating a culture of seasoned warriors, trained with live ammo, to see this battle through to its end. Want more? Order your copy of Becoming a King today

Eternal life — we tend to think of it in terms of existence that never comes to an end. And the existence it seems to imply — a sort of religious experience in the sky — leaves us wondering if we would want it to go on forever. But Jesus is quite clear that when he speaks of eternal life, what he means is life that is absolutely wonderful and can never be diminished or stolen from you. He says, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10). Not, "I have come to threaten you into line," or "I have come to exhaust you with a long list of demands." Not even, "I have come primarily to forgive you." But simply, My purpose is to bring you life in all its fullness. Dallas Willard writes in The Divine Conspiracy:Jesus offers himself as God's doorway into the life that is truly life. Confidence in him leads us today, as in other times, to become his apprentices in eternal living. "Those who come through me will be safe," he said. "They will go in and out and find all they need. I have come into their world that they may have life, and life to the limit."In other words, eternal life is not primarily duration but quality of life, "life to the limit." It cannot be stolen from us, and so it does go on. But the focus is on the life itself. "In him was life," the apostle John said of Jesus, "and that life was the light of men" (John 1:4). Want more? Order your copy of The Journey of Desire today

How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame?" (Ps. 4:2). These blows aren't random or incidental. They strike directly at some part of the heart, turn the very thing God created to be a source of celebration into a source of shame. And so you can at least begin to discover your glory by looking more closely at what you were shamed for. Look at what's been assaulted, used, abused. As Bernard of Clairvaux said, "Through the heart's wound, I see its secret."Let me put it this way: What has life taught you about your God-given glory? What have you believed about your heart over the years? "That it's not worth anyone's time," said a woman. Her parents were too busy to really want to know her. "That it's weak," confided a friend. He suffered several emasculating blows as a boy, and his father simply shamed him for it. "That I shouldn't trust it to anyone." "That it's selfish and self-centered." "That it's bad." And you ... what have you believed?Those accusations you heard growing up, those core convictions that formed about your heart, will remain down there until someone comes to dislodge them, run them out of Dodge. Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

It is a matter of the heart, my brothers. There are many offices a man might fulfill as a king — father of a household, manager of a department, pastor of a church, coach of a team, prime minister of a nation — but the heart required is the same. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases” (Prov. 21:1 NIV). The passage is often used to explain the sovereignty of God, in that he can do with a man whatever he well pleases. Certainly, God is that sovereign. But I don’t think that’s the spirit of this passage. God rarely forces a man to do something against his will, because God would far and above prefer that he didn’t have to, that the man wills to do the will of God. “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve” (Josh. 24:15 NIV). What God is after is a man so yielded to him, so completely surrendered, that his heart is easily moved by the Spirit of God to the purposes of God.That kind of heart makes for a good king.Most of the men I know in some position of power and influence are not holy enough to handle even what they do have, and they are doing damage as we speak. They operate out of their business training and “principles of leadership,” they operate out of a great deal of their own brokenness, but they do not, on any sort of regular basis, check in with God, submit to him, live as a man yielding his plans to him.Watch how Moses leads Israel out of bondage, and guides them to the Promised Land. Notice how every chapter telling the story of the Exodus begins, from chapter 6 to chapter 14: “Then the Lord said to Moses...” (NIV), and the rest of the chapter is Moses doing what God told him to do. Is this how the men you know run their corporations, their churches, their families? I’m stunned by how little daily guidance Christian men seek from God. They have a good idea, and they just go do it. Not the great kings. Look at David. “In the course of time, David inquired of the Lord. ‘Shall I go up to one of the towns of Judah?’ he asked. The Lord said, ‘Go up.’ David asked, ‘Where shall I go?’ ‘To Hebron,’ the Lord answered. So David went up there...” (2 Sam. 2:1–2 NIV). In his heart, and in his daily practice, David is a man yielded to God. He is called, may I remind you, a man after God’s own heart. (Learning to walk in this sort of intimacy is a good part of our initiation, but it begins with a yielded heart.) Want more? Order your copy of Fathered By God today

