One of the often asked questions from believers is “What is God’s will for my life?” Generally, this question revolves around wanting to figure God’s will for a career, a spouse, or a big decision, among other things. This last week I was asked about God’s will for the salvation of unbelievers. Peter wrote, “This Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

While driving Annie and her car home from school this week, we listened to a podcast by John Piper on Why God Wills Suffering for the Children He Loves. This presentation was given to a group of pastors and their wives in Hawaii back in 2014, and he focused his presentation on the connection of joy and suffering in Scripture. It was powerful, and I thought it would be well worth passing along some of the highlights, since suffering can tend to sideline us unless we keep God’s perspective in mind. If you’d like to listen to the entire 15-minute presentation, you can do so.

Most people love fruit. I know I do. I love banana’s with my ice cream, strawberries with my shortcake, peaches in my cobbler and apples in my bread pudding among others. The tastes and colors of fruit seem to be endless. I read this week there are approximately 2000 types of fruits around the world and the western world uses only 10% of those. There is so much more to enjoy. But according to Statista, the most popular fresh fruits around the world are bananas, apples, and grapes.

One of the things readily seen as you read the Scriptures is how saturated it is with calls, commands, and exhortations to love, worship, serve, fear, and obey our great God and Deliverer. But have you noticed one of the primary and common messages the Lord keeps repeating over and over again to motivate a heartfelt and grateful response? It revolves around what God lovingly, graciously, and powerfully did for His people, and He communicated it like this: “watch yourself, that you do not forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Deut. 6:12; Psalm 106:21). Over and over again, God used His miraculous Egyptian deliverance to incentivize His people in a multiplicity of ways: 

As I was reading this week in Numbers 13–14, I was drawn to the profound influence of the words “see,“ saw,” and “sight.”

God had promised to give His people (Israel) the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey. He told Moses to select a leader from each one of the 12 tribes of Israel to “spy out the land of Canaan” and watch this: “SEE” what the land is like (“good or bad…fat or lean…trees or not”), what the people were like (“strong or weak…few or many”), how the cities were in which they lived (“open camps or with fortifications”), and to “get some of the fruit of the land” (Num. 13:18–20).

I saw the following posted by Owen Strachan (provost and research professor of theology at Grace Theological Seminary) and it is worth sharing:

Your trials, Christian, aren’t accidents unplanned by God, spiraling out of His control.

Your trials aren’t attacks— God hating you and making you pay with bitter resentment.

Your trials aren’t mere allowances of God, occurrences He oversees but aren’t really from Him.

Your trials are God’s appointments in which He uses real pain and difficulty to

How many times did you hear the words “Happy New Year” this past week? Most likely more than a few times. It is part of our annual tradition of ringing in a New Year and there is always something enticing about new things: new opportunities, new friends, new energy, new experiences, new blessings, a new year. The word “new” is often used to highlight things that are fresh, updated, or improved. It is used by marketers to bait us into wanting things that are “new and improved.” God uses the word “new” and its derivatives to teach and motivate us about the best and ultimate kind of new which never needs an update or improvement, but only a regular application of its fresh dynamic in our lives.