As I mentioned last week, this time we find ourselves in – mid to late January – is a difficult one for many people. The joys of the holidays have faded, New Years’ resolutions have proven much more elusive than we had hoped. The cold of winter seems to be more of a burden than before. In short, this can be a dangerous time spiritually: we are tempted to be ungrateful, to worry, to turn our thoughts inward. The three articles below each call us to faithfully resist such temptations and to take joy in Christ…
- “There is a deadly gas that contaminates the air we breathe. The toxic gas appears unthreatening because everyone appears to breathe it in and breathe it out as harmlessly as oxygen. The poison is ingratitude. And it is everywhere.” Where did this come from? What is to be done? Read on for a helpful look back into the Garden of Eden…
- It seems that one of the lasting legacies of COVID will be worry and anxiety. Rarely does a day go by that I don’t see an article or catch something on the news about the rise of anxiety and depression in our culture across all levels of age, wealth, and status. Yet, the reality is that this is no new temptation. Tim Challies explains not only the causes, but the solution as well…
- “Creaky wallet love” is how Glenna Marshall describes not only a wrong view of God’s love, but something that I think is a danger for how we treat each other as well: we can all-too-easily become inwardly focused, stingy, slow to care for others, and start to think that we need to guard and protect whatever we have lest it be taken by somebody or something else. Yet, that isn’t the pattern that we see from our Lord in the Scriptures…