God knows the danger of ignoring our hearts, and so he reawakens desire. You see a photo in a magazine, and pause, and sigh. You see someone with a life that reminds you of the life you once thought you would live. You’re channel surfing one night and see someone doing the very thing you always dreamed you would do — the runner breaking the tape, the woman enjoying herself immensely as she teaches her cooking class. Sometimes all it takes is seeing someone enjoying themselves doing anything, and your heart says, I want that too.God does this for our own good. He does it to reawaken desire, to stir our hearts up from the depths we sent them to. He does it so that we don’t continue to kill our hearts and so that we don’t fall prey to some substitute that looks like life but will become an addiction in short order.He sometimes does it so that we will seek the life we were meant to seek. Isn’t this just what happens to the prodigal? He wakes one day to say, “How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!” (Luke 15:17). “Look at their lives,” he says. And he is stirred to head for home. To seek life. Want more? Order your copy of Walking With God today

Life, you'll notice, is a story.Life doesn't come to us like a math problem. It comes to us the way that a story does, scene by scene. You wake up. What will happen next? You don't get to know — you have to enter in, take the journey as it comes. The sun might be shining. There might be a tornado outside. Your friends might call and invite you to go sailing. You might lose your job.Life unfolds like a drama. Doesn't it? Each day has a beginning and an end. There are all sorts of characters, all sorts of settings. A year goes by like a chapter from a novel. Sometimes it seems like a tragedy. Sometimes like a comedy. Most of it feels like a soap opera. Whatever happens, it's a story through and through."All of life is a story," Madeleine L'Engle reminds us.This is helpful to know. When it comes to figuring out this life you're living, you'd do well to know the rest of the story.You come home one night to find that your car has been totaled. Now, all you know is that you loaned it for a couple of hours to your teenage daughter, and now here it is, all smashed up. Isn't the first thing out of your mouth, "What happened? " In other words, "Tell me the story."Somebody has some explaining to do, and that can be done only in hearing the tale they have to tell. Careful now — you might jump to the wrong conclusion. Doesn't it make a difference to know that she wasn't speeding, that in fact the other car ran a red light? It changes the way you feel about the whole thing. Thank God, she's all right.Truth be told, you need to know the rest of the story if you want to understand just about anything in life. Love affairs, layoffs, the collapse of empires, your child's day at school — none of it makes sense without a story. Want more? Order your copy of Epic today

Jesus will return. Swiftly, unexpectedly. Any moment. His return will usher in the renewal of all things. That includes the execution of justice, rewards, the feast, your “estates,” your appointed role in his great kingdom — along with the restoration of everything you love. This has some pretty staggering implications.For one thing, it ought to radically transform our attitude toward death.Losing someone you love is an earthquake; it is traumatic. Because what we see is the death, what we experience is the massive sudden and ongoing loss, death is filled with tragedy and mockery. It seems to have the last word, whatever our creeds may say. We do not yet see the resurrection; we do not yet see the renewal of all things, and so we are vulnerable to massive agreements with loss and devastation, even with grief. But the moment we allow life to win, the moment we accept Jesus’ “I’m just going away for a bit,” it changes everything. Want more? Order your copy of All Things New today

