Here is a collection of good reads gathered from across the internet this past week. Enjoy!
On embracing your season of life: Love the Season You’re In by Kim Shay
Wherever you are in your life, know that God is good (Psalm 145:9). He is good to all. There may be things you wish you could do, and you feel frustration because it seems like God is holding you back. If he is, there is a reason. Look at the good where you are right now. That may seem like a rather lame, trite word of advice, but there really is no benefit in allowing bitterness to creep in. God has a time for everything in our lives, and some day, you will probably see his wisdom in ordering things as he has done. (click here to read more)
On finding rest for the weary soul: Come, All Who Are Weary by Jon Bloom
And here is where our burdened souls are tested. Will we believe in him; will we trust him? We want to rest our souls on the knowledge of how and when our burdensome problems will be addressed. But Jesus does not provide those details. He simply promises us that they will be addressed.
Jesus does not want our souls resting on the how and when, as if we are wise enough to understand and determine them. Rather he wants our souls resting on the surety that he will keep his promise to us in the best way at the best time. “Come to me,” he says, “cast your anxieties on me for I care for you” (see 1 Peter 5:7). “Trust in me with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding” (see Proverbs 3:5), he says, “and you will find rest for your souls.” (click here to read more)
On prayer and Bible reading: The Best Bible Reading Advice I’ve Ever Received by David Qaoud
Here’s what Piper says: “If there is anything I can underline, it would be this: cry to God day and night that he would open your eyes to see wonderful things in his word (Ps. 119:18). In other words, seek to experience every hour of study as a supernatural event. Everyone knows study is natural . . . you do the work. But if you are crying out for him, God works. And his work is decisive. That makes all the difference.”
Yes, pray before, during, and after you read your Bible. This will make a life-changing difference. But what can you pray for? Here’s at least 10 things… (click here to read more)
On parenting and not exasperating your children: 7 Ways Parents Unfairly Provoke Our Children by Tim Challies
We can provoke our children when we live in great doubt instead of great confidence in God’s desire to save them. There are all sorts of good things we want for our children, but nothing more than their salvation. Parents can live with crippling fear that God will not save our children, and this fear has consequences: We can become heavy-handed, demanding our children turn to Christ, or we can become manipulative, constantly begging or pleading with them to make a profession. Our children may then grow angry and discouraged because they will see their parents professing faith in a God who is sovereign and good but then acting as if God is neither one. (click here to read more)
On life and purpose: What Is My Purpose? It Comes Down to This by Mieko Seymour
And then someone, somewhere along the way says, “the only thing that matters is Christ and what you do for him.” But how do you square with the desires and the dreams that he gives you…those things that reside in the crevices of our heart? Isn’t what I am doing all for God anyway? That is what I’ve set out to do. That is what I profess. That is what I center myself around. (click here to read more)
First Baptist Church 