Join our email list and receive two gifts!
Walk in Wisdom
Never miss a devotional. You can receive this content in your email inbox each weekday.
SIGN UP and select your options.
-
Latest Devotional
Faith and The Second Guess
Faith and The Second Guess
Judges 6:39-40
Then Gideon said to God, “Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew.” And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.
If Gideon’s initial request was humorous in its pettiness, this inversion of it is downright hilarious. But the funniest part is that Gideon knows it. Notice how he keeps apologizing to God in every phrase, self-aware of the fact that his hesitancy is now taking an embarrassing turn. For that reason, I think Gideon’s underlying problem here isn’t actually a spiritual one but a psychological one. He doesn’t second-guess the LORD’s ability to keep His word; rather, he’s second guessing his own methods, wishing he’d chosen a more fail-proof test from the beginning. He’s like my OCD friend who washes his hands three times because he’s afraid that the first two washes didn’t take; or like me as a child, when I prayed the sinner’s prayer a hundred times, because even though I believed in God’s power to forgive, I felt afraid that I hadn’t quite gotten the words right.
Friend, how many times have you second guessed God’s will for your life? How many times have you questioned whether you made the right decision for the college you attended or the career you chose or the spouse you married or the land you purchased? Perhaps if we’d get better at seeking the LORD beforehand, before we take that job or move cross country or say “I do,” if we’d earnestly desire and pursue clarity even to embarrassing lengths, then those doubts that inevitably encompass us down the road won’t overtake us. Because we’ll always be able to look back over our shoulder and recall the season of testing—the days where we laid out our fleece in every which way before the LORD—and He made His way clear.
James writes in James 1:5, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives generously to all without reproach,” and, funny as it sounds, maybe that pursuit is always best done with a fleece and bucket.
-
Latest Devotional
Faith and The Second Guess
Faith and The Second Guess
Judges 6:39-40
Then Gideon said to God, “Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew.” And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.
If Gideon’s initial request was humorous in its pettiness, this inversion of it is downright hilarious. But the funniest part is that Gideon knows it. Notice how he keeps apologizing to God in every phrase, self-aware of the fact that his hesitancy is now taking an embarrassing turn. For that reason, I think Gideon’s underlying problem here isn’t actually a spiritual one but a psychological one. He doesn’t second-guess the LORD’s ability to keep His word; rather, he’s second guessing his own methods, wishing he’d chosen a more fail-proof test from the beginning. He’s like my OCD friend who washes his hands three times because he’s afraid that the first two washes didn’t take; or like me as a child, when I prayed the sinner’s prayer a hundred times, because even though I believed in God’s power to forgive, I felt afraid that I hadn’t quite gotten the words right.
Friend, how many times have you second guessed God’s will for your life? How many times have you questioned whether you made the right decision for the college you attended or the career you chose or the spouse you married or the land you purchased? Perhaps if we’d get better at seeking the LORD beforehand, before we take that job or move cross country or say “I do,” if we’d earnestly desire and pursue clarity even to embarrassing lengths, then those doubts that inevitably encompass us down the road won’t overtake us. Because we’ll always be able to look back over our shoulder and recall the season of testing—the days where we laid out our fleece in every which way before the LORD—and He made His way clear.
James writes in James 1:5, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives generously to all without reproach,” and, funny as it sounds, maybe that pursuit is always best done with a fleece and bucket.
-
Morning Miracles
-
Jerubbaal Sr.
-
Doers of the Word
-
An Ode to Fear
-
A Word that Could Move Mountains
-
Sin is So Unproductive
-
I Will Awaken the Dawn
-
Song of the Stars
-
Sabbath Psalm (January 25-26) (Adapted from Fanny Crosby’s hymn “Tell Me the Story of Jesus”)
-
The Duet, pt.2
-
The Dynamic Duet
-
Sola Deo Gloria
-
Faith and Force
-
Gender Gaps
-
Sabbath Psalm (January 18-19) (Adapted from the Latin hymn “The Strife is Over,” translated by Francis Pott)
-
A Familiar Voice
-
A Bone of Contention
-
Wired Different
-
The Original Rocky
-
A Turning Point
-
Sabbath Psalm 27 (January 11-12) Adapted from William How’s hymn, “O Word of God Incarnate”)
-
Last Man Standing
-
Tests, Hard Fought
-
The Eyes that Pitied Me
-
Shadows of Doubt
-
Diamonds in the Rough
-
Sabbath Psalm (January 4-5) (Adapted from Bessie Porter Head’s hymn, “O Breath of Life”)
-
A Slow Drip
-
Another Rahab
-
Strong Bones
-
Of Milk and Honey
-
The Bland and the Beautiful
-
Sabbath Psalm (Adapted from A.C. Palmer’s hymn, “Ready”)
-
War, No More
-
The Meek Shall Inherit the Land
-
Swords to Plowshares—and Visa Versa
-
For the Joy Set Before Us
-
Curtain Call
-
Sabbath Psalm (From G.A. Young’s hymn, “God Leads Us Along”)
-
The King’s English
-
A City at the Center of the World
-
It is Finished
-
Working Class
-
A Bright, Morning Star
-
Sabbath Psalm (Adapted from Fanny Crosby’s hymn, “All the Way My Savior Leads Me”)
-
The Receiving End
-
A Most Sacred Place
-
Just Do it!
-
Providence in the Pit
-
A Champion Emerges
-
Sabbath Psalm (Adapted from Donald Thrupp’s hymn, “Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us”)
-
The Chronicles of Caleb
-
The Bigger Picture
-
Meet Me at Hebron
-
Caleb, the Lionheart
-
How Great the Day!
-
Shall We Gather at the River?
-
A Eulogy, in Brief
-
Adding All Of It Up
-
Poetic Justice
-
Breaking Ground in God’s Country
-
Miracles in the Mundane
-
On Jordan’s Stormy Banks I Stand
-
A Lesson on Prayer Requests
-
Grace That is Greater
-
A Tale of Two Cities
-
Holy Water, Boys
-
Try Not to Laugh
-
Paradise and a Paradox
-
Chaff in the Wind
-
The Holy in the Common
-
And the Walls Came Tumbling Down
-
A New Twist in the Tale
-
A Fighter Like His Father
-
Fingerprints
-
This Spells Trouble
-
A Deathbed Confession
-
Up, and At ‘Em!
-
See Saint Run
-
A Little Leaven
-
Love is the Higher Law
-
Another Fall
-
Cause and Effect
-
Leaving the City Dump Behind
-
A Story All Its Own
-
Sixes and Sevens
-
Sabbath Psalm (“Kingdom Rising,” from my new album Kingdom Rising)
-
Rubble Rousers
-
The Question of the Ages
-
Fight, Flight
-
Same Old, Same New
-
Are You for Me or Against Me?
-
Sabbath Psalm (“Processions,” from Seth Davey’s album, Kingdom Rising)
-
Oath Keepers
-
In Haste, not Hesitancy
-
Memories Fade -- Memorials Last
-
Reciprocal Meaning
-
This is God's Earth
-
Sabbath Psalm (“In the Hearts of the Small,” from Seth Davey’s album Kingdom Rising)