Our God has provision for us!I know, I know — most of you think that what you need right now is three months at the coast. Walking on the beach, drinks on the deck, and with all my heart I hope you find that. But for most of us, a sabbatical in some gorgeous refuge is not available. What is available is the River of Life, God himself, in ways we have not yet tapped into.God wants to make his life available to you. Remember — he’s the creator of those beautiful places you wish you could go to for a sabbatical. All that beauty and resilience, all that life comes from God, and he wants to impart a greater measure of himself to you! The life of God is described in Scripture as a river — a powerful, gorgeous, unceasing, ever-renewing, ever-flowing river.Ezekiel was given a number of beautiful visions, glimpses into the kingdom of God that permeates this world. He saw the temple of God in Jerusalem, and out of the temple was flowing the River of Life. As it flowed forth across the countryside, it became so deep and wide it wasn’t possible to swim across it — an image of abundance! I love how the passage ends: “Where the river flows everything will live” (Ezekiel 47:9).Everything will live. This is what we want — to live, to find life in its fullness again.The apostle John was given a revelation of the coming kingdom and the restored earth, and he saw the River of Life flowing right down the middle of the city of God:Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. (Revelation 22:1–2)There is so much life flowing from God that it flows like a mighty river. Isn’t that marvelous? Follow me now — the River of Life is not just for later. Jesus stated clearly that the river is meant to flow out of our inner being right here, in this life: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:37–38).The mighty life of God flowing in you and through you, saturating you like a river.Now let me pull all this together. We have a capacity and drive in us for living. It’s a precious longing, and it’s taken a beating. God is “the fountain of life” (Psalm 36:9). There is so much life flowing from God that it flows like a river no one can even swim across — a superabundant outflow of life! This life is meant to flow in us, and through us. Want more? Order your copy of Resilient today

“Healing prayer,” said Leanne Payne, “is not the ‘instant fix,’ nor the bypassing of slow and steady growth. It is that which clears the path and makes such progress possible.” This type of prayer is beautiful and indispensable in our journey toward maturity, toward holiness, toward wholeness. But the journey requires other things as well — often counseling, certainly discipleship, and, to borrow Eugene Peterson’s phrase, “a long obedience in the same direction.” There is no “zap” that suddenly makes a person as whole and beautiful as Jesus Christ. Wholeness is something we grow into as we walk with Jesus through the years of our lives. Knowing this actually takes a great deal of pressure off — that pressure to find the instant fix or have the One Defining Moment. It releases us to walk with God and allow him to personalize our healing journey. Want more? Order your copy of Moving Mountains today

Another way to begin to seize hope with a good, firm grip is to ask yourself, What have I done with my kingdom heart? Where am I currently taking it? You have a heart for joy — where is your hope for joy set right now? You have a heart for redemption — where are you taking your heart for redemption these days? You ache for restoration, yours and those you love — where is your hope for restoration these days?What I am suggesting is that we need to begin to make conscious, deliberate decisions to give our hearts to the return of Jesus and the renewal of all things. Every time you find yourself getting anxious about an uncertain hope, stop and pray, Jesus, I give my hope to your true and certain return, and the renewal of all things. Every time disappointment strikes again, you can pray, Jesus, I give my heart to your kingdom; I am made for your kingdom and nothing else will do. When you wake in the morning and all your hopes and fears rush at you; when you come home at night beat up from another long day and all you want to do is medicate; when you hear of someone else’s great joy and something envious rises in you — make the conscious decision to give your heart to the return of Christ and the restoration of all things.And especially when you experience loss. Oh, friends — can we remember that life is a long series of good-byes? You have suffered so many losses already; we hate to admit it, but many more are yet to come. But now we can say to ourselves, Nothing is truly lost. This is going to come back to me; this will be in one of my treasure chests Jesus will restore to me.Friends, it is as simple as this: if you do not give your heart over to the renewal of all things, you will take your kingdom heart to something in this world. You will do compulsive things, like collecting way too many shoes. You will be tempted into far darker things. It is inevitable.But if you will begin to choose the kingdom — “seek ye first” (Matthew 6:33 KJV)—if you consciously and deliberately give your heart to the renewal of all things, you will notice the effects immediately. So much pressure will be lifted off your current hopes; when things don’t go well, you’ll find yourself less angry, less dejected. As your heart and soul become anchored in the Renewal, you’ll find yourself freer to risk, especially love. You can love people, because God will do everything in his power to make sure you will not lose them; the good-byes of his children are only momentary. You can love beautiful places and cultures and things like wilderness because even though it looks like they may be vanishing, they will be restored.For nothing is lost. He renews all things. Want more? Order your copy of All Things New today

