Devotions for 3-9 from Ortberg’s book, The Me I Want to Be The life of freedom and joy is available to us right now.  When our focus is on Him, everything else falls into place. There are two versions of us. There is the you God made us to be-and there is the you that…

Devotions from John Ortberg’s book, The Me I want to Be We can’t follow God if we don’t trust that He really has our best interest at heart. There is a big difference between following rules and following Him because we can follow rules without cultivating the right heart.  We will find ourselves unmotivated to…

Devotions from Ortberg’s book, The Me I want to Be God designed us to be ourselves and He delights in our actual lives. When we grow toward the me we Want to be, we are freed from the me we pretend to be. Pretending to be someone we’re not is hard work and takes lots…

Devotions taken from the  book by John Ortberg called “The Me I Want to Be” Life is not about achievement or experience but who we become.  Do we want to be fully alive inside and have the inner freedom to live in love and joy? Yes! God made us to flourish and when we flourish…

Devotions from James Smith book, The Good and Beautiful Life The secret to a vibrant life in Christ is to abide in Him. The way to wholeness and happiness is to live with utter dependence on Him, like the Vine and the branches. If we live apart from Jesus we are disconnected from the vine…

Devotions based on James Smith book, The Good and Beautiful Life “God alone is the spark that ignites the flame in our souls.”  Just like we build a fire in our wood stove each day, there are things we can do to maintain a vibrant life with God.  We can stoke the fire throughout the…

   Devotions by James Smith’s book, The Good and Beautiful Life If we judge others it will be impossible to help them and they only get angry and may try to retaliate. Judging is like throwing pearls before the swine…pigs can’t digest pearls and neither can people digest being judged! If we can quit our habit…

Devotions from James Smith’s book The Good and Beautiful Life The author talks about judging and that “Judging is making a negative evaluation of others without standing in solidarity with them.”  Correcting someone can be healthy and even life-enhancing but judging others never is.  We judge others to fix them or to make us feel…

Devotions from James Smith’s book, The Good and Beautiful God More on how we turn our worries into prayer as it says to do in Phil 4:6-7 Once we have done all we can do in a given situation, we simply turn the matter over to God and then worry won’t take over in our…

Devotions from James Smith’s book, The Good and Beautiful Life In Matt. 6:33 we are told to see the kingdom of God first which means “making the reality and principles of God’s kingdom our first and primary concern.”  It means facing our trials and troubles not with anxiety but with trust that God can and…