When our hopes are in their proper places, attached to the right things, not only do we flourish better as human beings, but we are rescued from a thousand heartbreaks. For not all hopes are created equal; there are casual hopes, precious hopes, and ultimate hopes.Casual hopes are the daily variety: “I sure hope it doesn’t rain this weekend”; “I hope we can get tickets to the game”; “I really hope this flight is on time.” Nothing wrong with this brand of hope; it is human nature to have them. I think it is the sign of a healthy soul when we often use the words “I hope.” My wife does. “I hope this pie turns out,” meaning she cares about the dinner she is hosting. “I hope we get to the Tetons next year,” meaning she cares about dreams and family memories. Hope shows your heart is still alive.But of course, those casual hopes are nothing when compared to our precious hopes: “I hope this pregnancy goes well”; “I hope God hears my prayers for Sally”; “I hope the CT scan turns out to reveal nothing at all.” Precious hopes are far deeper to our hearts, and they tend to fuel our most earnest prayers.Deeper still lie our ultimate hopes, our life-and-death hopes. I would suggest that the only things that belong in the category of ultimate hopes are the things that will destroy your heart and soul if they are not fulfilled. “I hope God can forgive me.” “I hope somehow my mistakes can be redeemed.” “I hope I will see you again.”You’ll notice that many people have let their hopes go wandering — they have made casual hopes into precious hopes and turned genuinely precious hopes into critical or ultimate hopes. The person who commits suicide because their loved one chose another has taken a precious hope and made it the outcome of their very being.I would say that when a casual hope is deferred, we are disappointed but no more. We are downcast for a moment or a day. When a precious hope is dashed, it can really break your heart. You may not recover for a week or five years, depending on the loss and the other resources of your life. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick” (Proverbs 13:12). Doesn’t it, though?But when an ultimate hope goes unanswered, the result is devastation from which you will never recover. Ultimate hopes that suddenly seem uncertain shake the soul to its core. And I will be forthright with you — very few things deserve the place in your heart made for ultimate hope.Here is my point: the renewal of all things is meant to be your first hope in the way that God is your First Love. If it isn’t the answer to your wildest dreams, if you aren’t ready at this very moment to sell everything and buy this field, then you have placed your hopes somewhere else.Nearly everyone has. Want more? Order your copy of All Things New today

This may come as a surprise to you: Christianity is not an invitation to become a moral person. It is not a program for getting us in line or for reforming society. It has a powerful effect upon our lives, but when transformation comes, it is always the after effect of something else, something at the level of our hearts. And so at its core, Christianity begins with an invitation to desire.Look again at the way Jesus relates to people. There is the Samaritan woman Jesus meets at the well. She has come alone in the heat of the day to draw water, and they both know why. By coming when the sun is high, she is less likely to run into anyone. You see, her sexual lifestyle has earned her a "reputation." Back in those days, having one partner after another wasn't looked so highly upon. She's on her sixth lover, and so she'd rather bear the scorching rays of the sun than face the searing words of the "decent" women of the town who come at evening to draw water. She succeeds in avoiding the women, but runs into God instead. What does he choose to talk to her about — her immorality? No, he speaks to her about her thirst : "If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water" (John 4:10 The Message). Remarkable. He doesn't give a little sermon about purity; he doesn't even mention it, except to say that he knows what her life has been like: "You've had five husbands, and the man you're living with now isn't even your husband" (John 4:18 The Message). In other words, now that we both know it, let's talk about your heart's real thirst, since the life you've chosen obviously isn't working. "The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life" (John 4:14 The Message). Want more? Order your copy of The Journey of Desire today